GRcade

Having revisited Underground 1 & 2 these, along with the original Most Wanted, are my favourite NFS titles. The series has been pretty limp of recent. I was enjoying Payback to begin with, but it quickly gave way to tedium.

I played NFS Rivals a few weeks back and I was surprised at how good the graphics are. It ran real slick, too.

jawafour wrote:I played NFS Rivals a few weeks back and I was surprised at how good the graphics are. It ran real slick, too.

Ah yes, Rivals is quite good although a bit of an unnecessary crash fest at times. Trying to get back to a hideout without losing all your current progress can be infuriating.

Gemini73 wrote:Ah yes, Rivals is quite good although a bit of an unnecessary crash fest at times. Trying to get back to a hideout without losing all your current progress can be infuriating.

Yeah, it seems pretty easy to give cause for the police to chase you. I got caught a few times but then made it back to the hideout!

The Need for Speed franchise is being assigned to EA's Criterion studio.

Eurogamer wrote:The Need for Speed franchise is doing a U-turn: and by that I mean EA is moving development back from Sweden to UK studio Criterion.

That's because the current franchise developer, Ghost Games, is set to become EA Gothenburg once more as it becomes an engineering hub to assist with EA's wider portfolio. This is partly due to issues finding the right talent to continue developing Need for Speed in Gothenburg.

EA is hoping to transfer many of its staff from Ghost Games to Guildford-based Criterion, although the publisher told GamesIndustry.biz that 30 roles remain at risk. "Outside of the engineers and those that we plan to transfer to other positions, there would be 30 additional staff in Gothenburg, and we would hope to place as many of them as possible into other roles in the company", EA explained.

I feel that Ghost started out well but their takes on NFS perhaps haven't hit the kind of sales EA are looking for. I still like the franchise and I hope that Criterion can create something exciting for the future.

strawberry float Need For Speed.

Give me Burnout.

Cheeky Devlin wrote:strawberry float Need For Speed.

Give me Burnout.

.. . Yeah, Burnout was (is) terrific! I still enjoy the NFS series, though, and with relatively few decent-budget arcade-styled racing games around now, I'd love to see a new iteration from Criterion. I wonder if the next game could be a few years off, recognising that this change has only just happened?

Definitely want to pick up NFS Heat at some point but I'm waiting for a price cut.

All of the ones made by Ghost - as in, the last 4 games - have been utterly hamstrung by the fact that the car handling in each one was absolute trash. A fairly important component to a decent racer, I feel.
Good riddance.

Criterion had that land/air/water racer but I'm guessing that got cancelled. So what have they been doing since?

LAW RacingTM

Saint of Killers wrote:Criterion had that land/air/water racer but I'm guessing that got cancelled. So what have they been doing since?

LAW RacingTM

I read in an article that they’ve been helping the Battlefield people do...stuff.

They helped Ghost with Rivals (which probably explains why it's a competent game), then were moved to Battlefront 2 to help with starfighter combat, then to Battlefield V's expansions.

As I said in the general racing thread, I feel Criterion can do this series justice and outshine any recent efforts.

This sounds like a win; I've liked Ghost work's on the NFS series, it seems that many Ghost staff are able to move over to Criterion, I've enjoyed Criterion's past work on NFS and it's great to know that the series will continue. It seems to be all good! :-) .

Fantastic news as the last decent game was Rivals, Criterion did a stellar job with the Most Wanted port on Wii U.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, the 2010 version by Criterion, has been remastered and is releasing on 6 November on PS4, XBO and PC (all 60 FPS) with a Switch version (30 FPS) arriving on 13 November.

This game in the franchise was voted joint-favourite alongside Most Wanted (2005) in the GRcade poll last year (see opening post).

I'm happy to see a NFS game arriving this year even though it is a remaster rather than something new. Check out the video above for some of the first footage seen of the game.

Edit: First impressions... it doesn't look much different; definitely a remaster rather than a remake. This version includes most of the DLC and it has cross-platform play. Not sure that I'd spend much on this version rather than digging out my PS3 disc, though.

Edit 2: £35 for the PS4 version on the PS Store .

As good as it'd be, DiRT 5 takes priority. I'll certainly use up the ten hours of trial access if EA Play allows it, though.

This is my favourite Need for Speed, but I’m not going to buy it again — what’s the incentive? One strictly for those who didn’t play it first time around (which if you didn’t, highly recommended).

I was thinking of giving Heat a try when it drops a little in price, as I understand it’s a bit stronger than the previous efforts. Anybody have any thoughts on it?

SerialCeler wrote:...I was thinking of giving Heat a try when it drops a little in price, as I understand it’s a bit stronger than the previous efforts. Anybody have any thoughts on it?

I haven't tried it, Celer, but - like you! - I'm looking to grab it when it gets a price cut. Maybe £15 would be my mark.

jawa wrote:

SerialCeler wrote:...I was thinking of giving Heat a try when it drops a little in price, as I understand it’s a bit stronger than the previous efforts. Anybody have any thoughts on it?

I haven't tried it, Celer, but - like you! - I'm looking to grab it when it gets a price cut. Maybe £15 would be my mark.

Same here. Never played it, but I've got enough to be playing without paying near full retail price for a straight port. Sorry, 'remaster'. It looks like a ps3 game.

I'll do the same for this, if it reviews well, as I did with the Switch remaster of Burnout Paradise, which I've also never played.

Give it 6-12 months and pick it up for 20 snoops (Paradise is getting close, I reckon it'll be available for that price by Christmas).

£30 isn't that bad, I wonder if the Switch version will be £50 like the Paradise port.