Outback on Australia Day
January 26th is Australia Day, so I felt like taking a look at one of my favourite representations of the country in games – the ‘Outback’ track in Need For Speed II. It may be a bit of a mishmash of different parts of Australia, but it still manages to feel like home. In the course of a single lap, you will manage to drive from the beautiful Sydney Harbour all the way into the middle of the country. As you pass by Uluru, just try and put out any sense of time or distance from your mind.
This track is basically a ‘greatest hits’ version of Australia, packing in landmarks and atmosphere into every short lap. There are certainly other games that have more accurate representations of the country, but there is something about this one that has always made me happy. Need For Speed II itself may be showing its age a little bit now, but there is still a good time to be had here. Happy Australia Day!
When you look past the warping of the space-time continuum, it’s actually a more faithful representation of the country than most other games at the time!
