I also felt like a bit of driving today, so I fired up NFS: Porsche Unleashed. It’s one of the best of the NFS series since it manages to get the ‘feel’ right, but unfortunately I probably won’t play it any further, due to…issues…

I resumed my ‘evolution’ mode career, though I seem to be stuck at a point where it’s tough to beat the computer opponents, no matter which challenge I pick. I tried one of the longer tournaments that was marked ‘beginner’, but still only came in 4th or 5th in each race (out of 8), so I probably need a better car. The main problem though, is that I couldn’t finish the tournament because it consistently crashes when approaching the end of the race through the industrial area.

I also started the ‘factory driver’ mode for the first time, which is basically just a series of technical challenges, like doing slaloms, brake-induced spins, delivering cars, finding and hitting cones, etc. I made it up to just past the first promotion exam (which took a few tries, since it’s a tough slalom challenge in the wet), but now I’m stuck here too, as it always crashes in the middle of the next challenge.

It’s probably a problem with Vista, as it worked fine back under XP, but I’m not going to start dual-booting again just for this game, alas. Oh well, I’ve still got a gazillion other driving games…