[ALL] Need for Speed: Rivals

[Handleit_44]

Need for Speed: Rivals announced for November release on PS4 and Xbox One

Need for Speed: Rivals has been announced by EA for next-gen systems and is in development at Ghost Games, a new studio within the firm.


Need for Speed: Rivals is in the works at Ghost Games, EA’s newest studio, who bring new thinking and innovation to the Need for Speed franchise in partnership with the expert racing team at Criterion Games. Built on the Frostbite 3 game engine, Need for Speed Rivals captures the adrenaline and intensity of the street’s ultimate rivalry between cops and racers, in a stunning open road environment. Need for Speed Rivals is coming to current generation platforms on November 19, 2013 and will also be released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 later this year.

In Need for Speed Rivals, gamers play as either a cop or racer, where each side of the law has its own set of high stakes challenges, rewards and consequences. As a racer, the goal is to become infamous for taking risks behind the wheel and capturing your most intense escapes on video for the world to see.

The more cops players evade, the more Speedpoints they collect, enabling them to unlock new cars and items. Keep raising the stakes race after race, earning more and more Speedpoints along the way and becoming a more valuable target to the cops – but risk losing it all if busted. As a cop, players work together as part of a team in pursuit of racers, earning prominence and rising in the ranks of the Police Force with every bust. Achieving higher ranks unlocks new police only cars and more powerful pursuit tech.

Ghost Games also announced today the long-awaited return of Ferrari to the Need for Speed franchise. For the first time in seven years, gamers can get behind the wheel of some of the most luxurious, desirable automobiles on the planet, including the F12berlinetta.

At the heart of Need for Speed Rivals is AllDrive, an innovative new feature that allows gamers to seamlessly transition from playing alone, to playing with friends, destroying the line between single player and multiplayer. Players will have to keep one eye on their rearview mirror as friends will be able to enter and exit races on-the-fly, creating a world where no two events will ever be the same.

“The Need for Speed franchise has been an industry leader bringing social competition to the forefront in games,” said Marcus Nilsson, Executive Producer, Ghosts Games. “For the first time, players will have the freedom to seamlessly go from single player to co-op to multiplayer. In Need for Speed Rivals we are creating one game experience with one progression, where the freedom to play with friends is more fluid and accessible than ever before.”

Need for Speed Rivals pushes the limits of racing games with all-new and improved features:
• Next-Gen Racing – Redview County is brought to life with stunning, next-generation detail
• Need for Speed Network Powered by Autolog – Gamers can compare stats and challenge their friends anytime, anywhere and then easily share their accomplishments with both friends and rivals.
• Personalization – Drivers customize their ride with fresh paintjobs, custom license plates, liveries decals and rims, as well as performance upgrades.
• Pursuit and Evasion Tech – White-knuckle racing explodes with 11 upgradeable gadgets including turbo boosts, jammers and EMPs for racers, and shockwaves, roadblocks and helicopters for cops.

Players eager to bust racers from day one can pre-order Need for Speed Rivals at participating retailers and receive the Ultimate Cop Pack at no additional cost*. This pack offers exclusive access to a powerful collection of items including the Nissan GT-R Black Edition cop car, advanced pursuit technology, and a custom livery.

 

[jms493]

meh...same game again. Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted 2, now this. I want my tuner/underground street racing game.

Also "Next Gen Graphx"...will it look as good as MW looks now on the PC?

 

[Swarley]

Sounds like NFS: Hot Pursuit 36. Not really encouraged by the "partnered with Criterion" either. That means it'll probably feel like another Burnout. Although it is nice to see some car customization.

 

[Swarley]

 

[Swarley]

 

[Garrett67]

The NFS series is getting tired. Chase car, run away from car, check point, cops, spikes. Oh no! A helicopter.

 

[Swarley]

 

[Swarley]

 

[Swarley]

 

[Handleit_44]

PS4's Need for Speed Rivals more visually impressive than PC version

Played on the PlayStation 4, Need for Speed Rivals is a more visually impressive, though currently slightly more buggy, version of Electronic Arts' upcoming racer than the Windows PC version.

We spent the first part of our session playing the PC version of Rivals, which ran well, with a PlayStation 4 controller. Later, we switched to the PS4 version and were surprised to find a game that looked even more impressive than its PC counterpart, with better texture detail, improved lighting on cars and sharper graphics overall. The PS4 version did suffer from a higher incidence of issues such as parts of the world failing to load, but developer Ghost Games assured us they would have those problems ironed out in time for launch.

Developer Ghost Games' key point at its most recent press event, though, was that you don't have to play the game with other people online. The developers just really want you to.

Ghost is attempting to deliver a new kind of racing game, one that dissolves the line between single-player and multiplayer gaming. The world of Rivals still contains the standard Need for Speed campaign, although it's split up into two roles, racer and cop. But as you're driving around Rivals' fictional, California-inspired setting of Redview County, other players can seamlessly appear in your game and play with you — or against you.

The developers at Ghost Games believe that this system, which they call AllDrive, will make for a better Need for Speed title — if players just give it a shot.

"First and foremost, this game is made to be able to [be] played alone — the AI's really capable, [and the game has] scaling systems," said Marcus Nilsson, executive producer on Rivals, in an interview with Polygon following a recent hands-on demo of the game. "There's a lot of people, Need for Speed consumers, that want to play alone, and there's a very capable game to play alone out there that they can do."

Nilsson noted that he previously worked on Battlefield titles at EA DICE, and acknowledged that his vision of online games might be colored by that experience. But that is indeed Nilsson's vision, and he pointed out that Rivals' interface — which doesn't require users to choose a separate "multiplayer" option from a menu — encourages players to try out AllDrive rather than dismiss it out of hand. (Rivals does offer the option to turn off AllDrive for an entirely solo experience, or limit the pool of users to people on your friends list.)

"I do think that this game becomes a lot more fun when you do play with friends," said Nilsson. "It's an easier proposition to give it a chance in this game than it was in, for instance, [Need for Speed] Most Wanted, where you had to press the multiplayer button." And the only limit to AllDrive is players' imaginations, according to Nilsson. Ghost expects users to collaborate and compete in ways the studio hasn't even considered, but one example Nilsson gave was the way in which AllDrive facilitates play between people who are at different levels in the game.

Rivals features a gradual progression upward for both racers and cops, with players unlocking new cars and abilities as they earn speed points and rank up through 20 levels. If you're a level 5 racer, and you're having trouble with a race that you need to complete in order to jump to level 6, you can call in some assistance from a friend who's a level 15 cop, having her impede your competition so you can zoom to a first-place finish. Of course, there's also the potential for griefing, but as Nilsson sees it, that's part of what makes Rivals so unique and enjoyable.

"It is really a lot more fun because of the, kind of, controlled chaos and the unexpected [gameplay] that AllDrive brings. When you mix people together [...] you can take educated choices that make my game experience more interesting. So I think the human element is really giving you a lot more flavor in the experience," Nilsson explained.

"What we start seeing is people yelling out about having fun, and screaming out [while] playing at the office," he added, noting that that's something that rarely, if ever, happened during the development of Shift 2 Unleashed and Need for Speed Most Wanted. "We made a game, made a really high-quality game, but we didn't have that unexpected fun that AllDrive's bringing."

We checked out the cop's side of the career mode, taking on events like timed sprints from point to point and exercises in which we had to take down some racers. In addition to the human players that AllDrive brings in, you'll see plenty of activity in Redview County from computer-controlled cars. While we were driving casually through the world, a cop and a racer locked in a high-speed chase flew past us at an intersection. It's those kinds of spontaneous interactions that bring the world of Rivals to life, and that was even before another player joined us.

The two of us met at the starting point for an event, then sped off to bust some racers. We were doing fine in co-op by ourselves, and then Rivals developers in the room provided some assistance from the game's mobile app through a mode called Overwatch. They were connected to our game, and dropped in a shock wave that we were able to unleash on an unsuspecting racer. (The app stopped working at this point, so we didn't get the chance to try it out ourselves.)

We enjoyed our time with Rivals, and as a launch title for both next-generation consoles, the game will likely be a great showcase for the power of the new systems. AllDrive is something that will be impossible to judge until after Rivals is released, but the seamless integration that we saw during our limited demo could provide a great new way to progress faster through your solo career while playing with your friends.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/18/4851148/need-for-speed-rivals-hands-on-alldrive-pc-ps4

 

[jms493]

Very, Very, Very, Very, Very, hard to believe as seeing videos of Rivals...it doesn't look better than Most Wanted on my PC now.

I wonder what the graphical settings and resolution was set at for the PC game.

 

[Swarley]

NFS is so blah now anyways. I'd much rather sit and play NFS: Underground 2, original Most Wanted, Carbon, etc. over these latest entries.

 

[jms493]

I am enjoying this game on the PS4 although it does make the my Ferrari I bought fully upgraded and it is pretty beastly. The cops in this fucking game are relentless and they are everywhere. It can be pretty frustrating especially after just finishing a race and your car is in critical damage and here come the cops. You have to either race to a hideout or gas station ASAP. Nothing worse then winning 50k in SP and then losing it 30 seconds later. :bucky:

The always online world is nice. It is interesting to see to races merge together or someone trying to get away from the cops merge with your race. I have seem some crazy carnage as a result.

Graphics are really nice on the PS4 and the frame rate is very smooth. I just kinda laugh at this game as it always seems like it is very windy. There is always a bunch of leaves/debris flying in the air. I want that McLaren P1! The games difficulty is challenging which I have a love/hate relationship with.

Overall Nice job by the developers. They seem to make a 1 good NFS out of every 3-4 versions.

 

[CCBrink]

I am enjoying this game on the PS4 although it does make the my Ferrari I bought fully upgraded and it is pretty beastly. The cops in this fucking game are relentless and they are everywhere. It can be pretty frustrating especially after just finishing a race and your car is in critical damage and here come the cops. You have to either race to a hideout or gas station ASAP. Nothing worse then winning 50k in SP and then losing it 30 seconds later. :bucky:

The always online world is nice. It is interesting to see to races merge together or someone trying to get away from the cops merge with your race. I have seem some crazy carnage as a result.

Graphics are really nice on the PS4 and the frame rate is very smooth. I just kinda laugh at this game as it always seems like it is very windy. There is always a bunch of leaves/debris flying in the air. I want that McLaren P1! The games difficulty is challenging which I have a love/hate relationship with.

Overall Nice job by the developers. They seem to make a 1 good NFS out of every 3-4 versions.

So it is it closer to original Most Wanted? No other NFS game has topped that IMO.

 

[jms493]

So it is it closer to original Most Wanted? No other NFS game has topped that IMO.

yes it does remind me of that. There is a story in this game with cut scenes but I just hit the X button asap. After watching the first scene I was OUT!

FYI I have yet to play as the cops yet.

 

[Swarley]

It reminds me most of last year's Most Wanted, just with a better world and a better way of getting cars (purchasing them instead of finding them). The customization is still nowhere near that of those NFS street racing games of early PS360 gen or PS2/Xbox gen.

 

[jms493]

I just finished the Racer Career of NFS.

The Last Race...let me give you guys a little advice as it seems nobody on my friends list has gotten that far. The race is 54 checkpoints :shifty: and all they ask of you is to complete it (thank god).

Tips to finish/win this race

• Make sure you have a fully upgraded car with good strength and durability.
• Make sure you have both weapons equiped and are also fully upgraded. I used the level 4 Shockwave and EMP as these keeps racers and more importantly cops away from you.
• You will probably have to do this race 2-3 times and as you repeat keep note on where the Repair Shops are during this race as they are the key to finishing. They cops will beat your car down and you must make sure the car is doesn't hit a critical state.
• Use your weapons as much as you can to keep cars away from you.
• Do your best to look for pedestrian cars. They will kill the race for you.
• If you want to actually win this race...don't crash (duh).

I came in 2nd place as when the 1st place car passed me about 75% done I never saw him again. There is a long stretch towards the end where there is not repair shop so stay frosty! 1 will pop up very late in the race so make sure you drive through it so you don't wreck at check point 53/54!

I have found that the cop career is way easier than the racer portion. I now have the P1!!! Quality NFS game I must say. :rockclap:

 

[Swarley]

nobody on my friends list has gotten that far

With FM5 and GT6 now in my possession, this game will probably be collecting dust for a couple months.

 

[Handleit_44]

I just finished the Racer Career of NFS.

Love NFS: Rivals!

Actually going the opposite direction and finishing Cops first.

 

[jms493]

Grabbed the P1, fully upgraded and the came in firsr in last race. Car is awesome..