Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered Revealed, Arrives November 6

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Haven't checked this thread in a while, so I'm catching up. Seeing this photo... god, how cool would it be if EA made an all-new but retro period-specific NFS?! Especially if it were set on old school, themed A-to-B and lap-based courses rather than in a free-roaming city.
 
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Free roaming is harmful for the racing component. For example, I find Burnout3 and NFSU incredibly superior to Burnout Paradise and NFSU2.
Yes, I can imagine how Forza Horizon or the Crew would be so much better without free roaming. Just kidding. I mean it's ok to appreciate one game over others, but to say that free roam is harmful for racing games... Can you at least give some other motives of why you think so besides "I find it incredibly superior".
 
I ended up grabbing this game even though I don't really think I played the original all the much. I liked it back then, but it wasn't really too memorable and I don't think I ever completed the game.

But after a few hours with the remaster and I am having a ton of fun, especially as a cop. Graphics are good, car list is good and the music is good... first song to pop up was from Pendulum and it threw me back in time, did not expect them in a NFS game. Just feels like there aren't enough songs on the soundtrack.

One thing I noticed off the bat is the game is louder than others. I rarely need to adjust my tv/speaker volume across games, but I had to mess with the in game audio settings just to balance it out. Not a complaint, just an observation.
 
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Yes, I can imagine how Forza Horizon or the Crew would be so much better without free roaming. Just kidding. I mean it's ok to appreciate one game over others, but to say that free roam is harmful for racing games... Can you at least give some other motives of why you think so besides "I find it incredibly superior".

A linear game is always going to be easier to refine. Devs have much more control over the player experience. Burnout 3 and Paradise are a prime example of it.

And I meant that it's harmful not for the genre, but for the racing component of a racing game. Open world is always going to offer tracks or routes with worse driving lines. Players wont have the opportunity of nailing tracks or explore in depth the fastest way around them. One of my favorite moments in the Nordschleife is when you get to Fuchsrohre: if you do it right, if feels awesome because the margin of error doesn't even exist.

Not to mention AI. Same principle applies: you can make it much more refined in close tracks.

I don't even see the point of free roam in most racing games. Probably the devs of those games don't either. In many games it's such a pain having to go from point A to point B.

Some games do try to give meaning to free roam. The Crew 1 had magnificent force feedback and a ludicrous map. Driver San Francisco the shift mechanic. Most Wanted 2005 a fearsome police AI (same goes with early Driver games).
 
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Some racing games have done well with free-roaming, others haven't. My problem with free-roaming is when the game is too fast-paced, like with NFS, designed around the stretched out highways and rural areas of the game, and then they fill in the center of the map with cities almost as an afterthought. In order to force it to work, the proportions of the streets and surroundings have to be exaggerated to not slow you down too much, but the handling characteristics of the cars are rarely designed to be fun at those slower speeds. At least to me it just comes off unnatural and messes with the flow of the racing. If a game has an open city setting, I'm going to want to putt around at real street speeds every now and then; you know, cruise just for fun like I would in real life, in cars I'll never own. But the cars too often feel jerky at 40mph because they were made to also drift predictably at 200mph. I remember Underground 2 being really good for its time, but they really need to pick one style of racing and really polish it. The closed courses of PS2's Hot Pursuit 2 had wonderful flow, and the handling physics were designed around them, so the only thing I had to complain about was the cars that weren't included.


I don't even see the point of free roam in most racing games. Probably the devs of those games don't either. In many games it's such a pain having to go from point A to point B.

Yeah, I hate how menus have been replaced with, "Drive to this point on the map to start this race," forcing you to navigate through awful traffic AI and all the little things that you find in a city (decorative medians and the like) that stop you dead if you slightly misjudge your position on the road.
 
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Yes, I can imagine how Forza Horizon or the Crew would be so much better without free roaming. Just kidding. I mean it's ok to appreciate one game over others, but to say that free roam is harmful for racing games... Can you at least give some other motives of why you think so besides "I find it incredibly superior".

I do think a much smaller and well designed map for The Crew might be better, The Crew feels flat-ish and it isn't fun to race on it. As for FH, I find the roads on FH1 more fun to drive on despite being more restricted compared to newer FH games.

The problem with open world games is that they needed the map to looks realistic for you to drive on and it often seems restricted on doing a combination of interesting bends and curve that you can find on a purposed built track for racing. Also, open world don't seem to do much for the racing part of it, you drive to an event, start the event and they wall up to a small area for you to race in. Games like NFSU1 and old Burnout has a very nice flow to race on, the branching routes/shortcuts are a nice bonus too and weirdly been missing in newer gen of racing games.

To me the only game that did open world and racing well is Midnight Club, the checkpoint based and often having branching routes through alleyways and tons of traffic to avoid is fun to race with.
 
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So, an actual question and not just the typical endless debates about NFS:

How is the online, specifically the crossplay? Is there any settings for restricting what consoles you match up with? Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War have spoiled me in that regard (even though those two games don't exactly have the best settings other then simply turning it off or on)
 
So, an actual question and not just the typical endless debates about NFS:

How is the online, specifically the crossplay? Is there any settings for restricting what consoles you match up with? Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War have spoiled me in that regard (even though those two games don't exactly have the best settings other then simply turning it off or on)

Online is great with crossplay turn on, finding a full lobby is almost instant for me but I think most of the players are just playing the Hot Pursuit mode. As for options it is just a on off switch.
 
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Yes, I can imagine how Forza Horizon or the Crew would be so much better without free roaming. Just kidding. I mean it's ok to appreciate one game over others, but to say that free roam is harmful for racing games... Can you at least give some other motives of why you think so besides "I find it incredibly superior".

There are arguments for and against. I like the feeling of freedom of an open world. But I think what SlimCharles is trying to say (and I agree on this) is the actual racing routes are much better in closed course games. In open world, you're basically playing jigsaw puzzle with the map, and eventually you're going to come across an intersection. No matter what you do your track is always going to contain some 90 degree turns or awkward junctions. Whereas in closed course games you can design every corner perfectly for driving enjoyment or challenge. Think Nordschleife vs Singapore city circuit.

Compare the UG1 map and the UG2 map and you can see the difference. UG1 is interesting in that the tracks actually join together, but you can't free roam it. It has lots of interesting corner types, very dynamic and every track feel different. UG2 with the exception of mountain area and outer ring road is basically just intersections after intersections. I cannot even remember a single course name from that game, because everything looks the same. Whereas I can rattle off UG1 tracks from memory (Olympic Square, Atlantica, Terminal and the dreaded Market Run final boss race :crazy:).

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Hot Pursuit 2010 is one of the better open world maps, because the roads still flow together well. Burnout Paradise is 50:50 I feel, the mountain area is good but the city area is meh. But at least there are lots of jumps and hidden areas to make it interesting. Ditto with MW 2012. NFS Undercover is one of the worst IMO. Boring map that is too large for its own good, bad graphics, terrible handling and overly sensitive cops/heat system that makes driving anywhere a huge pain. I always use fast travel in that game and if that's the case, what's the point of open world?

Games like The Crew and Forza Horizon, allows you to go offroad as well so it has more freedom in creating interesting courses. But I never played either so I can't comment too much on it.

Then there's the physics argument as well. Most arcade games only do either high speed or low speed physics well, and not both (hell even some sims struggle with this). The hybrid freeroam map combining city and country roads are always going to have a mixture of high and low speed, so your car never really feels at home in either. Closed course arcade racers don't have this problem.
 
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The Remastered Version feels about as fun to play as the original was to me when I first played that a decade ago (man, time flys). Yup, I still bought this in spite of already having the original with most of the dlc.

One thing I kinda like about the Remastered Version is that the dlc events seem incorporated with the main career mode instead of being bonuses. They kinda flow well when blended with the vanilla events. The only problem (which is nitpicky) I have is that the DLC making car unlocking seem weird to me, mainly on when you unlock certain cars. I.E. You can unlock an Aston Martin One-77 before the Nissan 370Z coupe, that doesn't sound quite right. Once again, it's not a big issue; it's just something I wanted to bring up.

I do also like how much smoother the game feels than in the original. There's also the satisfaction of playing this game with better feeling controllers (I bought the original for PS3). I think it's sort of worth buying.
 
The Remastered Version feels about as fun to play as the original was to me when I first played that a decade ago (man, time flys). Yup, I still bought this in spite of already having the original with most of the dlc.

One thing I kinda like about the Remastered Version is that the dlc events seem incorporated with the main career mode instead of being bonuses. They kinda flow well when blended with the vanilla events. The only problem (which is nitpicky) I have is that the DLC making car unlocking seem weird to me, mainly on when you unlock certain cars. I.E. You can unlock an Aston Martin One-77 before the Nissan 370Z coupe, that doesn't sound quite right. Once again, it's not a big issue; it's just something I wanted to bring up.

I do also like how much smoother the game feels than in the original. There's also the satisfaction of playing this game with better feeling controllers (I bought the original for PS3). I think it's sort of worth buying.

Totally agree with you as I've played this game on PC when originally released and now I'm playing it on One X, feels well polished.

As you mentioned the One-77 unlock, yes, there is a Police rapid response mission which features the Aston but this is sort of a preview only and the car isn't unlocked after completion (similar to other previews). I'm not really sure if this is the thing you were thinking of anyways.
 
As you mentioned the One-77 unlock, yes, there is a Police rapid response mission which features the Aston but this is sort of a preview only and the car isn't unlocked after completion (similar to other previews). I'm not really sure if this is the thing you were thinking of anyways.
Yeah, I know what mission you're talking about, but that's not what I was thinking of.

What I'm talking about is the general unlocking system in this game, you earn cars by simply getting bounty in events. Each car requires a certain amount of bounty (except for certain examples) and well; some cars require less bounty than others. A lot of the cars that were DLC in the original now are unlockables, but the developers gave them absurdly high bounty requirements.

For instance, both normal Dodge Viper SRT-10s require more bounty to unlock than the ACR version. Which is so weird when the ACR is the fastest version, you would think that would require more bounty. but it doesn't.
 
Yeah, I know what mission you're talking about, but that's not what I was thinking of.

What I'm talking about is the general unlocking system in this game, you earn cars by simply getting bounty in events. Each car requires a certain amount of bounty (except for certain examples) and well; some cars require less bounty than others. A lot of the cars that were DLC in the original now are unlockables, but the developers gave them absurdly high bounty requirements.

For instance, both normal Dodge Viper SRT-10s require more bounty to unlock than the ACR version. Which is so weird when the ACR is the fastest version, you would think that would require more bounty. but it doesn't.

Oh, OK then...

Tbh I don't even really pay any attention to the bounty point requirements for car unlocks as I'm just taking whatever is currently available for me (this is my relax/play game :dopey: but I have to admit it is quite addictive recently :bowdown: )
 
I can't remember for sure, but with the 370Z, Viper SRT10, & Panamera Turbo, weren't these cars part of a special offer in the original game? Perhaps that's why they're unlocked towards the end, if I'm thinking correctly.

But, otherwise in general terms, I do agree it is a strange system. I don't remember the Apollo & Veyron SS being the very last racers to unlock or requiring so much bounty either. I think I had pretty much all the racers available by the end of the racer challenges.
 
I can't remember for sure, but with the 370Z, Viper SRT10, & Panamera Turbo, weren't these cars part of a special offer in the original game? Perhaps that's why they're unlocked towards the end, if I'm thinking correctly.
Yup, they were and that's what I was saying in my first post. Since the DLC are incorporated into the main game as unlockables, they now have odd bounty requirements.

I was thinking that the developers were just going to give them requirements in-line with the vanilla cars, but that didn't happen. Which is fine, it's why I called that a nitpick.

---
Side note: The Remaster is also reminding me on how much I hated traffic. Those frustrating moments where I'm doing a time trial run and it seems good until a stupid Nissan Versa pops out of nowhere and stops me. Grrrrrr! but that's part of the NFS experience typically.

I don't think I ever played one NFS game without raging at the game over traffic. :lol:
 
Side note: The Remaster is also reminding me on how much I hated traffic. Those frustrating moments where I'm doing a time trial run and it seems good until a stupid Nissan Versa pops out of nowhere and stops me. Grrrrrr! but that's part of the NFS experience typically.

I don't think I ever played one NFS game without raging at the game over traffic. :lol:
The only issue I've had with traffic has been the AI having brain farts and running into the traffic which just conveniently punts it into my direction. :grumpy:
 
The only issue I've had with traffic has been the AI having brain farts and running into the traffic which just conveniently punts it into my direction. :grumpy:
Oh, I've had that too. Many times more than I can count.

Also, did the original game have an option to use a custom color chip?
 
Oh, I've had that too. Many times more than I can count.

Also, did the original game have an option to use a custom color chip?
I believe that is completely new, although I have already found 1 car that doesn't allow it; the Veyron SS. I believe the wrap/livery option thing is also coming soon.
 
I believe that is completely new, although I have already found 1 car that doesn't allow it; the Veyron SS. I believe the wrap/livery option thing is also coming soon.
Alright, so it's new; which is great! Even better if we have apply liveries or wraps to the cars later on.

The only small thing I would add is the ability the change the colors of each car's stripes in addition to the base coat.
 
And I meant that it's harmful not for the genre, but for the racing component of a racing game. Open world is always going to offer tracks or routes with worse driving lines. Players wont have the opportunity of nailing tracks or explore in depth the fastest way around them. One of my favorite moments in the Nordschleife is when you get to Fuchsrohre: if you do it right, if feels awesome because the margin of error doesn't even exist.
There are arguments for and against. I like the feeling of freedom of an open world. But I think what SlimCharles is trying to say (and I agree on this) is the actual racing routes are much better in closed course games. In open world, you're basically playing jigsaw puzzle with the map, and eventually you're going to come across an intersection. No matter what you do your track is always going to contain some 90 degree turns or awkward junctions. Whereas in closed course games you can design every corner perfectly for driving enjoyment or challenge. Think Nordschleife vs Singapore city circuit.
But I still fail to see how is this related to freeroam and not the road design. Let's take a look at HP2010. All the roads fit the map perfectly but there's no free roam. Now can someone explain to me how would freeroam harm the racing component of this game.
You guys also like to mention Nordschleife like it's the ultimate course, but then when you drive on it you notice that almost half of the course is just straight roads. Don't get me wrong, I love it too, but prefer the GP course for racing. You know why I will always choose the open world over closed routes? Because it's not only about racing. I like to just drive the cars around ordinary roads, with traffic, intersections, parking lots ecc. I was in a convoy in FH4 and we drove from one lot to another. Each one had a different car theme that the leader choose. We just park our cars there for 5-10 minutes and than slowly moved to another location. It was a unique experience that I will gladly redo anytime. Or that time when I met 2 other bikers in the Crew and we just cruised around the map for 2 hours straight. Maybe the best road trip experience I ever had. How about spending days/months trying to complete all the online activities in Paradise? All those extra activities are impossible to recreate in a closed route game.
Sorry for the late reply.
 
But I still fail to see how is this related to freeroam and not the road design. Let's take a look at HP2010. All the roads fit the map perfectly but there's no free roam.

There is free roam in HP2010, but it's bare bones. You access free roam from the career by picking a location and pressing a specific button (Triangle for PS), which takes you to the car select menu. Free Roam is single player only and the only thing you can do is cruise around; you can't start events from free roam.
 
Sorry for the late reply.

No problem.

But I still fail to see how is this related to freeroam and not the road design. Let's take a look at HP2010. All the roads fit the map perfectly but there's no free roam. Now can someone explain to me how would freeroam harm the racing component of this game.

Because very few devs try to make an open world with racing tracks that make sense. Partly because when designing an open world you have to spend time on stuff you don't have in a game like Driveclub and partly because the actual design of the map in a open world game compromises the flow of the tracks. Legend-1 made a great exposition of that IMO.

You guys also like to mention Nordschleife like it's the ultimate course,

Because it is, not for overtaking, but for driving fast. And you do exactly that when racing. It has a flow, variety and challenge you can't find in any other real racing track.

But I still fail to see how is this related to freeroam and not the road design. Let's take a look at HP2010. All the roads fit the map perfectly but there's no free roam. Now can someone explain to me how would freeroam harm the racing component of this game.
You guys also like to mention Nordschleife like it's the ultimate course, but then when you drive on it you notice that almost half of the course is just straight roads. Don't get me wrong, I love it too, but prefer the GP course for racing. You know why I will always choose the open world over closed routes? Because it's not only about racing. I like to just drive the cars around ordinary roads, with traffic, intersections, parking lots ecc. I was in a convoy in FH4 and we drove from one lot to another. Each one had a different car theme that the leader choose. We just park our cars there for 5-10 minutes and than slowly moved to another location. It was a unique experience that I will gladly redo anytime. Or that time when I met 2 other bikers in the Crew and we just cruised around the map for 2 hours straight. Maybe the best road trip experience I ever had. How about spending days/months trying to complete all the online activities in Paradise? All those extra activities are impossible to recreate in a closed route game.

Each to their own. Never said open world is bad for racing games, on the contrary and those are very good examples of what open world racers can offer. But I do said it's harmful for the racing inside a racing game.
 
Another question, is progress saved between versions if you say, buy two versions of the game, and start the game on Switch, but want to continue on PS4? Considering the usage of an EA ID for crossplay purposes, my leaning is towards yes, but I want to make sure.
 
Another question, is progress saved between versions if you say, buy two versions of the game, and start the game on Switch, but want to continue on PS4? Considering the usage of an EA ID for crossplay purposes, my leaning is towards yes, but I want to make sure.

Sadly no cross progression, even if you use the same EA account on both platform they are identified as 2 different accounts on each platform. For example on Switch the EA ID will have a "PB-" tag in front of your EA ID and on Xbox is "HP-" tag.
 
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Sadly no cross progression, even if you use the same EA account on both platform they are identified as 2 different accounts on each platform. For example on Switch the EA ID will have a "PB-" tag in front of your EA ID and on Xbox is "HP-" tag.

Well, that sucks a bit. But then again, what games have cross-progression and crossplay by this point? I think Destiny 2 only.
 
But I still fail to see how is this related to freeroam and not the road design. Let's take a look at HP2010. All the roads fit the map perfectly but there's no free roam. Now can someone explain to me how would freeroam harm the racing component of this game.

You guys also like to mention Nordschleife like it's the ultimate course, but then when you drive on it you notice that almost half of the course is just straight roads. Don't get me wrong, I love it too, but prefer the GP course for racing. You know why I will always choose the open world over closed routes? Because it's not only about racing. I like to just drive the cars around ordinary roads, with traffic, intersections, parking lots ecc. I was in a convoy in FH4 and we drove from one lot to another. Each one had a different car theme that the leader choose. We just park our cars there for 5-10 minutes and than slowly moved to another location. It was a unique experience that I will gladly redo anytime. Or that time when I met 2 other bikers in the Crew and we just cruised around the map for 2 hours straight. Maybe the best road trip experience I ever had. How about spending days/months trying to complete all the online activities in Paradise? All those extra activities are impossible to recreate in a closed route game.
Sorry for the late reply.

As RX8 Racer said, HP 2010 does feature free roam. But it's undercooked feature and basically just "there". I never even used freeroam in that game until the last day when I finished all the races and just wanna see what it's like. It's so boring, I turned it off after 10 minutes. The racing in HP 2010 is still good because the map is designed with wide open roads and the frequency of junctions are minimal. It's not like Payback/Heat's map which also tries to fit some urban areas into it. And I would argue that, if HP 2010 had individual courses made a la PS1 era NFSes, it will be an even better game in terms of the racing.

Nordschleife is an old school high speed road course. It might look like half of it are straights, but with the exception of Dottinger, none of the straights are your typical flat dead boring straight. They have kinks, bumps, crests and blind fast corners. Taken as a whole there is no other track like it, with the exception of IOM TT maybe. Yes it's terrible for passing opportunities, but if we're talking driving enjoyment it beats the GP circuit (especially the mickey mouse stadium section). What I was trying to say when comparing it to NFS is, organic corners that flow provide better driving enjoyment than geometric designed corners or city intersections.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not slagging open world completely here. Burnout Paradise is my top 3 racer on PS3. It's my first platinum and I completed all 500 freeburn challenges in that game. Loved every second of it. I also love cruising in FUEL (2.5 hour from edge to edge), Driver San Francisco, Most Wanted 2012, and even going back to Driver 1/2 on PS1. I love the feeling of freedom open world gives, but in the end, your remember the world, not the tracks. The racing is just there to have something to do to unlock stuff. It's not memorable in itself. Whereas I still remember all the intense 2 player races I had with my uncle in Hometown in NFS III: HP. Even now 20 years later I can still tell your corner by corner of that track. That special curated track design is what's missing in freeroam.

At the end of the day, both closed and freeroam game designs can coexist. They both supplement each other and none are inherently "better" than the other. But it would be a sad day if arcade racers all decide to become open world (or vice versa).

Anyway, I've said everything I want about this topic and I don't want to take this thread off topic any further. Happy to leave this here :P
 
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Well, that sucks a bit. But then again, what games have cross-progression and crossplay by this point? I think Destiny 2 only.

I think all the Xbox Play Anywhere games like Gears of War and Forza has crossplay and cross progression between PC and Xbox but for other 3rd party studios, the newest Assassin Creed, Watch Dogs and future Ubisoft games will have cross progression.
 
I planned on buying this game and saw that it was 25% off on the Xbox store, so I decided to pick it up. I’ve been playing Rivals lately too, which is pretty much just Hot Pursuit with free roam (and has some of the most merciless cops in the franchise :crazy:), but I remember HP being considered the better game.
 
I bought this last week and have no regrets. I’m surprised I’m still having this much fun for a game I played ten years ago...the formula still works.
 
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