∇
troperville

This is a "Wild Mass Guess" entry, where we pull out all the sanity stops on theorizing. The regular entry on this topic is elsewhere. Please see this programme note.

Need For Speed

The Protagonist is the same in Underground through Undercover

It's RYAN COOPER everybody! Check it, he starts in Olympic City a total unknown but good enough that he swiftly beats Eddie, a top racer. Eddie calls a hitman to kill him and fails. He goes to Bayview to raise the stakes, taking out the man who tried to kill him. Next he goes to Rockport to blow off steam, and gets the attention of the Blacklist 15, and Cross. Kicking their asses and pissing off Cross, he flees to Palmont with Cross on his tail. Cue the story of the original noobish Ryan Cooper losing a crapton of money and returning to people hating him. After clearing his name he retires temporarily to Street Legal, going on a World Tour. After winning he yearns for the old life and becomes a wheelman in Undercover.

Alternately, the entire series from Underground to Undercover isn't in order.

Look at the geographies. All are by the coast of what can be considered California and Oregon.

Try City Bay could be from San Francisco, as it is the largest, with many bays and bridges, huge toll freeways, and vast hills to the North. Bayview would be LA, since I7 is very similar to I5, and goes through the heart of the city (as seen in a drag race ingame). There is also an easter egg if you go into Jackson Heights, on one or two cliffs you may notice a shimmering gold (streetlamps) freeway leading North from the city. I7 could just as easily go South to San Diego. Olympic City would technically be San Diego. It's the only other major seaside city along US 101/I5, and is smaller than LA (smaller than Bayview). Rockport is Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA. Since it has water to the east and is the only city large enough after discounting all other Seaside Cities near to the other ones, it makes some sense. Palmont is Redding, CA. It is the Connector to I5 toward Rockport, and has both the Sacramento River and Shasta Lake, and Mountains to the North.
- But if you started in Palmont, which would be Redding, why did you go all the way down to San Diego (Olympic City)?
  - The order in ascending cities -> Undeground, Underground 2, Undercover, Carbon, Most Wanted. But remember that Cooper went South from Rockport. So it is Underground, Underground 2, Undercover, Most Wanted, Carbon. The player was working for the PD before turning against them (transition from Undercover to Most Wanted). Most Wanted, then Carbon, then Pro Street (World Traveler).

Alternatively to that, the Protagonist from Underground through to Carbon is the same, but the other games are set in the same universe

Starts off in Olympic City as a nobody, takes down Eddie and becomes the champ, scoring several magazine deals and DVD cover shoots. Caleb dislikes this and takes the protagonist's car out. To clear his head, he moves off to Bayview, gets tons of sponsorship and race wins and beats Caleb. Now this is where it gets weird. The player leaves and goes to Palmont where he meets Darius and Nikki. After making a name for himself, something happens with his ride (totalled/impounded?) and Darius lends him his Supra. This is where the flashback from Carbon starts. The player is set up, and told to leave Palmont with Darius' car. After winning some more races whilst passing through some other cities, he swaps the Supra for the BMW M3 GTR. He then heads to Rockport.

After becoming Street King in Pro Street, Ryan Cooper will start a racing career in Ridge State.

Because we NEED to see a Lamborghini take on the Soldat Crinale. Among other cars.

The new Hot Pursuit is set in France and Germany, and Hollywood Geography has hit hard.

Just the shape of the world map fits so well with Western Europe.

Seacrest County in the new Hot Pursuit is corrupt.

The county spends enough money to use highly exotic cars as speed enforcement vehicles, but limits the number of times you can call in support from other units. It's like they're trying to make it a challenge, like they know it's a game...

At some point in the past the street racers took over the Seacrest County government and raised taxes to buy all of these fancy cars for the police just so that the racers would have better competition to race against. That's also why you can play both sides, it's all part of the game.

When you're playing as a cop, racing up behind civilian vehicles that won't pull off to the side of the road despite you having your flashing lights on? That's the native population of Seacrest County doing what they can to oppose the street racing regime ruling over them.

And freedrive (as racer) would be telling the police to back off so you can practice your driving. Also explains why you wouldn't get chased after passing a police station in a race, duel, time trial or preview (as well as freedrive).

All of the police forces around the globe in Nitro are corrupt.

They can be bribed, either into going easier on you(r car) or beating up your opponent's car instead of yours.

The makers of the new Hot Pursuit are against high-speed chases by the police.

The civilian vehicles don't get out of the way for the police because they were programmed not to. Thus, the game teaches players that civilians often get hurt in high-speed chases, causing them to be more likely to oppose them in real life.

Some civilian cars do move to the side during police chases, meaning that it is not really that they cannot, but rather they cannot move away fast enough. Either that or they are moving away very slowly.

Need for Speed: The Run will be a sequel to Portal 2.

Just watch this trailer

and look who's driving at 0:31.

The #1 Blacklist racer before Razor was...

JV. Ronnie and Bull are implied to have risen through the ranks of the Blacklist alongside Razor. All three of them defeated the former #1 Blacklist Racer, which demoted him to #4.

Hot Pursuit 2010, racers and cops have the ability of nano-manufacturing an infinite amount of cars like in PlanetSide

Explains why the racers and cops can drive exceptionally rare cars like the Pagani Zonda Cinque, or the "1 in 50,000,000 chance of owning" Reventon Roadster.
- Heck, this could apply to the other games, especially with one-off concepts like the Ford GT-90 from II or the Alfa Romeo/Ital Design Schigera from III.

Hot Pursuit takes place in an alternate universe where humanity has evolved thicker skulls in place of larger brains.

Which explains why the entire police department revolves around using exotic and expensive cars to stop speeders by ramming them and making them flip over (which would kill a normal driver). The police department just doesn't know any better.

Most Wanted 2012 is actually a virtual reality simulation

Think about it... switching mods almost immediately while on the road is impossible to do in real life. The pre-race cutscenes also show the cars doing practically impossible feats; for example, in Straight To The Point, all the cars are driving above the road, while in Ambush events such as Storehouse Stakeout, a single police car clones itself and turns into a giant rolling wheel pursuing the player character. The Wii U version features the ability to switch between day and night immediately, enabling and disabling traffic and switching between cars on the road (this feature is also available on Multiplayer mode on all versions). None of these are possible to do in real life at all. The various features of the game mentioned are all controlled by the player, while the Ambush event cutscenes were possibly implemented by the game developers in order to mess with the player character's head.

Return to Need for Speed in that Cool Car of yours——

Nancy Drew

WMG/Video Games

Neoquest