Need for speed rivals pc review: Need for Speed: Rivals for PC Reviews

Need for Speed: Rivals review

Ghost Games’ first Need for Speed takes the very best of Criterion in this excellent package.

Grab a Ferrari 458 Italia and hit up Need for Speed: Rivals’ Redview County and you can find yourself in a pretty decent approximation of what a contemporary, open-world OutRun would look like. You’ll see traces of AM2’s magic in the languid powerslides that send sweet white smoke pluming from wheel arches, and in the long drives that take you through sinewy roads darkened by the thick canopy of pines, on to snaking snowy mountain passes, and climaxing in full-throated blasts through wide, parched desert.

Dial back some of Rivals’ obnoxious background chatter and soundtrack and you’ll feel it in the base thrill of pounding open roads, and see it in far-off horizons that can be reached in several quick seconds with a heavy foot and a boost of nitrous. A drive around Redview County sees the speedometer rarely dipping below the 150mph mark, and the game delivers a sense of speed to back up its convictions.

It’s a sensation that was brilliantly felt in Criterion’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit in 2010, but one lacking a little in its 2012 follow-up Most Wanted. Rivals feels like a continuation of those titles, which is no surprise — the bulk of the staff at new studio Ghost Games was transplanted from the Guildford studio earlier this year, and the weight of handling, feel of vehicle combat and technical achievements will be familiar to fans of the Burnout developer’s brand of racing.

It’s a continuation, but also a balancing act: the open world of Most Wanted was an automotive playground stuffed full of treats, but there was a sense of claustrophobia creeping in to the confines of the urban backdrop. Rivals keeps the open world, but it restores the wide, long highways of Hot Pursuit and weaves them in to a space that’s vast, cohesive and full of countless little distractions.

We’ve only seen next-gen versions so far — once PS3 and 360 code is with us, we’ll update you with our impressions.

Ghost has been vocal about the recruitment of Jamie Keen, a producer formerly of Ubisoft Montreal who is in part responsible for Far Cry 3’s open world, and while a certain influence is felt, Redview County isn’t quite Rook Island. It’s not far off, though — if the measure of a good open world is how easily you’re sidetracked when going from A to B, then this is a considerable success, with each stretch of road offering a new car to shut down, an online record to beat or an event to partake in.

There’s a beauty to the world, too: Ghosts Games’ Redview County is one of the better ways to show off next-gen hardware at launch. Weather systems roll in, with lightning forks casting brilliant light on the muscular machinery and rain dramatically dancing across the screen, while waves crash across seafront walls. Collisions, meanwhile, are met with enthusiastic storms of particles.

It’s a handsome world, and one that’s underscored with some real machismo — you’ll never hear an angrier rumble than that made by the V12 sitting under the Ferrari 599’s elongated bonnet, and in Rivals the cars are so manly they all exude a slick sweat no matter where the dynamic weather cycle’s at. For all the testosterone that’s swilling around, though, there’s a certain grace to be found in the systems underpinning Rivals.

The career is split between cops and racers, and you’re able to flit between the two at any point. Cops have access to a wider range of pursuit tech — little Mario Kart-like gadgets grounded in Need for Speed’s world that offer the ability to send out spike strips, blast out shockwaves or summon helicopters. Patrolling Redview County, there’s a seamless list of activities that can earn you speed points, Rivals’ own in-game currency. See a racer speed past and you’re free to engage and take them down, or simply carry on your way to whichever time-trial or pursuit you had your heart set on.

As a racer, there’s more depth and nuance to the career — the asymmetry of Rivals’ two factions isn’t always in balance. Racers have access to a more limited range of pursuit tech, but are free to customise their cars, improving their performance, toughening the chassis or, more importantly, painting the rims just the right shade of red.

Once deposited in the world, there’s a deeper sense of engagement as a racer, too. The more active you are in a session, the higher your heat level — an analogue, of sorts, of Grand Theft Auto’s wanted system. With more heat comes more points, and the ability to keep a score multiplier rattling on before banking it in at one of a number of hideouts across the map. It also means more attention, with more bounty for other cops on patrol for shutting down a high-level rival — if they’re successful, any points accrued are then lost completely.

The balance of risk and reward lends extra urgency to grinding, and it can create some wonderfully dynamic moments. When you’re sitting with 150,000 points in the bank and a heat level that’s risen to seven, the angry mob of police-liveried Paganis backed up by a searchlight-waving helicopter is that little bit more menacing, and your acrobatic off-bridge exit that sent supercars spilling into the harbour feels that much more heroic.

It’s all the better when you realise that one of that chasing pack was being controlled by another player. Rivals’ big play for innovation is AllDrive, and while its debut isn’t quite as thrilling or faultless as the asynchronous online multiplayer that Hot Pursuit introduced, it’s a decent enough asset nevertheless. Instead of sectioning off multiplayer, Rivals melds it into the campaign, letting players share the world as they go off in pursuit of their own goals.

Jumps aren’t as commonplace as in Most Wanted — and sadly there are no billboards to smash through. Once you know your way around the map it’s easy enough to get air, though.

When it comes together, it’s fantastic — you can see a gaggle of player-controlled cops working together to bring a high level racer down, or a random encounter can send you on a county-wide chase as balletic and chaotic as only multiplayer can be. Compromises have been made to serve the feature, though, and some are more jarring than others.

The world can’t be paused, which is understandable, but a more painful loss is the punchy vehicle combat of Criterion’s games of old. One hit knock-outs are no longer particularly feasible, leading instead to slow wars of attrition that see players steadily knocking away at extended health bars. AllDrive also isn’t quite the realisation of Eden Studios’ dream that Test Drive Unlimited went some way to attaining, either — the moments where the world feels alive with multiplayer possibility are balanced out by those where other player-controlled vehicles seem a million miles away, and the balance between the size of the map and the number of players within it doesn’t quite seem to have been met.

Ghost Games will likely get there, though, and what they’ve conjured up in their debut effort is a remarkable achievement. Before downsizing, Criterion created some of the last generation’s very best arcade racers in Hot Pursuit and Burnout Paradise. Ghost Games has carried on that torch and crafted a racer that any of its competitors would do well to match in the new generation.

9
/ 10

Review: Need for Speed: Rivals – Destructoid

Like any good racer, the Need for Speed franchise never stops moving. They’ve come a long way since the early ’90s, though the last few years’ releases have been more about refinement of the formula than anything else, moving more towards an open world structure.

The latest in the franchise, Need for Speed: Rivals, takes a big step by going all-in on one mode that combines a single-player campaign with online multiplayer. The rest — including the cops, the cars, and the crashing — stay the same. In a sense, they’ve made it so players can jump in and go fast without having to worry about the details.

And it’s all the better for it.

Need for Speed: Rivals (PS4 [reviewed], PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC)
Developer: Ghost Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release: November 15, 2013 for PS4, November 19 for Xbox 360,  PS3

Need for Speed: Rivals is an open-world racing sandbox that you’re free to do whatever you’d like in. Sure, there’s a single-player progression and a light story to follow, but that stuff really doesn’t matter in the long run. It’s all about going fast and doing what you want as either a racer or a cop, speeding around in a big, crazy racing world.

When you boil this game’s structure down, it’s a series of checklists to complete. While that might not sound exciting, it works pretty well as a way to keep players engaged. Since Rivals lets you play as either a cop or a racer, there are branching paths to follow to work your way up through the progression. Along the way you’re free to take on any of the branches, called Speed Lists, picking the objectives you’d prefer to tackle, or the ones that suit your racing style best. Completing items from these Speed Lists will earn you Speed Points, which can be used to buy and upgrade your cars, while completing the Speed Lists themselves will unlock more cars.

Rivals goes light on the customization. Beyond the basic paint job and trim customization, progressions that add to a car’s speed, acceleration, control, and durability are also available. The only true customization comes from Rivals‘ Pursuit Tech, which lets you add offensive abilities to your cars. Shockwaves, EMP blasts, jammers and more can be equipped in the two available slots of each car. Each of the Pursuit Tech types also has an upgrade progression. 

For the racer side of the game, the Speed Lists focus on either racing, driving, or messing with the cops. For the most part, by picking carefully, I found that I could avoid the challenges I didn’t care for — like the interceptor cop chases — sticking to the fun ones that had me jumping off ramps for distance, or bashing other cars off the road. There are points where the progression forces one objective on all of the paths, though these cases are rare. For the most part, the constantly evolving stream of challenges keeps things fresh, though I found that after I had tried most of the challenge types, it started to feel more like a grind.

It works the same way on the cop side, giving the choice to patrol or enforce with challenge types that are more in line with what a cop with a super-fast sports car might do to uphold traffic laws. While taking down racers with sirens screaming is always fun, some of the challenges, like the “go-fast-but-don’t-mess-up” Rapid Response mission are somewhat boring in comparison. 

Need for Speed: Rivals‘ AllDrive mode has you playing your races alongside the rest of the world, effectively mixing single-player and multiplayer experiences together. Every time the game is loaded, you’re logged into EA’s servers. Other players will show up in your game, and you’re free to challenge them in races. Through Autolog, friends’ race times and other records are also tracked and compared as you race, adding another competitive layer.

Between the story progression, the speed lists, and AllDrive, you’re never at a loss for what to do next. You can keep your head down and keep to yourself if you’d like, but I found that openly engaging other racers makes for a much better time. As nicely done as Rivals‘ open world is, it wouldn’t be nearly as exciting without real racers zipping around you as you try to run from the cops. For the most part, it gets rid of its predecessors’ scripted races and messy multiplayer, giving you action that feels more real. AllDrive is the real deal, and it makes for some pretty lively gameplay.

As great as the open world and its always-online connectivity are, there are a few speed bumps in Rivals‘ game balance. While the cop campaign is mostly problem free, racers’ patience will be tried with some supremely frustrating design choices. While both cops and racers earn Speed Points for completing challenges, racers are always at risk of losing their earnings at any time. Cop busts or full wrecks will drain all of a racer’s earnings; the only way to ensure keeping these points is to race to a hideout to ‘bank’ earnings before being busted.

There are multiple issues here. First off, the more Speed Points a racer earns, the higher their point multiplier goes, letting them increase earnings exponentially if they’re daring enough. But, with this multiplier increase comes a heat level increase, which means that the cops are more likely to attack. And, with faster cars, the heat level starts out higher.

By the middle of the racer campaign, you’re certain to have cops on you at all times, and there is no break or breathing room. Even if you’re flying at over 200 miles per hour with nitrous flaming out the back of your car, the cops are on you, coming from all directions, plowing at you at any given opportunity. Chances are you will be busted, and you will lose all of your Speed Points. Since Speed Points earnings are tied directly to the acquisition of new cars and their upgrades, you’re essentially losing your progress with each bust. 

There were sessions of play where I was being busted six times an hour, which means that aside from Speed List challenge checkmarks, I was literally spinning my wheels, going nowhere. In the later levels cops are so aggressive that the game’s open-world sense of freedom is completely drained. Cars can be pulled over for not moving at all, first off — that’s ridiculous.

I had points where I had pulled my car near hideout after barely breaking free from multiple attacks, mashing L1 to make sure I’d be able to bank my Speed Points, only to find the cops flying at me from every angle, coming out of nowhere to bust me before the game even registered my button presses. I streamed a couple of these sessions via PS4 last week, and my viewers got a kick out of me losing my mind over Speed Point losses. I didn’t think it was funny at all.

There are a couple of other design holdouts from Most Wanted that they still need to fix. When you need to set a waypoint most — during a pursuit where you’re in danger of losing all of your Speed Points — Rivals’ conveniences no longer feel convenient. You can use either the EasyDrive mini menu by tapping the d-pad, or the overworld map, by pushing the Option button. Either has you taking your eyes off the road when you should be going full speed. With no way to stop and look, you’re going to either crash or get busted. There’s nothing even close to a pause button.

The mini-map is pathetically small, poorly placed, and barely usable. Just like with Most Wanted, it’s too far away from the action in the bottom left corner to look at, which means you’ll have to take your eyes off the road to know where to go. Doing so at 200 miles per hour never ends well — and with that kind of speed you’re actually out-driving the map! The colored path lines are slow to appear anyway, but at that speed they appear far too late. Worst of all, the range the map displays is too restricted, leaving you unsure of what’s ahead until its too late. Ghost Games have added street-level graphical indicators to help guide you in the right direction, but they’re hard to see, and they still don’t give enough of a clear view of where you need to be going.

That all said, I want to thank Ghost Games for dialing back the crash animations. In Most Wanted, they lasted so long that it felt like the game was making fun of you for losing, and were sometimes so disorienting that I had to look away. In Rivals, they’re big and flashy, but not drawn out. 

Need for Speed: Rivals looks great on the PS4, though there’s nothing inherently next-gen about it. It looks like a souped up current-gen title with added areas of polish. All of the cars are shiny and highly detailed, and the day-night cycles and weather changes are impressive. Ghost Games’ California-inspired world, Redvies, is particularly lovely in its desert areas. Again, no complaints, but I can’t wait to see what a ground-up built, next-gen Need for Speed will look like.  

My only gripes on Rivals‘ presentation are the story elements and their narration. The tutorial narrator sounds bored or annoyed, which does little to get you excited about the race. The story itself is nonsensical, and the cutscenes are so silly that you’ll likely end up skipping them. But the voice bits assigned to each level’s Speed List are so bad that you might get some enjoyment out of them in that unintentionally funny kind of way. It sounds like some dope with a nose cold trying to mock designer cologne commercial one-liners. “Fate is out there. Somewhere,” one says.

Rivals crashed on me a few times, with one crash so bad that the PS4 asked me to send a crash report. Twice, when trying to use the PS4’s Share button to upload clips, the game crashed and closed out on its own, losing my progress. Another time, in checking the map during a race, I was kicked out of the game. A few graphical glitches also popped up in the distance, though they were nothing major.

Even with the balance issues and design missteps, Need for Speed: Rivals is a blast. Literally. Plowing into cops to watch them explode off the side of the road as you zip by is never not fun. So is blasting them with EMP to watch them flip in the air. And through AllDrive’s connectivity, I loved being able to race up alongside someone and mash L1 to instantly challenge them to a head-to-head showdown. Ramping jumps, drift contests, dodging speed traps — it’s all a blast. There’s simply too much fun to be had here to get hung up on the gripes.

Just be sure to take breaks when playing the racer campaign, as the grind, and the suicidal cops can wear on you.

Mass Autopsychosis #9 Need For Speed: Most Wanted Preview

  • Genre : Arcade Racing.
  • Official website of the game
  • Developer :
    Electronic Arts Canada
    .
  • Publisher :
    Electronic Arts
    .
  • Publisher in Russia : undefined.
  • Stated System Requirements :
    • Pentium IV 1.5 GHz;

      • nine0003 256 MB RAM;

    • 2.5 GB free disk space;
    • 128 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card
  • Release date : November 2005.

Oh yes! Apparently, it’s too early for us to complain that the current generation of Next has «nothing sacred» and does not value anything in this life. No matter how sarcastic our grandmothers are, sitting in the «day watch» on the benches at the entrances, but our school youth with you have their own, if not idols, but icons. Indeed: iPod, Pepsi, Counter Strike and Need For Speed ​​- that is, perhaps, all that is needed for the rapid flowering of the growing organism! The last point, by the way, can generally be elevated to the rank of eternal values, especially considering the fact that the first game series of the famous arcade racing saga Need For Speed ​​ were born in those distant times, when today’s inveterate «enefesniks» still couldn’t speak properly! The entire history of computer entertainment in the last five or six years inexorably testifies to one thing: in today’s human language, «eNeFeS — rules!».

To be honest, I can’t even imagine who exactly in Electronic Arts goes to the head of the marketing department, but the fact that this superman is not in vain in the office is an undeniable fact. Even the most seasoned and hardcore of hardcore simulators who fall asleep in their arms around the steering wheel cannot help but recognize the obvious fact — the Need for Speed ​​​​game series does not just «exist», it thrives! Moreover, it has been flourishing for as many as ten (!) years in a row, regularly releasing a new brood of its car entertainment every year on computer shelves (only once during this time there was a small problem). Obviously, for Electronic Arts itself, after the fifth series of Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed who bought up the developer and all the rights to his landmark series, this franchise is the second most important after The Sims . Accordingly, they will pump out all the juice from such a seemingly simple and banal idea of ​​\u200b\u200b»electronics» right up to Armageddon itself.

That’s it, but Electronic Arts knows how to sell their sometimes dubious products, so it’s not surprising that none of the eight previous Need For Speed ​​series was a failure in terms of financial revenue. Even the strangest and most non-obvious game (sixth in a row) Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 — and she brought fabulous profits to the American mega-publisher. What can we say about the tandem of the last two «undergrounds» that put half the planet on their ears and forced even my neighbor, locksmith Kolya, to slap on his battered «nine» exhaust pipe! But what is most paradoxical is that the more arcade, frivolity and outright fun brings to each new series of Electronic Arts, the more commercial (and not only) success the game achieves. Apparently, the decrease in the degree of reality, and with it the complexity of the game (which used to be completely symbolic) attracts much more new potential players — fans of the series. It is no secret that in recent years the number of girls and women playing computer games has noticeably increased (according to some estimates, their share in the total number of gamers on the planet is already 65%), as well as middle-aged and older people. nine0045

Therefore, such a marketing ploy on the part of the «electronics» seems justified and logical, despite the entire «progressive game community», which is not shy in expressions, each time reproaching the Need For Speed ​​series for being too arcade. Apparently, this fate cannot be avoided for our today’s patient — the ninth (!) in a row of Need for Speed: Most Wanted .

Traditionally, let’s be inspired by the expectation of another street racing miracle, literally feeling all the charm of press releases from Electronic Arts. We are promised more or less realistic races through the streets of a giant metropolis, divided into four game zones, a la Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , in which we will participate in all kinds of street race competitions (no off-road action is again provided), as well as upgrade, polish and decorate our expensive cars. And this time, the “electronics” not only tied all this mess with tuning the car to the game much more logically than in the last “underground” (more on that below), but also introduced police into their street races, which were not in the series already over three years! Naturally, all this is filled with sweet «caramel» graphics with shiny cars and cheerful puddles on the pavement, a trendy blur effect and other frills. Here they are, «arcade racing».

recommendations

To begin with, all those who are uncontrollably thirsty for the next episode of this soap opera should calm down and remember the summary of the previous episodes five or six years ago. I’ll tell beginners that Need For Speed: Most Wanted is an ideological continuation of the games Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 1 and 2 with all the ensuing consequences. Consequence one: no night races, from now on only «good morning» or, in the worst case, «good evening». Consequence two: no races and competitions with the same desperate street racers as you, now your opponents are the police. Consequence three: no unnecessary fun competitions in drifting and showing off with new stickers, wheels and other xenon headlights, from now on all gadgets are in the service of functionality and speed! nine0045

Although, to be honest, the latest prophecy from EA Canada is somehow very hard to believe. To just take and say goodbye to all the sponsor’s nameplates (and a lot of money) for the sake of some kind of «gameplay»?! What are you! This is Electric Arts, and that says it all. However, the developers speak strictly in the affirmative about the successful introduction of the police into the game, following the order from the company’s head office (we have already heard how it works there). Moreover, these very police officers in the future arcade mash-up will in every possible way demonstrate their pumped (plus 10 to logic) intelligence and generally behave like living American, pardon the expression, cops. I would like to see them with beer bellies, chewing another donut on duty, but the politically correct «electronics» will never allow such a mockery of the forces of their American law and order, especially since the whole game will be built on the confrontation with the police. nine0045

And this, according to the creators of the game, will be a real «confrontation», with ambushes and small dirty tricks from the side of law enforcement officers in the form of studded tracks and other «hedgehogs» on the roads. But helicopters, like other paramilitary methods of dealing with violators of the speed limit, will not be used this time. But, if you believe all the promises of the Canadians, our opponents will have a very strong intelligence that will allow the police to rush after you in groups of as many as (attention) fifteen cars! In addition, for once, the fleet of our pursuers will be thoroughly replenished both at the expense of quite standard American cars, and by transferring cops to exclusive handicrafts of the global automotive industry. Among others, on artistic and staged screenshots, you can see Jeep Grand Cherokee , Dodge Viper and already seen in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, the magnificent supercar Lamborghini Murcielago in strict black and white police colors. Well, according to the biggest secret, exclusively for you and me, Electronic Arts is cherishing the idea of ​​transferring some of the cops to superbikes with an engine power of about five hundred horses! Just don’t say a word to anyone!

It sounds, of course, overly encouraging, but Canadians warn all potential players on the planet that in their future offspring, local cops will not act as whipping boys, but will chase (and catch up) with might and main with you, skillfully using the tactics of real police officers. To bring into the game elements (not all, of course) of real detentions of criminals, American instructors for chasing violators are methodically invited to the game studio EA Canada, who reveal the military secrets of the American police. By the way, it is not at all necessary that in every illegal race through the streets of the city you will immediately run into the cruising police. The fact is that some types of street racing will allow the player to choose detours himself, so as not to catch the cops once again in the eyes. But if you nevertheless rush past at the second space speed or, God forbid, inadvertently hit a police car in an ambush, then you will have to get away from them as fast as you can (i.e. wheels, of course). nine0045

It remains to hope for the stability of the future game AI to stress, because mediocrely organized chases can cross out all the undertakings of developers, which even His Majesty tuning will not be able to save. At the very least, they promise to furnish all this spectacularly and entertainingly in a Hollywood way — with flashes, explosions, flights over bridges and curbs, a cut of the trajectory along golf courses and all sorts of underground passages and subway lines. Do not be afraid, nothing will happen to your car, there will be no damage again! Finally, apparently, you will also have to go into the shoes of a policeman in order to compare the feelings of «Cossacks» and «robbers» (especially for those who are in the tank — it was such a child’s game). nine0045

Now let’s take a look at the surroundings of our future voyages. According to the great idea of ​​its creators, the next Need For Speed: Most Wanted series will in many ways resemble the famous (and in some places even brilliant) Grand Theft Auto series. Judge for yourself: if in the second «underground» there was a poor, but at least a little bit of a living city without a single traffic light and pedestrians, then in Most Wanted Canadians are going to divide the game world into four very different parts of the metropolis. Not only will they differ from each other in architectural ensemble, but also the set of cars in the traffic of each district will be different, which, as naive Canadians believe, should save the regime of traveling around such a city from inevitable boredom. Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know, but in the same “underground” number two, after half an hour of playing, I personally began to frankly annoy all these endless trips around the cardboard city with mannequin drivers. In this case, plagiarism on the part of EA Canada is a very good thing, because it is better to disguise the peeped «living» city from Rockstar Games well than to reinvent the wheel once again, besides one and a half wheels. nine0045

There are rumors that now in the camp of the developer there is a persistent brainstorming on the topic: «Include pedestrians in the game or not?», but so far there is no exact information from the brain battlefields of Canadians. On the one hand, the game has been in development for more than two years (development went on in parallel with Need For Speed: Underground 2), which means that the concept of the game should be polished to the smallest detail and it is quite possible to somehow revive the too dull world inherent in the entire series. On the other hand, there is very little left before the release, and the introduction of something at this stage will force either to postpone the release date of the game, which Electronic Arts is afraid of, like death itself, or to create in a hurry such pedestrians that it will be impossible to look at without tears. In addition, it is planned to introduce a system for distributing tasks, prizes and other good things not just like that, but through non-player characters! Yes, yes, now the «need for speed» will have its own NPCs! It remains only to come up with a network of branching dialogues, add swords to everyone — and the world’s first auto-RPG is ready! To be honest, the NPC in the arcade race is not even an «out-of-genre element», it’s generally a herring with milk mixed with a pickle. nine0045

In fairness, it should be said that the entire Need For Speed ​​series («underground» does not count) has always been distinguished by the widest representation on the monitor screen of those cars that not every car dealership will be worthy of. And to rush through all this splendor, the cost of which is close to the price of an aircraft and which exists in only a couple of copies, is a real sweet and «clean» car feast! Moreover, there will be about a hundred cars at the disposal of the player, AI and cops alone! Among them, with great joy, we can find not only completely tired Japanese-Korean plastic cars, but also respectable Germans ( BMW , Volkswagen , Porsche , Audi ), Choply British ( Aston Martin ), as well as a whole cohort of Pigzoni French ( PEUGEOT ), sickered Italians ( LamBorRARRARA, , , 9000 Mazeratti ) and well-fed Americans ( Dodge , Chevrolet , Ford ).

The last two series of «enefaski» showed the world the pleasure of digging into the hood of your favorite car and painting, pasting, screwing all kinds of necessary (and often not really) good. Naturally, it is not in the rules of Electronic Arts to deprive itself of newly acquired fans, so car tuning in all its manifestations will not only remain, but will even be expanded in Need For Speed: Most Wanted. As we are sworn in by EA Canada, each individual car is preparing its own set of parts and tuning parts, which is very tempting. This innovation will help get rid of a rather stupid situation that constantly happened in the same second «underground», when a dozen cars with exactly the same body kit as you drove towards you. Although this is not so critical, but the impression of the game is smeared quite strongly. The most interesting thing is that it is in Most Wanted that deep and comprehensive car tuning promises to become not just a game lotion, but one of the most important elements, and its existence in this series is even more necessary than in both «undergrounds» combined! Here’s the thing: the «garage mode», as conceived by the developers, will perform the same functions as the Pay’n’Spray workshops in the Grand Theft Auto series. nine0045

Simply put, if you manage to annoy the servants of the flashing lights too cool, then they will organize a sickly chase after you, and sometimes the only way out is to drive into such a workshop and unrecognizably (for your hard-earned green banknotes, of course) change the look of your car. Therefore, if everything goes right with the developers, we will be able to get a very interesting game mode in which all the efforts of the player to give their car a unique appearance will not be in vain, but will bring real benefits to the gameplay. True, how the algorithm for the process of identifying your car by the police works is not yet known. Generally speaking, for «electronics» the very introduction of a new game principle into their brainchild will be a great achievement, which should significantly diversify the gameplay in general, which was so lacking in the last games of the series, starting with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.

Finally, let’s talk about what will still distinguish Need For Speed: Most Wanted both from the series as a whole and from the crowd of intensely imitating projects, of which a dozen have popped up in just these six months ( Street Racing Sindycate , Juiced , RPM Tuning etc. etc.). The number of game modes announced by the developers is incredible for games of this genre (there are eight in total!) In addition to the classic races with computer opponents in a straight line (drag-racing), along a curve (sprint) and along a «very slippery curve» (drift-racing), the game will have both quite expected and rather amusing modes. Of the most interesting, it is worth noting the following. nine0004 Toll Booth Races is a simple endurance race through checkpoints. Speed ​​Trap Photos is an interesting show mode in which the player will have to take pictures of his decorated car from the most juicy and incredible angles; therefore, the more extravagant you get, the more points and money you earn. Outrun — there will be no off-road, don’t even hope, it’s just driving on unmarked and unclosed roads, in fact, a real «street» racing. In this mode, the skills of orienteering and reading geodetic plans of the territory are very useful. nine0004 Circuit — the classic and most technically complex circuit races a la the FIA GT series. Knockout — Similar to the «underground» knockout racing mode. There are rumors that the latter can be organized according to the rally system, when the player stops or continues the competition not according to the results of the lap completed on one track, but according to the results of the entire race.

Let’s finish the savoring of the ninth series of Need For Speed ​​with a lick of local graphics. It is interesting to note that Most Wanted will be the fourth (!) Game developed on the same engine, starting with the Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 series. Either the potential of the then development was so huge, or «electronics» severely save on us for the sake of the mass character of the platforms and the convenience of implementing the game on them, but the changes in the overall graphics (I must say, quite good) core are only cosmetic. To be honest, all these attempts at cinematography of the future project (see screenshots), all these flirting with shadows and other sun glare take the game into an arcade much more than the absence of damage and the symbolic physics of the car’s behavior. Well, cars don’t sparkle like that! I do not believe! And as for the annoying blur or the glow effect, I’d better keep silent, because in the same Colin McRae Rally 2005 everything happening on the screen was much more believable.

But I’m one hundred percent sure about the sound that all the cars of the latest series of endless «enefaski» make! In the same second «underground» sound for game models was recorded from real cars, which is why the gears clicked so vividly and powerfully, tires and brakes creaked and doors scratched on bumpers. Considering that most of the cars we have already seen will migrate from the early series to Most Wanted, there will be no reason for the “electronics” to change anything — except for the better (at least I want to believe so). But it is worth saying a few words about the hardware required by the game. First, take a look at the screenshots and see the huge amount of polygons spent on cars. And now for a moment imagine what our hardware should be like in order to pull 15 cars of police pursuit at once, plus the player’s car, plus all the traffic passing by ?! Of course, if you wish, you can collect such a cool «pisyuk» even now, and many would have done just that for the sake of this game. nine0045

Secondly, in addition to the computer (PC — forever!) Need For Speed: Most Wanted comes out on six different gaming platforms at once. For those who are interested, these are Xbox, PS2, GameCube, Xbox 360, PSP, Game Boy Advanced and Game Boy DS. So, in one fell swoop, the great and terrible Electronic Arts in a marketing impulse wants to cover all gamers on the planet so that no one can escape. It remains only to release a desktop version with dice and collectible cards — and then we will all be happy! Therefore, look at the system requirements in the header of the article and draw conclusions. I can’t accuse anyone other than consoles and idlers from EA Canada of such a “levelling”. nine0045

As paradoxical as it sounds, it seems that in November of this anniversary year for the entire series, we are waiting for an unusual (on the scale of Electronic Arts, of course) project under the Need For Speed ​​brand. Not only is the series going to return to its roots, but the developers, among other things, are trying to bring back seemingly obsolete elements (the same memorable police officers, for example). Although, why hide, some details are of interest:

  • Long chases of «you after us» and «us after you», designed and voiced in Hollywood style. nine0006
  • Everyone’s favorite tuning and coloring of the car, already in a new quality present in the game.
  • About a hundred (!) of the most expensive and beautiful supercars from around the world.
  • Excellent graphics and stunning sound at acceptable «iron» capacities.

…and tons of fresh rap (I’ll have to get used to it too) as a soundtrack!

Finist

The game is discussed in this thread of our conference.