The career mode in Hot Import Nights is where most gamers will spend the majority of their offline time. After you've customised your ride you can either race or drift. Drift races aren't just races around a track as there are several different types of drift races, such as team drift racing. THQ told us that the action is split about 50/50. So whilst in other racing games the drifting took a backseat, there is a much heavier focus in the career mode for Hot Import Nights.
So which city are we in?
Throughout the career mode you'll travel through seven cities: San Francisco, Paris, Rome, London, Tokyo, Sydney and the German Alps. As you progress you'll win money which can be used to improve your vehicles or even purchase a new one. With over ninety cars (including Australian vehicles such as the Ford Falcon XR8) there are plenty of choices.
One of the concepts of the game that we're most excited about is the driver DNA feature. For every race you take part in, the AI will analyse the way you're driving and identify your style of racing. The AI is then saved and will be used to shape your crewmembers. For example, if you're an aggressive type of driver then your crewmembers will drive in the same aggressive way.
Driver DNA will even transfer online. This means you'll be able to download the DNA of the world's best drivers and race them offline. You can swap your driver DNA with a friend and your DNA will consistantly be changing. You may start off as an aggressive driver and slowly become more tactical and your driver DNA will reflect that.
So we're turning left here?
That's only the tip of the iceburg though as it's clear Juiced Games are keen for Hot Import Nights to become an online favourite. You'll be able to create a garage in the game and put your customised cars on display. Every car you own will have a pink slip which records the details of everyone who has owned that vehicle, this means you may sell your car, see it in a race and win it back only to find out it's been in the hands of six or seven other owners. On the subject of pink slips, you'll also be able to bet your vehicle in a race, which is sure to be intense (or stupid, depending on how you look at it).
Overall it's hard not to be impressed by Hot Import Nights. After the disappointment of the two previous Juiced games we weren't expecting much in the way of improvements. Thankfully though it seems Juiced Games have been hard at work on Hot Import Nights for awhile. Whether the game will hold up against other stellar franchises like Midnight Club and Need for Speed remains to be seen, but so far it seems that Juiced Games has made a step in the right direction.
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