The Amalgamated Thread of Cut NFS Content / Concepts

Silver Arrows

Silver Arrows

(Banned)
4,715
Canada
Brandon, MB
Silver-Arrows21
So for the most part, this is a thread to document the various videos and findings of those in the greater NFS community, mainly Speedyheart and GrandTheftAero, pertaining to various cut content and concepts found within the NFS games. Instead of making new threads as per I have usually done for new videos mainly by GrandTheftAero, I am combining it all into one thread.

First off, a teaser video for the next GrandTheftAero video on the cut and removed content of Most Wanted 2005 dropping 'late 2018/early 2019'



And as the description says, the teaser for the (what I'm assuming is) early builds of Most Wanted 2 (Or what would would become the 2012 sequel) is dropping in April.

The next few posts are reserved for other GrandTheftAero longform videos and threads already made on this general subject.
 
Last edited:
NFS Most Wanted 2012

Silver Arrows


New video from GrandTheftAero sheds light into one of the more divisive titles in the later era of NFS, Most Wanted 2012.

Most of the stuff is somewhat incidental, so I will run through more bulletin point material

- Strangely enough, not many map changes compared to other games, aside from a few general road changes.

- Speedbreaker and Cooldown spots were cut, the former not making it to the first E3 build, the second being cut and never seen after the first E3 video.

- Cut cars include the true BMW M3 GTR (Which looked like it was going to be in the game at launch, instead was shifted to DLC) A Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, a Hummer H1 Alpha, 2006 WRX STi (Which is surmised that it was cut and made room for the Impreza Cosworth, which is IMO a much better and interesting choice) and a C2 Corvette Stingray.

- An actual story was supposed to be had, but was cut fairly early in the development process. Mentions to Mia from MW2005 are present. Which leads to the big revelation....

- This game was supposed to be a direct sequel to Most Wanted 2005. Customization and other features from the past games (Which I outlined above) figured much more prominently into the original pitch for the game, but it was cut down into the barely related game that shipped to retail.

- Older songs from past NFS games were supposed to be present, the one most notable being Fear for the Flava by Hot Action Cop. Also, the song played during the original reveal trailer, Firestarter by The Prodigy, is present in the files.

In my opinion, some of these aspects may have helped MW2012, but ultimately, I have never liked either of the Criterion based NFS games, because they never could really breathe into their own skin. There is too many Burnout influences to really make it separate from the NFS experience, considering that NFS, to me at least, a much more grounded arcade experience. Even trying to shed the NFS name and taking the game as the sequel to Burnout Paradise, the game didn't really feel that fun or groundbreaking.
Click to expand...
 
NFS Undercover

Silver Arrows
GrandTheftAero has released another video of cut concepts and theorizing for NFS games, this time focusing on what is known (and definitely is, no question about it) as the worst game in the series: Undercover.



Like the last thread on MW2012, I am going to break down the video via bullet points of what I think is the juiciest stuff to make into the video.

  • Not much is known on when Undercover started in development, but the video theorized that the absolute earliest year it existed was 2003 via two pieces of concept art which can't really be tied to any of the games in development around this time period. Though it's also presented in this video that it is more and likely the game left the conceptulization stage about three months after Carbon's release.
  • This game was theorized as a sequel to Most Wanted, and the internal files present within the game support this. However, unlike MW 2012 which was designed as a MW 2005 sequel right from the jump, this was short lived, as there exists no leaked concept art of this iteration of Undercover.
  • Devs were searching for a more serious tone in the game then past NFS titles. Alongside races, you were going to on what eventually became jobs in the final game. There was also an emphasis on amping up the amount of live action cut-scenes then what was present in MW 2005 and Carbon combined.
  • By late 2006, EA Black Box realized that they would need more time to get Undercover off the ground. As a result, Black Box got their reprieve and their 2007 release in Prostreet. The video theorizes that this resulted in a massive stretching of resources for the Vancouver company, considering that at this time, they were also working on their new non-racing IP, which would soon become Skate. Considering the amount of work that was put into the Flick-It system for Skate alone (Of which you can look up on Youtube, there's a fair amount of prototype footage for how Skate worked) it is surmised this is the reason why Black Box was split into two: one team would work on Prostreet, the other on Undercover, with some overlap in between.
  • Early development has Undercover known as The Chase in mid-2007. This is also where the majority of the live action cutscenes were shot.
  • Through the past two games, Black Box had been given a very hard development time, this was lifted and the team was given a reprieve of sorts. But it would not last for long...in the summer of 2007, the vast majority of the core Black Box staff, including Martin Sykes, the co-founder, and would move from the Black Box studios in Burnaby to Yaletown to form United Front Games, most known for Modnation Racers and Sleeping Dogs. However, Martin Sykes would soon pass away in his sleep on Christmas Eve, 2007.
  • Middling reviews for Prostreet did not temper expectations from EA themselves that Undercover would be a success coming after a relatively lackluster title in Prostreet.
  • Announced in June of 2008, the game hit a snag when a Marketing team member leaked a development build for the 360 for release of forums and torrent sites. While EA did try to take action and shut down the downloads, it eventually was a lost cause. Nor did the person who leaked it face any sort of legal action.
  • After release, as you know, the game was aboslutely ravaged for it's middling and drab gameplay, insane amounts of bugs, glitches, and shoddy programming, crappy visuals and handling model, the entire works. This is reflected in overall sales, as the game only sold 1.14 million copies in the US for all systems (presumably). To put this in perspective, this is nearly 2 million less then Carbon's release two years earlier, and a million less then Prostreet a year before.
  • To add onto this, Undercover as a whole sold 5 million copies world wide...now consider the following: this game was RELEASED ON 12 SYSTEMS OVERALL. This game spanned two console generations, and only managed to hit 5 million. Even worse, this game only sold less then a quarter of Most Wanted 2005's figure, which is surmised to be nearly 50 million copies.
  • The video then ends with the narrator surmising that if Black Box was chained to the development of Prostreet alongside Undercover and to a much smaller extent Skate, then Undercover would have been able to reach it's full potential.
Click to expand...
 
Hello, everyone. Unfortunetaly, due to some legal trouble, I am saddened to announce that the NFS: Most Wanted 2012 video will be on-hold for a while. Possibly forever. This was completely out of my control and I was looking very forward to making the video. Unfortunetaly, some gaming companies just seem to hate the history of videogames and don't realize that people find this kind of stuff very interesting in a non-harmful way. Most Wanted 2005 video is also on-hold for a short-while due to some issues the narrator is facing. I am very sorry, but I cannot do anything about it.
Click to expand...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdedaoom2uhCNH0C9fMxcAA/community?lb=UgywmsKOuAoRytkNqaN4AaABCQ
 
Necro bump time, and this time it's something significant.



Most Wanted 2 Prototype Gameplay showing the event "The Chase" in full from start to finish.As far as i know nobody outside of criterion has ever seen a full playthrough until now. The Chase is one of two missions seen in the prototype and shows off the finished level at the time. The build in the video is from December 2011 but nothing major changes at all.
Click to expand...
 
Some interesting notes for those who aren't in the know.

- There are two missions in the "MW2" builds, the one shown in the video, and another one involving escaping the cops from a safehouse.
- The only playable vehicles at this stage are the unique version of the E92 that is seen here, and an unfinished M3 GTR model. Leftover vehicle entries from Hot Pursuit exist but the majority of them don't seem to be usable.
- The vehicle damage system (as least for the player) seems to be closer to Hot Pursuit.
- There are a number of weapons available to the player. Spike strips, arc light, and thermal camera are functional in these early builds. Other weapons also existed but it's not clear what they do as they crash the game.
- Speedbreaker exists. It does not work very well.
- There are some additional roads in the Downtown and McClane that were later scrapped. They are only partially completed.
- There are at least two safehouses in the early builds. One in Downtown, and one in McClane. Additional safehouses show up in later builds and you can still find the entrances to them in the final game.
- Pursuit breakers can be found throughout the map. Some of them can be triggered by contact whilst others require pursuit tech to be used.

The whole "Most Wanted 2" story concept seems to have been abandoned sometime in January/February 2012.
 

Latest Posts

Back