Need For Speed (Series)

[Moonface]

Who else is/was a fan of this series? What games have you played, and what one was your favourite?

I got into Need For Speed when Underground 2 was close to release, as I had recently gotten into the Fast & Furious movies and the night time racing and car customisation felt very much like the early F&F movies. After I finished NFSU2, I got Underground and while it was cool, I remember feeling a little disappointing with it at first because it wasn't open world like NFSU2. Most Wanted was also a little disappointing for me, because it was set during the day and car customisation felt lacking in favour of police chases. Carbon looked like it was going to deliver the best of NFSU2 and NFSMW06 but for some reason that game just didn't click with me and I stopped caring for the Need For Speed games after that.

Underground 2 was my favourite, and if EA ever announced a sequel to that I would be all over it if they did it right.

Also like most racing titles should, Need For Speed should just drop the attempts at storytelling. It's never that good and I doubt it's what anyone buys those games for. Just say "This is what you're working towards" and leave it be.

[lp0 on fire]

I spent countless hours playing Need for Speed SE. Then a bit of Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit by the time Underground came out I really didn't care for the director it went.

Lazy Game Reviews has a ton of episodes on different Need for Speed games, too many to even to attempt to link, but I suggest you check them out.

[Metallix]

I lost interest around Underground. I hated the whole F&F craze and missed all the supercars the series was known for. We went from cars like Lamborghini to Honda’s. Not my cup of tea. NFS1-6 were all gold, back then you knew NFS meant quality. That’s not the case today.

NFS High Stakes is still my favorite followed by Hot Pursuit 2 which was the last great one imo. I recognize the gameplay of Underground was good though but I couldn’t get past the car selection.

[Moonface]

Carbon brought back Lamborghini's, but I can see why they would've been left out when Underground came along because they're not a car you would associate with being customised for underground street racing.

I think after the Underground games EA viewed Need For Speed as a name that sells on name and so didn't have any problems trying various approaches with it rather than taking those ideas for a new IP instead.

[lp0 on fire]

Carbon brought back Lamborghini's, but I can see why they would've been left out when Underground came along because they're not a car you would associate with being customised for underground street racing.

I think after the Underground games EA viewed Need For Speed as a name that sells on name and so didn't have any problems trying various approaches with it rather than taking those ideas for a new IP instead.

That is what EA does to every game, like Command and Conquer, Battle field (being turned in to a battle royal), Medal of Honor, the last burnout game wasn't even Burn out it was more fitting of a Need for Speed game (racing and shit, no real focus on crashing and destruction), Sim City 2013 (Single player only game is now multiplayer/forced online), The Sims and the souless DLC ridden content that comes out now, etc, etc, etc.

[Metallix]

Carbon brought back Lamborghini's, but I can see why they would've been left out when Underground came along because they're not a car you would associate with being customised for underground street racing.

I think after the Underground games EA viewed Need For Speed as a name that sells on name and so didn't have any problems trying various approaches with it rather than taking those ideas for a new IP instead.

Yeah they’ve been hit and miss ever since and lately more miss than hit. I also dislike open world racing games so I hated when Criterion got ahold of it and made it all open world. Very few open world racing games have given me enjoyment. Imo the time you spend driving to the next race is wasted but I can see why people like driving around just goofing off.

[Nightingale]

I got into the series for Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit and that game only, but it was one of the best driving games I have ever seen. All of the rest felt like a complete step back in my opinion.

I still have the disc and everything, but stupid teen me didn't know how to take care of his junk and it no longer works ;/

At least I got to beat it.

[lp0 on fire]

I got into the series for Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit and that game only, but it was one of the best driving games I have ever seen. All of the rest felt like a complete step back in my opinion.

I still have the disc and everything, but stupid teen me didn't know how to take care of his junk and it longer no works ;/

At least I got to beat it.

At lease you, your self is to blame, I lost many of a CDs to my brother would would just lay them out and allow them to get scratched to hell.

[Mr EliteL]

Need for Speed Underground 2 and Need for Speed Most Wanted was all I had of the series. Did have a look at Carbon, even having demo of it on PC at one point but didn't get the full game.

Enjoyed Underground 2 and Most Wanted for different reasons. Night setting for Underground 2 was brilliant, and customised my best cars from that, even though I'd probably consider them awful now. I remember really liking my cars.

Although was annoying in Most Wanted getting chased by the police when you didn't want it, and just wanting to chill and drive freely, I only enjoyed chases when I wanted to do them. Successfully evading felt cool if you did it in a stylish way, like knocking down something, blocking their path, or losing them cleverly. I think it was the three or four star with the big cars that charged you and make you stop were by ramming into you (or rather that's what they were trying to do) were insane. Those moments could come so suddenly and take you off guard, so if you avoided them it was awesome. Same with blockades kind of, just less sudden, and spikes.

Soundtracks were hit and miss. Some were just not my thing, so I turned them off when I could, and kept the ones that gave me adrenaline when hearing them. Skindred's Nobody and Celldweller's One Good Reason Instrumental. =3  Obviously others, can't remember them until I hear them. XD

[Moonface]

I hate how this seems to be making a very good attempt at covering all the bases that different Need for Speed fans want—with the day racing being focused on tailored courses while night is more like Underground or Carbon—because of how I really can't trust the game to not have some shady EA stuff thrown in or just having something dodgy (which seems likely to be the handling model, given so far the majority of people believe it looks very similar to Payback's which apparently wasn't that great).

Assuming there isn't any glaring problem with gameplay, then I just hope the customization is close to Underground 2's. I've never found NFS games that followed it that I played to have as many options as that game does. They added new ones, but it always felt lacking in comparison for me.