Before I start this review, I have one question for you: Why are you reading this? Go to your local game store and buy Need for Speed: High Stakes RIGHT NOW! (Now back to the review.)

Wow. Pinch me. I’m giggling like a school girl. You thought last years’ Need for Speed looked good? Feh. High Stakes has it goin’ on! Oh, I’m sorry. You’re “old-school” Need for Speed? I’ve been playing NFS since “Back in the Day.” Try Need for Speed... as in the original... like “the first,” on 3DO. You wanna talk trash kid? I can sing it and bring it. I’ve done ‘em all. Oh, you like music? How about kick-ass tunes that don’t suck? Good. Cause Need for Speed: High Stakes has lots of that.

Still reading this review, huh? I’m telling you. Go buy this game. Any who, this years’ NFS closely follows last year’s offering, but is so much better. Like icing on a cake. You can play different championship modes and different race modes, as well as “test drive” some cars. But the only way to play is “Hot Pursuit,” where you try to outrun the cops (or catch the bad guys if you’re playing as the cops). In my opinion, this is the only way to play this game, and I have spent so many hours playing this -- it’s worth the price of the game alone. But what’s this? A new game feature for this year? “High Stakes?” You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk, beeyotch? Race against a friend in High Stakes and put your CAR on the line. Yep, your little digital car, that you spent countless hours tweaking and painting so it looked oh-so-cool, is on the line. Lose the race, and your car gets erased from your memory card and gets saved to your opponent’s. Where’s your Game Shark now, punk?

Need for Speed: High Stakes is easy to jump into, but takes a while to master. Still reading this, huh? Was Babbages out of stock or something?

Game controls are very similar to last years,’ and I still don’t like that while the Analog controller is supported, you can’t use one of the Analog joypads as the “gas” pedal. The left Analog thumbpad controls the steering, while the controller buttons work the gas, brake, powerslide, and camera buttons. While High Stakes is major kick ass, I still have a few complaints. This year, when a cop crashes his/her vehicle, you don’t hear a scream over the radio like you did last year. I guess EA had some complaints or something. Another problem is when racing with multiple cars on the screen, the frame-rate bogs down to an unbelievable “slide show” rate, which makes the game unplayable. At least this doesn’t happen too often, but most usually when you are playing Hot Pursuit mode and are doing well, and many police cruisers are after you. And my last complaint is that Ferrari won’t allow any of its cars to be used in Hot Pursuit Mode (just like last year). I guess Ferrari doesn’t want to have any negative images or something. I’m hoping for a code to be able to use the Ferraris in Pursuit Mode, but I guess if there were any, we’d know the ones for last year’s NFS game.

I’m sorry -- what are you doing STILL reading this review? Go buy Need for Speed: High Stakes. It kicks so much ass it needs a bulk discount. Remember that old “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” song? Hell, I’d love to buy the world a copy of High Stakes, but I’m all broke ‘n stuff.

Seriously. Highest possible rating. You MUST buy this game.