| Need for Speed: High Stakes | |
|---|---|
 North American cover art featuring a Porsche 911 Turbo and a Ferrari 550 Maranello | |
| Developer(s) | EA Canada (PS) EA Seattle (PC) |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Producer(s) | Hanno Lemke |
| Composer(s) |
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| Series | Need for Speed |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | PlayStation Windows |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Need for Speed: High Stakes[a] is a 1999 racing video game developed by EA Canada and EA Seattle and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. It is the fourth game in the Need for Speed series and a follow-up to Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. The game features more realistic elements than its predecessors and introduced a damage system that allows cars to take damage when colliding with objects, affecting their appearance and performance. It also introduced a series of economy-based tournaments, awarding players with a cash prize that can be spent on repairing, purchasing, or upgrading cars for subsequent races. The game's Hot Pursuit mode, which was introduced in Hot Pursuit, was expanded with more options, allowing players to control police pursuits attempting to stop racers.
High Stakes was designed to convey a sense of risk and consequence, an idea that is primarily reflected in the game's High Stakes mode, where a player can lose a saved car in a race, along with the money they had spent on upgrading it. Because the game features licensed cars, Electronic Arts had to convince manufacturers to let their cars take in-game damage. High Stakes also marked the return of the Porsche licence, which had been absent from racing games since Porsche Challenge in 1997. The game received positive reviews from critics, who occasionally compared it to Gran Turismo. Critics generally praised its graphics, artificial intelligence, and realistic elements, but criticized its inconsistent frame rate. The Microsoft Windows version was awarded Racing Game of the Year by Computer Gaming World.
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