Say some nice things about various NFS game designs.

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While there are some neat stuff from prior NFS games returning in Heat (e.g. risk vs reward pursuits), here were my thoughts on some other stuff that I'd love to see return to NFS, or otherwise be expanded upon and evolved in another IP:

Most Wanted:
-Spike strips that were genuinely threatening. I would evolve this by making it still have a notable impact, but you could still go for a while after running over a strip. (I recall that there are real-world tires that allow the car to be driven even after being punctured.) Perhaps eventually, you could obtain an airless tire design (like Michelin is working on), and when equipped, spike strips would have a much less noticeable effect. But running over them should still be more threatening than just a temporary slowing down and some health getting instantly removed, like in HP2010.

-I liked the cool-down spots, and overall, the focus on stealth in pursuits. It really did like you were a mouse in a game of cat-and-mouse. Especially when there was a helicopter, and you had to be under a bridge to lose it, or just wait out the helicopter until it has to go refuel.

Carbon
-I liked the Canyon Duels a LOT. A very fun mode with its own neat rulesets, like deducting points for ramming, or almost instantly deciding a winner when a car is overtaken, and/or has pulled far away enough from the other.

-Another game mechanic that I loved was the territory mechanic. It could return as a multiplayer environment that could result in tons of emergent gameplay. You could have three or four "major" factions, and then "minor" factions within each "major" faction. A little like how Carbon did so, all these factions could follow a more specific motif. For example, a faction for commemorative models, like the Countach 25th Anniversary and the Ferrari F40.

-Yet another thing I liked was the challenge cards, and how they offered all sorts of neat prizes. I also liked the fact that when you complete all four of a given card, another prize is given, and how some cards did seem to follow a theme.


HP2010

-One thing I especially liked here, was being able to pick from various OEM colors for each car, including the factory names of the respective colors.
 
It's nice to have a wholesome thread in the NFS section for a change 👍 I really hope it doesn't get derailed.

Since the last two games have received so much flack, I'll start by mentioning a few positives about them first (will probably discuss other games in a future post.)

2015
- The Atmosphere. When I first saw the teasers in mid 2015, before E3 I was like "Finally, the series is going back to a style which I had the fondest memories of the series!" and sure enough, the game depicted the underground, street racing vibe very well.

- The Graphics. The lighting helped create that desirable atmosphere and at the time, I thought it was the best looking game I have ever played. Not necessarily most realistic, but it immersed me in its environment.

- The cutscenes. Yes, the acting was a little BTEC Drama, but I love how the game didn't take itself too seriously. Also, the seamless transition from cutscenes to garage was jawdropping when I first saw it.

Payback
- Derelicts. I think this was my favourite feature of the game because it took the barn find idea from the Horizon series and made it so much better. Not only was the hunt for parts fun, you genuinely felt like you were building a car and as a reward, you get some of the most upgradable cars in the game.

- Speed Cards. Stop booing, I'm talking about Speed cards after they made significant changes to the RNG system and introduced catchup packs. Since that update, it hasn't been hard to fully upgrade cars. Furthermore, I enjoy the minigame of having to mix-and-match perks to maximize performance rather than maxing out every car in 30 seconds or less using a traditional upgrade system.

- Skyhammer. Best mission in any NFS game.
 
I'll only list games I've played, here goes:

NFS I-IV HS - exotic cars & locations, Rom di Prisco's soundtrack, car showcase with voiceovers

NFS PU - amazing career mode going through the history of Porsche

Underground - first to bring extensive visual customization

UG2 - dyno test, detailed ECU & boost tuning affecting power/torque curve

Carbon - canyon race

Prostreet - Mondello Park (really struggling to think of anything here)

Undercover - none, except maybe the garage music (Underworld's Glam Bucket is amazingly atmospheric)

Shift - works conversion, each car having individual tacho in HUD

HP 2010 - see NFS I-IV minus the soundtrack

The Run - epic story mode, basically Outrun NFS style, diverse Challenge Series

MW 2012 - Burnout Paradise with real cars, nuff said

No Limits - great car detail despite mobile title, extensive post release updates (still supported to this day)

NFS 2015 - rain graphics, first to have real branded bodykits

Payback - satisfying story, interesting characters, derelict hunting

Heat - combining 2015 and Payback's graphics, gorgeous world, engine swaps, detailed handling tuning with usable grip
 
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Want to tell about Prostreet. What I really liked were:
- Car selection suited all my tastes. There was a lot of cars I did enjoyed, that were lost, forgotten, in other titles and other games. Special one is Pontiac GTO'65. Also Porsche 911 Turbo, which somehow AWD car that nowhere to be found nowadays. Chevelle SS.
- High speed races. For me this part was perfect, like good old days of NFS, wide long road into tight winding sections, with some surprises as obstacles and lethal bumps.
- Physics... Probably the top point before overdone Shift and full let down in new generation. Tuning wasn't that tricky, but at least affected car behavior.
- Interesting Career. Too sad that finals were much easier than the road to them. Still remember GripRunners races in last section was a tough challenge. AI was ok, really ok.
- Liked a theme of Race Weekends.
- Nurave music, one of few Need For Speed games that got me to save over 70 percent of soundtrack and dig groups and genre used in game. Damn, even Noisia were there with No Good remix, what a tribute.
- For me the best drag racing realisation so far. We spent a lot of hours with my best friend, racing each other and tweaking, decorating cars in split screen mode.
- Also online was entertaining, thanks for good tracks design. Races in Tokyo port through speed way probably most memorable for me. Developers lately tried to recreate that in late titles, but Prostreet nailed it forever in my heart. Tracks were indeed not an eye candy, but great challenges and tests, and all unique.

Truth been told, after Hot Pursuit I kinda gave up on NFS, because Street Racing wasn't my thing. I liked cops and whole original generation of the game, spent years in High Stakes, Porsche Unleashed, and Hot Pursuit through those times of Underground. Played Carbon a little, but Prostreet brought a love to the series again. And then again dark times of Street Racing with even worse drifting Physics:).

Worth to mention, played reboot only to hear Romulus 3 and Callista again in game, nothing else unfortunately was great about this title. Wished they better "reboot" Romolo for another masterpeaces.
 
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I started playing NFS games when Hot Pursuit came out for PS1. Now instead of going through every title I want to talk about each series.
The Hot Pursuit series:
HP and HP2 were really games that cough my attention. Intense races, breathe taking locations, exotic cars and police chases. Perfect cocktail for an arcade racer. The 2010 HP really made a jump allowing us to play as a cop too. And with Rivals open world it reached the peak.
The Underground:
Here's where the series took a first turn. The game gave us a purpose. To build a car. And it gave us tools to realize it. Customization was on another level, never seen before. Underground 1 and 2 were ahead of the competition with multiple body kits, neons, wraps, hydraulic suspensions, woofers... But it was really the 2015 title that stood out in my eyes with original body kits like Rocket Bunny and Liberty Walk. Also the introduction of real world stars and theirs cars was a nice touch. And the graphics.. pure eye heaven. Oh, I almost forgot about NoLimits. A true underground title and one of the best mobile games IMO.
Most Wanted :
With this series I liked the introduction of a villain to defeat. For the first time we had a story in a racing game. An end game. While 2005 and Carbon had a good antagonist, Undercover and Payback introduced a real story to follow. But really the king of storytelling was the Run.
This are my thoughts about NFS games I played, I liked and loved. I want to give an honorable mention to ProStreet for the unique atmosphere and the gorgeous soundtrack. Also want to mention MW2012 that gave us a Burn Out game with real cars and one of the most beautiful car sounds ever.
Last.. real shame they didn't make Shift a separate series, not related to the NFS name. I'm sure it would be a nice addition to the sim oriented circuit races. Specially with that damage model and the ability to build an ordinary car to a proper race car.
 
Customisation in Need for Speed with Ken Block in the FMV's, is fantastic, best in the business.

Still is.

NFS Shift had some of the most immersive sense of speed I have experienced, and still haven't since.
 
NFS Most Wanted cop chases is still the one and only thing I kept going back to it and it is one of the few games that I find the open world to be a crucial part of the gameplay instead of being a place to put races that we can get to and just driving around. The gameplay loop of doing races and messing with cops to climb the blacklist is great fun.

Generally car visual customisation is pretty much the best thing in recent NFS games, most racing game visual customisation doesn't match up to the insanity we can do to the cars.
 
In UG1 every opponent in career even the minor insignificant ones have their own custom cars that start out basic and plain looking. But as you progress through the game they upgrade the looks of their cars with more aggressive bodykits, neons, lights but while still maintaining the same color scheme they started with.
Such a small detail but it feels like the opponents you face are "real" and they're progressing through the career with you. Way better than randomly generated names and cars on every race.
 
NFS1 thorugh NFS5 - Porsche Unleashed - savable replays, based on controller inputs Replays would just re-run the race using the stored controller inputs. Since the replays could be exchanged between systems, this guaranteed that the game play was consistent on different systems.

NFS2 - allowed up to 11 AI cars for offline race. NFS2SE and later games reduced this to 7 opponents.

HS - ghost most combined with replays. After running a race, a "ghost" could be saved, similar to what are called shadow runs. Unlike the replay system, the ghost mode was telemetry based, to avoid consuming processor time with the game's physics. A player could then race against the ghost, and a replay showing the players car and the ghost could be saved. Online knockout mode, a series of 6 races, where the last place finisher in each race would drive a dump truck in the remaining races to block the other races. With a full pit (8 players), the final race was 2 racers and 6 trucks.

PU - factory driver mode mean that PU was the first NFS with a storyline. The stunts like 180 skid turns were part of the events. First large out of bounds area at Zone Industrielle track, by driving through a non-solid wall, good for top speed tests of cars. Last NFS with both LAN and TCP/IP play as alternatives to the EA online server.

HP2 - online spectator mode, while waiting for a race to complete in the race "room" lobby, a player could view the race as seen by the players in the current race, being able to switch between the players of the current race.

U1 - re-introduced a storyline into NFS games.

U2 - first NFS with free roam.

MW - players could go out of bounds at one or two key spots, but it was awkward compared to Carbon. Last NFS with LAN mode.

Carbon - players could get into online free roam by doing a left uturn at the start of Starlight Street through the archway. Bus stops could be used to get into out of bounds mode to reach locations not connected to the main map. World inherited both when it first started (later fixed, but not all spots to go out of bounds). Online knockout mode again, similar to HS, only this time the last place finisher drives a cop car to slow down the remaining racers.

Undercover - online cops and robbers (red team versus blue team) mode.
 
High Stakes - the High Stakes split-screen race which is basically a pink slip race. I remember me and my brother doing one race, after I won and got his car, I sold his car in front of him :lol:

Porsche Unleashed - the 917. Need I say more?

UG2 - the ECU fine-tuning which allows you to change an engine's powerband curve. We NEED this BADLY in Gran Turismo.

Most Wanted - police pursuits. The cop chatter made this game mode immersive as hell. Oh, and those 🤬 spike strips and helicopters.

Carbon - canyon races. I'm a huge Initial D fan myself.

ProStreet - Car selection and the fine-tuning options the game gives. Also, the simcade driving physics. If you were looking for an entry into the sim racing world back in 2007, ProStreet was the game for you.

Undercover - the massive open world, and the story. I like how you play as an undercover cop.

Shift - the AI. This has the best AI in any racing game I have ever played. This is no zombie AI like in GT; if you crash in a street course and end up blocking the racing line and half the road, the AI will slow down and go around you. Also the same reason as ProStreet; the simcade physics. Aaaand this game introduced me to the L2-R2 controls for brake and throttle. Since then I never went back to the traditional X-Square setup.

Heat - engine swaps :drool: also the story, which is short but sweet. I also like how the metallic finish on paint looks so good in this game.
 
NFS1-NFS4 - Practically anything is driveable with cheat codes, including traffic cars like the Citroen 2CV in NFS2, Miata in NFS1-NFS3, Probe in NFS1 (I like the Probe. fite me,) BMW 3-series in NFS2, logs and several houses in NFS2 and even a T-Rex in NFS2 also. I also like all of the fantasy supercars in them.

NFS1 - Had a chat mode for LAN races, and came out in 1994.

NFS2 - All of the wacky tracks.

NFS3 - The Hot Pursuit mode... even though I wish you could have more opponents on track in it. NFS4 has more, but I haven't played it.

NFS:UG/NFS:UG2 - The car customization! And the NFS:U soundtrack too.

NFS:C - Autosculpt, and the crew mechanic.

NFS:PS - I remember loving the Drag and Top Speed Run. Too bad I had an Athlon 64 2650e with a Radeon 9550SE if I remember correctly and got around 5 FPS. Didn't have high standards then.

NFS:UC - The police chases. Wish they occured less often though. And I wish that the map wasn't a retextured Rockport.

NFS:PB - I like the map a lot.
 
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