NFS 2015 is better than I thought it'd be [ Edited ]

[ZeroMcDol]

Disclaimer:  I never bought the game when it came out and know that it had issues for a long time.  I bought NFS 2015, because it was on sale. 

After 20 minutes of playing...  I'll admit it, NFS 2015 is better than Heat and Payback.  The only issue that I have with 2015 is the self-driving / collision avoidance mechanic that takes vehicle control out of the player's hands, which is minimal as it isn't that big of an issue for my driving style.  The controls are completely customizeable, which means that I can freely use my Xbox controller.  It also doesn't have crazy camera movements (Heat gave me something I've never had in my life.., motion sickness).  This is clearly a big budget game.

So now comes the questions.  What the heck happened?  Did you guys get lazy developing Heat or something?  

In any case, I'll be sticking with NFS 215 from now on.

[TheRealJony]

@ZeroMcDol Putting aside the frustrating NFS 2015's driving physics (as you already mentioned it), that game has always-online DRM. That is something I will always condemn in any game, which translates to me never buying those games.

A game can be the best (or worst) game ever, but knowing that the game can have its online servers permanently shut down one day always leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I don't know, but maybe it's the change of creative director of Ghost Games between the years.

NFS 2015's creative director isn't the same director for both NFS Payback and NFS Heat, which can lead to different development ideas being proposed.

[ZeroMcDol]

@TheRealJony 

I completely agree.  I never liked the always online feature in current racing games for the very reason mentioned in your post, which is one of the main reasons that games like Test Drive Unlimited 2, NFS Underground 2, and Gran Turismo 1,2, and 3 will always be my go to games.  The developers for these NFS games seem to have forgotten that these are racing games, being offered at full price, not Racing MMO's.  

On the note of NFS 2015:  The handling physics are bad, but manageable.  After 3 hours of play, I'd say the it's biggest issue (aside from collision prevention) is the inane amount of rubber-banding and performance boosting by the AI, which is almost as bad as Forza Horizon 4.

Edit:  Yep.  The Rubber-banding is atrocious.  Drift event?  AI Cheats.  Sprint?  AI Cheats.  Time Attack?  AI Cheats.  Circuit?  AI Cheats.  This basically wrecked any and all potential that this game had.  I'm glad I didn't buy it back in 2015, I would've been pretty mad. 

Aside from this tho, it's still better than Heat.