NFS Unbound vs. Heat vs. Payback

[SecretAgentKiiN 特务健]

Which NFS is the best? Please discuss here:

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/expectationchecklist/discussions/2/4042609814927677500/

[JSTR]

My first nfs game was 2015 and I was pretty blown away with how much effort they put into the engine sounds and car physics. Body roll, stiff springs, tire pressure, steering angle, wheel width, camber, stretched tires, tilting the car back and forward, brake strength, ebrake front to back, the entire map, FWD and RWD cars actually felt different, the AI being built for their own styles, everything in that game was impressive enough to pull me away from grand theft auto 5 at the time. I could spend hours and hours just sitting in the garage, not driving around, customizing and tuning. I haven't had that with a single NFS title after.

I think the next game to come out was Rivals but I didn't play that since it just seemed like cops and robbers, not my style. Payback was interesting because of the difference in classes and the tracks made it matter. Off-roaders got a trail of dirt alongside the roads to compete with the grip cars. Drag cars actually popped wheelies. It definitely felt more like a Ubisoft game than NFS in terms of quality but it wasn't the worst title. They unfortunately got rid of most of the customization settings and tuning.

I think Heat came out after payback and it definitely had a lot less content. They got rid of even less tuning and customizations but the game started looking really sharp and colorful. The addition of characters was cool but there were no regular clothing or haircuts so your person looks like it just crawled out of a wood chipper. Shaved head, holey jeans, worn out crop tops, who is this game made for? The physics were also insanely annoying in Heat. Doing a burnout in FWD cars makes the rear tires spin, you can't adjust the handling beside steering angle either so it's one of the more disappointing ones in my opinion. It looks great though.

Unbound has significantly less of everything of all the NFS games, takes 10x the computing power, and it doesn't look any better at all than any of the other titles. Shouldn't take a NASA computer to run a game like that and it shouldn't cost $70. The game doesn't feel like it could even be made by the same people, it feels like a bootleg phone game almost. It's very lazily made unfortunately. You really have to grind story to get your hours out of it and you won't be having fun either. It's a chore simulator. Pick a car you hate because none of them can compete with the detuned supers. Race that car and lose most of the races you join because the game wants you to spend a certain amount of money on the car wether it's fast or not. Your hypersonic B class can smoke any stock S class but the AI won't let you win because you don't have the letter S but that can easily be fixed by just tweaking your downforce one point so the car bumps to the next class. Makes zero sense but there's a similar case for everything in the game. There's so many things wrong with the game, it's death by a thousand cuts. They should've just named it something else instead of need for speed if they're gonna go this route. No fan wants to play as a Xe/Xer, no GenZ kid is even into cars unless it's a hellcat so catering to them is gonna be a waste of time. EA would make a lot of money of they'd focus on actual car culture instead of going after the JDM anime girl kids. I didn't like Payback, I didn't like Heat, and I absolutely hated Unbound so I think it's time to move on from the franchise unfortunately. I bought 2015 again for my steamdeck and have been having a blast. Still #1 in my eyes if you actually like cars.

[Zero McDol]

BlueSixMuze の投稿を引用：

Zero McDohl の投稿を引用：

Underground 2

edit:
Imo.

What's sad is you're not wrong people will say everyone has opinions, but Need for Speed is like Tony Hawk series it was great until it wasn't, and the wasn't part is because they lost the plot.

Need for Speed began going off the rails right after Most Wanted 2005 I know some people say Carbon was the last decent one, and that sounds like Project 8 for Tony Hawk, but most never played it I think because Xbox 360/PS3 had just come out(might be wrong), but effectively it's heyday is long gone they need to split the series between people(like me) who want Original Games up to Hot Pursuit 2 and (others) who want Unbound/Heat/Most Wanted etc

I'm older now, and games like Heat(great btw) don't interest me anymore like Underground did when I was only 14 years old I'm 34 now.

Indeed and this is in the current sense for me at that. I actually still play Underground 2, and still find it to be far more interesting than the current list of newer NFS games.

It is what it is though; I'll likely never touch another new NFS game again honestly, and that's okay. Sometimes a series just gets to the point where a person is no longer interested in it, and I guess that this has now happened with my loss of interest in the NFS series.

Of course, I loss that interest years ago with the release of NFS 2015's handling model (story was okay, not great, but serviceable), but the breaking point kicked in with Unbound.

[Zero McDol]

SecretAgentKiiN 特务健 の投稿を引用：

Zero McDol の投稿を引用：

Doesn't solve the camera sway to the left or right whenever you steer the car in hood or bumper view, so appreciated but no thank you.

If sway camera happen in your hood or bumper view, that's is very unusual case. Because it already looks in a normal way like every game else, you need better make sure what is going wrong from what you see in the game.

It's how the game was built.

The game was built to simulate the driver being swayed left are right when steering the car via swaying the camera, and thus simulating sideways G-forces. The problem with this sort of thing, is that it's a horrible implementation -> if you're playing on keyboard which only goes from 0% to 100% input. Other racing games don't have this issue, because they don't use this sort of simulation, only newer NFS games (2015+).

This wouldn't be a problem if the mechanic had a off switch, but it was forced into the game. My guess is that you simply haven't noticed the sway or don't drive in bumper or hood view, pardon the assumption. This doesn't happen in 3rd person view.

[SecretAgentKiiN 特务健]

Sound like Need for Speed is going wrong since 2005, why how did they manage to stay alive until 2024? Huge fans already stop buying NFS for 19 years, or maybe 9 years? Where did they have money pay for their staff? or they hire new staff with low pay to re-built another racing game, but naming a new NFS sequel?

[SecretAgentKiiN 特务健]

Zero McDohl の投稿を引用：

The game was built to simulate the driver being swayed left are right when steering the car via swaying the camera, and thus simulating sideways G-forces. The problem with this sort of thing, is that it's a horrible implementation -> if you're playing on keyboard which only goes from 0% to 100% input. Other racing games don't have this issue, because they don't use this sort of simulation, only newer NFS games (2015+).

This wouldn't be a problem if the mechanic had a off switch, but it was forced into the game. My guess is that you simply haven't noticed the sway or don't drive in bumper or hood view, pardon the assumption. This doesn't happen in 3rd person view.

You playing on keyboard? why not try controller?

[BlueSixMuze]

SecretAgentKiiN 特务健 の投稿を引用：

Sound like Need for Speed is going wrong since 2005, why how did they manage to stay alive until 2024? Huge fans already stop buying NFS for 19 years, or maybe 9 years? Where did they have money pay for their staff? or they hire new staff with low pay to re-built another racing game, but naming a new NFS sequel?

Need for Speed has probably gone down in people buying since 2005 the last big games I've gotten from NFS(Heat and Hot Pursuit 2010/Remaster).

NFS Heat is just okay for me, but it's not underground, but it's at least a passable game that I've even bought it again.

I don't know if this is your angle as the question makes it seem like you're either being sarcastic, but I'd really like people to stop thinking sales == good.

[JSTR]

SecretAgentKiiN 特务健 の投稿を引用：

Sound like Need for Speed is going wrong since 2005, why how did they manage to stay alive until 2024? Huge fans already stop buying NFS for 19 years, or maybe 9 years? Where did they have money pay for their staff? or they hire new staff with low pay to re-built another racing game, but naming a new NFS sequel?

That's the thing. This new game saved a whole lot of money by hiring a Pakistan developer to create an American street racing game. They saved a significant amount of money on the soundtrack by getting free unlicensed or very cheap songs and artists. It has the worst soundtrack of all the NFS games. They also saved a lot of time with models and textures by recycling from heat with a lighting update (which in turn broke the game engine). The most expensive thing they had to worry about was probably A$AP or Polestar cars. Asking $70 for a group of modders to come slop something together is insanity.

[Zero McDol]

SecretAgentKiiN 特务健 の投稿を引用：

Zero McDohl の投稿を引用：

The game was built to simulate the driver being swayed left are right when steering the car via swaying the camera, and thus simulating sideways G-forces. The problem with this sort of thing, is that it's a horrible implementation -> if you're playing on keyboard which only goes from 0% to 100% input. Other racing games don't have this issue, because they don't use this sort of simulation, only newer NFS games (2015+).

This wouldn't be a problem if the mechanic had a off switch, but it was forced into the game. My guess is that you simply haven't noticed the sway or don't drive in bumper or hood view, pardon the assumption. This doesn't happen in 3rd person view.

You playing on keyboard? why not try controller?

Keyboard is my preferred driving style. I have no interest in using a controller.

[SecretAgentKiiN 特务健]

Yes, I can understand that, seeing more people driving with thousand of hours with a keyboard. But the problem you mention early, we're assume the game is broken in every controller, including wheel.