PREVIEW – The Need for Speed franchise has been declining in terms of quality for the past few years. However this year on the 3rd of November. After many iterations it seems we are going back to the roots of the initial reboot. Since Carbon most people have been clamoring for the tuning system, the lack of super high quality cars, or when will the underground feeling will return to a NFS game. Well that time to return to basics is now!

A video game title that sparks debates between people and on the internet. Those that are interested in the world of cars probably already played Need for Speed. Electronic Arts started the legendary series back in 1994 and since then has released twenty one games. In fact from 2002 the series had a new game every year. Except in 2014, but that was probably due to the NFS movie being released starring Aaron Paul, and that movie was in the category of view it once a year.

One step forward, two steps back

The 21 games can be divided to four eras, however unfortunately not all of these games can be considered as a step forward for the series as a whole. The 94-2000 era was also available on the PlayStation 1, and it was mostly arcade style car racing games until Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed. The next era started in 2002 with Hot Pursuit 2 and ended with NFS Undercover in 2008, Then from 2009 a really short era happened that started with NFS Shift, and ended with NFS The Run.

Which brings us to the current, modern generation era which currently only has two games, Most Wanted, and Rivals. However EA has been releasing very divisive entries after Carbon, and a lot of people do not like the NFS series as they used to back in the day.

The Golden Age

Those who follow the series more closely, will get to choose which era is the best for them. I talked to a lot of people about the NFS series, and many of them have said the best entries were from Underground 2 to Carbon.

What did we get in these games were: sandbox cities, great cars, the opportunity to upgrade/tune the cars, and great controls.These were the features that we loved, and rose the series into a legendary status, yet these were fiddled by EA in future games.

A decline and fall

Unfortunately these were the features they started messing around, which led to Prostreet and Shift episodes, and no more open cities. Then a Hot Pursuit reboot, and the Run, which wrecked the controls, and no more tuning for the cars. Also the physics for the vehicles was also turned down.

This was probably the reason why there was no new NFS in 2014, and as the head of Ghost Games (Marcus Nilsson) commented: “We are in development of a new NFS, and believe me, we listened, and will listen to you. This game will be a sequel that you deserve, but for that we will need more time.

One miracle?

Let’s hope that this NFS will be good. The details about the new NFS are quite interesting and provides a leap back to the Golden Age of the series. The Subaru BRZ’s sound is unbelievable, and that is how it should sound in real life. The location is a fictional Californian city, Ventura Bay. According to unconfirmed sources the playable location will be twice of the size of Rivals.

Garage

The selection is pretty thin at the moment, but will probably be expanded upon. All in all it seems that EA and Ghost Games that they are leaving the world of premium tier cars. Those type of cars will be left for DriveCLub or to Project Cars where they belong.

Here we get to use street cars, we’ll be able to customize them to our liking, from the engines, to the look of the car almost everything. We’ll be able to create our dream street racing car to race in the nights of Ventura Bay.

Last Chance ?

The reboot will be an important game for the franchise, and Ghost is not leaving it to chance. They have asked help from the fans, to pinpoint what they would like to see in a new NFS. They requested ideas, and types of game modes that could be in the sequel.

The consultation was completed, and it seems that the new NFS is being made based on those comments, and tips. We’ll hope they don’t just want to sell this game on the NFS brand alone, we shall see on the 3^rd of November if this new NFS will give the needed momentum to the franchise.

– Dazo911 –