It’s been a long wait, but Need For Speed is finally upon us. We’ve been playing all weekend, and in case you’ve missed it, here’s our review of the game so far.
Since we were fortunate enough to have a copy so early, I thought it would be cool to ask you guys what you want to know about Need For Speed, and you posted questions in your droves! I’ve pulled together some of the most popular and frequently asked questions into a list, so hopefully everything you could ever want to know about NFS will be answered right here.
Yes, you can. In the garage there’s a handling characteristics tab that allows you to change everything from tyre pressures to aerodynamics and everything in between by using sliders. Each and every car can be tuned to be more ‘Drift’ or ‘Grip’, with the former resulting in a car that wants to kick the rear out. Even in front-wheel drive cars, if you decide to go full Drift spec, you can hold slides with ease.
We’ve seen FWD drifting plenty of times before in real life, so it’s definitely possible with enough momentum, but in the game you can hold angles on the throttle. It sure ain’t realistic, but it doesn’t detract from the gameplay too much.
Police chases are different in this Need For Speed, as you do not have access to special tools or gadgets to aid you in your escape. It’s a straight up pursuit between you and the cop cars. Your heat doesn’t rise particularly quickly at all - I’ve only managed to get a full wanted level once and that was after a solid 10 minutes of being chased.
Police AI is mostly really good, as they keep up no trouble through corners and are clever about dodging other cars, though a few twists and turns inside a petrol station is usually a good way to confuse and entrap them before making a getaway.
The only downside is that there does seem to be more of that rubber banding, as they’ll occasionally fall back inexplicably, or come charging around a corner at a million miles per hour behind you…
The map itself is cool, but it’s not particularly huge. And as for traffic, yeah, you’d be right in thinking there isn’t much. It’s a bit of a disappointment as blasting along the highway at 150mph should be nerve-wracking, but it’s really not. Your chances of actually coming into contact with anyone is minimal, because even when cars do appear, they tend to be alone and therefore easy to dodge.
No. Not yet, anyway. Originally the game was intended to be auto only, but after seeing how much fans of the game wanted a manual shift option, EA and Ghost are looking to bring it to the game via an update at some point.
Before playing the game I didn’t expect to care too much about a manual - this isn’t a sim racer, after all - but the auto feels sluggish so I do think having a manual would add to the game.
This is a tough one, because although they’re both open world racers, they go about it in very different ways. I’d say Forza Horizon has the edge, purely on the sense of speed and car handling characteristics. I prefer the graphical style and location of Need For Speed, though it could do with feeling more alive.
There’s a lot of customisation available, but I’d hesitate to say it’s as extensive as one might hope. It really does depend on the car, as my AE86 had a lot of body parts on offer, however there’s not much available for my S15, which is bizarre considering it’s one of the most customisable cars on the planet. Hopefully this will be addressed in a patch at a later date.
No, and this is actually quite a cool aspect of the game. So long as you’re not going too fast, blasting through red lights, drifting, or pulling burnouts, the cops will leave you alone.
It’s nice because it means you can hang out with your mates or slowly cruise about town checking out the scenery without getting bothered by the boys in blue.
Opponent AI is pretty awful, to be honest. Races can feel random, as all cars appear to be on an elastic band, so if you wreck and fall behind they’ll slow right down until you catch up. You’ll also occasionally find someone’s made a break at the front, then for seemingly no reason you’ll overtake them doing about 20mph on the freeway.
Added to the fact that Grip handling isn’t particularly good fun, it’s just another reason why I don’t like point-to-point races.