Current Events > I played NFS The Run recently, that is probably one of the worst racing games

(+) Yeah! (+)

It is basically how I would imagine a racing game designed by David Cage would turn out. It definitely has that David Cage sorta feel, the game starts off with these QTE interactive cutscenes, then it does that again in the middle of the game. The racing felt more like a series of scripted events than anything, like I was going along with the motions and trying to dodge traffic until the game wanted me to pass the computers. To make matters worse, the final race literally comes down to a scripted "race" where you just try to avoid shit the entire time, and the only time you actually race is in the last 10 seconds. It just felt lame. Interesting concept, but ultimately a flawed one.
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More like NFS: The Runs

Do NFS games still try to have a serious story? Seems like that started with Most Wanted 1.
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SmidgeIsntBack posted...

Do NFS games still try to have a serious story? Seems like that started with Most Wanted 1.

Pretty sure the whole story based NFS single player mode thing started with Most Wanted. They tried to have a bit of story in the earlier ones like the Underground games but it was very basic and never really a focus. Most Wanted sort of did the whole goofy story thing, and I really enjoyed that game to be honest. They later did Carbon which was pretty much the sequel to that which had a very cool ability to craft your own cosmetics.

After that the series went for this whole semi-realism yet still arcadey action kinda motorsport thing with ProStreet and Shift. It feels like the series made a turn for the worse when Criterion took over. I personally consider that the real dark age of Need for Speed. You would have thought Criterion would have made the series great considering their much loved success with the Burnout games, but their NFS games just didn't have anything that made the Burnout game so much fun. Everybody played Burnout for the over the top action and crazy crashes where you watched slow motion car mayhem. Their NFS games just felt like they kept that instant wreck system alive to make the games more frustrating as opposed to enjoyable, especially since they didn't have any of the car deformation that made it fun to watch in Burnout. Annoyingly they kept that instant wreck system in the game even after Criterion's demise, but they have just recently started to get away from it (finally).
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TFW there will never be an amazing NFS game like NFS Porsche again
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Cookie Bag posted...

TFW there will never be an amazing NFS game like NFS Porsche again

My personal favorite from back in the day had to be High Stakes.
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SmidgeIsntBack posted...

Do NFS games still try to have a serious story? Seems like that started with Most Wanted 1.

Yeah; NFS 2015 had live-action cutscenes and Payback is basically Fast and Furious

The Crew also has a serious, gritty story, to the extent that it's rated T. Luckily The Crew 2 scrapped all that.
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Antifar posted...

SmidgeIsntBack posted...

Do NFS games still try to have a serious story? Seems like that started with Most Wanted 1.

Yeah; NFS 2015 had live-action cutscenes and Payback is basically Fast and Furious

I actually really enjoyed Payback, I thought it was a good return to form for the series, it is the first game since Carbon that brought back what I enjoyed about Most Wanted. NFS 2015 sort of went for the same thing but they only captured how cheesy it was, Payback totally got the gameplay right IMO.
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@Antifar I loved The Crew but I thought the story was just more of a chore than anything. They tried to get me all emotionally involved but it just didn't work. Luckily the game has an incredible open world to drive around in so that is what always hooked me to it.
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I liked Criterion's Hot Pursuit a lot. Last racing game I took the time to master.

What NFS and other arcade-y racers since then have been worth playing
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SmidgeIsntBack posted...

I liked Criterion's Hot Pursuit a lot. Last racing game I took the time to master.

What NFS and other arcade-y racers since then have been worth playing

The one thing I really liked about Hot Pursuit is how they let you be a cop. It made the whole knockout system make sense.
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I can't HATE the game because I like the game in concept but, yeah, it's a mess to play. It can actually be fun but I think they missed the potential in it.

I would say NFS Undercover is the worst game in the series.
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Is NFS The Run the one where you're always online and other people spawn in front of you for no reason?
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Hexenherz posted...

Is NFS The Run the one where you're always online and other people spawn in front of you for no reason?

That sounds like NFS Rivals.
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jayj420 posted...

The one thing I really liked about Hot Pursuit is how they let you be a cop. It made the whole knockout system make sense.

Cop side was cool and gave online a new level of depth. I didn't like the single player missions though, namely the ones where you have to avoid both cars and walls. Also you could basically cheat the time rankings by resetting a level until you got lucky and the enemy AI fucked itself and let you catch it super early in the level.

Hexenherz posted...

Is NFS The Run the one where you're always online and other people spawn in front of you for no reason?

Criterion's Hot Pursuit was big on online stuff but I thought they handled it well enough.
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Solid Sonic posted...

I can't HATE the game because I like the game in concept but, yeah, it's a mess to play. It can actually be fun but I think they missed the potential in it.

I would say NFS Undercover is the worst game in the series.

I think The Run would have been a lot better if they let you do time trials and setup your own races for each of the stages, letting you select them however you like. The way they did it just feels like the worst way to play the game after you beat it and the challenges aren't any fun which doesn't really leave you with anything to do.

I don't even remember Undercover lol, it was a very forgettable game for me so you must be right as it is the one I try to ignore. Rivals stood out to me as being particularly awful as well. There was nothing to really enjoy about that game, it was just some lame multiplayer mode.
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Like the very last race is what I felt like the whole game should have been like. All the transitioning action sequences were very engaging but instead the game has you running through plain-jane midwestern corn fields.
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Solid Sonic posted...

Like the very last race is what I felt like the whole game should have been like. All the transitioning action sequences were very engaging but instead the game has you running through plain-jane midwestern corn fields.

I thought the last race was pretty cool until I realized how the entire thing was scripted and how it didn't matter what I did until the very end.
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