Never one to ignore the possibility of milking a brand, EA offer the latest addition to the Need for Speed range of racing games in the shape of Porsche 2000.
Andy Smith

Here we go again.
Look, this is a kind of speed-themed issue, and besides, people like racing games and the Need for Speed range isn't half bad.

True, true.
Are you going to say, "Whazzup!"?

No.
Good.

So, NFS: P2000 then. All spunky new concept cars?
Not a bit. Actually, the game's a kind of history of Porsche through the latter half of the 20th century and beyond, and you start back in 1948 as a test driver at the company's Stuttgart test facility.

Oh! I didn't expect that.
Quite. There's quite a deep RPG going on behind all the driving action as you start off as a young hopeful and have to work your way up the ranks by performing well at your job and entering races at weekends to supplement your income.

And buy other cars?
You've got it. There's slightly more to it than that, though. The game notes what bits of your car are wearing down through age and use and you've got to keep replacing them, as well as buying additional upgrades to improve the performance of your chosen vehicle.

What, super nitrous-injected engines and the like?
Not as such. The game uses the official Porsche catalogue of spare parts, tuning kits, colours, racing stripes and so on, so you can only use real-world upgrades. The idea's to survive in the job until the year 2000, but along the way you're going to have to make all sorts of financial decisions about which new Porsches to buy, which ones to upgrade and which old bangers to sell.