Need for Speed (2015 Reboot)

More details to come this E3, but after a year hiatus after the last game (Rivals), EA has announced a new reboot of the franchise coming next year to PC, Xbone and PS 4. From what EA Ghost had said, the new game is supposed to be an Ultimate Universe of the entire franchise and an attempt to take the like 80 billion directions NFS has gone and consolidate it into 1 singular game that represents the franchise holistically. One things for sure, the teaser trailer definitely has shades of Underground and Underground 2, and they've already announced a partnership with tuning blog Speedhunters for the games car modibility, so it seems tuning is once again a focus after being missing for the last few games.

Personally, I don't really know what to think. I never played Underground/Most Wanted when I was a kid and only got the new Hot Pursuit because I was a Burnout fan. Nevertheless really liked Criterion's Hot Pursuit, and Rivals' core idea (take HP 2010, make it open world and add a Dark Souls-esque "invasion" sytsem) was pretty neat even though the game itself was pretty sloppy so I don't really know if pandering to Underground fans is really that good of an idea.

edited 6th Jun '15 3:46:37 PM by RoboZombie

I'm rather skeptical about the increased emphasis on customisation of the visual and performance types, as I think that it very definitely could be used as a smokescreen to distract people from absolutely horrendous quality assurance (especially as Need for Speed games get bug fix patches once in a blue moon). Unfortunately, since the types calling loudly for an Underground 2 (they might say Underground series, but it's always 2. Really.) Spiritual Successor are possessed of an unshakeable belief that customisation is a panacea for all of the franchise's problems, I fear that this is exactly what they will get. And really, 10 years is a long time to create unreasonable demands, especially with the NFS community.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

Need for Speed's fandom bitching eerily reminds me of Sonic's fandom bitching for the exact same reasons really. EA's approach to Need for Speed is basically the same method Sonic Team approaches each Sonic game in that they soft-reboot the series every other game regardless of what we had before was working or not. The only difference is that unlike Sega, it actually worked for EA. I could write a whole damn essay explain why this might be the case, but I think it comes down to the fact that EA doesn't go quite as far in trying to re-invent the wheel each time as they usually keep the "cops vs racers" formula (Shift is the major except but it was always Need for Speed In Name Only so I dunno what to say.)

Hell, the whole idea of Need for Speed being rebooted is kinda silly since every NFS is like a half-reboot to be honest. Gotta admit though, those if the game actually does look like the "in engine footage" those are some damn tasty graphics. EA's done a lot of stupid stuff, lets be honest but one things for sure pushing Frostbite sure as hell wasn't one of those things.

Edit: Also with all the pandering I'm surprised they didn't put Get Low in the trailer.

edited 7th Jun '15 1:13:40 PM by RoboZombie

As someone who enjoys both the modless classics(i.e. Hot Pursuit 2002) and the ones where you can mod your car(i.e. Underground 2, Most Wanted 2005, Carbon), I'm pretty ambivalent about this.

On one hand, the concept of an unified universe intrigues me, and leaves me curious about the possibilities it can leave(connected storylines? Cool!). On the other... it's EA. And a lot of people say the NFS series has died long ago... and I agree with them.

I just hope you won't be forced to put skyscraper-tall spoilers and garish-looking bodykits on your car.

edited 8th Jun '15 3:48:14 PM by Minmus

Sick of everything.

There will be a Subaru BRZ in the reboot, with the option to install a Rocket Bunny V2 body kit on it.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

Gameplay at E3, the players using that same BRZ with the Rocketbunny that they teased. Just a few notes to add. Ghost_Ben on reddit (the community manager for EA Ghost) conformed that the camera used is a "cinematic" camera and that there's several different camera modes, including a more standard chase cam. Also, handling is tunable and the car in the demo was tuned for drift (since after all it was a drift event) so the whole game isn't going to be all super slippery like that.

Gamescom trailer.

Icons trailer.

The icons are:

• Build: Akira Nakai of Rauh-Welt Begriff
• Style: Ken Block
• Outlaw: Shinichi Morohoshi of Underground Hero fame
• Speed: Magnus Walker
• Crew: Risky Devil

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

Your momma's so dumb she thinks oral sex means talking dirty.

Sexy.

I'm really digging the customization, it reminds me of Underground 2 but are they still doing the online bullshit?

Please tell me they're not still building the game around that online bullshit.

Oh really when?

Yes. They have rather conspicuously said nothing about AllDrive player counts while mentioning that Ventura Bay is twice the size of Rivals' Redview County. On the plus side, the game has dedicated servers to prevent constant host migration, but the rest sounds like a recipe for even less online player interaction.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

I watched Giant Bomb's quick look and after hearing some dude say "pure hoonage" I should go ask one of my tryhard street racer friends if people actually say that or if that's just stupid Honoka product placement.

Edit: Oh FFS that's supposed to be "Hoonigan product placement" God damn autocorrect

edited 1st Nov '15 1:33:59 PM by RoboZombie

Yes, people actually say that. Usually on the Internet, though. Of course, acted cutscenes in Need for Speed games are renowned for being very cheesy...

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

So did anyone actually pick this up yet? I held off cause I heard it was pretty average overall.

Edit: Acutally never mind, my buddy was bullshitting me and none of that shit actually happens.

edited 27th Nov '15 9:55:56 PM by RoboZombie

This game is for gearheads who want to spend hours in their garages tuning their cars to be the ultimate speed/drift machine. Its basically a Car Guy Simulator. So if you bought the game just to play it as any other racing game youre gonna have a bad time.

So apparently they're teasing the addition of Manual Transmission in the next update on their Facebook. Linky

Huh, if they were going to do it eventually, why didn't at least announce they were considering the option instead of staying silent on the matter and letting the fanbase get pissed over no MT?

edited 10th Feb '16 7:07:03 PM by RoboZombie

Because at least one community poll had the option to focus on implementing manual transmission be beaten by the option for focusing on underglow neons.

Yes, you heard that right, underglow neons.

While I wouldn't mind Ghost Games going the whole hog and implementing the pointlessly large variety of underglow neons World had (in addition to licence plates), I would think that including manual transmission, wheel support and/or a fix for the driver aid behaviour would be more important than neons.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

well it sure is your lucky day then

PC Trailer confirms Manual Transmission, wheel support, unlocked framerate and 4K graphics settings

Also they finally went full nostalgia and you know what, I'm not even gonna bitch about pandering to nostalgia like I usually do.

Pretty nice that the Nissan GT-R (R35) and the Toyota (GT)86/Subaru BRZ are both in this game, but no Jaguar F-Type coupe?! (*Sighs* It's probably gonna be DLC...)

And is there an option to import your own images as custom decals? I mean, if I could plaster images of Kurumi Tokisaki onto a GT-R and turn it into an Itasha, that would be great.

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

The F-Type R has shown up in No Limits, so there is hope. And Ghost Games' current plans involve releasing all DLC for free (well considering the state of the game that's a pretty good idea).

As to importing decals, you can't. However, you have a lot more vinyl layers you can use now, so creating an itasha is definitely possible, especially since there is now a vinyl mirroring function. Yes, that wasn't there on release day.

edited 12th Feb '16 3:51:24 AM by Krieger22

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

(Researches Need for Speed: No Limits. Finds out it's an android game.)

I've yet to see a racing game that has a comprehensive amount of sports/exotic/hyper cars, combines the arcade-y gameplay of Need For Speed and the customization/tuning options of the Forza Motorsport/Horizon series. On PC (on Steam's side). I guess I'm still searching for that personal holy grail of racing games.

For the longest time, importing images were how I thought Itasha designs are made in Forza, until I saw in some (fast-forwarded) YouTube videos that they "shape" the decals to make it look like the anime character they want, which takes a considerable amount of time.

While importing your own images and plastering them to the side of your favorite car would make...err...Itasha-making a bit easier, I guess I can understand why importing images aren't a thing in most car racing/customization games. (*Cough* Video Game Perversity Potential *Cough*) Some folks will just abuse that kind of feature to do juvenile, facepalm-worthy s**t...

edited 12th Feb '16 6:15:56 PM by IncognitoNinja

"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."

Shift 2 actually allows the importing of images, although you have to create the entire car livery in something that supports DDS files. I've heard claims of successful vinyl (as opposed to the aforementioned livery) imports, but nothing to back it up.

So, with the PC and console versions now at content parity... did anyone get this game? From what I've heard there's a bit more meat now, but still rather bare bones.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

Necrobumping this from the dead and for what its worth, the game's on Origin Access now so if your already subscribed to that you might as well give it a shot.

I ended up playing a good amount of the game on my old roomies Xbone and honestly, it's just "alright I guess." The main problem with the game is that I just feels so....... Wishy-washy? I dunno how to explain it, but stuff like having an online connected world where you don't actually do anything with other people, and the while handling model just come off as... directionless.

It looks nice, but frankly that'll just make you wish they made a remaster of Most Wanted 2005 with this tech. In fact, that's the whole problem with this game. It fails as a nostalgia trip because Underground 2 and Most Wanted are still more interesting games for the most part (I briefly revisited those two after the fact and while their definitely kinda janky and unpolished, they're still more interesting that the new one.) If your just looking for an arcade racer, well you might as well just get Forza Horizon 2 or 3 because those games are just better and doing what their trying to do overall.

I'm just wondering if EA's gonna drastically reboot it again come 2017 or try to continue in the direction of "Most Wanted but just kinda crummier in general"

It's not directionless, not by a long shot. It literally fights you for control of the car you are nominally controlling.

As to whether they take feedback seriously... let's just say that they consider entitled idiots on Reddit and social media to be their main focus group for the games now. Seeing as all they think is that underglow neons will make up for a variety of disastrous design decisions, I'm not getting my hopes up for 2017.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot