Need for Speed Racing Games

cem_ea_id.UberSil wrote:

nfs_web.Bezdusznik wrote:The last NFS i really liked was Porsche. I remember buying NFS2:SE only becose it had few new cars and better graphics ^^

Btw, anyone know what happen to EA Canada ? Why they stopped making NFS and let Black Box continue the series ?

EA Canada became EA Global. They're the umbrella company. At the time of Blackbox's dissolving there were three separate programming houses in British Columbia where EA Canada originally hailed from.

Thanks for info

I remember the first time I ever saw an NFS game when I was a little kid like it was yesterday. NFS II SE on PC at my cousins place. I saw the intro movie, then recognized the Cala in the car selection screen - and thought that it must be a good pick for the split-screen race I was about to enter. Needless to say I got thrashed, and then paid attention to what Class the cars were in

I later bought that game for myself on PC - and have every NFS title that followed on PC as well (except Motor City - didn't notice it in Australia). I wish there were some way to get NFS 2 working on my Vista Ultimate x64 PC now. I once managed to get it working on my older PC on XP x86 with 2GB RAM following a long list of instructions and patches over many websites. I'd even found a TCP/IP path for LAN play (IPX was rubbish). It was also the first game I played online - using our dodgey 28k dial-up plan (could never finish a knockout comp due to it dropping out). I also had NFS 3, 4, and Porsche on PSX for the varying features. At least NFS 2 and 3 had 'Remote' installation mode - so you could buy a game once - and play it on a LAN without breaking any EULA's (at least until CD Burners came along).

Biggest thing I missed was split-screen in the newer games. I knew NFS HP2 had more features - but the graphics were terrible in comparison to PC. I did play it once on XBOX with a friend and we had a good time setting up roadblocks, etc. I eventually modded my PC version of the game (thanks to those great .ini files) so that in Be The Cop mode - I had to stop the suspects NFS3 style - none of that crashing into them nonsense.

Every game after that was exciting to begin with - a new map to learn, a new storyline, better graphics. But once you complete the game you never really return, nor are you left with the impression that "that was a great game". NFS MW came close, and I carry a portable version of it on my USB for those times you get stuck on a train that doesn't want to go anywhere, but you'd always prefer to play the old ones.


What I would like to see released is Need for Speed Ultimate. It has the cars and tracks from EVERY game - remastered for new PCs/Consoles. You can race a car from NFS 12 on an NFS 3 track, etc, and vice-versa. All the game modes are back. Weather effects are back. Add LAN and online again - I know I can play NFS 2 with my eyes closed (almost), but I've never really had the chance to go against other players. So many people say the old games are the best, then give them what they want and see what happens. NFS World online is a step in the right direction - but it's using games that most people didn't enjoy quite as much. At least it's free. I'm probably looking forward to that game more than Shift (since I already own GRID and GTR Evo/Race 07).

Will be interesting to see what happens when the games come out later this year - and to see what's in-store next year.

EA Torque, thank you for this thread. I'm very happy now that other people can see the good old days of NFS, and see it at its best. I really believe you should re-create high stakes, and make HS2. Think about it, we had:
TNFS, NFS2
Hot Pursuit, Hot pursuit 2
Underground, Underground 2
Most Wanted, Undercover (Most Wanted 2, if you open an .ini file inside the undercover folder, you'll see)
-so why not: High Stakes, High Stakes 2???! Its only logical!!! Also High Stakes is one of the best nfs games, if not the best one ever! My favorite is the first one though, The Need For Speed. I played it ever since i was 2 years old.
so please at least think of making high stakes 2 after SHIFT. Try to ask EA, please

nice game

I didn't start my NFS experience until Most Wanted. I played it for a year before I got the steering wheel. I do recall the adrenaline rush I got from it to the point that I didn't dare drive my own car for a least a half hour after playing the game. I also have Carbon and am now playing Undercover, a very difficult game, but FUN! Are any of the older titles still available? Some of them sound interesting. If any of you can find GTR2 or GT Lengends, you can get an idea how Shift will be as they were designed by the same people.

Menu music in nfs2SE, nfsHP and nfsHS is one of best music I heard, especially music tracks by Rom Di Prisco. (imo) Such music really suits to hot cars and supercars.
Need for Speed 2 SE- Main Menu
Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit OST - Romulus 3
Need For Speed 4 High Stakes: Quantum Singularity
Need For Speed 4 High Stakes: Paradigm Shifter
Need For Speed 4: High Stakes OST - Callista (Showcase)
...

As it is seen from this old HS CD Cover, nfsHS was supposed to be closer to reality!
Now, imagine an NFS game with cops(, free roam) and physics of Shift!

GJ EA Torque. I just wish EA makes a NFS1 remake someday.

Since I wanted to reiterate on MCO, since no-one seems to know much about it.

Having played Motor City Online, I can tell you that it was by the most customizable and the most "fun" NFS to play, The original title was to be Need for speed:Motor City. The game had little bugs, and you had these massive tracks, that you could race, or just generally mess around on.

From what I've played, to this date, there has been NOTHING that can compare to MCO, not only was it so insanely customizable, but it was also an MMO, You could take a simple rusted out 40 ford and turn it into a tricked out race machine, customizing from the engine block, down to the pistons and bore.

In essence, what I'm trying to say is, when MCO died, the most customizable NFS died and has yet to be resurrected. I'm not talking about "* my ride" type of thing, speakers? body kits? That's garbage, you had hundreds, if not thousands of engine and transmission parts, not to mention paint jobs, and when you got done with a race, you could bet your car needed repairs.

Sadly, even after people offering to buy the game off of EA, buy the rights, and 15k+ signatures on petitions, EA buried MCO into the depths of their servers, if they didn't delete it altogether.

"baddas of CCA"

Nice review of the classics as I have all the NFS games installed on my PC and they are all very playable. There is nothing like the classics and being able to play each title from time to time and see how the series has changed over the years. If anyone wants to race a few laps from any of the older days, let me know. I have not been able to run a multi-player game from NFS SE, NSE SE II and it has been awhile since NFS HP.

For those looking for classics if still available, the cd kit "Need for Speed Collection" has NFS HP, HS, PU and HP2 for the PC. I image NFS SE and NFS SE II would be difficuilt to find.

I also have played MCO and miss it especially, my $1,000,000 Mach 1 car from the auctions. I put the biggest blower on that thing and it was so forcefull, that I would have to repair the engine after a few races. The blower would damage the engine and the engine would start losing HP and torque. I did not care that the front end was so heavy that I snow plowed through tight corners. The big engine power I got made for fun catching up to other racers on the long straights aways.

The MCO updates were excellent as you waited for a new release to see what new car parts were added to the database so you could rip your car apart and rebuild it with the new ones. Every once in awhile a few new cars got added and you had to buy and build those.

Something unique to MCO was the type of race were you had to race down a certain part of a street, or aquduct, turn your car around and race back to the starting line. ahhh the HEAD ON COLLISIONS!!! That was fun.

RIP MCO
Sneaky, Darklocket

P.S. Here's a teaser that I made awhile back. NFS SE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUzEk7IK0Fk

cem_ea_id.UberSil wrote:Good article as usual Torque...

But a few things to note.

A) In the Canadian version at least the RX-7 was actually an MX-6. Same car with a V6 instead of the rotary engine.
B) NFS II actually showcased the Ford GT90 and Lamborghini Cala which were never put into production.
C) Porsche Unleashed had a multi-player cops and robbers split screen option for PSX.

So are you going to put out an article covering the modern era of NFS games?

I definitely remember split screen for Porsche Unleashed for PSX Porsche 959 was my car and the desert like race track also !

just looking back, these games are the foundation to what will be coming out on sept 22! graphics that bad can turn into something as good as shift!? cant wait! i currently own all the nfs games but NFS HP 1 and this is a BIG flash back.

Well, i just read this thread and thought id sign up to post a reply. i remember playing the demo of the first game a few months before it was released, and was blown away by it, so i brought it the day it was released, ive brought every one since then, ecxept the appauling under cover. I also took part in the MCO beta testing, and as mentioned already, it was massively customizable, ill give you an example....
When you first load the game, you are given a random car, it could be any one of the hundred or so cars in the game ( i think thats how many cars there were any way) it was a classic ford, cant remember what, but it was a 50s car. after a few races i managed to buy a very mangled charger 440r/t another player was selling, i ripped the engine out put it into my ford and tuned the hell out of it....such was the tuning that you could do whatever you wanted, choose and fit bigger cams from an almost wrecklessly large selection, match the pistons and valves, uprate the carbs ect......but be careful, get it wrong and you would be drowning the engine in fuel and wasting power, winning a race really was down to how well you could tune. They really would have a genre dominating game if they remade this with todays technology, i would deffinatley buy it and probably get devorced because id be on it so much.
The first game really was still the best in mho, the physics were awesome, i remember coming over a crest on the alpine corse many times on the wrong side of the road, clipping a civilian car and barrel rolling my way down the road in a frighteningly realistic way, the only thing missing was damage. EA really has to go back to these type of physics, they just finish the game off, i always find it dissapointing when a developer goes really in depth with realistic graphichs and real world enviroment but messes it all up with arcade style physics (test drive unlimited rings a bell there)...lets hope shift isnt going to take that route because it looks like its shaping up to be a really great game, mind you, simbin are in charge this time, and their games have always got good physics.
By the way, if anybody is interested, i have all the original games for pc, if theres a way to share them in the community without breaking copyright laws id be happy to help, it might be worth noting though that i cant manage to get nfs1 to work on vista.....anyone know how to?

cem_ea_id.ssj1-goku wrote:EA Torque, thank you for this thread. I'm very happy now that other people can see the good old days of NFS, and see it at its best. I really believe you should re-create high stakes, and make HS2. Think about it, we had:
TNFS, NFS2
Hot Pursuit, Hot pursuit 2
Underground, Underground 2
Most Wanted, Undercover (Most Wanted 2, if you open an .ini file inside the undercover folder, you'll see)
-so why not: High Stakes, High Stakes 2???! Its only logical!!! Also High Stakes is one of the best nfs games, if not the best one ever! My favorite is the first one though, The Need For Speed. I played it ever since i was 2 years old.
so please at least think of making high stakes 2 after SHIFT. Try to ask EA, please

I totaly agree. High Stakes was probably my all time fav from the NFS series. Besides NFS1 of course.

the game is to lame...
i played it @gamescome , they payed a lot of people to say the game is good but in fact the hanfling is horrible.
physics and gforce of the cars also sucks, Race Grid is 10 times better.

DON'T BUY THIS GAME not worth the money

sorry EA but Slightly Mad epic failed with this so called Racing Simulator NEXT !

Have a good evening / night / day.

spore.vladu wrote:the game is to lame...

Quit http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/jforum.page?module=search&action=search&search_keywords=@gamescome&match_type=all&sort_dir=DESC&sort_by=relevance&start=15

Jussi