Need For Speed Underground 2, When A Franchise Peaks! - A Sort Of Review

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel! In today's video I'm returning to one of my favorite racing games ever: Need For Speed Underground 2. Right in the middle of what many people deem the golden age of Need for Speed, it is an incredibly enjoyable game, but is it as gopod as I remember it? I hope you enjoy the video! :)
You can find the NFS Extra options mod I used for some of the shots in this video right here:
nfsmods.xyz/mod/290
And you can find me on Instagram right here:
/ matthysfail
and on TikTok right here:
/ matthysfail

[@DOUGL4S1]

8:50 Not-so-fun fact about that park: On the northern end of it wou can find a sign in memory of Brad Lawless, and stating "In Memory of our Frend". Bradford Lawless was the 9-year old son of an EA Black Box employee who was aparently pretty close to the Black Box team, having followed the development of Need for Speed Underground, as well as a few EA Sports titles. Brad unfortunatelly died on May 27, 2004, 5 and a half months before Underground 2's release, after battling Ewings Sarcoma. In his memory, the Black Box team decided to make a memorial to him on Pigeon Park, including a few bridges and signs with his name. Underground 2's credits also has "In memory of our friend Brad Lawless" at the end.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's incredibly interesting but also really sad. I always wondered who the memorial was for!

[@georgesanchez8051]

> Try not to cry > Cry a lot

[@bremaster93]

I launched up Underground 2 to see the sign. I never noticed it until your comment. That kid would’ve been proud of this game. RIP Brad 😥

[@rayojordan2838]

@@MatthysFAILcan I add something to this, the reason there are sponsors in the performance is due too repetition with a certain brand and sticking to them as in with vinyls graphic you get more style points for it, you also get more money and parts are so much cheaper if you stick to a certain brand.

[@rayojordan2838]

To add on to my previous comment: say you get Vinyls, Say I Put Up A Bunch of Apex Branding On The Car If I Go To The Performance shop and purchase a Engine Part Or Ecu Under The Brand Apex I Get Style Points And The Part Becomes Cheaper, This is Good to Use In the beginning of the game to save on customization parts and performance parts. You can actually do this in all Need for speed games except for prior to Underground 1. Midnight club 3 and Los Angeles have this feature as well. It’s like the world were you wanna be sponsored by a certain brand u buy some of their products and if some of these brands see you wearing and marketing them they’ll give you discounts or freebies.

[@bremaster93]

I might be one of the the few people out there that likes Underground 2 more than Most Wanted ‘05.

[@MatthysFAIL]

You're not alone!

[@douglasbullet6456]

Same here🙋🏾‍♂️

[@RadioDemon10]

me too man

[@AzimuthKiwi]

I'm with yah, this game is the reason I own my dream car currently - a 2002 Nissan 350z/Fairlady Z

[@RadioDemon10]

@@AzimuthKiwi damn, thats a real fine ride, congrats for that! Enjoy it

[@avalanche4815]

Not gonna lie, I was never a big fan of the cops in any need for speed game outside of the pre-underground games, so the game not having them is actually a plus for me.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I hated the cop chases when I first played them! Probably because I was too young and sucked at them, because nowadays I tend to like them a lot more, but as you've said, I don't really miss them myself either in underground 2!

[@Rurix48]

Same here, my BIG racing game nostalgia is mainly underground 2 and also Carbon, but i remember how much i despised the cop chases i Carbon. i just want to race, and make my car look cool. Underground 2 is still my favourite need for speed game to this day. (favourite racing game is speed freaks i think.. a cart racer on the PS1)

[@SlammedZero]

Same here. It can be fun here and there, but I'm not a big fan of it overall. NFS Unbound felt more like a hide and seek game with the police to me vs street racing.

[@davidhines7592]

i agree

[@XBullitt16X]

same

[@fvjisinferno207]

Finally A video where Underground 2 gets the love it deserves. Most of the mordern NFS youtubers talk smack about this game. Great video man this video is about to hit the algorithm.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I noticed that as well! Never understood why they tend to be negative about this game even though I always really loved it myself! Also thank you man, I appreciate the kind words :)

[@CradlePayne]

Real ones know this game was peak! Also, Street Racing Syndicate was a gem at times too.

[@Odin3v]

cause it sucks if you arent a ricer dweeb@@MatthysFAIL

[@LucasRitter]

Fun fact: there's no need to use a cracked version the game, you can just create an empty file called "foobar" in the folder, and that'll bypass the CD check.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's useful! Somehow I didn't have to take any extra steps myself to install underground 2, but I did encountered these problems when installing underground. Does it work for that game as well?

[@thiagopiusi2506]

​@@MatthysFAILI also had problems installing U1, but the solution I found may not please YT if I mention it lol

[@actually5004]

@@thiagopiusi2506 Are you sure you can't share your *final solution* with us?

[@GEMSofGOD_com]

Purumpumpum pumpurupururum

[@danielgomez7236]

A website called gamecopyworld may help you guys to "adjust" old games like this

[@Vulpes_Shinbi]

I always feel like the gray UI is what made U2 so nostalgic and iconic. It's so simple, sleek and no game does it that well

[@Vulpes_Shinbi]

Also yeah "Sports cars" are cars like the RX-7, Skyline, G35 and Mustang.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Nice, I personally don't like it, but I can understand where you're coming from! And yeah I get that skylines and mustangs are also considered sports cars so maybe I should've referred to the cars I meant as "exotics" like the lambo's that would eventually return in most wanted!

[@firstworldproblems6064]

gray ui. lol

[@Vulpes_Shinbi]

@@firstworldproblems6064 as grey as your mom's fanny bud

[@TKsh1]

Underground 2 is not only a great game that defined the racing genre, but it also such a part of his era. The edgy artstyle, the rock, rap and electronic music mashed together, and the honest attitude were just as memorable as it was in the 2000s. Even with his flaws (some of them more or less fixed in MW2005), it's still an masterpiece of a game and to this day nothing has ever came up as good as the Black Box era.

[@MatthysFAIL]

True! Though I have a huge weak spot for some of the later games in the black box era as well

[@lawree374]

Crashing most probably occurs , when game tries to utilize more than one core of cpu, when game is launched open task manager and set cpu affinity to single cpu core/thread.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that!👍

[@Pray4ragE]

Can confirm, setting CPU Affinity to single core stops crashing. I have loader scripts for mods, couldn't find any online so I wrote a few. Will upload to git and comment here. Still playing these games in 2024...

[@henrik1743]

How Dutch do you want to sound? *-Yes*

[@MatthysFAIL]

😂😂😂

[@KangaMoose34]

Du du du du MAX VERSTAPPEN

[@mishmashmagon]

I’m so appreciative that you discussed Bayview as a character, THEE main character. This is by far my favorite open world map in ANY game-over any rpg, shooter, mmo-And I think It’s ridiculously sad how uneventful and uninspired the maps were after carbon. I bought unbound thinking I could relive just a little bit of the underground era, as it seemed like that was what EA were trying to replicate-but the map seriously failed. And cops, ugh.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I think it's awesome that someone shares that opinion about Bayview with me. It might sound corny, but they really don't make open world maps in racing games like this anymore.

[@JPWack]

Ditto, the city is so stylized (almost to a cartoon level), and the lack of fast travel makes you to know it in every detail, even memorizing maneuvers based on landmarks. My only gripe is that there is not more events after you finish the career, it was so relaxing to just pop in and do a few "random" races after work, or just mindlessly mod my car 😂

[@GradusMike]

I will never forget the day a friend of mine invited me to his house after school to show me the cool game he bought, "you can also free roam". We spend like 4 hours playing, I can still remember the excitement. While roaming occasionally stopping to appreciate the then amazing graphics. After a week or so my father brought me a copy too (goddamn I was so happy) Started with 240sx and finished with it, I was always mentioning that 240sx that I had built in NFSU2. In 2016 as I was going through my old stuff I had stored in the basement I saw my old pc, out of curiosity I booted it up and was checking old pictures and other stuff, when I opened the games folder and saw NFSU2 I was like damn could that 240sx be in there? And it was.... I went through so many emotions while driving around with that 240 man, it's so much more than just a game at least for me, so many great memories came to my mind, playing it really makes me nostalgic, how fast the time flies man, wish I could turn back time to that day again.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Great story man!

[@niels1755]

Same here. My best friend lived 2 apartments above me in the same building together with his younger brother, and they both were gamers... Having 2 beasty pc's and a third all on lan , this game was a blast. Ofcourse another pc was added by bringing mine up, and drag races were a blast and our favorite to do...😅

[@theTF2sniper]

Ah yes, even though i never played NFSU2 back in the day (Was more into shooters then racing games at the time) I can totally relate to what you just wrote down. I miss the pre internet era where you would find out about new games through word of mouth, then having to look for the game yourself (Could be tricky if it was an older title that was puled out of retail) Going out to rent games, friends coming over to play all night.... sweet sweet memories. Online multiplayer is great dont get me wrong, but we lost allot on the way there.

[@GradusMike]

Good times bro, nfsu2 era was the best for me. by FAR@@niels1755

[@GradusMike]

i 100% agree with you man, really good times.@@theTF2sniper

[@Miltypooh2001]

I love underground 2 it was my introduction to car culture as well as my interest in jdm cars, I remember being blown away by the car customization and the way you can enter events then take a picture of your car and use it on a car magazine.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Me too! There were so many gameplay elements I would love to see returning to the franchise at some point

[@haydenbush]

@MatthysFAIL I just want you to know that for a channel with not too many subscribers… This video if not the amount of work and effort put into this video and others you have made show that you have what it takes to take on the big boys in the nostalgic video game side of KZbin. Keep going and don’t ever stop. You’ve got something ahead of you. Don’t ever lose sight of that.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's incredibly nice, thank you!:) I'm glad you liked it and I'm glad it shows how much time I put into this video!

[@TheeAbstractHero]

Great video. NFSU2, MW, Carbon, and Pro Street were immense influences on me during my childhood. These games sculpted my taste in music to this day.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Same here man! And thanks for wachting the video, I appreciate it!:)

[@dopesteeloe8934]

20 years, that makes me feel old. Drag races were my favourite though

[@MatthysFAIL]

Same man... Its been a long time

[@spiderman265555]

Holy hell i thought you were a more well known guy til i saw your sub count, your editings amazing & the jokes got me dying a few times (the mention of KuruHS was fucking hilarious) you earned a sub man.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks a lot man! I really appreciate it:) there are so many instances in which I think I said something funny, but it not coming across at all so it's nice to hear that at least someone laughed 😂

[@BenBlackEquinoxEngelhard]

@@MatthysFAIL You have a very cordial way of speaking. Some people can talk a lot and you start to think "I wish this person would shut up for one second" but you keep it relevant in a calm demeanor. You got good narration my dude. 👍

[@Fastminer07]

UG2 is up there as my 2nd favorite nfs (with Prostreet being first), and something I realized is despite the drag of the late game's length and the urls' repetition, I never really saw it as a bad thing, which I think I'll chalk up to the games amazing presentation and ludicrous sense of speed.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Finally, some Prostreet love!! That game is right up there with underground 2 as my favorites!

[@tempo4119]

prostreet is the GOAT, i just love the vibe it gave me

[@77Vids]

Always good to see more people talk about Underground 2, keep up the great work!

[@MatthysFAIL]

I'm genuinely surprised to see so many people comment on this video haha! Thank you!

[@kronicali24]

I think the main reason why ppl loved U2 was the fact that your friends could come over and customize their choice of car and race with you i split screen mode. We had game nights where we would do this, spending hours on the dyno tuning our rides to compete against each other. Halo was a similar experience in co-op and multiplayer.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Sounds awesome man!

[@StrayGuard]

The sound on this game was amazing, specially the turbo sounds where better and more satisfying than in a lot of modern games.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I agree man! This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think only NFS Shift did car sounds better than UG2

[@StrayGuard]

@@MatthysFAIL It makes sense, since Shift was track racing focused they might have paid special attention to the soudn detail. I love the old NFS games, its a shame that they delisted them all from steam. Also in a separate note, the quality of your videos is worth a million subscribers, everything is really well done.

[@jokerzwild00]

I actually now own one of the cars featured in this game. It's mostly stock, mid miles and decent shape. Every single time I pull out onto the highway and nail the gas pedal I feel like I'm playing NFS. That turbine spooling up never ceases to sound cool. It's not like, dead on accurate in the game, but you know, it's close enough to sound awesome. Exaggerated like everything else in NFS.

[@StrayGuard]

@@jokerzwild00 Thats what i like about older NFS games, they exagerate the sound but to make it good, they just didnt go with any random generic pack of sounds without paying attention to details like it happens in most mdeorn racing games.

Great review! Those games were huge here in Brazil at the time, so many great memories. Don't give up, keep making videos!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Awesome! They were as well here in the Netherlands! Thank you for the kind words :)

[@walecznyHNS]

Constant crashing of the game is due to newer CPUs having too many cores for the engine to run properly. You can fix this by setting core affinity in the Task manager to one core. Then you can create shortcut, and add startup command to it, so you won't need to set affinity every time you run the game.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Yeah some more people have told me already, but thanks for pointing it out anyway :)

[@PaddyPatrone]

My first NFS was Need for Speed 2 Special Edition. The music in that game influenced my musical taste for the rest of my life. Freaking love it.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Awesome man!

[@stonevikingo756]

Oh how nostalgic, thank you for bringing back zonkant memories in the first couple of minutes!

[@MatthysFAIL]

You're welcome! I'm glad you liked it :)

[@ethanpeel5415]

The video was so good, I assumed that you had a couple hundred thousand subs! Keep it up dude, fantastic work 🎉😁

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it!:)

[@Rockport1911]

I was fortunate enough to getting my first PC before UG released, UG2 was a logical peak. But I also adored MostWanted and ProStreet. After that I never bought a new NfS game on release, barely touched Heat last year. Iam in my 30ts now and these games are still engraved on my SSD and played every now and then :)

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's great! I tried the newer titles as well a few years back, made reviews on those as well, but as you say yourself, they don't come close to the old ones. I did like Payback though haha

[@C.A._Old]

*1:39** me and my older brother we both always love black box era. it was masterpiece ever.*

[@MatthysFAIL]

Me too man! Lots of good memories

[@SmoubMc]

YOOOOOO, i was watching this thinking this is some kind of 1 milion subs channel. U definitely deserve more! Love the content!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much man! I really appreciate it :)

[@DoVe_7]

Despite the URL and late game drag I still think Underground 2 offered a preety decent experience and I love how well you presented it to your audience 👍

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks, I appreciate it:) really enjoy your videos as well by the way👍

[@consciousmushroom]

The fact that there is no police in the game is the main reason why I still play this game today. So make of that what you will.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Same goes for me man! Though the main reason for me is its customization

[@SHVRWK]

A new channel about the games that shaped up my childhood, subbed! Also 10:16 absolutely agree there, Always thought Bayview to be the most varied and pleasant NFS city to look at in comparison the rest/realistic ones.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Great to have you here man, thanks for the sub!:)

[@Mike-pz1vd]

30:06 I love how the first billboard shown in game after this part is an old Cingular ad with that giant orange X LOL

[@MatthysFAIL]

I always really liked the fact they had real brands in the game. Took me years to find out it was just product placement, because as a kid I always thought they were trying to make the city feel more realistic😂

[@snappy2480]

Great video man, this game was a big part of my childhood so I appreciate the work you did even more! Hope you make it big! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's really nice of you to say man, I'm glad you liked it :)

[@ratonbox]

Any time I hear people complain about the lack of police in NFSU2, i imagine a 10 year old crying about no "wee woo". Also, were you even a teenager if you didn't have a crush on Rachel?

[@MatthysFAIL]

I do understand why people like most wanted so much with its police chaces, but I've just never missed them in underground 2. I like it for what it is!

[@natedrown6134]

Bro I was 7 years old gawkin at her rack 😂😂😂

[@dbeerewout]

I personally had more a crush on Mia from NFS:MW then Rachel, to me Rachel looked more in her thirties then her early twenties

[@madmontaigne5459]

Jesus, I remember getting this game. I loved it so much. The drag racing was the best. Countless hours were spent stoned talking smack with my friends. Love love this game.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Sounds awesome man!

[@UD503J]

I loved NSFU & NSFU2...my then girlfriend (and now wife) used to play together right after we first moved in together. We spent more time designing the car wraps than anything else, and at the end had a whole collection of really cool designs. I want to say that playing it was why we ended up getting a GTI later. I'm an NSF fan from way back too, I bought a PlayStation to play NSF III HP because I loved NSF II on pc, but my crappy laptop at the time couldn't play it.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's awesome man! :)

[@rahadipirngadie]

I’ll take Underground series anytime! Man, what a game. I get it, MW or Carbon gets the best storylines and iconic cars, and mostly y’all playing them and gets the first taste of what NFS can offer. But listen, jumping from the exotics getting chased by cops in Hot Pursuit, to all-out JDMs tuned to run 200+ mph, in the era where Fast & Furious line are not so cringe? It’s a no brainer. And as a bonus; you can rice it out and you’re still a cool dude!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Totally agree with you man! I do love the other games in the black box era, especially carbon, but Underground is by far my favorite!

[@SalveASMR]

Great and clean editing man. I hope you know that you're awesome at this.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks you so much man! I appreciate it :)

[@Korppi00]

The soundtrack still lives rent free in my head. Chasing the perfect long drift with smooth Snoop, or navigating tight corners with Skindred blasting.

[@MatthysFAIL]

For me personally it's one of the few games where I like almost the entire soundtrack!

[@thebeats69]

I was introduced to Mazda RX8 because of underground 2, and today its exactly what I drive all this time afterwards. It has a bodykit, big stupid exhaust and loads of modifications that at 33 year old i shouldn't have, but because of this game still makes me smile every time I drive it. and yes the first song i put on the stereo when i pulled it out of the garage was riders on a storm. VIVA LA 2003

[@MatthysFAIL]

That is really cool!

[@5rogal]

What a fire and thorough review! I would love to be able to open the doors to the cars

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it!:)

[@Mt.Dwezzy]

WDWQMRT is a hell of a throw back game along with Lego racers.....God I've gotten old 😭

[@MatthysFAIL]

Same here man 😭😂

[@Nbomber]

widebody corrola on the rollercoaster sprint track, was my go to for like 2 years.

[@MatthysFAIL]

The things I would do for a wide body Corrola!

[@Hamisxa]

The thing that makes MW better is simply cops and how tense the racing and chases make you feel, especially the music as usual from Black Box was spot on!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Most wanted became much more fun to me later on, because I was so bad at the police chases as a kid hahaha. That's exactly why I personally have a weak spot for underground 2

[@syygnis]

I like everything about Most Wanted better. Underground 1 is better than 2 imo.

[@TufteMotorsport]

Great video, love your transitions. Did you make the new icons yourself? And yeah, the endgame is pretty bad. MW is superior there by letting you redo old races and earn the same amount as the first time. I used to play MW for hours just chilling in freeroam, building cars and hooning my craft. Also.. Lego Racers is peak kart racer!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks man! I remade the logo's that show up at the end of the game's intro cinematic :) really like MW as well but Underground 2 is definitely my personal favorite! But lego racers might secretly be even better hahaha!

[@MrGembelo]

Nfs u2 is groundbreaking, an open world racing game and also released in the peak of tuner/import culture in USA. Because of this game, me as 8 yrs old rural kid from Southeast Asia finally had a dream to own an evo😂

[@MatthysFAIL]

True!

[@MrGembelo]

​@@MatthysFAIL I just finished this game few days ago played in my low end laptop

[@MatthysFAIL]

@@MrGembelo that's the great thing about old games, right? You don't some high end PC! :)

[@Nes924]

Thank you KZbin for doing something good for once, and that's putting this in my recommendations. Your review/production is seriously up there with the bigger channels. Absolutely great review/nostalgia hit! :) Instant sub :D

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked the video :)

[@Trazer350]

my fav NFS is Underground 1 xD but i never got problems with crashing or anything on my PC and on my PC version that runs on my Anroid Tablet

[@MatthysFAIL]

As many people in the comment section have pointed out already, the crashes van easily be fixed :) underground 1 is a great game as well!

[@lanrajhart2671]

This video was absolutely spot on for me. This game holds so much nostalgia from me being 5 years old and getting terrifically bumed over by the sheer difficulty of the ai ( at least the rubber banding ) and then seeing my dad beat the said ai without breaking a sweat in sheer awe to me replaying the game just a few days back. Now I am much less of a petrol head yet still I couldn't be bothered to play these old nfs games on hard difficulty in my prime. The game is still just as good as I remember. Except the damn drag races and the crashes there isn't much wrong with it. To anyone who would like to play it I would recommend ( but for the best experience play on cd on said original console that being either xbox or playstation or if you want to maybe even mod it on a pc ) This game is just so satisfying to beat and play. Yet ill admit that there definitely are better racing games out there now. But is it the self established '' best '' game most wanted '05. NUH UH it isn't. This video describes exactly what I meant and I think you have just got a new subscriber.

[@lanrajhart2671]

TLDR of the paragraph comment : The old man rambles about his long past forgotten memories and concludes with praising the video.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I really enjoy reading all these comments of people that have such good memories of underground 2. Couldn't agree with you more :) thanks for the sub, I really appreciate it!

[@RJARRRPCGP]

I played this one on occasion with my new-old GeForce 4 Ti 4200 and Athlon XP on socket 462 in the later '00s. I loved how the graphics were very good for the hardware that I had, (because I couldn't get the most high-end hardware) while not being unacceptably slow.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's great!

[@Tsepz]

Played and finished NFSU2 on both PC and PS2 when I was in high school on those boring days of the longer holidays lol, never really got sick of it. The car selection, customisation, soundtrack and map were great. I was a big fan of the SUVs as well, I was a huge fan of the look of the Lincoln Navigator, lol, endlessly customised it after finishing the games.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Awesome!

[@MaxATW-gk9bc]

The peak was NFS Most Wanted! Underground was in the beginning nice but got super boring after a few hours. Career mode was too long without any special things. In Most wanted you had the cops which were fun alone and much nicer cars.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I think both games have a lot to like and dislike:)

[@stats2002TheSportsEncyclopedia]

Carbon was most wanted with better customization

[@MaxATW-gk9bc]

@@stats2002TheSportsEncyclopedia lol no.. Carbon was already declining. Boring story with annoying gang feature+ always night+ police was not really important. They appeared sometime but they were weaker than in most wanted. Look at youtube. People still play most wanted police chases like crazy today. Carbon no one plays anymore.

[@No-vq1iv]

Franchise peaked with Most Wanted '05.

[@MatthysFAIL]

To be fair, i really liked carbon and prostreet as well (I even have a weak spot for shift to be honest) but no one can deny that most wanted is an absolute gem of a game!

[@esaedvik]

MTV still playing music hits me every time...got rid of my TV when they stopped playing music and reality shows became a daily thing. RIP. Loved NFS UG games though. The comicbook style cutscenes were very Max Payne.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Makes me realize, I need to play Max Payne!!!

[@HarryVerolme]

This was my childhood. Still my favorite NFS game to this day. I wish video game studios would focus more on story/career mode nowadays. Great memories. Ironically I was never able to complete it, as the game simply stopped giving me new events even though I hadn't unlocked the whole map. It's also interesting you mention people wanting to fast travel: I loved driving everywhere as fast as I could, and it gave me an understanding of the streets to succeed in the events.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Yeah I personally don't mind the driving towards events either. I always thought it was weird why people wanted fast travel in a racing game haha! Also, I used to be soft locked as well when the game stopped giving me events, untill I realized that improving your visual rating was pretty much mandatory to progress...

[@HarryVerolme]

@@MatthysFAIL Damn, so I could have progressed. Maybe I'll replay the game at some point. I was much younger back then, so I don't recall, but was there anything that indicated that the visual rating was necessary for completion? I don't remember seeing any messages or anything like that.

[@MatthysFAIL]

@@HarryVerolme no you're right, it's not indicated anywhere, that's why it's so confusing!

[@Chrisey96.]

Underground 2 teed it up, Most Wanted knocked it out the park.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Even though I personally like underground 2 more, it did really feel like there was more to come! And most wanted is definitely a great game !

[@BeansAnChips]

This video brought back alot of fond memories, i dont like videos very often you deserve it, thank you for the memories.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's incredibly nice of you! Thanks a lot, I'm glad you liked the video:)

[@yohannessulistyo4025]

Besides car movies and tuning scene, the period also saw rise of trance music and also the peak cool of "entertainment industry", and the game brought nerdy car kid or video gamer "into the scene" by familiarising them to Paul van Dyk, Felix Da Housecat, and several others. Listening to "Lean Back" being played in nearby shopping mall really validates your past time's relevancy with real life. While EA soundtrack selection rarely misses, there is a difference between JunkieXL or Dylan Rhymes being in your game, and Xzibit rapping to it. I mean being Dutch, you will most probably agree to anything sounding like Tiësto or Armin van Buuren. At least people in Jakarta at the time seemingly agreesd. The Bayview city provides a very fitting backdrop to all these club house music, besides the street racing atmosphere. I never felt it too constrictingly small nor it is too ovewhelmingly vast. It is just at "the right size". As an old "super car" "properly engineered car", introduced by the very original The Need for Speed, I become an "anti-ricer" petrolhead. But, I am just very fine with Underground 2. I think it has a pretty good balance. It really helps that they use licensed real life brands instead of off-putting generic fantasy cars that is difficult to relate to, which so many games from this era still uses. The amount of customisation is deep enough to make it exciting and worthwhile, but not too much.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I agree man! I really like that sort of balance in underground 2 you're talking about! Though I have to add that I personally do like trance other sorts of electronic music, but I don't like tiësto and Armin van Buuren at all haha!

[@maxkingsley1576]

I loved and spent so many hours on the first three games and this just made my nostalgia levels go way up. Thanks for the revisit to my non adult/ fun middle school years.

[@MatthysFAIL]

You're welcome! I'm glad you were able to relive some of those memories :)

[@Sytse14]

Goeie review, zulke geweldige herinneringen aan deze game. Zet de playlist nog wel eens op, bij elk nummer weer helemaal terug naar vroeger!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks!:) ja ik ook man, luister het nu misschien nog wel meer dan toen hahaha

[@BenBlackEquinoxEngelhard]

I love the early 2Ks. I love the 80s and 90s more but even though I was dirt poor in the 2Ks I still managed to acquire a PS1 and 2 and play some amazing games for the time. NFS is one of my GOATs. I remember playing Screamer from the packaged software on my dad's new 486 back when I was a kid and I was hooked on racing games.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's awesome man!

[@RegOleMinecrafters]

Dude! You sold the Performance parts short!! The brands might not impact performance, but they actually sound a bit different! The exhaust and turbos come to mind, but they might also change from engine mods as well. It's awesome!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Damn, do all of them sound different?! I tried finding as much on the subject as possible, but the only thing worth noting I found was the difference in engine sounds after engine stages, adding a turbo and changing the exhaust, but I found nothing about the actual brands making the engine sound different! That's awesome!:)

[@KimArvidsson]

So glad that I bought the games back then and saved my discs. It has a been an interesting experience getting this and some older NFS games working on Windows 10. Most annoying was finding a NO CD patch for Underground 2 that will run the game without CTD every other race.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Me too man! I used my original copy for this review! Though oddly enough I didn't need a no cd patch for it, it just worked! I'm playing Underground right now and for that I did need the no cd patch.

[@mrchirp]

I remember wearing out my custom USB modded OG XBOX controller running LAN drift competitions with my friends. Great times!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Sounds awesome man!

[@Yoss223]

I just found your channel and while watching the video I thought you must be one of those big youtubers with 100k+. How surprised I was when I've noticed that you only have 900 subs. You have an amazing storytelling - both verbally and visually. The choice of videos alongside the engaging narrative is what makes the videos interesting. I sincerely hope youtube algorithm will treat you better but for the time being you earned yourself a sub and 100% retention viewer. When it comes to NFS, I was introduced to racing games at the rip age of 6, and underground 2 was the first racing game I've played through on my PC. To this day I enjoy replaying the game once every few years. It is fun. And I think this is what it as all about. Sure, you can break it down to the design, arcade handling, car models, etc. But the bottom line is - this game was, and still is, fun.

[@MatthysFAIL]

You say "just" 900 subs, but last week is was 650, so for me it's already a huge step haha! I really appreciate the kind words though, thank you very much :)

[@MatthysFAIL]

Also I agree! My 40+ minute video can honestly just be summarized by: the game is really fun😂

[@jonbelakio]

Best need for speed game ever made imo. I really wish they would re release it on new consoles

[@MatthysFAIL]

Me too man. A remaster or remake would be cool, but at the very least be able to play them on new console by backwards compatibility or something!

[@danielh5127]

I just found your channel through this video and i mist say good work great Reviews keep ot up you deserve some more digits on your sub counter

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks a lot man! I really appreciate that :) gonna keep working on it!

[@LinkinParkFanNorway]

This game is a legend. The thing is that you get sense of place from the whole city. The city has its own vibe, making the traveling a part of it all. The city is incredibly well designed! It is like a night drive around your home city. Also the weather and that it almost gets morning gives it a even better feeling of just "being out" even though you're gaming it at home. I REALLY WISH that someone made a similar game again. I think it would sell a lot!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Yeah, Bayview itself is already a lot more enjoyable than other cities in racing games, let alone that I like pretty much everything in UG2 more than most games haha!

[@SecretOfMonkeyIsland784]

The car modification was what made me play this game back in the day, it was around the time when modifying cars was at its peak. When i refer to modifying cars i dont mean just engine mods which is what people think of mostly but stuff like undercar neon's, bodykits, spinners, nitrous oxide.

[@MatthysFAIL]

It was definitely what made this game unique in comparison to other games! I would love to see the over the top customization in a modern game!

[@SecretOfMonkeyIsland784]

@@MatthysFAIL Agree, i was a bit of a boy racer in my 20's so thats why i loved this game i could modify my car in game like in real life.

[@MatthysFAIL]

@@SecretOfMonkeyIsland784 that's awesome! I wish I was allowed to drive back then😂

[@ManuVyas-social]

14:03 loved that transition and the airplane analogy. I noticed the change in the text from “NFS” to “the” and I do appreciate it.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks man! I'm glad you like it :)

[@pepperfish_]

Still got this one playing on my Win 7 machine. Can't even remember the days I spent trying to get all of the special versions of every part.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's great!

[@ShootingStar1313]

41:55 Piracy. The only thing keeping our childhood games alive. It's a cautionary tale for the years to come. 🏴‍☠

[@MatthysFAIL]

Unfortunately, you're probably right

[@peytonblanscet6035]

This video's production quality is way too good, great video man

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much man! It took me way too long to make this video so I'm glad it shows haha :)

[@Cenomercy]

Love the video by the way. I may sound sound silly but at 31:13 the out run events. I always thought those duels where to teach you how to pit maneuver to use that tool versus an unfair match up on a race. I will always try to look for the pimp out or fastest car in the bunch and always try to line block or pit them. i was quite an aggressive driver and that behavior that was born in my victories was punish in later games.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I never thought of it that way, but that actually sounds like it could be true :)

[@LuLeBe]

I was confused when you talked about the game crashing. But the FPS explanation makes sense since I played through it limited to 30FPS recently while on battery. So I didn’t run into those issues.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Yeah it's both the higher fps as well as something I didn't mention in the video. Buts its all easily fixable!

[@colensoforeman5620]

05:07 was literally playing on my head when I clicked on the video

[@MatthysFAIL]

Its a banger! 🔥

[@ShadowNeji]

NSFU2 is still my favorite NFS game out there. it has a special place in my heart.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Same man, so many great memories!

[@Stabby666]

I recently played this again using the Dolphin emulator to run the Gamecube version on my Gaming PC. I do actualyl own the PC version, but this was a lot easier than trying to get it to run in 2024. I always liked the drift events, although once you realise it's best to just stay at the back so you can use all of the track it's pretty simple to win every time.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Good to know that the game is also easily playable through emulation!

[@DaviXRemixer]

About the star rating, I always hated it, but the simple solution to that is to have a second car that you specifically just tune up to 10 stars to progress and keep your first choice car to actual driving, and you can keep that as simple as you like. I always did that.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Yeah I do that as well. I saw other people refer to this tactic as having a second "b*tch car", which I think is great 😂

[@Johnny-ur2eg]

This was when gaming was real gaming, soooo much fun. They should do a remake on this game I would 100% pay full price for it

[@MatthysFAIL]

Would be great to see this game get an official remake! I feel like so many people would love to see that happening!:)

[@__D-B__]

Great content bro, one of my all time favourite games. Probably my favourite racing game of all time. Subbed 👍

[@MatthysFAIL]

thank you so much man! I'm glad you liked the video :)

[@AA-xm7rt]

I member seeing nfsu1 at a friends house on their pc. I was instantly sold. I played nfsu2 most of all racing games and mia was a hot drawing.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Me too man!

[@adriangherghe651]

The memories hitting hard i think. I cand even say how many hours i spent playing underground and underground 2 when i was a child, on my pentium 4 white pc, that needed every year an upgrade on ram memory or ssd memory. Love your content so much. Let me know if you played Unreal Tournament 99'. The best arena shooter that will ever be. Much love from Romania, be safe❤

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks for the nice comment :) I'm glad you like the video so much! I've only played Unreal tournament a few times at my friends home. I'm a huge history buff, so when I finally was old enough to play shooters, I went straight to Medal of Honor and Call Of Duty :)

[@MaDie23]

great video man, keep it going :)

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it!:)

[@RadioDemon10]

i have all the games from nfs underground 1 to pro street in physical versions for pc, wouldnt wanna live without them and its the only reason i have a dvd drive in my pc and depend on it. NFS Underground 2 is my favourite racing game to this day, just replayed it end of last year and loved it again. you can fix most of the crashing tho with giving it a fps limit in the nvidia system control center i think it crashed 3 times in my playthrough with an 75 fps lock. great video though and apprecciate you for speaking up every great point of this gem!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Awesome! I'm only still missing a physical copy of most wanted! Will try your solution to the crashes as well, thank you!:)

[@psyhodelik]

Thanks for this nostalgia

[@MatthysFAIL]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching it :)

[@zubiddydoodoopop]

The early game cars had an issue where their mid game performance upgrades don't measure up to the cars you're unlocking when you start losing when similarly upgraded. Easy rule of thumb, the moment you unlock the Celica GTS switch to it and it'll treat you well the rest of the game. The secret performance upgrades make it stupidly fast. Each section of the unlocked map correlates to what you'll unlock after X quick races.

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's a good one! Might try it out in the future :)

[@carlosvence]

I'm only two minutes into the video and I'm already loving it!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Hold your horses man, you still have 41 minutes to go😂😂

[@LucasFelixSP]

What a great video, thanks for it!

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks you so much man, I really appreciate it:)

[@faded7217]

i really need to get a crt TV and a ps2 (rip my childhood ps2) to experience these older games in their full glory again

[@MatthysFAIL]

It would at the very least be awesome if these games were backwards compatible or be released as digital copies. But it will never come close to that old hardware experience!

[@janism89]

i'm surprised you only have 1.4k subscribers, but i believe this number will grow quick soon

[@MatthysFAIL]

That's really nice of you to say man! Though twenty days ago I was only at 600 so 1400 is already a huge leap for me hahaha!

[@TactWendigo]

You sir earned a new subscriber. Happy to be here.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much man! Glad you liked the video :)

[@dodoz44]

8:44 AHHH that damn corner.

[@MatthysFAIL]

The corner of many nightmares hahaha

[@Wiertel12pl]

I thought i was trippin when i saw how much subs you have. Very cool video anyway :D

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank you so much! Yesterday it was only 650 subs, it's kind of overwhelming how many people suddenly see this video😂

[@joshuaw9610]

Love the video! But I was so shocked to hear your feelings about the drag races, they were always my favourite events

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thanks man! Back in the day I was just really bad at them, which made me dislike them so much. Nowadays I like it a bit more, but I still think the mechanics could've worked better. Glad you like them though :)

[@joshuaw9610]

@@MatthysFAIL oh the mechanics were janky as hell haha but as a kid I looooved how the drag events sort of emulated the feeling of the races in the fast & furious movies

[@UssGo]

The physics were also very good compared to other nfs series. The newer ones made the cars move like toy cars. Drive nfs u2 with manual gearbox it gives you such a good feeling.

[@MatthysFAIL]

I always preferred the handling and physics of the older games!

[@johnathanw2565]

I had CINGULAR... THIS GAME...and LIFE WAS GOOD.... no joke.. this was one of my favorites... got me into cars and custom tuners... NO REGERTS

[@MatthysFAIL]

Sounds like the dream!:)

[@inthemix94321]

The model girl at the beginning of the game 😂 oh childhood memories

[@MatthysFAIL]

😂😂

[@vaskobrum]

NFS U2 is my favorite game, I still play it from time to time. Mostly I do drift events because you need to be precise to link the drifts and it's fun, not like the new nfs games. I hate car games with cops so for me not having them is a big plus. I just pray EA will remaster it and maybe add forza horizon driving style, I think it will be pretty cool.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Yeah that would be awesome!

[@maxx_2245]

Thank you for making this video, it was a blast to hear someone appreciate everything I appreciate about the game, while also recognising it's flaws. Add to that the lovely presentation and editing style of your work, and you have a new subscriber. One little detail I wanted to add that you didn't, though, is that there are rumours that the developers DID actually want to implement cops into the game, at least in free roam. There are still files in the game pertaining to cops and cop cars, but they are all unused, with the main theory around their abandonment being that the developers simply ran out of time to implement them due to the then annual release cycle of the NFS franchise. I personally can see this being the case. Any which way, I think we can both agree that NFSU2 is a rough diamond. I love this game for Bayview and the driving model, and no other NFS title has come close to stratching the same itch for me.

[@MatthysFAIL]

Thank for watching the video man! I'm really glad you liked it!:) and you're right, I didn't talk about the supposed police that were to be included in underground 2, though the first version of the script i made for this video did include all that as well as some info about "project repo man"! But that script was nearing 1,5 hours so i skippen dit entirely. I'm planning on talking that aspect a little bit more when eventually reviewing most wanted!