Need for Speed Racing Games

EA or the studio itself, FAILED with NFS: Shift. The game is quite good, don't get me wrong, but it is, in simple words, a extremely watered down version of Gran Turismo.

Please developers, go back to your roots. NFS Underground and MW were the most popular, but not the best. The best racing arcade game ever created is called NFS Hot Pursuit 2. That's the father of Most Wanted.

Here's what EA did:

After Hot Pursuit, Black Box decided to think outside the "box." And came up with Underground (mainly due to the fact that Fast and Furious, giving them the opportunity to experiment with the NFS franchise).

Underground was a total success. Boom! Underground 2 followed, being another success. Then EA/Blackbox said, "Hmmm, what now? Another Underground?" Of course not. They went back, way back. But didn't exactly go back. What they did, was this: Hot Pursuit + Undeground = Most Wanted = Best NFS game after the sixth generation consoles (or after Hot Pursuit 2).

And of coruse it was another succes, so they decided to do the same thing the did with Undeeground 2. But instead of renaming it as Most Wanted 2, the decided to name it Carbon. Interestingly, it's the same thing; with cops, free-roaming, same protagonists, etc. but its at night, and we are going back to street racing. Not as succesful as Most Wanted, but did pretty good. But now what? Black Box is tired of the same thing, so now what?

Here's where comes the trouble. I don't know who the hell, got the idea of turning the Need for Speed franchise into a **@# real driving simulator. That's automatic fail. I am picturing the guy/girl or the group of stupids that said "Hey, what about if we make the game more realistic? More like professional driving." Of course, they went in this direction, but they knew that by going into this direction completely, would mean: bye cops, by high speed racing, bye pursuits, bye adrenaline-fueled racing, bye car customization, bye storyline, etc. So they decided to add (and poorly I must say) the "street" side to the game (hence pro-street). But that just made it fail even more. Because the game didn't really do good at neither side. Damn.

So the person or the group that proposed the creation of pro-street is now sitting thinking in the conference room, tallking about the next NFS project:

"Ok, that didn't work, we should go back to the basics." Yup, back to the basics. Or more like back to Most Wanted. And here it comes: NFS: Undercover, the biggest ATROCITY EA could ever conceive (and it was the NFS with the longest development, seriously??). And yes, it failed completely. The only thing that you could praise about it, was the graphics, but still. The game its pretty much Most Wanted on steroids (not necessarily a good thing).

So THAT didn't work. So the person or the group says in the next meeting about the next NFS project:

"Ok, we failed at making a watered down, mainstream, and incredibly easy version of Most Wanted, now what?"
"Hey, remember that Porstreet didn't work because we tried to blend street racing with professional?"
"Uh, yeah."
"How about, we focues on creating a completely professional NFS game, like a simulator."
"You mean like Gran Tursimo?"
"Yeah"
"Hmm, but we must attract the masses, people think that NFS is a fast-paced racing game, we can't have such a racidal change, unless we bring something appealing."
"OH, how about if we focus on the driver's view of the race, that ought to attract the masses."
"Good idea."

Yup, GREAT idea.

Is this what NFS has turned into? A shape-shifting franchise? Where no one knows what type of game will come out next year? What is gonna be the next NFS game about, a watered down version of F-Zero? And what bout the watered down version of Gran Tursimo? Do you know the amount of work and time it requires to make a REAL and COMPLETE driving simulator? 2 years? Gran Turismo 5 is going to have more than 1,000 cars, and it has been in development for more than 5 years! GTFO Black Box. Leave the real simulator to the pro's like Sony and Yamauchi.

Leave us with a fun racing game that, for example, I can play with my lilttle cousin, where he can play as the cop, and he has to chase me (Hot Pursuit 2) at mind-blowing speeds. Stop the free-roaming-I-am-GTA stuff (Why the hell do I have free-roaming if I have a damn map where I can just select and go the the event? Enlighten me). Stick to arcade, of course, next-gen arcade. You know what I'm saying?? Go back to your damn roots Black Box/ EA, stop experimenting, stop trying so hard and do stuff that will sell. Jesus.....

Just my (and possibly our) two cents....

Shift is from slightly mad studios, not black box.
its also considered as a sub division of the franchise, a "spin off" rather than the main game.
if anything the stupid person was whoever it was at EA who decided to tack the NFS title on. it wasnt going to be part of the nfs franchise originally. i quess it would be in for a lot less stick without the comparison to an ailing legend.

i agree Most Wanted and HP2 are Black Boxes best efforts. they are great games on there own right, so they shine twice as bright amongst the rest of the premium male bovien effluents they have shovled onto the franchise over the years. But i prefer HP2 as you could race with or without the cops (i prefer without personally, my first NFS was NFS2SE, the one without the cops) and as it had no free roam, it had a wider list of environments. the free roam means that were always going to get a collapsing ghetto ridden city in some godforsaken, poverty striken american rustbelt state. im sorry, but that is, as you say a GTA asthetic, it fits there as its about getting out of the gutter and becoming, basically "the godfather of c21" before finding redemption from youre criminal acts and putting things right in the final act of the game. it doesnt fit NFS, wich is always used to be about high class exotics tearing around countryside environments back in the good old days.

NFS needs the Global class that HP2, and Earlier, such as my own personal favourite, Road Challenge (the British version of High Stakes), baught to the table. you can have longer tracks then, by squashing loads of tracks into a 30 or 40 mile free roam map, youre only going to get tracks of 10 or 12 miles long at the biggest, if you go global, you could have courses HUNDREDS of miles long across far more challenging roads, such as the entire european alps and its mountain passes.

yeah, EA needs to take NFS back, but i mean REALLY back! Black Box is too concernd, as you say, with the mass market casual crowd, who live and breath ricers, crime , and gangs, all the calls for a godawfull underground 3 are proof of that. so, get rid of black box.

stop messing around, Give it back to EA canada, the creators of the legend, and give us the first "perfect" nfs game since 1999.

basically, blissfull trance music, a massive collection of stock exotics, the showroom mode, tons of long tracks through gorgeous european environments, no pathetic fast and furious style story, no story at all in fact, and the option to turn the ruddy cops off.
simples.

nfs_web.classicnfsfan wrote:Shift is from slightly mad studios, not black box.
its also considered as a sub division of the franchise, a "spin off" rather than the main game.
if anything the stupid person was whoever it was at EA who decided to tack the NFS title on. it wasnt going to be part of the nfs franchise originally. i quess it would be in for a lot less stick without the comparison to an ailing legend.

i agree Most Wanted and HP2 are Black Boxes best efforts. they are great games on there own right, so they shine twice as bright amongst the rest of the premium male bovien effluents they have shovled onto the franchise over the years. But i prefer HP2 as you could race with or without the cops (i prefer without personally, my first NFS was NFS2SE, the one without the cops) and as it had no free roam, it had a wider list of environments. the free roam means that were always going to get a collapsing ghetto ridden city in some godforsaken, poverty striken american rustbelt state. im sorry, but that is, as you say a GTA asthetic, it fits there as its about getting out of the gutter and becoming, basically "the godfather of c21" before finding redemption from youre criminal acts and putting things right in the final act of the game. it doesnt fit NFS, wich is always used to be about high class exotics tearing around countryside environments back in the good old days.

NFS needs the Global class that HP2, and Earlier, such as my own personal favourite, Road Challenge (the British version of High Stakes), baught to the table. you can have longer tracks then, by squashing loads of tracks into a 30 or 40 mile free roam map, youre only going to get tracks of 10 or 12 miles long at the biggest, if you go global, you could have courses HUNDREDS of miles long across far more challenging roads, such as the entire european alps and its mountain passes.

yeah, EA needs to take NFS back, but i mean REALLY back! Black Box is too concernd, as you say, with the mass market casual crowd, who live and breath ricers, crime , and gangs, all the calls for a godawfull underground 3 are proof of that. so, get rid of black box.

stop messing around, Give it back to EA canada, the creators of the legend, and give us the first "perfect" nfs game since 1999.

basically, blissfull trance music, a massive collection of stock exotics, the showroom mode, tons of long tracks through gorgeous european environments, no pathetic fast and furious style story, no story at all in fact, and the option to turn the ruddy cops off.
simples.

That's exactly what EA needs to do! Well, on the other hand, I apologize for blaming Black Box completely, I didn't know Shift was in part developed by Slightly Mad Studios.

However, the main point is still intact; regardless of what (or who) they were after by creating Shift, they should go back to arcade racing. I mean, Shift is a great game, but would you create a game that's not better at what it was created for, compared those that are already out? Its pointless. Forza Motorsport 3 beats Shift by miles, Gran Turismo... do I need to compare? We are talking about the best driving game ever created.

Exactly what you said. I believe they released Underground and MW due to the street-hype Fast and Furious received at the time. It was pretty much a demographical sale strategy, and it worked flawlessly.

Wow, Road Challenge, you're making me cry due to nostalgia.

So EA has created like, what? 4 games with free-roaming (which user don't really use)? Imagine if they didn't do free-roaming in the next NFS, and sticked to arcade tracks, that will save them a lot of time. Giving them the chance to focus on cars, and other details. I don't mind the car customization, but focus on how HP2 managed to be the best NFS game. If they focused on creating larger tracks, rather than an immense open-world, then that will translate into what? Miles and miles and miles of pure racing. And don't forget the cops! (Also, in HP2 yo could disable the cops if you wanted, I guess they could do the same in next NFS.)

I mean, sometimes game studios should be more open, and listen to what customers say. Its worth it.

yeah. why would i want to make a short, unfunny, linear, call of duty clone when all my previous games have been massive, humour packed free roaming, uniqie blasts (WHY DICE? WHY!!!!!) i rather like shift, its a change. and i think its good fun. but yeah, gran turismo blows it away. forza 3 would as well if it wasnt for the woefull in car cam, with GT5 gettin an in car cam though, i think EVERY race sim, from grid to forza needs to start panicking!

dont worry about not knowing, i only know as ive played some of SM studious earlier sims, and ive followed them, if not for that, i probably wouldnt have known either

its a pity NFS copies everything now, as back in its day, it was a trend setter. don't forget we only got supercars in gran turismo because of need for speed. how times have changed

yeah, id love miles and miles of racing, the free roam kills it. i mean, i have my own dream nfs. i posted it up in another thread, the longest track is 6000 MILES long (one run) (with an option to save mid race naturally) how cool would that be!

the tracks need to be better as well, i mean, why would i want to drive straight lines down a collapsing gutterville, when i can race on fall winds? (HP2) all those hairpins and tight S bends to really test the cars brakeing, handling and cornering, splashing through puddles of water and kicking up autumn leavs from the tires. those tracks werent just gorgeous and great fun to drive, they had a kind of romantic feel to them, sort of an ode to the love affair a driver has with his sportscar. you dont get that with the free roamers. and its a shame.

yeah, hairpin filled romantisiced countryside circuits of massive length, the best exotics in the world, from the 1930's till today, and a nice mix of arcade and realism (like the handling in HP2 and RC, they have pitch perfect physics) that would take NFS to the next level, and hopefully be such a mind blowing experience that EA would never go back to the streets again.

look how gorgous fall winds is on HP2. now imagine it in the latest hi def graphics and caning a mp4-12-c down those swithbacks, fire popping out the pipes on the overun. its not game graphics, its virtual interactive poetry, and thats what Need For Speed needs to be, as that is what it once was. well, EA has listened to its players before. mass effect 2 has had a lot of "community imput",a nd dont forget, the Army fo two series has guns designed by the community amongst its vast armoury, who knows, if enough of us old fashioned NFS fans make a big enough noise to drown out the misguided children in the underground crowd (i feel so sorry for them as they have never seen the delights of HP2 or RC) , and EA does decide to do a ME2 on the NFS franchise, we could wind up being responisble for not just the greatest NFS game ever programmed, but the most gorgeous car game ever put on disk!. that would be seriously cool.

agreed.

omg imagine hot pursuit with today's graphics and technology...a huuuuuuuuuuge point a to point b race...omg so want