Undercover = NFS is dead

[Jake Ryan]

EA is now, officially, kicking a dead horse. NFS Undercover looks BAD. I just cant get my head around it, Its just another re-do of Most Wanted. Hell, the graphics even look like MW! All I can say is, EA, your screwed unles you can re-invent NFS agan like, and I know this wont be popular here, but like Underground. At least underground was revolutionary, not just the same ol crap.
Yes, Underground killed MCO, but I still like it. After Most Wanted, NFS needed a total new direction... Or perhaps an old concept dusted off, and made new, like the Mustang, Camaro, and Chalenger. *shrugs*

[Allegedman]

agree

just a rehash of same old crap.

oh oh oh but its got the 370Z! oh yeah!!! more crap to add to the toilet

forza 3 and MWO will kill this thing with a mere thought

[Rollout]

I just cant get my head around it, Its just another re-do of Most Wanted. Hell, the graphics even look like MW!

I saw a commercial on TV for Undercover earlier today. My first thought was, "Why are they advertising Most Wanted again?" :confused:

[roadweasel]

Meybe they should try what made them famous - exotic cars and fabulous tracks that required some skill to navigate correctly. The in-game videos, slowmo corners, sparkly nos, drag racing on a rail and cutaway shots mid-race were all way too schmaltzy for me.
IMO Porsche Unleashed was 2nd only to MCO for playability online with a thriving community, great tracks, tunable cars and realistic sound. EA lost me when they stopped making GOOD racing games and began cranking out console friendly play em once and toss-em crap.

[Kantaris]

Yeah, it's was sad to see such a prestigous franchise go bad, does anyone know what exactly happened with hot pursuit 2? they released it at roughly the same time as underground 2 I think, and I'm sure it failed also because it (I assume) didn't have customization, I have a feeling it deserved better market timing/release.
I'd like to see EA do something like remake NFS 2 (with a similar intro of course), have a total of 18? exotic cars (including the NFS 2 offerings), 16? tracks (including the NFS 2 offerings) and present them in seriously incredible graphics, add in the car profile stuff like what was in NFS 3, and maybe do something daring like not put in licensed music, which they won't do, so in that case I hope they don't put in grungy metal like what dragged down MW and ProStreet.

It would also be great if they become they first to make (seriously now) decent-realistic smoke effects for tyre/ground friction, Sony clearly show no intention of doing this with GT, It's like they have just copied the same code over from GT1 and it only appears slightly better for subsequent consoles by default base graphic delivery.
Someone, somewhere, in a video game lab, sit down, and watch an hour of burnouts and other assorted friction activities on video and pay attention.
If a company can program the friction smoke right, then get the scientific part of the gameplay right (inertia, g force, mass) including car handling, the rest is easy.

[Jake Ryan]

Hot pursuit 2 is copyright 2002, Underground is copyright 2003. I remember playing MCO on my computer, and when I needed a moment between races, I had Hot pursuit 2 going at the same time. Yeah, I like to race lol. Underground is the result of the movie The fast and the furious. The Surpra and Eclipse that were introduced into MCO were Brians hero cars. Its all good, we have MWO soon enough.

[RedRx7]

I agree Undercover looks like the worst p.o.s. they've made yet. I wish EA would just die already so some new developer could buy the IP and reinvent the series.
There's a rumor out that one of EA's Asian studios is working on an online NFS title, but it sounds like it will only be an Asian release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0l9-DxcAyc&feature=related
Damn I miss this some days.

[Ayce]

I think, imnsho, the series went to pot after PU, with HS having the best features of the series, (full replays,including AI cars, modability, good tunes, replayability, good online community. Unfortunately, I never got to play MCO, so I can't fairly rate it.)
When they brought out HP2, which was basicaly a console port, I thought it was terrible. One view replays, bad physics, crappy online, that stupid "on the fly replay" bad damage models, no support for Momo,(without hacking the controllers file), and other problems. After that, they sunsetted (KILLED) the PU/HS servers just before UG came out. Good thing for [RS]JMac and the IP lounge, which I helped test.
EA & NFS have been going downhill rapidly since then. I did get MW and C, but they played as I expected. Once through, and put it away, not much online fun to be had. Of course the $uit$ at EA like it that way, then they don't have to keep a server running for an older game for that given community. Keep one running for the current game for maybe 1 year, then kill it for the next version.
I get emails from EA from time to time, asking me what I want in the next NFS, it is to :laugh: I keep telling them to bring out a "best of" version, with the best cars and tracks from ALL the NFS series, chosen by the NFS community through online polls. Not seen it yet. The closest they got was to repackage NFS2SE-6 individually. They never even changed the package notes to let buyers know the servers no longer worked. Bah!:p
Now EA is just running on the fame of previous titles, while destroying NFS's rep along the way. There was a time when NFS was the leader in arcade style racing games, now they just follow the pack and spin the PR so they appear to be leading. :playingball:

Sorry for the rant, maybe. :redface:

[Dogboy]

Unfortunatly nowadays it's about the eye candy (what gets the 8-12 crowd talking the most). EA hurries out games with gobs of visuals, and the gameplay suffers. Other titles seem to get both the eye candy and gameplay done with a better result, but they tend to leave out the "options" (i.e. upgrades, customization, etc). I played Codemasters Grid for a while, and while I found it a much better alternative to Pro Street, I felt that there was something missing. Plus like with many other foreign game producers, they always tend to shine a dim light on pre '73 american auto products. Driving the Cuda or Boss Mustang in that game made me feel like I was riding on a wave runner with dumbed down steering, no feel whatsoever......