Apparently they do -not- have a Need for Speed
I was in Hot Pursuit to post this first, but you beat me to it.
I wouldn’t know how to fix the series so that it’d sell. Same as burnout. The arcade open world racing game with a sterile storyline is dominated by Forza Horizon. Cop chases don’t seem to spark excitement like before the PS3 era. The last couple of NFS games, I played abit and even though they’re about street racing, didn’t feel very grungy, youthful angst and peacocking, like I’d expect street racing to be
Street racing doesn’t seem to spark excitement like the pre-PS3 era. I’m thinking every game after NFS Carbon hasn’t been able to capture any sense of mystique of street racing and that just may be that street racing isn’t culturally significant anymore. Fast and the Furious isn’t about street racing anymore
With Forza Motorsport seemingly on the way out, there’s room for a multiplatform Gran Turismo competitor. Something that’s gamepad centric rather than wheel. Seems just as hard to resonate with gamers as these other racing games though
The only way to possibly save the series is for EA to sell it off to another company but I highly doubt that they would do that. They will just let it sit till the next console releases and make a half assed game full of micro transactions and then blame the fans when it doesn’t sell good.
I am biased, but an Underground 3 (with no MTX) with a well written storyline but with lots additional open world gameplay would be a return to form for NFS.
Unbound was basically Underground 3. Story wasn’t exceptional or anything, though.
I tried to play through Unbound and I couldn’t deal with the writing. It was “hello fellow kids” to me which I feel has been a worsening problem with video game writing since Borderlands 2. Even worse with it feels to me like video game writing really tried to moralize moral grey’s or bad behavior or make characters not just people that want to go fast, make money, feel cool, getting in trouble with the law for going an incredibly dangerous for anyone in your vicinity speed disobeying traffic signals, probably associated with organized crime and just trying to survive but in over their head because their only skills really are just cars, …, they’re actually people just trying to express themselves and find community of deep down kind and good people
Also I felt like I was playing rich/sheltered kids ideas of street racing and people that live in the night. Way too idealistic. Should be way more cutthroat, emotional burnouts just trying to go fast as their happy/thrill place. The sheltered/rich kids fantasy comes to mind when games try to make living among graffiti and gangs as like living among street art and community health organizations. It’s the digital nomad view of local (underground) cultures and the digital nomad view of the old guy in the club as a really cool dude rather than probably a bit of a creep and probably very immature and irresponsible
Le fast and le furious
The last good NFS was Hot Pursuit and that was 15 years ago.
I hate to advocate for live service but…
An open world MMO racing game with a map that has roadworks that change the layout, on a weekly basis. Cops that do crackdowns on certain makes of cars, Carjackers trying to steal your ride, an ever evolving racing scene, weather events… give me a career mode where pushing my luck and teasing the cops too much costs me real progress. New songs in the radio every month, new events, new storylines and new arcs.
E.A could absolutely put it together and it could be great. But they would microtransaction the hell out of it, P2W, monetise the arse out of it and make it terrible. Because EA
You mean like NFS World? I was a closed beta tester. While it was a P2W system (buy powerups, etc) it wasn’t ruined by it, and if you could beat a nfs game you can do just fine in World.
I only played for the first year or so - and haven’t played the 3rd party rebirths - but World had potential. And EA killed it, like the dumbasses they are.
E: word
Yes and give me realistic physics and don’t shove pointless and impossible “drifts” into everything!
I like the arcade physics, but at least keep it challenging and consistent.
Don’t worry, we are in the age of the Remastered. The coming 30 years are covered.
I wish they could remaster/remake The Run. Such a unique game and you can’t even play it legally anymore.
That’s fine; I lost interest in the series after Underground. NFS was ruined for me anyway when I learned what Rubberband AI was. (Which was also around the same time I started driving real cars, and thus began realizing just how terrible the physics are in all but the most hardcore sim racers.)
Have they finally had the revelation that the series has been shovelware for the past decade or more?
NFS 2000 Porsche Unleashed was peak NFS, its been downhill ever since.
Aw that’s a shame. My kid loves NFS Heat. It’s his most favorite game.
I played it recently (after not having played any NFS in like 15 years since I’ve come to hate AAA slop), and I thought it was really fun! The driving dynamics especially, and I was surprised to see so many different cars and so much customisation possible.
Not perfect of course, the music is utter garbage (to my ears) and it could have been more polished, but I definitely didn’t expect I’d play for 30 hours. They were on the right track.
Of course they do
I genuinely think we need a “Stop Killing Games” like movement to resurrect old games, but with a more public-domain approach.
As in remaking games like NFS, Command & Conquer, Freedom Fighter or Earth-2150 but make the assets public domain so that others can pick up & add things to the setting
Oh, finally? It only took them a hundred years.
