With EA taking a gap break, from their constant year on year Need For Speed content, as well as the lack of information circulating about their latest product, on top of the fact of games such as Project Cars getting glowing reviews before their final product is to be released on the consoles and P.C, could this be the end of the much loved franchise?
Throughout the 10+ years of playing Need for Speed game, they always played one element to the book, it s ‘pick up & play’ element. Many of us car enthusiasts do get bored of the main stream games such as GTA V or Call of Duty& just want to play a game revolving around the one thing we love, cars!
Starting from the 90’s to early 00’s Need For Speed oozed with fun whether it was just racing with cops on your tail, or just as a fully focus point to point racer, it was guaranteed to give you a smile, or at least a smirk. I mean did you remember Hot Pursuit 2 on the consoles? From a personal perspective, I loved that game so much that, if I couldn’t find a decent game to play, I would play the longest track, 8 laps, with the hardest difficulty of cops & A.I. I just plug in my steering wheel and play away. I also enjoyed the realism, in terms of, if the A.I got busted more than 3 times, that was it, they couldn’t continue to race, of which is missing in a lot of games recently (but that’s another story)
Then came the dawn of modifications and tuning. Partly helped by the Fast & furious franchise and the fact that the car enthusiasts were screaming for, the arrival of Underground, Underground 2 and Most Wanted we couldn’t believe it. Modified body parts, performance, the introduction of nitrous & free roam, it was a close as perfect. It didn’t matter if the car looked like it should be in a museum or riced-up in the Sainsbury’s car park after 11, the smile just kept growing.
Then Carbon was released, aka the first bump in the road. Yes it was sticking to the same recipe as the previous 3 titles, but it new additions didn’t really set the racing gaming industry on fire. The autosculpt seemed too much effort for what was a part on a car, the crew system was distracting, annoying at times, it was like the game didn’t trust that you was a good driver in the gaming world.
However the introduction of ProStreet, Undercover & to some extent Shift, really seem to show the cracks in EA’s tires. They took a risk with Prostreet, of which is admirable, if it worked, by entering the legal racing accept of which most, if all their success was based around illegal racing, I mean doesn’t need for speed sound like a rebel title hunting for the true speed desire by any means or am in just reading too much into the title?
So they go back to its “roots” with Undercover of which got a lower score than Prostreet according to GameRanking;
“Prostreet (PS3) 72.87%(1) (X360) 72.17%(2), Undercover (PS3) 62.66%(3)(X360) 64.58%(4)”
After Undercover came Hot Pursuit (not to be confused with the original that released in 1998) which was good for two things, car sounds and soundtracks. It removed the free roam and customisation, it was woeful.
Just to point out, I haven’t played Shift 2 therefore I won’t say anything for or against it.
By the time, Need for Speed: The Run came out, the formula refuse to change. Not even the slick cut scenes could help it. If anything the cut scenes was better than the game play itself. Yeah I was shocked as well.
It seemed all was not well, so after NFS The Run, EA needed a big seller in form of Need for Speed Most Wanted (again, not to be confused with the earlier release with the same title). Now this game was a good change, personally, but not for the typical reasons you might have expected. The game was made with the help from the guys at Criterion Games, the same geniuses that made the Burnout series. Burnout 3 is the game I still play to this day! So they are not shy about making a great game. The main reason I saw Most Wanted as a good game is because I didn’t see it as a EA game but more of the next Burnout game with real cars, which it basically was. Also the first game I consider purchasing DLC.
Then came NFS first next gen game, NFS Rivals. This has to be the worse next gen racing I have ever, EVER! come across. I couldn’t complete the game because it was soo buggy. So you’d think the mass of updates would fix the game? Nope the updates changed the game from buggy to unplayable. It was so F****** bad. To make it worse i paid full price for it, of which I demanded a full price refund that I never got, had to trade it for half the price, F****** A!
This really damage the way I thought about the Need for Speed franchise. EA seems to damage not only Need for Speed but other franchise like FIFA. The source of the problem, they are focussing less on the game and more on holding back ideas in order to pass it off as DLC and maximise profit. From a business point of view, it great to get big money on top of the game sale but from a consumers point of view, it makes us feel ripped off, having to spend more for a complete game experience. That goes with pre-orders as well. Before pre order were beneficial, now the only reason many go forward for this is to either get a guaranteed copy or you really, really, really want the extra content they are offering, of which many is just early access than an pre order exclusive.
So will we see a Need for Speed game that the consumers will enjoy and the creators satisfied with large sales and profit? Honest answer, it hard to tell but the future is looking bleak. Even if certain issues are resolved, it going to be a hard sell.
References
(1) http://www.gamerankings.com/ps3/939739-need-for-speed-prostreet/index.html
(2) http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/939664-need-for-speed-prostreet/index.html
(3) http://www.gamerankings.com/ps3/948963-need-for-speed-undercover/index.html
(4) http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/948965-need-for-speed-undercover/index.html
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