Need for Speed Underground (PS2, Sept. 2003 Beta)

This is a "quick" overview of the late beta of Need for Speed Underground, dated just over two months from release. As such, I won't go into too much depth with every single difference, but I will show a few things of interest while making general observations. If you would like to have a more comprehensive look at this game and the development, I would recommend you check out GrandTheftAero's video on this game, which I'll link lower down here.
This build shows that EA Black Box were essentially wrapping up production and applying finishing touches to their product. Most of what you will find in normal gameplay here is almost the same as the retail version of this game. All the expected cars are featured here, and most (to my knowledge) of the races are the same. I find it interesting that the Skyline featured in the main menu is completely stock, rather than showing Eddie's Skyline. This does change if you start Underground Mode, and then it swaps the car to your career car, the same way it does in the retail build.
The most interesting thing here, I think, are the audio files that haven't been updated yet. I imagine when this build was dated, the audio team were likely still in the process of recording and producing the voice clips from the new set of actors. I'm not too sure who the old actors are, but I'd wager they were just interns or the devs who recorded themselves to get placeholder audio. Interestingly, Dirt still kept the same actor through to the retail version. It's interesting to hear the Drift Prompts mentioning speed zones, drift gates, etc. Sounds like drift mode could've been a bit more than a manji drift simulator, but I suppose this was a relatively new thing and overcomplicating it wouldn't have been a good idea.
As for cutscenes, they're pretty terrible looking. I mean, sure, they are work in progress, but the final cutscenes were just as terrible. I can see why Underground 2 used artwork, and MW onwards used real actors. These animations suck pretty badly, honestly. The audio I found of the old opening cutscene (I think) is pretty interesting. While it is just a series of stock sounds slapped together, it does indicate some police presence at some point (which is already known). The original fantasy storyboard I found is cool to see, as we're able to see how some characters were originally envisioned. Samantha here looks way better than the skeleton they used in the final. I suppose Eddie could have possibly drove a Supra at some point? Possibly, I suppose they could've changed it seeing as 2 Fast 2 Furious had released and having an... "iconic" Skyline for a game would've made sense.
As for designs, body parts and such. They're all here, albeit the Impreza and MX-5 missing some stuff, so it seems modifications were an early finish. Vinyls, not so much. A bunch of new Wild and Tribal vinyls are found in the retail than here and a bunch of Uniques were redesigned. I'm a little mad the green Unique vinyl I used on the Lancer and Supra is absent in the retail, but it was replaced by a better unique. I'm not sure what the deal with the Paint Parts menu does, aside from possibly having options to paint rims, engine accenting, mufflers, etc. The menu design is very old, and is likely how the front end menus would've been like, although if they kept with that UI style, it would've been polished up a bit and I'd guess it'd end up looking similar to Hot Pursuit 2, though this is all just theoretical stuff, so it doesn't really matter. I'm not quite sure if there are other cars with part bugs like the Impreza and MX-5, since I didn't check them all, but this was never meant to be really in depth. I did notice the Golf GTI and Peugeot 206 were right hand drive in this build. I'm sure that's interesting to someone? No? Just me? Okay then.
Links:
GrandTheftAero's video on the development of Underground:
• hi
All Voice Clips:
• [unlisted] NFS Undergr...
02_FAN:
• [unlisted] 02_FAN Stor...
Timestamps:
0:00 - 1:36 Starting up
1:37 - 3:47 First Race
3:48 - 5:10 Drag and Vehicle Damage
5:11 - 6:20 Drift
6:21 - 8:09 Tournament (Quick Race)
8:10 - 12:24 Split Screen Races
12:25 - 13:23 Time Trial Races
13:24 - 15:41 Final Race
15:42 - 20:34 Debug Menu and Cameras
20:35 - 29:14 Beta Cutscenes and FMVs
29:15 - 30:26 Cut Drag Tutorial Audio
30:27 - 31:59 Cut Drift Tutorial Audio
32:00 - 33:13 Cut Car Unlocked Audio
33:14 - 33:53 Cut Menu Description Audio
33:54 - 34:40 Beta José
34:41 - 35:12 Beta Klutch
35:13 - 35:42 Beta Kurt
35:43 - 36:05 Beta Chad
36:06 - 36:50 Beta TJ
36:51 - 37:25 Beta Todd
37:26 - 43:18 Customisation and Beta Vinyl Overview
43:19 - 43:55 Eddie's Beta Vinyl
43:56 - 47:34 Rest of the Vinyls
47:35 - 50:00 Misc / Incomplete Cars
i swear i'll finish gex 3 videos next!
ads are not mine, i'm just too lazy to mute the audio and got ID'd oh well

[@LimiitedChans]

I swear these NFS beta videos are some of my favorite to watch, especially Underground 1 and 2. Very interesting. Also very interesting how you got a hold of an early version of NFSU, because if I remember correctly, very early versions had blue arrow barriers, that was then changed to yellow (maybe for PS2 demo version??) and then finally changed to red in the final game. Also not to mention that some roads don't exist in the version you have.

[@AV20242]

Yeah

[@iiceddyx]

omg yes!! its so mysterious haha

[@MastermindAtWork]

Bruh, WE COULD'VE GOT FABULOUS ON THE UNDERGROUND SOUNDTRACK?! Holla back + Get Low + Smashing the Gas would've the goated soundtrack of all time

[@ronnie3626]

Yeah, they had problems with copyright if I remember correctly :/

[@SenatorArmstrongOfficial]

In my opinion, Kimosabe by BT fits the whole underground illegal street racing atmosphere better

[@gary23386]

44:11 Funnily enough, if you install the second bodykit, the Racinghart logo will be fixed. I think, as this version was still in development, some cars don't render their vinyls in a proper way.

[@marian.t.]

Did someone managed to see how "the player" look like?

[@NFSBeast2365]

I wonder...

[@AV20242]

Different sounds, damage taillights and mirrors, beta interface, beta vinyls, beta voicelines, beta cutscenes this is cool Edit: I like how you drift at the end of the races like Paul Walker from fnf2, Melissa race was an sprint race I like the sprint tbh, 21:05 you can hear cops siren, eddie beta car was a silvia/monaro?

[@theastronomer7]

7:11 literally said "🗿"

[@nauvallabibsalim8249]

Finally some one make the complete video of it (or... Someone else already make it? ) btw nice video, keep up the work 👍🏿

[@zzmrpicklezz798]

The wheels on the garage seem to be nice and shiny compared to the final and they have a better spin animation in races too.

[@AuntieAliasing]

This is such a good, comprehensive video! I wonder if this game was originally aiming for a T rating with the "Liquor" sign in the neon district that got changed to "Chicken", Samantha's beer, the custom wrap of the woman covering her chest, and Eddie mouthing "Go f*ck yourself" (Maybe). I guess Black Box also got into hot water with Sony for that PlayStation button logos wrap or something.

[@glitchymess]

Ah, thanks! I believe alcohol in video games was a super touchy thing with the ESRB, especially at the time of Underground's development, so it was probably just a safe move on Black Box's part to remove the references. Had they left them in, I'd imagine the rating change would've been pretty bad for a series that had a fairly large young demographic. I think it's possible that BBX may have been told by Sony to change the PlayStation button wrap, but it does make sense to make it look more generic, considering the game did release on other platforms. I do think that wrap could've worked out as a PS2-exclusive.

[@RGBtheRhinoOverwatcher]

@@glitchymess The ESRB E rating is received at the time of the final version of the game.

[@RGBtheRhinoOverwatcher]

@Auntie Aliasing The game is also originally has cops, but it was removed.

[@NFSBeast2365]

@@RGBtheRhinoOverwatcher really? 😲

[@Akuxz]

@@NFSBeast2365 No I think they were just leftovers from HP2. IICR, UG2 was meant to have police, but I would imagine it got cut early.

[@arandominternetperson4462]

After seeing the entire video, the final game feels even more basic to me...

[@AV20242]

Indeed

[@pafel13]

ROLLIN, GOLD TWO SEATER STASH IN THE DASH HOLE THROUGH HEATERS

[@dalelumina3]

Shame that Young'n was cut from Underground, it fits the game really well

[@pafel13]

@@dalelumina3 maybe, but there's plenty of other songs that fit really well, soo.... UG2's soundtrack I find really lacking, it could maybe fit better there?

[@dalelumina3]

@@pafel13 Yeah, UG2 even has the hydraulics

[@Lucasaf01]

I wish actual nfs games had this high speed feeling 4:00 😪

[@cannedbeverage7687]

The beta menu sounds are kinda cool, but I'm glad they changed them. 6yo probably would've been creeped out by them.

[@zues2011]

27:26 this rev sound effect is definitely used somewhere, maybe not in Underground, i don’t know why but i think this was used in Need for Speed Carbon for Kenji’s RX-7

[@glitchymess]

Yeah, it's used when he pulls up to the start line during his pre-race cutscene.

[@Altopelirrojo]

Very nice version , like Juiced & SRS enemy ... Ps : I like wheels rotation blur , wtf is it deleted ?!

[@ninjaskillzyt]

it is still on ps2 (maybe also gamecube and xbox, but im not certain)

[@Altopelirrojo]

@@ninjaskillzyt sad .. because it's totally removed on PC , in ALL NFS ... Only at Shift & S2U restored it with another engine lol . This effect - DEFAULT in Real Life . Human eye DON`T SEE rotated rims , it just needed to be blurred .

[@karelpipa]

19:50 looks almost like a film director mode in Driver 1 :)

[@xSpicySaltx]

20:42 - Cut intro with cops

[@jangelelcangry]

So, the beta had wheel motion blur.

[@gofast7907]

how did you get your hands on this? hella cool ROM dump?

[@glitchymess]

A lot of these releases get archived on hiddenpalace.org You can find a direct link to this build in the comments somewhere below.

[@jangelelcangry]

32:44 Sounds like something sarcastic from Top Gear/The Grand Tour.

[@user-lt2wf7hd1b]

Game crashes after tournament, its because autosave is enabled

[@Drogbaonly]

Is there a way to un-enabled the autosave after the tournament races?

[@Vladi_B.]

Where can we get this version of the game with the beta vinyls included? Or how can we recreate it?

[@glitchymess]

You can get this version here: hiddenpalace.org/Need_for_Speed_Underground_(Sep_2,_2003_prototype) The vinyls can be extracted from the disc using NFS Disculator, but I recall having issues with loading them in TexEd, but the format is pretty much the same. You can otherwise just dump the textures outright in PCSX2 and then clean them up afterwards.

[@jacksonwarner4320]

32:17 32:53 33:05 33:08 32:06 My Dream Cars!!

[@Gzxlim.]

0:01 proceeds to smash the floor

[@Inamiyu]

"Game Journalist Mode" on the Super Easy AI setting lmfao 😭

[@karelpipa]

25:14 meet The Devil :)

[@_JoeMomma]

CHROME TWO SEATER, STASH IN THE DASH CHROME TWO SEATER!!!!! 💝💝

[@Zephyr-kn5hg]

kinda random and unnecesary to point out in whole 50 min video BUT, RIMS LOOKS SO GOOD IN RACES??????

[@PreMOxNML]

Why not music in the game?

[@ronnie3626]

because of licensing issues

[@memecat7174]

Transformers the Game

[@redgravepanda]

hi,upload please?

[@lordmegatron65]

Found it, here you go :) hiddenpalace.org/Need_for_Speed_Underground_(Sep_10,_2003_prototype)

[@redgravepanda]

@@lordmegatron65 thx very much) you have more builds?

[@lordmegatron65]

@@redgravepanda just that one for nfsu but the website i sent you has other prototypes for games like burnout 3 and burnout revenge. Let me know if you would want those aswell

[@redgravepanda]

@@lordmegatron65 no, I'm not interested in a franchise like this,but thank you anyway

[@lordmegatron65]

@@redgravepanda you're welcome

[@silverghost503]

25:33 naww 💀💀💀

[@derosiflo6524]

I am sad that they took out the skyline in the background of the endless tunnel, looks wayyy better

[@BallistaTheDeer]

35:43 - "Beta Chad"?

[@idespiseindians]

two words don't fit in a single sentence