Favourite Map/World in Need For Speed Series

  • Thread starter LeGeNd-1
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What is your favourite map/world setting out of all NFS games?

  • Olympic City (Underground)

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Bayview (Underground 2)

    Votes: 15 42.9%
  • Rockport (Most Wanted 2005)

    Votes: 10 28.6%
  • Palmont (Carbon)

    Votes: 5 14.3%
  • Tri-City Bay (Undercover)

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Rockport + Palmont (World)

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Seacrest County (Hot Pursuit 2010)

    Votes: 9 25.7%
  • Fairhaven (Most Wanted 2012)

    Votes: 4 11.4%
  • Redview County (Rivals)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Blackridge (No Limits)

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Ventura Bay (2015)

    Votes: 3 8.6%
  • Fortune Valley (Payback)

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Palm City (Heat)

    Votes: 8 22.9%

  • Total voters
    35

LeGeNd-1

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Just an idea that popped into my head while cruising around Palm City :D We've had polls about favourite NFS games and most famous cover car, but not locations. We've raced across many cities throughout NFS' history. The first few games on PS1 doesn't have open world, but starting from the PS2 era most NFS have had an open world map. From the neon lit urban core of Underground and Carbon to the wide majestic sweeping landscapes of Hot Pursuit and Rivals, to the desert heat of Payback and most recently the rain beaten streets of Palm City. Which are your favourites? Taking aside obvious graphical limitations of the older games, car count and other features and purely looking at map design from a driving/exploration point of view, which would you call home? :)

The NFS historians will notice that two maps I included aren't strictly drivable in free roam mode (at least not without cheats): Olympic City and Blackridge. However almost all of the tracks in this game do fit together to form one giant map and I think you can easily imagine how it feels to cruise the full city without barriers, so I've taken liberties with these two. I was also debating whether to include World's map as separate to MW/Carbon, but I think the combined map and its new roads to combine the two warrants a separate selection. I never personally played World, so if someone has objections I'm happy to hear it. I'm also debating to include The Run's coast to coast routes, but unlike Olympic/Blackridge it's not continuous so I don't really count it as open world to be honest.

For me, the best of all time would be Fairhaven. The world just clicks from the very first minute I drove that Vantage in the intro. Gorgeous scenery, good balance of city and suburbs. Not too big and not too small with lots of fun jumps and playground areas. Also the only NFS map to receive a significant expansion with the airport area. Full day/night cycle and doesn't overuse rain (looking at you 2015 and Heat). I knew every nook and cranny of the city and would gladly live there if it's a real place :D

Second would be Palm City. Beyond all expectations Heat is one of the best NFS games of modern era, and certainly Ghost's best attempt so far. Very similar feel and size to Fairhaven, but there are a few sparse areas in the middle of the map which doesn't really leave any mark. Fairhaven has no such padding. Also boo for the day/night divide and not allowing a natural cycle. And rain. Too much rain.

My third but not least is Bayview. Probably my first open world driving game and the feeling of freedom as a kid was amazing. It may be a simplistic and small map by today standards but it also has a well balanced distribution of city/mountain/docks area. Many hours were spent cruising the streets just because I could, not to escape cops or find collectibles, and that's not something I can say about a lot of modern games. Nostalgia at its best and I still boot up UG2 from time to time.

What's your favourite cities? :) Up to 3 choices allowed and I'll update the poll with future cities so you can also change your choice.
 
I've only liked HP 2010, so Seacrest gets my vote. Loved driving from the middle ground to the snowy covered mountains. It had the variety of regions that most reminded of the classic PS1 NFS game's circuits.
 
I've just started to play Payback from EA Access after a work friend got into it over Christmas.

I like the map, with the strip malls and gas stations. The canyons aren't quite so fun with the handling model, however.
 
I start immediately that if I had the chance I would also have added Olymipic City and Palm City among my absolute favorite cities of all Need For Speed. Here I will answer only for the 3 that I have chosen, to which I do not have a real preference among which of the 3 is in the first place cause I like them all in the same way.

-Bayview [NFSU2]
One of my best memories of my childhood are related to Need For Speed Underground 2, Baywiew is really full of fantastic points of interest, beautiful from the beginning with its airport, the city center full of lights with fountains. My favourite quartier is Jackson Heights where I love running, and also admire the panorama of the entire city. Not to mention the competitions inside the airport with the planes that literally pass over you!

-Palmont [NFSC]
Palmont City is one of the cities of Need For Speed to have everything in my opinion.

Downtown where you can admire the Chinese decorations in the Chinatown district, not to mention the beautiful park and the huge jumps that can be done in the shortcuts!

Fortuna where the rich people live full of insidious curves ... Kempton full of straights and industries but at the same time with a fabulous promenade and finally Silverton full of casinos and neon lights where it is impossible not to amazed! There would be San Juan which for what little you can see reminds of a mini Olympic City!

My favorite part though are the Canyons where the atmosphere becomes almost surreal, curva dopo curva, the astonishing panorama and your rival.

-Ventura Bay [NFS15]
Ventura Bay for me is the smoothie of the two cities mentioned above, but if I had to say my own I prefer it to the ones mentioned above for the simple reason that it is more balanced in terms of location, points of interest and panoramas ... and it has that "underground" atmosphere like it hasn't felt for a long time.

I love running through the Crescent Mountains where it was possible to make extreme drifts, then passing through the fantastic long motorways up to El Rey where the roads seemed a mixture between the Carbon Canyons and the Japanese mountains. Fabulous!
 
Tri-City Bay from Undercover (PS3) doesn't get much love. I voted for it because it's one of the things I enjoyed most from the game. It's quite massive, especially with all those highways which I think NFS Heat could use, since cars are capable of reaching 375kph or so. Highway Battles would be epic, since we got the Nissan 240Z for some Wangan Midnight vibes.
 
1) Seacrest County. It was the perfect back drop for the exotic's and pursuit focus, simply loved the long sweeping highways. Love the variety in biomes, from snow peaked mountains, to coastal drives, to scorching deserts. It's a blast.

2) Bayview. I like it's small size, after a while I had the most of map memorized. Great atmosphere, distinct areas like the downtown, the industrial area, and winding togue roads, my favourite section of the map.

3) Palm City. It's fine in day time, but it's night time that steals the show here. Loved the hills in the countryside, the locations like the Space Station, and the few dirt roads too. I like the colorful neon lighting in the city. THIS is the game that has the Underground atmosphere, not 2015, which felt way too dark.
 
I mostly like Palmont (Carbon) mostly because of the game mechanics. Specifically, the turf-conquering mechanics. Imagine an online NFS game where you could compete with other human players for turf, not unlike Planetside or Eve Online.
 
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