I Am Excited About Heatwarped
	2026 August 26
	Current Mood:	Sleppy
	Now Playing:	Золотые зубы, 10 дней без горячей воды - Самообман

Today I finally played Heatwarped demo and it turned out to be even better than I expected. It is such a smooth clone of NFS Underground 2, made by a small team in Unity, that I just can't stop appreciating the developers' intentions and results.

There is a cute fake in-game racing forum, and you can change Theme / Ringtone / Notification Sound on your in-game phone?? Come oonnn... Also the mobile phone is called "Super Mega Telefon", which kinda leads me to believe that someone on the team is from the Greater Eastern European Area.

During my first race I instantly got teleported into the times when there were serious NFSU2 tournaments with money prizes (along with CS1.6) in my hometown and when I was trying to form a team with some of my school friends to compete — it didn't get to anywhere because I sucked as an organizer (and as a racing gamer) and also had unrealistic middle-schooler ideas and expectations. I was a genuine NFSU2 sicko for a short time though, I also absolutely hated Most Wanted when it came out, and then later Carbon didn't do it for me (and now after recently trying to play Carbon again I became a certified hater).

As I am writing this, I still haven't beat the first race! The rivals' AI is brutal but, so far, it feels more challenging than annoying. I really like the sliding-and-correcting car controls though! I am also trying to master manual transmission right off the gate, so it might take me some time to start winning, lol.

Despite all that, I've collected most of the hidden money stashes in the demo area and was able to buy myself NOS and do some styling to my car. The car customisation is basically exactly what you would expect from NFSU2, and for just one demo it feels more than enough.

The demo also already has a photo mode (and even race replays!), which is such a nice marketing move for a demo release (good for posting about the game).