If there’s one thing I’ve always loved: it’s a good racing game. Even as a toddler rushing downstairs at speeds that would make any parent deeply concerned (and 🎉also impacting the ground at sufficien🅠t velocity to warrant a paramedic visit) I’ve been a true velocity aficionado. From the heady days of Cruisin’ USA to the more contemporary and insane Wipeout HD, I have a need that only speed can satisfy.
I will not apologize for that pun.
Speaking of Need for Speed, there’s a new one coming out jus🙈t in time for Christmas! Need for Speed iꦍs one of the longest running and most successful racing franchises ever, and this new one seems like it could be the bes🌼t one yet. It will have everything you’ve always loved about the series —insane speed, tons of cars, police chases, extreme racing— but it looks like it’ll also have a real plot attached to it this time around too. A Need for Speed game with a story beyond “race cars, outrun polic🍎e, get paid”? This could be groundbreaking.
Here’s what we learned and what we hated 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:after seeing the June 2 rel💜ease trail🃏er.
15 LEARNED: OFFLINE ꦬSINGLE PLAYER!!! ꦰ
EA has caught a lot of flack for requiring many of its ๊games be always online. The 2015 Need for Speed reboot, in particular, was panned for requiring even the single player experience to be online, causing quite a bit of performance loss anไd bugs, not🧜 to mention the fact that if your internet goes down you just can’t play at all.
It looks ♌like EA has learned tജheir lesson as the single player experience for Payback will no longer need the pla෴yer to be online. Multiplayer will still require it, for obvious reasons, but you’ll be able to play Payback by yourself in the middle of the desert for as long༺ as your b🍎attery lasts.
14 HATED: Pre-Order Exclusive Cars ꦦ
Ahem. I may have written about the subject not too long ago, but I will take this opportunity to remind you that p🐎re-ordering any game, no matter how pretty the trailer appears, is the mark of a sucker. So I really hate it when game companies load up on exclusive pre-order content to try and goad me into pre-ordering. It won’t work, EA! Not for you, not for anyone!
Although I gotta say, the pre-order cars are lookin’ mighty fine. There’s the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS, the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, th𒅌e 2016 Ford F-150 Raptor, the 2016 Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport, and my personal favourite, the 2008 Nissan 350Z. And you’ll also get some exclusive customizations too.
I must remain strong. I must.
13 LEARNED: You Like Action? ‘Course🥀 You Do
If there’s one thing you got a sense for in the release trailer, it’s that this game will be 🌄unlike any Need For Speed before it. There will be tons of car chases, police chases, highway robberies, flippe♊d cars and explosions.
This game will be just as much an action film as it is a racing game. Not only are you in the driver’s 💫seat, but you’re also on the hood ready to jump onto a big rig truck to steal back your carও from the House. Meanwhile, your partner will be dodging police spike strips and rival racers all over the highways and deserts of the Western US.
If there turns out to be a helicopter chase scen𒀰e, it will have basically ticked off every box on the action movie set list.
12 ꧟ HATED: Early Access
Need for Speed Payback has a worldwide release date of November 10, but EA is a tricksy company. If you’re an EA Access member or an Origin Access subscriber you’ll be able to play the game on Novemberꦬ 2 - over a full week before anyone else. Only up to 10 ho💦urs though, so no shotgunning the game in a week.
If you’re not an EA brown-noser but still a big Need for Speed fan, you can get the $79.99 Deluxe Edition and be able to play the game starting November 7. The Deluxe Edition will also come with those aforementioned pre-order cars, plus some unique cust𝕴omizations, and in-game discounts.
It’s basically like preferred fliers at the airport being able to board their plane before everyone💎 else. Smug jerks.
11 LEARNED: Don’t Sweat The De𒊎tails 💯
First off, let’s hit you with the deets! Th🅰e new game w💜ill be called Need for Speed: Payback, and it’s being dev🍷eloped by the same EA teꦕam who did the 2015 Need for Speed reboot, Ghost Games. They say th🐽ey’ve learned quite a few lessons from the earlier reboot, and t🌺hey plan on implementing a lot of those lessons in 2017’s Payback.
The game will also be launched just in time for Christmas, having a worldwide release date set for November 10. We’ll als𝄹o be getting more info, along with real gameplay footage, at EA’s pre E3 event EA Play on June 10. We’ll probably also see more at🎀 E3, so stay tuned all June!
10 HATED: The R🐻hinos A🍷re Back
Ugh. UGH! Those stupid police SUVs are back, and I still hate them. They’re big, they’re unreasonably fast for a 10-ton truck, and I can’t smash them out of the way like I caꦍn a regular cop car. And they’re making a return in Payback. Sigh.
It’s not that I h🌜ate the fact that police SUVs exist, as they clearly do in law enforcement fleets around the world. It’s the fact that they’re usually not fast enough to catch a speeding Bugatti Veyron that irks me so much. Sure, SUVs can run down a fleeing suspect in a beat up Mercury all day long, but a supercar? Not so much. They’re dumb, and I hate them.
Alright, rant over, back to list.
9 LEARNED: The Plot Thickens 𒐪
Something that should excite⛎ literally everyone is the fact that this could be the most st🍷ory-driven Need for Speed game ever made. There’s going to be real heroes, real villains, and rea✱l cut scenes driving (mor༺e puns!) the plot.
Don’t take my word for ꧑it. Straight from EA’s mouth to your ears, and taken right from the trailer video notes:
“Set in the underworld of Fortune Valley, you and your crew are reunited by a search for vengeance against The House, a🦂 nefarious cartel that rules the city’s casinos, criminals, and cops.”
Fortune Valley, in this case, seems to be an analog of Las Vegas, which the video scenery, highways, and casino🥃s seem to confirm.
8 HATED: “She Left Us With Not🔥hing”
The Payback trailer begins with a character, presumably Tyler, saying, “We were a crew, and she left us with nothing. We’re gunna end this - starting now!” That gives us a big clue as to how the plot will go൲, but it also tells us the main antagonist is 💟going to be a woman, and a jezebel at that.
There’s still a lot to be learned about the plot, but the fact that it begins🍌 with a woman’s betrayal is a little troubling. It’s kinda hard to imagine a scenario where the betrayal makes the villain out to be a powerfu♕l and dangerous foe, and on top of that, it’s sort of a tired cliché. We’ll just have to wait and see how the story plays out in later trailers.
7 LEAR🌄NED:🌠 The Three Amigos
It looks like Need for Speed is taking a page out of GTAV, as ꧟the story will be told from the viewpoint of three different characters (although in this case, th𒅌ey’ll all be working together). We have Tyler the Racer, Mac the Showman, and Jess the Wheelman, who all seem to be named after their particular specialties.
Tyler makes the most sense, as Need for Speed is a racing game filled with race cars. Jess is a little more tricky as being a wheelman means she’s going to be involved in heists of all kinds. Could be that we’ll see her behind the wheels of some exotic cars and doing some crazy stunts. The only mystery hereꦫ is Mac, who as the Showman, could also be doing insane stunts or could just be the guy in the garage making 🥃all the cars look pretty.
If we’re super lucky we may even g൲et some celebrity voices for some of them too.
6 HATED: So Many 𝔍Hypercars!
I’ve got another bone to pick with the Need for Speed series, and that’s its use of hypercars. Or maybe its overuse. I know the series is all about fantasy fulfilment and letting people actually drive cars t🔥hey’d never be able to afford in their entire lives, but that’s the thing - nobody would ever race these insane cars because they cost more than a dozen houses!
The only time you ever see a hypercar at high speeds is when it’s under 💜development and they need to test it. ꦚIf you see a Zonda strolling down the strip, it’s doing it a stately pace because the insurance on the thing alone would be enough to bankrupt a small country.
If you’re an underground racer, you take a cheap car, tune it❀ to the nines, and still be able to rౠeplace it when you inevitably drive it off a cliff. And it’s a Need for Speed game, so you will definitely do that eventually.