Does anybody play......NFS Undercover?

[Stephan]

Also I like to note that this is the last NFS to feature My Cars mode where you can freely modify cars and use them for Quick Races. So that adds more reasons to play Undercover despite how bad the handling is (well not as bad as 2015).

 

[CleanCut]

Ah, Undercover. Has there ever been a Need For Speed game players love to hate more than this?....


Here's some of the cars I've filled my garage with:

Spoiler: For some reason this consists mostly of muscle cars for game enjoyment rather than racing

It says in some holy script that if a game has a V10 Lamborghini in it, I own one:

View attachment 622214

Cannot go wrong with a classic 'Vette:

View attachment 622215

Like above, but a classic (although modified) Shelby Mustang:

View attachment 622217

One of the "weird and wonderful" cars of this game, a '65 GTO that wants to be a Trans Am:

View attachment 622218

Also, Aston Martin DB9. Been a companion since Most Wanted. Truly one of the best looking cars out there:

View attachment 622221

..and, featuring prominently in probably the best photo I've ever taken on a NFS game:

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Say what you want, but this game knows how to cinematics, the map is huge and full of interesting and beautiful locations, the soundtrack is up there as well, the story is cheesy and cliché enough to make a Hollywood spy movie.. dare I say one of the most hated games is actually one of the best in terms of overall package?

This is not a knock on your screenshots AT ALL. They are great... but this illustrates my point... Undercover sacrificed "beauty" for "style" IMHO. Why bother spending any effort in customization whatsoever knowing that all detail is lost in an incessant yellow-reddish hue, too high contrast, and bloom effects on everything? As I said before, I don't mind the style on other types of games, but on a car game that thrives on players being able to customize and show off their creations, to give them the most monotone, detail-killing color palette imaginable.... I just don't get the decision there, or the appeal. I mean, NFS 2015 takes place in the dark and it is 100x richer and more interesting visually. All I get from playing Undercover is the feeling that I'm driving into the sun regardless of direction.

 

[rallymorten]

The bloom effect is turn-off-able, though. You'll be left with an even-more-noticable, perhaps slightly low-res sky, but you can turn it off. Seems to fix the issues you're having with the visuals and generally works wonders.

In case people haven't bothered to enter the settings menu themselves, have a comparison:

Spoiler: World Effects turned off

Spoiler: World Effects at max

Sure, it's not perfect, but it's something, and, after properly trying this, I actually find it slightly better when off, even if that does mean getting rid of the lens flare (always loved me some good lens flare as a visual effect).

Not sure if this was actually useful or wanted in any way, but it's there now.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

So to complete my collection of Need For Speed games that I could own up to NFS Rivals. (Don't have a PS4, so no NFS 2015), I decided to buy the PS3 version of this game a while ago. (I think about nine or so months ago?) Oh my word, this is hard. Like, really hard. Frustratingly so. I managed to get past where I could get a pink slip, and I wound up taking the Lotus Elise, but I haven't progressed further than that. It was way too frustrating for me to progress any further. I may slog through it when I'm on the NFS kick again, but not anytime soon.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Is the PS3 version a hard game? The PS2 version is one of, if not the easiest NFS game I have ever played.

 

[JakeMR2]

The bloom effect is turn-off-able, though. You'll be left with an even-more-noticable, perhaps slightly low-res sky, but you can turn it off. Seems to fix the issues you're having with the visuals and generally works wonders.

In case people haven't bothered to enter the settings menu themselves, have a comparison:

Spoiler: World Effects turned off

View attachment 622816

Spoiler: World Effects at max

View attachment 622817

Sure, it's not perfect, but it's something, and, after properly trying this, I actually find it slightly better when off, even if that does mean getting rid of the lens flare (always loved me some good lens flare as a visual effect).

Not sure if this was actually useful or wanted in any way, but it's there now.

Doesn't Undercover have any ENB series mods available?

 

[JR98]

Is the PS3 version a hard game? The PS2 version is one of, if not the easiest NFS game I have ever played.

Not really, some of the highway battles are tricky, and you need a really good car and a flawless race to win the master events but for the most part it's a pretty easy game, although it does get a bit grindy near the end.

 

[rallymorten]

Doesn't Undercover have any ENB series mods available?

It does, and that's what I'm currently messing around with. Not noticing any significant differences as of right now, but it'll get there.

I also just noticed the lens flare isn't an effect. I mean, I'm OK with that.

Is the PS3 version a hard game? The PS2 version is one of, if not the easiest NFS game I have ever played.

What @JASON_ROCKS1998 said. Once you've got the handling down and a decent car, it tends to be a lot easier, as, coincidentally, is the case for all racing games. I recommend only buying what's desperately needed (i.e. screw visual mods) and save up for the Veyron and tuning parts for it (remember when the Veyron was the be-all and end-all overpowered car? Pepperidge Farm remembers).

And I definitely agree with the second half of your post.

 

[JR98]

I recommend only buying what's desperately needed (i.e. screw visual mods) and save up for the Veyron and tuning parts for it (remember when the Veyron was the be-all and end-all overpowered car? Pepperidge Farm remembers).

I don't think a Tier 1 car is even necessary for progressing through the story. Provided you choose something decent for each of the pink slip cars (Especially for the Tier 2 Pink Slip reward) you shouldn't have any problems with getting through the main game, although you may need one of the better T1 cars if you want to win all the master events (this may not be true, I never really bothered with the masters).

It's very possible to use a fully upgraded 911 GT2 or Gallardo for finishing the game (both of which are available through pink slips)

 

[ThrasherDBS]

I think the PS3's difficulty had to do with a patch/update that EA did for the game? It made the regular races Nintendo-hard, but I could clear the non-conventional "races" just fine.

I'm amazed that people are like "yeah, it's super easy".

 

[CleanCut]

The bloom effect is turn-off-able, though. You'll be left with an even-more-noticable, perhaps slightly low-res sky, but you can turn it off. Seems to fix the issues you're having with the visuals and generally works wonders.

In case people haven't bothered to enter the settings menu themselves, have a comparison:

Spoiler: World Effects turned off

View attachment 622816

Spoiler: World Effects at max

View attachment 622817

Sure, it's not perfect, but it's something, and, after properly trying this, I actually find it slightly better when off, even if that does mean getting rid of the lens flare (always loved me some good lens flare as a visual effect).

Not sure if this was actually useful or wanted in any way, but it's there now.

Wow! Huuuuuge difference! I probably never thought that turning world effects down would make a difference in that way. If I have a PC that can run a game smoothly, I usually just max out everything and go on down the road. I still can't fathom how anyone could like the bottom image better. Not that I'd ever go back to playing the game, but had it looked like this when I first started out, I probably would've given it more respect.

As for difficulty, from what I recall, it wasn't very challenging until the timed Police pursuit events. I really struggled with some of those.

 

[rallymorten]

I don't think a Tier 1 car is even necessary for progressing through the story. Provided you choose something decent for each of the pink slip cars (Especially for the Tier 2 Pink Slip reward) you shouldn't have any problems with getting through the main game

True, *but*, if you're being a genius with the pink slips and get good cars for free, why wouldn't you put some of the money you saved into an overpowered Tier 1?

I think the PS3's difficulty had to do with a patch/update that EA did for the game? It made the regular races Nintendo-hard, but I could clear the non-conventional "races" just fine.

I'm amazed that people are like "yeah, it's super easy".

Since I'm pretty sure I have the last patch released for PC (well, the Challenge Series patch at least) installed, I decided to take a completely standard 240SX:

..As I was saying, completely standard, and do the Palm Harbor Rally with it. Managed to take first by the second real corner, then game had a slight near-death experience, threw a car at me and I lost at least five seconds. Still just managed to take victory at the final corner:

It should perhaps be noted that I have all my skills/abilities/whatever they're called in English maxed out, but some degree of upgrades should do just about the same trick.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Not really, some of the highway battles are tricky, and you need a really good car and a flawless race to win the master events but for the most part it's a pretty easy game, although it does get a bit grindy near the end.

I can remember the highway battles in the challenge series being a little tedious, you had to stretch you skills just a little to beat it, but it was still doable.

What @JASON_ROCKS1998 said. Once you've got the handling down and a decent car, it tends to be a lot easier, as, coincidentally, is the case for all racing games. I recommend only buying what's desperately needed (i.e. screw visual mods) and save up for the Veyron and tuning parts for it (remember when the Veyron was the be-all and end-all overpowered car? Pepperidge Farm remembers).

The physics on the PS2 version, well if you know Carbon's physics, you'll know Undercovers physics. Which isn't surprising since Undercover for the PS2 was literally built off of it.

I am under the impression the physics on the next gen version are very different from that of the PS2/Wii versions. Are they?

 

[CleanCut]

^^^ It's all Greek to me Sonygamer... I wasn't aware there were different versions since I only game on the PC. I mean, I realize the game was made for different consoles, but I didn't realize there were different versions for cross-generational-platforms.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

Since I'm pretty sure I have the last patch released for PC (well, the Challenge Series patch at least) installed, I decided to take a completely standard 240SX:

..As I was saying, completely standard, and do the Palm Harbor Rally with it. Managed to take first by the second real corner, then game had a slight near-death experience, threw a car at me and I lost at least five seconds. Still just managed to take victory at the final corner:

It should perhaps be noted that I have all my skills/abilities/whatever they're called in English maxed out, but some degree of upgrades should do just about the same trick.

I remember specifically that the difficulty spike affects the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions that have the update installed. I think the PC version is different.

Of course, I could very well be a scrub and just bad at this particular Need For Speed game. Didn't do so well in Need For Speed: World when that was still a thing, and it borrowed the physics from Undercover.

 

[JakeMR2]

I remember specifically that the difficulty spike affects the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions that have the update installed. I think the PC version is different.

Yeah there was tons of difficulty spikes in Undercover, I beat it more times because I was bored, so I just beat it for the heck of it. I have the latest update, but it was just unfair that the A.I. was using Tier 1 class cars while I was in a Tier 2 or 3 at the time.

Edit:
I am remembering a race that gave me the troubles a long time ago, I think it was when I was racing against a Zonda and it was going quicker than me in the turns, but it's to be expected out of a Zonda.

 

[Sonygamer455]

^^^ It's all Greek to me Sonygamer... I wasn't aware there were different versions since I only game on the PC. I mean, I realize the game was made for different consoles, but I didn't realize there were different versions for cross-generational-platforms.

Oh believe me, the PS2/Wii and PS3/360/PC versions are two different games, they both are vastly different from each other. It's almost like comparing NFSMW 2005 to NFSMW 2012 or even Undergound to Underground Rivals.

Look at videos of the PS2 version and you'll see why. It's incredibly noticeable even if you haven't played it.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

My biggest gripe with Undercover is it manages to combine all the WORST parts of Black Box era NFS into one game, with none of the good parts. It's probably the worst out of all the mainline NFS series (I'm discounting games like Shift and Nitro because they were spinoffs in a completely different style). This was my first NFS on PS3 after coming from NFSU/UG2/MW/Carbon and even though my expectations wasn't sky high, I could tell within 5 minutes of playing that they didn't bother putting in any effort in this game.

- Map is big but bland
- Vomit yellow bloom effect (can't be turned off on PS3)
- Physics sucks majorly
- Collision physics even more
- Car textures look like plastic
- Traffic spawning is atrocious
- Cops are OP and they keep respawning 1 second before cooldown finishes
- Heat level goes up way too quickly and once it reaches max you will get chased every 5 seconds, making the free roam mode useless
- Story mode is boring and unnecessarily long, and the cutscenes don't even make any sense or have connection to the races (apart from maybe the final mission)
- Challenge series difficulty is all over the place. Highway battles in particular are just pure luck. If your opponent doesn't hit traffic in the first 10 seconds, just restart since you have no chance of winning.
- AI rubberbanding is one of the worst I have ever seen in a racing game

The only good part probably is the customization, but there's really no point because of the bad graphics and by that point everyone was over the tacky F&F style bodykits (not to mention most of the designs were just recycled from previous games).

EDIT: Looking back now, I should commend this game for the "My Cars" feature which allows us to modify cars to our hearts content without grinding credits. It remains the last NFS with extensive customization to have this "sandbox" feature. Also the soundtrack is genuinely quite good. I saved 10+ songs from the game and since UC there's only been 2-3 good songs per game. Overall, still the crappiest NFS experience though.

 

[ThrasherDBS]

So what set the tone for me in this game happened right after the first actual race. I tried pausing to go to the menu where I could check out the arcade stuff, and the game froze immediately. So I can definitely relate to the realization that this isn't a very well done game. Someday I will beat it, possibly try to remove the patch and try and beat it that way, but still it's going to be a little tough.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Oh wow, this is interesting, to me at least.

As I mentioned before, the PS2/Wii versions of the game were pretty much built upon NFS Carbon, so I am not too surprised by some of those cars from Carbon being hidden in this game. However, I didn't even know the 370Z was in this version of the game. According to NFS Wikia, it's a multiplayer only car and since I never played multiplayer in Undercover, I was completely unaware of the car's existence in this version of the game.

Man I really hope we get a save like this for the PS2 version. Being able to drive the firetruck from Carbon again would be great and same could be said for the motorhome. Felipe said in the comments he had a modded save for the NTSC version and I am hoping he will post it. I would ask him myself, but I don't want to create an entire channel just for that.

The interesting thing about the AI cars is, just like Carbon, they don't crash the game when they get wrecked and they even have their own engine sounds.

 

[JakeMR2]

Oh wow, this is interesting, to me at least.

As I mentioned before, the PS2/Wii versions of the game were pretty much built upon NFS Carbon, so I am not too surprised by some of those cars from Carbon being hidden in this game. However, I didn't even know the 370Z was in this version of the game. According to NFS Wikia, it's a multiplayer only car and since I never played multiplayer in Undercover, I was completely unaware of the car's existence in this version of the game.

Man I really hope we get a save like this for the PS2 version. Being able to drive the firetruck from Carbon again would be great and same could be said the motorhome. Felipe said in the comments he had a modded save for the NTSC version and I am hoping he will post it. I would ask him myself, but I don't want to create and entire channel just for that.

The interesting thing about the AI cars is, just like Carbon, they don't crash the game when they get wrecked and they even have their own engine sounds.

Knowing Felipe he'd try to make two saves in one. One 100 percent while the other 0 percent.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Knowing Felipe he'd try to make two saves in one. One 100 percent while the other 0 percent.

And I sincerely hope he does because I would LOVE to have a starter save like this, it would really bring new life to the game for me and perhaps change how I look at it forever.

While I did say this earlier:

I would ask him myself, but I don't want to create and entire channel just for that.

...I actually did create one because I remembered I had other things I wanted to do as well. I made a comment asking him to post it and a starter save. He hasn't answered yet, but hopefully he will eventually.

I would hack my own save, but getting my PC to read it is the problem.

 

[Sage Ages]

Some clarification on something:

Porsche 911 VTA '08

This is Rose's car.

This is in fact a seperate vehicle from the regular GT2 and uses it's own car model.

- The hood and wheels are unique to this car and vary from those that can be purchased on the regular GT2.
- The car sits lower, has a wider track, and has more negative camber than the regular GT2. The wheels are wider than those available via autosculpt.
- A female driver model is used instead of the generic male one.
- It uses the same performance values as the 911 Turbo, despite being modeled after a GT2.

The only thing that isn't unique to this specific car is the body kit. It's not normally available on the GT2, but can be unlocked with some modding.

 

[rcgldr]

I played on the PC and also online when the game first came out, when players knew which cars were best. Since money is an issue for tier 1 cars, it's best to use the pink slip cars: tier 4 - Lotus Elise, tier 3 - Audi TT (only the GTR is faster), tier 2 - Gallardo or GT2 (about the same), tier 1 Zonda (the other cars are lacking downforce which is an issue). With a savegame editor, the CCX in career mode with ultimate parts is the fastest tier 1 car. Also with a savegame editor, skills can be increased from 25% to 100%, anything over 100% is ignored by the game, so the online community generally accepted 100% skills and the CCX from career mode, since the end result was a level playing field.

Challenge Series changes the strategy. Do the Challenge Series just after the career prologue, and you can win the three tier 1 cars, of which the Dominator Z06 is the fastest of the three, and and you can then use any of these tier 1 cars at the start of career mode, making the early part of career mode fairly easy.

 

[Sage Ages]

Not as much interesting stuff as the MW05 files, but still worth a look.