The Unfinished: Need For Speed: Undercover

Okay, so here's the deal: I am apparently terrible at PC racing games. I have thrown 8 hours into this game, and I have yet to even finish one of the first two missions from the open city part of the game. And not for lack of trying, either. So I've come to a realization: I can either spend an inordinate amount of time getting good at PC driving games... ...or I can stick a fork in trying to finish this and move on. That's not to say it's a bad game, though. I have a lot of fun driving around the open city, doing races and evading the cops, but the missions put you in cars that handle poorly, give you a tight timetable, and army on your tail, and the admonition that the car be in good shape at the end. Uh, no thanks.I think I'll just drive around town in my indestructo-car and run from the law. But here's the thing: that's a lot of fun to do. The game's good, I'm just not. So onto The Unfinished pile with this one, and on to other stuff for me.

RPG notes: Well, on the upside, there will be no spoilers in this, 'cause darned if I can advance the plot in this game! Anyway, the basic premise behind the game (doing wheelman jobs in a modern city and tuning up your car as you are successful) could make for a fun, if somewhat stereotypical game, but imagine porting it to another setting. In a post-apocalyptic game, being a wasteland courier would, frankly, rock. Take a little of The Postman, a little of Id software's Rage, and some Fallout and you've got a world dotted with isolated settlements that need reliable service between them. Also, in a fantasy game, the player could be a an extraction specialist for some Robin Hood style outlaws or a thieves' guild, and instead of a car, could use a magic carpet or even some unusually fast draft animals to get people and things around without being grabbed by the authorities.