The first Need For Speed appeared on the 3DO Multiplayer-an ambitious but short-lived 32-bit game console marketed by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. It was a street racing game with a wide variety of real cars that were so accurately depicted that Road and Track magazine allowed Electronic Arts to use its name on the box.

Initial reaction to this game was mixed, a lot of people found the cars slow and lumbering. Then Electronic Arts announced that the supposedly slow speed was actually an accurate depiction of what it felt like to travel in those cars at high speeds. The steering was accurate, the speed was accurate, the car interiors were accurate, and Road and Track verified it.

It was a revolution. After all, the only games with which people had to compare Need For Speed were Top Gear and Virtua Racing.

Need for Speed not only had Gran Turismo-esque accuracy, it also had a jazzy theme. The 3DO Multiplayer played games on CD-ROM and had decent digitized video playback. Need For Speed took advantage of this space and the ability to run clips of a swank rival driver coaxing, demeaning, chiding, and giving hints to players throughout the game.

Porsche Unleashed, the newest Need For Speed game, is a Porsche lover's dream. The game includes over 50 Porsches-everything from such super-charged cars as the new 996 Turbo to the 914-the Porsche with the Volkswagen engine; the only one game reviewers can afford.

All of these cars are depicted with loving accuracy. The virtual cars in the game supposedly handle like the real cars (not that I would know from personal experience) and certainly look right.

One thing Electronic Arts has done well is pack this game with modes of play. Porsche Unleashed includes a "Factory Driver" mode in which you test drive cars to establish yourself as an ace driver; an "Evolution" mode in which players race Porsches from different eras; the ubiquitous "Quick Race" mode; and two "Knockout" modes in which the last driver on each lap is dropped from the race.

Also, Porsche Unleashed is network- and Internet-compatible and supports all kinds of multi-player options.

Having tested a very early version of Porsche Unleashed, I only feel qualified to discuss the game's handling. The pre-beta version I tried had such terrible late-draw problems that I never knew which way the road was going to turn. The streets looked like they were made of glass, and the only images I could depend on were the cars and the mountains in the background. As someone who has experience with Electronic Arts, I can confidently predict that none of these problems will be present in the final version.

I was able to test the handling of the cars and found true to the Need For Speed legacy-intuitive and accurate. This is not the easiest series to drive, but Need For Speed games are generally well conceived and fun. Electronic Arts has some heavy tweaking to do before releasing Porsche Unleashed, but once the process is finished, it will be the definitive Porsche game.

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