Need for Speed: Payback [PS4, XBO, PC]

Last edited by jawafour on Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:53 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Title Need for Speed: Payback
Formats PS4, XBO, PC
Publisher EA
Developer Ghost Games
Launch 10 November 2017

Background

High-Stakes Competition
> Get on a roll and win big with risk-versus-reward gameplay. The return of cop chases means the stakes have never been higher.

Live Out an Action-Driving Fantasy
> Play through an explosive adventure as three distinct characters united by one common goal: revenge.

Scrap to Stock to Supercar
> Endlessly fine-tune your performance through each of the five distinct car classes (Race, Drift, Off-Road, Drag, and Runner) to turn the tables on the competition in any race, mission or challenge. Find abandoned vehicles scattered throughout the world to create your perfect car from the ground up. Collect, win or buy the hottest after-market parts and build out your perfect garage.

Artwork

Trailers

Announcement (02 June 2017)

Welcome to Fortune Valley (26 September 2017)

Pre-order notes

ea.com wrote:(blah, blah, blah)... Exclusive Platinum Blue Tire Smoke

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I've not played a Need for Speed game in about 10 years (I think) and this may be a good test for the Scorpio when I get it as this has all sorts of stuff going on and I can see how they could easily use the extra power to make the game run smoother while looking a bit nicer.
It will be interesting to see any digital foundry comparison video's for all the systems.

PostRe: Need for Speed: Payback [PS4, XBO, PC] by KK » Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:44 pm

I don't think I've ever watched a trailer where I've gone from interested based on the opening 5 seconds alone to epically disinterested so quickly.

Badly acted, well-trodden ground to me.

I'm sure if you love the Fast and the Furious movies though you'll probably like this.

I haven't watched the trailer yet but from the description it sounds like something to pick up cheap 8 months after release; tired b-tier F&F nonsense which I had my fill of in The Crew. Guess i'll go back and play Shift, Shift 2, Pro Street and the older ps2-era games instead.

I don't think I've ever played a NFS game.

Peter Crisp wrote:...this may be a good test for the Scorpio when I get it as this has all sorts of stuff going on and I can see how they could easily use the extra power to make the game run smoother while looking a bit nicer...

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if Ghost Games make use of the Pro and Scorpio's additional technical power.

Trelliz wrote:I haven't watched the trailer yet but from the description it sounds like something to pick up cheap 8 months after release; tired b-tier F&F nonsense which I had my fill of in The Crew...

Fair enough, Trelliz - but the trailer does actually look pretty neat. Uhm.. although KK doesn't think so...

KK wrote:...Badly acted, well-trodden ground to me...

I wouldn't worry too much about that; remember how EA promoted the last Need for Speed and Ubisoft promoted Watch Dogs 2? i.e. lots of young, apparently cool people saying silly things? The games turned out to be much better than the promotional clips suggested.

Saint of Killers wrote:I don't think I've ever played a NFS game.

. That's quite a number of titles you've avoided, Saint! I liked the first games, kicking off with Road & Track Presents: Need for Speed" on the PlayStation, with III being my favourite. Hot Pursuit 2 was excellent on the original Xbox, but the otherwise-popular titles like Underground and Carbon didn't appeal to me. In latter years I've played and enjoyed NFS Nitro (Wii), NFS Hot Pursuit (PS3) and NFS Rivals (PS4). I also have the last NFS but I've yet to play it :fp:

.

jawafour wrote:Fair enough, Trelliz - but the trailer does actually look pretty neat.

A 'neat' trailer does not a good game make. I'll check it out later for sure, but i find the whole mechanic of escaping the cops or whatever to be laborious anti-fun which serves to limit rather than enhance an open driving game; it was garbage in The Crew and the recent Most Wanted and is why i prefer the Forza Horizon series to all of them.

Trelliz wrote:...but i find the whole mechanic of escaping the cops or whatever to be laborious anti-fun which serves to limit rather than enhance an open driving game...

I know what you mean, Trelliz. I remember playing a demo of a 4WD driving game on the PlayStation; it was on a disc that came with the Official PlayStation Magazine UK. It was terrific; I think the demo only lasted something like three minutes but you could simply drive your vehicle wherever you wanted over the terrrain. The car reacted well to the ground (hills, water and the like) and it was just good fun - I played it loads of times.

Unfortunately, when the game released a few months later, reviews indicated that that free-ride aspect had been replaced with dull, tortuous timing challenges in which you had to drive around prescripted directions. It sounded like all of the fun had been taken away and I never bought it!

Now... what was the game called?

The Criterion Need For Speed games were the only ones I've ever enjoyed.

Like Forza Motorsport 7, this will have no Toyotas in it either

So no AE86, Supra or other iconic street racer-y cars which games like NFS built their name/brand on, but at least the Subaru BRZ will represent the GT86 instead. I hope they haven't done a Porsche and gone exclusive for Gran Turismo or something.

New trailer: Welcome to Fortune Valley.

Gemini73

None of the recent NFS titles have ever come close to Most Wanted (the original, not the terrible update some years later). Sure the cut scenes were cringe inducing, but the open world racing was top notch.

The last NFS was awful. One of the worst. The terrible cut scenes, the even worse gameplay. Utter dross. Glad I only borrowed it.

I'd like to keep an open mind for the next installment, but after that trailer it just look like EA are going to repeat the last entry.

They just have not figured out what to do with NFS that works consistently, or abandoned good ideas to ape whatever comes along. Underground 2 and Most Wanted cast a long shadow which they haven't been able to avoid; i remember at e3 one of the devs said something about how everyone loves the older games so people should get payback as it has x y and z. They should have done what Forza did and had the opportunity to do it first; an undergound/most wanted brand alternating with shift/pro street games to provide both ends of the racing spectrum in different games rather than try to meet both in one.

Plus its an ea game so you know its going to be dlc'd and microtransactioned to hell and back.

Gemini73 · Last edited by Gemini73 on Wed Sep 27, 2017 11:15 am, edited 2 times in total.

NFS The Run was a wasted opportunity. What should have been an open world Cannonball Run styled game turned out to be nothing more than a series of tedious, short lived time trials interlaced with cut scenes.

NFS Hot Pursuit on the PS2 was and still is my favourite NFS game. Still have the disc around

I think the NFS games that I played the most were the original and III, both on the PlayStation. I loved the two-player split screen mode of that first title whilst III was just great fun. I also really enjoyed Hot Pursuit 2 on PC and Xbox.

Although the styling is a bit too trendy for my tastes, I still like the look of the new game. I will definitely hold off for a price drop, though. I have NFS 2015 to play in the meantime 8-)

(

...).

Gemini73

On reflection I don't think I ever tried NFS Pro Street, so I ordered it from Amazon for the Xbox 360 for £1.27, £3.29 including postage.

...I've just bought a gooseberry fool game, haven't I? :lol:

5/10 from gamespot; repetitive and grindy with no self-awareness, too many cutscenes taking away control all the time, plus lootboxes.

This all combines to make a game that's bland and unfulfilling, and is only exacerbated by the sheer amount of grinding you're required to do. Each event in Payback is gated by your car's level in the most egregious case of caRPG mechanics in recent memory. Each vehicle you own has six slots for Speed Cards that represent various parts under the hood (like the gearbox and ECU) and come with perks that will increase particular stats and your car's overall level...

...And when you factor in the ability to expedite the process with microtransaction loot boxes, it feels geared towards encouraging you to part with real money unless you want to spend time replaying lukewarm parts of the game over again.

This can join forza 7 in the "wait for a year until its reduced or very cheap second hand" club.

Trelliz wrote:...repetitive and grindy... too many cutscenes taking away control all the time... plus lootboxes...

Oh, man, I feared this outcome. Another game built around “moar buying”.

Trelliz wrote:This can join forza 7 in the "wait for a year until its reduced or very cheap second hand" club.

Yeah, I’ll skip this. I may take a look if it gets a deep price cut.

PostRe: Need for Speed: Payback [PS4, XBO, PC] by KK » Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:53 am

Considering how many amazing racing games are out there at the moment I'm not sure why you'd buy this, unless you really want to play a hammy Fast and Furious game.

EA should just bin this franchise and get to work on a new Road Rash, which would actually stand out in the market.

Need for Speed: Payback [PS4, XBO, PC]

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