So I got into the closed beta for the new Need For Speed

"Blondude" (Blondude)
10/04/2015 at 16:11 • Filed to: Need For Speed, Need For Speed 2015, NFS

Anyone have any questions they want answered?

I’ll list off some pros and cons I’ve found so far:

Pros

The customization is awesome, there’s so many different ways to mix and match things

Yes, the E46 M3 has the GTR bodykit as an option

The car list is pretty diverse, everything from the Volvo 242 to the ND Miata to the Ferrari F40

The car tuning is pretty good too. You can adjust various sliders to have a drift car that locks into the perfect drift by just tapping the brakes (super arcade-y style) or turn off the drift assists and have to actually feather the throttle and brakes to keep it going. Tune your car more for grip and the thing hugs the corners like a racecar.

The cops. They’re not all over the place which means you can still get away with having some fun, they’ll pull you over for minor infractions (speeding, running red lights, etc.) and you have to option to pay the ticket and go on your way or you can take off and try to lose them (reminds me a lot of Midnight Club LA’s system in that regard), and they aren’t super aggressive so it’s possible to kind of toy with them and drag on a chase without really worrying about getting your car impounded (mostly because impounding cars and heat levels aren’t in this game, you just pay a big fine and move on).

The spontaneous challenges (like challenging a driver in the Forza Horizon games or instant challenges in the Test Drive Unlimited games) are pretty good. The game world is populated by human and AI drivers simultaneously and you simply pull up alongside them and press a button. You’re then given the option to challenge them to a sprint race (random checkpoint is placed on the map, first person there wins), a outrun challenge (like in Underground 2, get ahead of the other player and then increase that gap to win), or a drift race (you have a time limit and whoever gets to most drift points in that time wins).

The daily challenges are a nice little addition. Currently my objectives are to win the “Drift Like A Panthaa” drift event, win a spontaneous event against a human player, and smash three roadblocks in a police chase and as a reward I get the Rocket Bunny v1.0 spoiler to put on one of my cars.

Cons

The paint editor sucks. There’s no grid when placing stickers so you have to line everything up by eye and as far as I know there’s no way to mirror designs to the other side of the car so you have to remake your entire design on the other side too. The paint sliders don’t have any values assigned to them so it’s impossible to recreate a color exactly on another part of the car.

The AI seems to be a total crapshoot when it comes to difficulty. The catch-up on them is ridiculous. You can go from being 1st with a solid quarter mile lead and suddenly the entire pack passes you in the blink of an eye. Races are just a matter of keeping pace until the final stretch before pushing past all of the other racers.

The map. It’s fucking tiny. Like, maybe the size of Underground 2’s map, if that. The “downtown” that characters say to avoid because of all of the cop activity is literally a couple of blocks and then some 2D building beyond the game boundaries.

You can only own up to 5 cars at a time. Why? Why put all of this effort into the customization options for each car if you can’t even try them out without selling another car first?

*Keep in mind this is a beta so these things are subject to change*

DISCUSSION (23)

TheHondaBro > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:18

how many speeds are needed?

djmt1 > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:19

What is the map diversity like? Is it just city streets or are there proper mountains like Underground 2 as opposed to Midnight Club LA which was just two corners on a hill.

Tareim - V8 powered > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:19

I think the cops will get harder when the game comes out, we seem to be limited to just 2 levels of heat right now

1 thing I find really annoying is when browsing parts that don’t fit due to other parts don’t display until you remove that item, also an issue I found with the BRZ, there was no way I could remove the Seibon TA splitter without buying a different one :/

Minardi Gras > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:19

Did you have to agree to an NDA?

Blondude > TheHondaBro
10/04/2015 at 16:20

Like, five, maybe six...

Blondude > Minardi Gras
10/04/2015 at 16:22

Shhh

I’ve seen people posting pros/cons over on the subreddit and nothing has happened so I doubt they’ll do anything about this.

Tareim - V8 powered > djmt1
10/04/2015 at 16:23

There is proper canyon/togue sections to it as well as street & freeway sections

Tareim - V8 powered > Minardi Gras
10/04/2015 at 16:23

yes but no one seems to be adhering to it by posting screenshots everywhere

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:24

Can I only have a partial body kit (only half of a rocket bunny kit or mix and match) and can I get a rau-welt kit on a FRS?

Grindintosecond > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:25

Volvo 242? I stopped reading after that. Ask them how they could add anythign else after...wait....Volvo starts with V. So of course they got to everything else first.

Blondude > CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist)
10/04/2015 at 16:30

The individual fender upgrades are separate parts from the body kits. I could do a set of overfenders for my FR-S, or a Rocket Bunny kit, but not both.

The body kits are based on real life ones, so no RWB FR-S unless Nakai-san decides to make one.

KirkyV > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:31

How’s the whole driving style slider thing work, and do the cars feel decent in general?

Thanks for taking the time to do this, man. Been wanting to find out more about this game for a while now.

Blondude > djmt1
10/04/2015 at 16:31

I should mention that I don’t know if we have access to the full map in the beta, but the way it’s set up it doesn’t look like there’s anything being cut off or restricted.

As for diversity, it’s fairly diverse and it does remind me of Underground 2 quite a bit. There’s a warehouse district, the downtown area, a shipping port, a very Mulholland-like area, and another more forested twisty area.

Hot Takes Salesman > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 16:35

Why are the characters so FUCKING ANNOYING. Except for Manu, he's a boss, all the others are shit. I got the closed beta too.

Blondude > Hot Takes Salesman
10/04/2015 at 16:37

I feel like the game is a parody of itself. There are so many cliches it’s incredible.

Blondude > KirkyV
10/04/2015 at 16:44

You have sliders for steering angle, tire pressure front and rear, steering response, downforce, brake bias and strength, sway bars, spring stiffness, etc. The handling feels good. One gripe I have is that the steering doesn’t seem to straighten out very quickly which means sometimes I find myself countersteering just to get the wheel back to neutral even with steering response turned up. Although this still could entirely be due to handling settings. I’ll have to fiddle with that some more.

EDIT: Was just checking the subreddit and apparently turning down steering response helps. Wut?

I hope this post stays on the DL and doesn’t blow up. I like having the ability to play games and not be banned.

wiffleballtony > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 17:04

How arcade is the handling?

Blondude > wiffleballtony
10/04/2015 at 17:05

About the same as past games. That is, quite arcade-y.

Hot Takes Salesman > Blondude
10/04/2015 at 19:05

I want to fucking kill Spike. I'm sorry.

Blondude > Hot Takes Salesman
10/04/2015 at 19:36

He’s a total douche.

Nauraushaun > Blondude
10/06/2015 at 05:39

How good does it get with assists off? I just want drifting that’s about actual oversteer, not the game doing it all for you

Blondude > Nauraushaun
10/06/2015 at 14:34

It’s possible. It’s no Forza but you can still initiate drifts the old fashioned way. You may need a bit more power to keep the wheels spinning compared to with assists on though.

Nauraushaun > Blondude
10/06/2015 at 21:57

I see. Sounds okay, I’ll have to try it. I feel like this stuff is really ruining a lot of games. Games like Driveclub that obviously have an awesome physics engine, but forced assists that ruin it for you.

I think the meatheads that like these games will eventually get bored of games that play themselves for you, and fans of real driving games will be too alienated, leaving franchises like Need for Speed dead in the water yet again.