Product ReviewsNeed for Speed: High Stakes (PC, 1999)

Absolutely wonderful game, innovative, fun.

This game was the result of ingenuity, patience, and practicality from the designers and developers at Electronic Arts. Arguably one of the best driving games ever released, Need For Speed High Stakes offers the user new game modes and a refined physics engine. This is the first game released in the NFS series to have vehicle damage modeling, giving the player a sense of realism for the first time. AI drivers are much more aggressive than in the last NFS title. To make the game even better, EA put in a hot pursuit mode that rivals even those of today's games. You can compete in many different types of hot pursuit modes, such as Getaway and Time Trap. Players can fight on both sides of the law in these modes, an innovative way to incorporate even more fun activities into this already amazing game. As a police officer, the player can set up their own spike strip, turn on and off their siren/lights, and use a limited-range radar system to track the position of the speeder. The AI controls numerous other police vehicles during the race, but you can switch to any other police car on the road whenever you want. Each map has their own special police units, from British white and blue cruisers to American forest-ranger type police SUVs. NFS High Stakes is the first NFS game to feature a career mode, and a massive one it is. Special "high stakes" events are in each part of the career mode. In these high-pressure events, it's you against one other racer in a two-lap contest on different tracks. The loser forfeits his ride to the winner, it's that simple. This mode is also great to score big cash bonuses if you master a location, because you can keep going back and racing and winning more and more cars, then sell them for cash. You can equate this to knowing how to count cards, then hitting up the blackjack tables at the casino and winning every time. THE TRICK IS NOT LOSING. This game came out June 20, 1999, and I still play it today, 13 years later. With a creative cockpit view the player can feel even closer to the action. A replay mode allows users to view and even save their favorite replays. Racing environments range from snowy, slick roads in the Rockies, to wooded western trails, to nighttime cruises in Arizona, to many other places in Europe and North America. Please buy this game, as it will be perhaps the best purchase out of all of your entertainment purchases ever.Read full review...

Fast cars, beautiful tracks, and lots of fun...

In short, this may be one of the best racing games I have ever played. I got this game a long time ago, I would guess around the time it came out. You can play as a racer or as a cop. There is an extensive career mode where you can upgrade cars and unlock rewards. There is a good selection of tracks (off the top of my head, I think there are 19 tracks total, with mostly open-road tracks for illegal racing, but with a few race tracks); there are plenty of cars to drive, all of which are some sort of sports car. The graphics, in my opinion, even in 2013, are awesome - the tracks look great; and cars feature damage modeling including cracked windshields, dents, losing side mirrors, and broken headlamps and taillights. The music in this game is awesome, which lots of electronica. One big downside though is if you already own Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (either PC or PS1 version), as the PC version of High Stakes contains all of the tracks from Hot Pursuit, so you'd be basically paying partly for something you already have. Replay-ability is good, I still play around with this game every once in a while - playing as a cop can especially be fun. Overall, great racing game.Read full review...

raise the stakes!

A great follow up to 'need for speed 2'. Same excellent car performance and the ability to have car damage if you desire. But the graphics are what makes this edition great. The scenery is top notch. Other racing games cannot compete with this series. Download the 'cheats' to enjoy all the tracks and hvae a "blast". highly recommended!Read full review...

Good quality

Good quality, but the express is a bit slow.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: thecrewmbd

Works great, thank you!

Works great, thank you!

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: jjlcampbell3

N.F.S. High Stackes

I got the game for my son. The cars. It won't work on windows vista. Lucky we had a computer that has windows 98. If you don't have windows 95 or 98, it won't work. It is a fun game. To bad it don't work for vista.Read full review...

Amazing!!

Awesome game! Great classic! Fun game that will have you playing hours! Has a great campaign mode and great multiplayer mode!

Great game. Lots of fun.

This is a very fun racing game. Especially like the multi-player mode. It's an older game so it might not work on all systems though.

great

i like this game..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Read full review...

need 4 speed

good game......................i am enjoyn it like i thought i would got what i expected.......................................................