Need for Speed series and other racing games

[ivrognard]

So which are your favorites? From the NFS series and not only?!

My personal favorites are the old NFS: Porsche Unleashed, Hot Pursuit (NFS3, the original Hot Pursuit game), the NFS Underground 1/2 and NFS: Most Wanted (2005). 

The career mode in NFS: PU was excellent, the evolution was well executed, the music fitting and the tracks were nicely designed. The tuning required a lot of trial and error and what would work on a track would not work on another track. The NFS 3 had  a dedicated modding community and some really nice tracks. The Underground games and MW 2005 captured that illegal street racing feel quite well and it did not felt so cartoonish. 

Non-EA racing games: Midnight Club series (vastly underrated), Test Drive Unlimited (the original) - this one offers an amazing freedom and a sheer pleasure to drive, Ridge Racer (soundtrack and atmosphere were great until the fifth game). 

And there we have the old Grand Prix series and the Grand Prix Legends (this was a blast, especially because you were playing old F1 cars, from the 1967 championship).

[Straatford87]

@ivrognard

Great topic, Ivro!

I must say for me that Underground 2 was my favorite NFS game; it just had the right mix of visuals, exploration, customization and a great soundtrack

[spitfiresiemion]

I will go full old-time mode... II, III and High Stakes. Games of my childhood. Hot Pursuit 2 was okay too, and so was the second Most Wanted. I'm not sure why, but I felt lukewarm at best about the second one. 2015... I mean, it's not bad, but you don't really get much of a sense of progression, and the races are quite far from being challenging.

[Straatford87]

@spitfiresiemion

Even Prestige? 

We made that quite hard..

[ivrognard]

Gonna leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ak8nV2nuls

Motor City Online was a game way before its times. EA had the opportunity to create one hell of the game and delivered. But the market wasn't quite ready for that at the time. Test Drive Unlimited draw quite a bit of inspiration from that, in my opinion and improved certain aspects, while making other more casual. Would love to see a Motor City 2, but with a single player part, open world and lots of stuff to do in game. Classic cars still have appeal and american muscle seems to stand the test of time, remaining popular.

Another game series that was fun on PC and not related to EA: Juiced. Good car selection, lots of fun, especially with its pink slip races.

To me, right now, it seems that the arcade racing kind of suffers on PC. We have good and great circuit racers, but all are in the simulation area. Project Cars, Asseto Corsa, the F1 series and pretty much everything in that are is geared towards simulation. Fun arcade games seems to be a dying breed. Sure, there was a new Test Drive Unlimited game announced recently, but for now we don't know anything about it: who will develop it, what gameplay will offer and other similar questions.

So here's for hoping that EA will bring back the fun arcade racing on PC. Right now, they are the only company with resources and targeting the more casual players.