Racing games of early 2000s (2000-2005)

There were many iconic racing games that were released in the early 2000s. Games such as Midnight club, Burnout, and Need for speed were introduced. These games were heavily influenced by the car culture of the time. At that time Japanese import cars and car modifications were very big and this directly influenced the type of games that came out at that time.

Midnight club: street racing was a game based on street racing which was very big at the time. It was developed by Rockstar and was released in 2000. It had an open world feel since the track had a flexible route as there were shortcuts. It was the first game to introduce illegal street racing to the video game industry. This game was based on a Japanese street racing gang that was called the midnight club. They meet up at gas stations at night and would race down the Wangan highway in japan in speeds in excessive of 200 mph. The environment of the races were modeled after New York and London and contained pedestrians and traffic. It had a split screen multiplayer mode in which you could play capture the flag.

Gameplay-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTWSjsk-2K4

Burnout was developed by Criterion games and was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. It contained a championship mode that consisted of various events that had 3 or 4 races each. In each race the player is pitted against 3 other cars. The races get more difficult as you progress and thus you would have to upgrade to faster cars in order to win. There was also a time attack mode in which you would have to finish a lap before a certain time. 

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsTbwNIoIh8

Need for speed was created by EA and there were various titles released in the early 2000s. There was Porsche unleashed released in 2000, Hot pursuit 2 released in 2002, underground in 2003, under ground 2 in 2004 and most wanted in 2005. They all had similar game play, you had to win races in order to unlock vehicles and tracks. The games had differences as hot pursuit placed an emphasis on evading police and underground was focused on street racing.


NFS: Porsche Unleashed Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3shI88-xVD4


Hot Pursuit 2 Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHUu2PjE3xE


Underground Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crWTd0es99Y