So today Criterion released the newest game in the Need for Speed series, Most wanted. It is not a remake of the 2005 game, but it does share some similarities.
So from what I've seen, it seems more like Burnout with Cops rather than a proper "Need for Speed" game. There isn't an extreme amount of customization, which was a big thing in the previous titles, but so far the game LOOKs pretty good. I'm planning on buying it as soon as I get enough money, but thats because I really enjoy both the original NFS:MW and the Burnout series.
Just played this, and I thought the previous games bought the NFS series to shame. Literally no plot line, and it's just doing the same shit over and over again.
This is by far the worst fucking game ever in the Need for Speed Franchise as well as Criterion Games
Seriously, I thought this was going to be Burnout: Paradise, remade and reinvented. My God was I wrong and my God, this game is just brutal in so many circumstances. I'm not going to name all the bullshit that goes like when you get busted; there are no penalties and shit like that.
Let's just talk about the racing. There are 5 fucking flaws with this game that make it immensely fucked up:
1. YOU CANNOT SEE SHIT ON THIS ROAD. My father has an eye condition that paralyzes his eyes from moving. When I race him in Mario Kart 64, all he can play is Moo Moo farm because it has wide roads and it's easy to move. I feel just like him playing this game, I feel like I'm fucking blind as a bat because I can't see shit on the road. Opposing civilian cars come at you incredibly sudden, barriers, blocks and other hidden shit really catches you by surprise. Even at 60 miles per hour, everything is a fucking blur between asphalt gray, dark green and a bluish tint.
2. GET THE FUCKING SUN OUT OF MY EYES. I must be playing Battlefield 3 or some shit, because that sun is always burning my retinas. This burning star is probably the biggest obstacle in the game because its always right in front of me. It will literally blind you and the road turning it a bright white
3. THE MAP IS IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. Seriously, when you're driving, you are driving looking at the near top-center of the screen. Why would you put the map AT THE FUCKING BOTTOM LEFT. What the fuck? I'm trying to race here, but instead I'm a tourist, quickly staring at the bottom-left corner of the UI just to see if I need to make a square-shaped corner turn in the racetrack (which you do, often).
4. The game is too punishing in mistake. Seriously, if you crash once, you're fucked. I crashed once because the game didn't indicate at all when to turn and I went from a close second to seventh. I spent the entire last lap trying to catch up where I won 5th. (If you don't take a strong lead at the beginning, you'll be struggling all game).
5. 0 INDICATION ON WHERE TO GO. Very rarely will the game add a green arrow or something to show you where to go next. Even then, it's very unclear unless you look at the minimap very quickly. The game likes to "challenge" you by shoving weird and fucking anti-visual sharp turns in the game. If you miss them, you crash or you go the wrong way or you're fucked
I'm all for challenges in racing games, I love them. Dirt 3 added challenge and difficulty into a very awesome game. Need for Speed and Burnout added challenge into some very fun ways.
Most Wanted doesn't do this. Most Wanted teases and plays cheap tricks on you to compensate for its bullshit of a game. The turning blows even with some upgrades and the cars turn like Dodge Magnums: fat boats.
Here is an example of a typical "sharp turn" the game throws at you. As you can tell, the landscape is completely flat and there is no indication to turn on the screen and you gotta look at the minimap to tell you to turn (which is at the bottom-left, meaning you have to turn away from looking on the road).
The road before it is a slow curve, so you're focusing on that curve and getting it correctly because they throw this 90 degree bullshit turn on you. You're going 100 miles per hour, so you don't even see this coming at all and it really fucks and punishes you hard.
Here's another one in the same race, just a bit before (it's before the slow curve that I'm talking about previously). It's really fucking hard to see the turn, I removed the minimap to add some bias in my favour but also to show that if you aren't looking at the minimap for that right second, you won't see it coming at all. Add the dust and dirt and you're completely lost. The car turns like a boat, so you definitely have to plan way ahead by reducing speed and drift to this turn right. Thankfully, the road is a bit wider than the last screenshot, but its still fucking hard as fuck.
Last edit: 2012-11-09 15:42:51
https://twitter.com/#!/TorteDeLini (@TorteDeLini)
Torte de Lini Canada. November 09 2012 15:33. Posts 27037
If that car wasn't there, turning. I would have never noticed it. Even after doing this race a couple of times, it still catches me off-guard
Sorry, this is confusing me, what are you pointing out exactly? 3rd to 7th?
5. 0 INDICATION ON WHERE TO GO. Very rarely will the game add a green arrow or something to show you where to go next. Even then, it's very unclear unless you look at the minimap very quickly. The game likes to "challenge" you by shoving weird and fucking anti-visual sharp turns in the game. If you miss them, you crash or you go the wrong way or you're fucked
https://twitter.com/#!/TorteDeLini (@TorteDeLini)
LOLItsRyann England. November 09 2012 15:40. Posts 492
If that car wasn't there, turning. I would have never noticed it. Even after doing this race a couple of times, it still catches me off-guard
Sorry, this is confusing me, what are you pointing out exactly? 3rd to 7th?
5. 0 INDICATION ON WHERE TO GO. Very rarely will the game add a green arrow or something to show you where to go next. Even then, it's very unclear unless you look at the minimap very quickly. The game likes to "challenge" you by shoving weird and fucking anti-visual sharp turns in the game. If you miss them, you crash or you go the wrong way or you're fucked
That's retarded o.O and sorry, I edited my post cause you hadn't written text when i quoted it. But yeah that's stupid, looking at it I wouldn't have noticed either. Underground were the days.. *cry*
EG<3
Torte de Lini Canada. November 09 2012 15:41. Posts 27037
If that car wasn't there, turning. I would have never noticed it. Even after doing this race a couple of times, it still catches me off-guard
Sorry, this is confusing me, what are you pointing out exactly? 3rd to 7th?
5. 0 INDICATION ON WHERE TO GO. Very rarely will the game add a green arrow or something to show you where to go next. Even then, it's very unclear unless you look at the minimap very quickly. The game likes to "challenge" you by shoving weird and fucking anti-visual sharp turns in the game. If you miss them, you crash or you go the wrong way or you're fucked
That's retarded o.O and sorry, I edited my post cause you hadn't written text when i quoted it. But yeah that's stupid, looking at it I wouldn't have noticed either. Underground were the days.. *cry*
Here's another.
Read my review, I add context.
Last edit: 2012-11-09 15:41:19
https://twitter.com/#!/TorteDeLini (@TorteDeLini)
Aerisky United States. November 09 2012 15:43. Posts 9212
Yeah...it seems kind of pretty to watch but it's a total nightmare to play for all of those reasons and more....it's really just not fun anymore. So many great series are going to poop and there seem to be few new/innovative large-scale games because companies are afraid to innovate, and just end up rehashing old crap. Yet somehow people keep buying those games and ugh.
I'm enjoying it so far. Think of it as San Francisco Rush (throwbacks, holla), not Gran Turismo. You pop it on, zip around for an hour, and leave, not optimize every aspect of your car hoping the game can accurately translate your settings into noticeable differences in gameplay.
With that being said (that's right, quoting PainUser), alot of the grievances Torte posted are true. Map in the bottom left is annoying, the sun glare when you're cresting over a hill is downright blinding, and sometimes I swear random cars are cloaked until they're 5 ft from me resulting in a catastrophic wreck.
The game is optimized... like a plate of shit for the PC, which is a huge complaint. Ironically, it actually uses all the cores of my cpu (6), which is surprising considering how awful the port was. Here are some tips that can help: 1. Go to C:\Users\Name\Documents\Criterion Games\Need For Speed(TM) Most Wanted\config.nfs13save (open with notepad) and change LockTo30=true. 2. The biggest performance hitters are Ambient Occlusion, Reflection Detail, Motion Blur, and Shadows (in that order), so lower them one by one until you get the smoothness you like. 3. There will always be points in the game where it drops to 20fps for a few seconds, can't really fix that, shitty port.
That's pretty much what I think. It's not a sim, it's an arcade racer (probably one of the most arcadey in recent times).
P.S. Play with an xbox controller. I heard handling sucks on a wheel (imagine that).
Torte de Lini Canada. November 09 2012 15:57. Posts 27037
Yo, I'm not racing buff. I like arcadey kinds of racing with Dirt 3 considered "challenging for me". I was a huge Burnout fan, I loved Burnout: Takedown.
This game was just wow, terrible. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was pretty good, tolerable. but this game is all sorts of horrid trash and annoyances. Like Jesus, they punish you so hard, I'm watching it being played now and one crash: second to 7th (out of 8 places).
Then don't crash. Take it as a challenge to make that tight turn.
Edit: I really don't understand your complaint on the difficult corners with intricate entrances. You're racing in an urban environment, juking and jiving through the city. You're not on a sweeping, flowing race track like Silverstone.
Last edit: 2012-11-09 16:03:52
Torte de Lini Canada. November 09 2012 16:03. Posts 27037
On November 09 2012 16:04 seiferoth10 wrote: I'm just wondering, did you enjoy F1 2012? I can tell you I've played this game more than F1 2012. Maybe it's just a difference in preference.
It's a mixture of bad UI design, too much clutter in road decals as well as the poor visual indications of turns in the game that make it feel more gimmick than challenging.
On November 09 2012 16:04 seiferoth10 wrote: I'm just wondering, did you enjoy F1 2012? I can tell you I've played this game more than F1 2012. Maybe it's just a difference in preference.
It's a mixture of bad UI design, too much clutter in road decals as well as the poor visual indications of turns in the game that make it feel more gimmick than challenging.
The only poor indicator is the sharp turn indicator it seems too infrequent.
On November 09 2012 15:33 Torte de Lini wrote:
If that car wasn't there, turning. I would have never noticed it. Even after doing this race a couple of times, it still catches me off-guard
Really i would have though the word CHECK would be a hint.
Torte de Lini Canada. November 09 2012 16:47. Posts 27037
On November 09 2012 16:04 seiferoth10 wrote: I'm just wondering, did you enjoy F1 2012? I can tell you I've played this game more than F1 2012. Maybe it's just a difference in preference.
It's a mixture of bad UI design, too much clutter in road decals as well as the poor visual indications of turns in the game that make it feel more gimmick than challenging.
The only poor indicator is the sharp turn indicator it seems too infrequent.
This is only one of the many races that pull this shit and the other ones are equally annoying. Sure, it doesn't look as convincing when they're still images, but give it a shot yourself.
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