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[Drizzlehell]

As Unbound has proven, the old Criterion is dead, and during their entire tenure, Ghost Games never managed to churn out a decent NFS title. This leaves EA with the only logical choice for Codemasters to develop the next NFS. The fact that they're one of the leading developers of racing games in the industry makes them a perfect choice and it would actually have the potential to give the series a breath of fresh air that it so desperately needs.

Now, granted, Codies are mainly known for their sports racing games that typically lean more on the simulation side of the virtual racing spectrum but do keep in mind that they do have a fair number of games that were definitely more arcade in nature. Most prominent of which would be GRID and DIRT series, Micro Machines or Onrush.

I picture a scenario where they would take a stab at bringing the series back to its roots and make an arcade racing game with a slightly more realistic driving model and physics, more akin to the earlier Need For Speed titles such as High Stakes and Porshe Unleashed. Imagine a game like High Stakes but with the original GRID's driving model. This would make for a much more interesting game after two decades of nitro-fueled madness that was more reminiscent of Burnout series than the kind of racing experiences that the franchise offered in its early days. Most importantly, I would love to see a NFS game that wouldn't try to pander to the youths and didn't feature awful music and a terrible storyline featuring a bunch of shitheads that are dressed up like they're in a rap music video.

 

[hyperbertha]

Criterion has never been good after the PS2 era.

 

[Black_Stride]

Codemasters stories are just as bad if not worse than Criterion and Ghost Games.
Theyll likely put together a good racing model, but it wont be structured like a Need for Speed game.
Ghost Games has been turned into a support studio.
So have Criterion and Codemasters work together on the next Need for Speed, make a sequel to Need for Speed'15, actual consult with SpeedHunters and dont make it an online only game.


What the heck happened to Hot Pursuit'10 Criterion, did working on BattleField and BattleFront really traumatize the team that heavily.

Criterion has never been good after the PS2 era.

Hold on, they still made Hot Pursuit'10 which is/was one of the best arcade racers of X360gen, and this is coming from an Arcade racer fanboy, who played basically everything that came out

 

[acm2000]

No, give me a TOCA Race Driver sequel, number 2 was one of the best racing games on ps1

 

[Futaleufu]

I enjoyed the NFS games developed by Ghost. They make drifting very fun.

 

[freefornow]

No!

 

[Dice]

Codemasters are some of the best in the industry but I'm really not sure how things are going to go with them under EA, who has killed many, many brilliant dev houses. They already ditched their Ego engine for UE4 for WRC. Seems like a bad sign to me.

 

[yanhash]

As long as they move on from the mtv TRL generation street racing vibe, that zeitgeist is dead

 

[Drizzlehell]

Criterion has never been good after the PS2 era.

Paradise and Hot Pursuit 2010 were great, though. With the latter being one of the best NFS games in the series.

 

[tusharngf]

Heat was perfect for me. I hope they make a game like forza horizon plus cops chase.

 

[cireza]

Yes. For the MegaDrive.

 

[TrebleShot]

Have you played WRC the answer is no

 

[Shut0wen]

As Unbound has proven, the old Criterion is dead, and during their entire tenure, Ghost Games never managed to churn out a decent NFS title. This leaves EA with the only logical choice for Codemasters to develop the next NFS. The fact that they're one of the leading developers of racing games in the industry makes them a perfect choice and it would actually have the potential to give the series a breath of fresh air that it so desperately needs.

Now, granted, Codies are mainly known for their sports racing games that typically lean more on the simulation side of the virtual racing spectrum but do keep in mind that they do have a fair number of games that were definitely more arcade in nature. Most prominent of which would be GRID and DIRT series, Micro Machines or Onrush.

I picture a scenario where they would take a stab at bringing the series back to its roots and make an arcade racing game with a slightly more realistic driving model and physics, more akin to the earlier Need For Speed titles such as High Stakes and Porshe Unleashed. Imagine a game like High Stakes but with the original GRID's driving model. This would make for a much more interesting game after two decades of nitro-fueled madness that was more reminiscent of Burnout series than the kind of racing experiences that the franchise offered in its early days. Most importantly, I would love to see a NFS game that wouldn't try to pander to the youths and didn't feature awful music and a terrible storyline featuring a bunch of shitheads that are dressed up like they're in a rap music video.

NFS is dead at this point, yearly development is literally impossible

 

[Black_Stride]

As long as they move on from the mtv TRL generation street racing vibe, that zeitgeist is dead

They own SpeedHunters.
They really should be leaning more into what makes SpeedHunters popular which is the only way they can properly distinguish themselves from other arcade racing games.

Which ironically means leaning into the grassroot drifting and "street racing vibe".

 

[Senua]

Paradise and Hot Pursuit 2010 were great, though. With the latter being one of the best NFS games in the series.

Eh, I hated the car handling in HP2010

 

[Roxkis_ii]

I think need for speed has been chasing in the shadow of need for speed underground for a long time. I feel they need to change up the theme. Like make a need for speed cannonball run where you have to race across the USA coast to coast and you also have to manage your gas between races. Make the story bits as short as possible. I just want to race. I don't care about the power of friendship.

 

[Scotty W]

Undeground ruined the series for me. I just want pure racing, no tuning, no missions.

 

[Drizzlehell]

They own SpeedHunters.
They really should be leaning more into what makes SpeedHunters popular which is the only way they can properly distinguish themselves from other arcade racing games.

Which ironically means leaning into the grassroot drifting and "street racing vibe".

This is a bit different from the cringe rap music video shit that NFS has been associated with for years now. I'd be down with a game that leans into this stuff too.

 

[SScorpio]

I think need for speed has been chasing in the shadow of need for speed underground for a long time. I feel they need to change up the theme. Like make a need for speed cannonball run where you have to race across the USA coast to coast and you also have to manage your gas between races. Make the story bits as short as possible. I just want to race. I don't care about the power of friendship.

They did, it's called Need for Speed: The Run. It was fun, but the on-foot sections were not needed. It also didn't do the gas thing, I'm not really sure how you'd implement that to be fun.

 

[Black_Stride]

This is a bit different from the cringe rap music video shit that NFS has been associated with for years now. I'd be down with a game that leans into this stuff too.

Thats what I meant.
They should be consulting with SpeedHunters more for whats popular in the car scene.
Cuz while the Fortnite kids bring the money, at its core Need for Speed is a racing game about car culture, SpeedHunters has established itself as a good website for Car Culture.......its just a corporate website so they cant tell you whats really going down at all these car meets, but ask any members of the SpeedHunters crew......they are basically going to perfect Need for Speed storylines every week.

 

[Drizzlehell]

They did, it's called Need for Speed: The Run. It was fun, but the on-foot sections were not needed. It also didn't do the gas thing, I'm not really sure how you'd implement that to be fun.

I really hated that game. The driving itself wasn't too bad but what killed the experience for me were those retarded "cinematic" moments, like the QTE sections that you mentioned, or races where you were being shot at with machine guns (literally what). The way in which you had to to switch cars also made some races infuriating because I had to stop in the middle of a race to switch to a better car that was essential to winning the race but doing so also made me lose precious time, and so winning the race was sometimes a really tall order because of this bullshit. Why couldn't I switch cars before the race even started? That was so stupid.

 

[SimTourist]

They pulled a nice stunt by renaming Ghost into Criterion, if you compare the credits for Heat and Unbound it's literally the same people in all the same positions.

 

[cireza]

Undeground ruined the series for me. I just want pure racing, no tuning, no missions.

This is incompatible with bloat sadly, and being bloated is a requirement for modern games.

 

[Drizzlehell]

They pulled a nice stunt by renaming Ghost into Criterion, if you compare the credits for Heat and Unbound it's literally the same people in all the same positions.

Oh wow, really? I didn't even notice that.

Well, that explains a lot about that game then, lol.

 

[Black_Stride]

They pulled a nice stunt by renaming Ghost into Criterion, if you compare the credits for Heat and Unbound it's literally the same people in all the same positions.

Oh wow, really? I didn't even notice that.

Well, that explains a lot about that game then, lol.

Thats NOT what happened.

The heads of the Need for Speed project remain the same.
The studio doesn't.

It would be like saying the SledgeHammer and Infinity Ward are actually the same studio because the leads of the Call of Duty franchise are the same regardless of which studio is actually running the show.

Ghost Games is now a support studio, but the heads/leads of Need for Speed moved from Ghost to Criterion when Criterion took over the Need For Speed project.

Ghost Games staff is now called EA Gothenburg, youll see the support work they did is credit under said studio name now.



P.S Look at the Heat credits and youll notice Criterion is in the same position that EA Gothenburg is now.
They basically switched which studio is lead and which studio is support.

 

[Kadve]

Undeground ruined the series for me. I just want pure racing, no tuning, no missions.

You don't like the 2010 Hot Pursuit game? last good one in my mind. Tried to get into some of the later games but just couldn't get past all the fluff. Notable the idea of having an open world which i hate in racing games.

 

[Trab-Pu-Kcip]

Take what remains of the drive club / dirt 5 studio and give them the IP. I'm excited about a remake of the original need for speed with the key components/features of drive club

 

[Fake]

No. They already prove that.

 

[SHA]

That's a good question, NFS is generic, the cops in this game are so unrealistic, they actually encourage you to do the wrong thing like there's no other options besides making the cops following you, this system is outdated and hasn't changed since the PS2 days, a modern off-road racing game that appeals to me is like it has to be complex and not necessarily on a large map, a meaningful story and complex game mechanics, NFS obviously won't appeal to gen z so there's no reason to hold it back.

 

[Scotty W]

You don't like the 2010 Hot Pursuit game? last good one in my mind. Tries to get into some of the later games but just couldn't get past all the fluff. Notable the idea of having an open world which i hate in racing games.

I haven’t paid attention in years, beyond checking to see if they have gone back to the roots. I have nightmares about watching my roommates spending hours trying to sideswipe 20 cop cars to complete a mission. Unironically, I much prefer NFS 1.