PCgamer:
"Welcome to the crazy world of 2015, where a Need For Speed game somehow has more story than a Metal Gear Solid sequel. I should be more against that idea than I actually am: the word ‘bae’ is used twice in the first minute of the first cutscene without a shadow of irony, for example, but it’s actually quite a fun way to structure this open-world racing RPG. This reboot feels like a best-of compilation of the Need For Speed series, and this story component is weirdly one of the parts I enjoyed the most in my hands-on with the game."
It's been three decades since 'Need for Speed' dropped. Here's why the 1994 version of the game is still awesome and why it changed everything.
"nobody ever really learned how to drive from a racing game."
Jann Mardenborough exists, my guy.
Yeah. Besides that ridiculous statement in the article, I really didn't like the first game at all. Cars controlled like bricks. It was only until N4S 2 was when it started to feel better. N4S 3 was when I really got into the series. Hot Pursuit was the shit for home console racing. I mean, it's on my phone like right now with Duck Station and ePSXe depending on which emulator I want to use. The disc is in a drawer and the PS1 in the closet but I had to reminisce every now and then on how fun it still is.
But then it turned into the Fast and the Furious nonsense of EA copying whatever was popular at the time including the music. Also by then, I was boycotting this shitty company for their industry practices of destroying developers and buying up licenses. I mean look, Criterion was purchased to kill competition, acquire the Renderware Engine and gain the Burnout series, then tasked what's left of Criterion into making N4S. Pure bullshit move.
But I did enjoy the series and EA before they turned evil and greedy.
I was literally about to say this. And GT taught me how to drive literally when Gran Turismo came out, being able to drive my GTR to the movie premier was a whole life 360 moment. Damn near cried, shit was unreal.
If I remember right I started with NFS: Pink Slip, but my favorite was NFS: Hot Pursuit2 on PS2. My friend and I would race for hours, the sound track was banging with Uncle Cracker song Fever For The Flavor.
NFS: HP2 was great. Although I had an Xbox and remember feeling distinctly disappointed once I realised the PS2 store demo of it was a totally different game to the game I had purchased for Xbox.
Yea my co worker had an Xbox and a copy of the game, but racing him was different as the courses looked way better on the Xbox than PS2. Seemed like about three races were different since the Xbox was more powerful so sectioned off parts of some tracks were fully raceable breaking through stone walls to access short cuts.
For me, it was the very 1st "Road & Track Presents: The Need For Speed that got me hooked into semi-realistic racing game! Before that, most of the racing games were all very, well, game-ly, like F-Zero, Outrun, Daytona Racing, etc. The R&T Need for speed was one of the 1st game that tried to use real car spec for a more realistic (relatively speaking) driving experience. I also raced with a friend online, using 56K modem!!!
I did not like the early Need for Speed games at all. The series got me at Underground and I have been a fan since. Unfortunately EA sucks major eggs when it comes to consistent quality.
Carbon, Underground 1 and 2, Most Wanted and Heat are among my top racing games ever.
The Run, Payback, Undercover, Unbound and 2015 were all hot garbage to me.
The Nerd Stash: "Here are the best iconic cars in the Need For Speed games that have become the signature of this franchise in the past two decades."
Over the years, the Need For Speed series has proven to be more than capable of offering the ultimate racing experience.
