Imagine being out of touch with the fanbase

[Dee Dee]

WTH is this anime ♥♥♥♥?? Is EA becoming more and more out of touch with the fanbase with every new NFS game? The environment graphics seems to be somewhat realistic apart from the random manga effects but the models are anime/ cartoon models. How does realistic environment match with cartoon characters? Those two are contradicting each other. I bet the game design team is full of tik tokers and weebs.
What's next? NFS Unbound Naruto to Boruto Shinobi striker skin pack dlc??

[Riley1983]

Agreed, this artistic direction they took looks absolute sh*t.

[Mno]

Publishers are rarely in touch with their audience, they just look at the numbers to see what generates the most profit, though in the case of NFS I'm pretty sure EA is just throwing ♥♥♥♥ at a wall at this point.

[Mno]

Anyway the new effects are super distracting, especially in a fast paced racing game like this one. There's no way an experienced game designer came up with this, probably some clueless new hire looking to show off.

[Dee Dee]

Originally posted by Only Idiots Preorder:

Anyway the new effects are super distracting, especially in a fast paced racing game like this one. There's no way an experienced game designer came up with this, probably some clueless new hire looking to show off.

Exaclty. Many of us remove unwanted hud elements and other info on the screen in racing games to make the experience more immersive/ realistic. Then imagine these guys adding effects like color splashing/ drawings/ stickers onto the screen every second. This just makes it even less immersive.

[Moga CMDR]

Maybe the goal was to get a new fanbase that hasn't been playing their games recently. Only time will tell how well that works.

[Mno]

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

Maybe the goal was to get a new fanbase that hasn't been playing their games recently. Only time will tell how well that works.

Then why not just make a new IP? It's like trying to appeal to teenagers by making a sequel to Citizen Kane.

[IGNITRO]

Originally posted by Only Idiots Preorder:

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

Maybe the goal was to get a new fanbase that hasn't been playing their games recently. Only time will tell how well that works.

Then why not just make a new IP? It's like trying to appeal to teenagers by making a sequel to Citizen Kane.

wouldn't a new ip be less known than a *new* need for speed.

its not like nfs was always a illegal street racing game.
looking back at the franchise it has been pretty much everything.

from hot pursuit 2 to carbon to shift
from world to mw2012

you get the idea

[Mno]

Originally posted by IGNITRO:

wouldn't a new ip be less known than a *new* need for speed.

To NFS fans maybe but Moga SMDR was suggesting they are not the target audience.

Originally posted by IGNITRO:

its not like nfs was always a illegal street racing game.
looking back at the franchise it has been pretty much everything.

That's not entirely true, EA had a tendency to slap the NFS brand onto other racing franchises back when it was still worth something, to boost sale. Games like V-Rally, Shift and Motor City wore then NFS badge but none of them were developed as NFS games, V-Rally wasn't even called NFS in all regions.

Actual NFS games were almost always street racing games, only exception being Pro Street.

[Moga CMDR]

Originally posted by IGNITRO:

wouldn't a new ip be less known than a *new* need for speed.

yup. The Kane reference was obviously hyperbolic and worth re-contextualizing to something more realistic.

They reboot Spiderman every 10 years or so. They can reboot NFS every 10 years or so.

I never said they were making a game for people that were born yesterday.

[Dee Dee]

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

Maybe the goal was to get a new fanbase that hasn't been playing their games recently. Only time will tell how well that works.

Originally posted by Only Idiots Preorder:

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

Maybe the goal was to get a new fanbase that hasn't been playing their games recently. Only time will tell how well that works.

Then why not just make a new IP? It's like trying to appeal to teenagers by making a sequel to Citizen Kane.

Are they trying to do what Ubisoft did with Assassin's creed? Ubisoft has made recent AC games more like action RPGs and has become lesser of an assassin game. Not gonna lie, but they actually found success since it seems people are more interested in action RPGs than stealth games. Ubisoft used the same Assassin's creed IP for these newer games too.

But that is a different case. They were changing the gameplay approach from more stealth to less stealth and more action. This, however, is changing the visual style from realistic to anime models. Having realistic assets in the environment and then having anime models in that same environment is pretty contradicting and makes no sense. Either the whole environment has to change to anime or the player models have to become realistic. But they know that the first option will piss people even more as they want to drive in realistic roads surrounded by realistic buildings.

But if they find success in this NFS, I bet they might start making the environment as well look like anime lol. Who knows, Ubisoft also might replace characters with anime models in their next AC game to appeal to a certain subset of the entire fanbase. Not gonna buy such games to discourage this shift.

[Mno]

Originally posted by Dee Dee:

Are they trying to do what Ubisoft did with Assassin's creed? Ubisoft has made recent AC games more like action RPGs and has become lesser of an assassin game. Not gonna lie, but they actually found success since it seems people are more interested in action RPGs than stealth games. Ubisoft used the same Assassin's creed IP for these newer games too.

Yeah and new players are just as confused as the old ones as to why it's called Assassins Creed, though I think Ubisoft is actually lagging behind. They went through their "reiventing the wheel phase" and now they're going through their "back to the roots" phase which NFS went through back in 2010 - 2015, I hope Ubisoft does a better job of that though.

Originally posted by Dee Dee:

But that is a different case. They were changing the gameplay approach from more stealth to less stealth and more action. This, however, is changing the visual style from realistic to anime models. Having realistic assets in the environment and then having anime models in that same environment is pretty contradicting and makes no sense. Either the whole environment has to change to anime or the player models have to become realistic. But they know that the first option will piss people even more as they want to drive in realistic roads surrounded by realistic buildings.

Yeah I think the new art style would be a much easier pill to swallow if it was applied to the entire game, instead you have realistic graphics with anime effects slapped on top and it looks garish as hell. It doesn't help that they seem to have hired the cheapest guy in town to actually draw it too.

Originally posted by Dee Dee:

But if they find success in this NFS, I bet they might start making the environment as well look like anime lol. Who knows, Ubisoft also might replace characters with anime models in their next AC game to appeal to a certain subset of the entire fanbase. Not gonna buy such games to discourage this shift.

Yeah I don't think we need to worry about that, from looking at the Steam charts and the general activity on the forums it doesn't look like Unbound is very popular, Heat was all over the channels when it was announced and it ended up flopping so...

[Dee Dee]

Originally posted by Only Idiots Preorder:

Yeah I don't think we need to worry about that, from looking at the Steam charts and the general activity on the forums it doesn't look like Unbound is very popular, Heat was all over the channels when it was announced and it ended up flopping so...

Faith in gamers restored

[MILKIE]

Originally posted by Riley1983:

Agreed, this artistic direction they took looks absolute sh*t.

Originally posted by Only Idiots Preorder:

Anyway the new effects are super distracting, especially in a fast paced racing game like this one. There's no way an experienced game designer came up with this, probably some clueless new hire looking to show off.

You guys know they can be turned off right?

[StarbornRacer]

Originally posted by MILKIE:

Originally posted by Riley1983:

Agreed, this artistic direction they took looks absolute sh*t.

Originally posted by Only Idiots Preorder:

Anyway the new effects are super distracting, especially in a fast paced racing game like this one. There's no way an experienced game designer came up with this, probably some clueless new hire looking to show off.

You guys know they can be turned off right?

Mate, don't bother. 😅

[Mno]

Originally posted by MILKIE:

You guys know they can be turned off right?

No I don't know that, I know the Twitter clown in charge of PR said they can be turned off and then immediately backpedaled saying you can choose not to add them to your own cars. He's been asked for clarification many times but he seems to have mostly gone into hiding after getting into a racial argument with a fan.

So no, we don't know ♥♥♥♥, and you don't either.