Need for Speed: the Run Will Be the Best NFS Game

Recently, there are many reports on Battlefield 3. But now it should be the show-time of Need for Speed: the Run. Although the games are of a different genre, they have one common aspect -- the Frostbite 2.0 engine which is preeminent in the gaming world at this moment. Coming in this November, Need for Speed: The Run is the latest racing game from developers EA Black Box, and will see players go underground into world of illicit, high stakes racing. Black Box is really doing something new with Need for Speed: The Run. The entire single-player game is one cross-country, coast-to-coast race across North America against 200 others, from the centre of San Francisco through the rolling hills of California, the deserts of Nevada, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, interstate highways and iconic American cities. Will it be the best NFS game?


Frostbite 2.0 Engine

Besides the all new quick time events that allows players to exit their cars, run on foot and get involved in a few fist fights as they move towards New York City from San Francisco, the game also runs on DICE’s Frostbite 2.0 engine and after Battlefield 3. Previous results of the engine has already been seen in Battlefield 3’s gameplay videos and EA (Electronic Arts) is once again hopeful that their newest racing game in the NFS franchise will draw more crowds than it previously did. Now, new information has been revealed by executive producer Jason DeLong on the scale of the game. No speed limits, no rules and no allies, hit the jump!

“We’ve got over 300km of race track in the game this year,” executive producer Jason DeLong revealed during a video interview with IGN. “We were able to, with Frostbite 2.0, create more than three times the track than has been in any previous Need for Speed.”

The First NFS Game to Introduce A Character

This will be the first game in the history of the Need For Speed franchise where a character has been introduced, and you can actually step out of the car. The character, called “Jack,” will make a run for his life from San Francisco to New York. The basic idea behind this is to give you a real time feel of both the character and the game. You, however, will only be able to control the in-game character during the cutscenes which is enough for a game in the racing genre.


A New Racing Simulator Genre

The games claimed to redefine the racing simulator genre by delivering authentic and true-to-life dynamic crash physics, intricately detailed real-world cars, drivers and tracks. Back in the nineties, the game was all about cool cars and exotic driving locations. Now, there is way more than that with improved character face physics and real life tracks stretching from San Francisco to New York, covering all the mountains, terrains, trees and canyons.

It allows for a huge variety of environments, rather than the street-racing locales that have traditionally defined the Need for Speed series. I play a short, intense section of The Run through a Death Valley desert canyon, a twisting, undulating road with rocky outcrops jutting up into the sky in the distance. The aim is to pass the opponents before the finishing line, which is harder than it sounds – this is still very much an arcade racer, with tight, satisfying handling and high speeds, but pick a bad place to attempt an overtake and you'll go slamming into a rock wall.

Cross-country Concept

The cross-country concept also allows for a variety of gameplay, whether it's racing technically around winding mountain tracks, hurtling into oncoming traffic on an interstate or evading cops in a city. There are one-on-one rival battles against arch-enemies, sprint races, elimination sections and cop pursuits, all of which feed into the overarching narrative. Having real locations has been a new experience for Black Box – the Frostbite 2 engine has made it much easier for them to create these open, detailed environments.

"When we've made Need for Speed games in the past, our first point of reference has always been amazing, beautiful drives in the real world – but we've never recreated them," says Delong. "Instead we've done a fictional city of a fictional county... We've always been limited technically in what we can do. But when we moved to Frostbite, we discovered that we were able to iterate on content so quickly that we could create the epic scale of a coast to coast race. We could have picked five major cites and recreated those in limited detail, but for us the true Run, the true race, is the variety that you get inbetween those cities."


To Sum Up

What Need for Speed: The Run is doing is finding a new way to frame the racing experience. Rather than just "3,2,1, GO!", it's aiming to provide a huge variety of individual race types and competitions that feed into an epic overall race. Telling a story is an important part of Black Box's ambitions too, now that the Frostbite engine allows for detailed characters as well as the usual gorgeous-looking cars. Out-of-car sections aside, that high-speed, heart-in-mouth, dyed-in-the-wool arcade style Need for Speed gameplay isn't changing. The brand has diversified hugely over the past few years, from Hot Pursuit's cops and robbers to Shift 2's more technical simulation, but The Run is managing to carve out a niche all for itself. Supported by the above world, it is obvious that Need For Speed: The Run might be the best NFS game ever.


(Source: IGN, lazygamer, ibtimes)

More Game News

NFS General Discussion, Walkthrough, Cars, Maps, Tracks, Trophies...