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[Certinty]

Shame because Rivals is the best NFS since the original MW by far.

 

[Acquiescence]

Hot Pursuit was a great mix of both. It did take place in an open world, but selecting an event to race in would drop you into a closed section of a track. So, you were going to be taking the exact path that Criterion wanted you to take. There were some shortcuts along the way as well, but you couldn't get t-boned into a wrong route or miss a turn because the map updated too slowly. In HP I actually tried to beat the times of people on my Friends list, while I never even bothered with it in MW or Rivals. There's just too much unpredictability in open world racers for me to care about setting fast times. And then its worse once you introduce performance upgrades. There was NOS in HP, but everyone had that and it was more about how you used it more than anything else.

Great post. Hot Pursuit was so great.

And I really do not appreciate this trend of racing games going open-world. I don't like it one bit.

 

[Totobeni]

Should have known Ghost was a sinking ship when people starting leaving a month or so ago. All the signs were there...

Such a shame to see Criterion go out like this. Hurts just as much as when Acti shuttered Bizarre or when Sony shuttered Studio Liverpool...

in general racing games are dying breed (both arcade/futurastic/sim). so a racing games only studio is like a zombie at this point.

Yeah, Hot Pursuit is one of my favorite racing games ever, while I felt that Rivals and MW were a step back from that. HP exceeded in mostly just being a pure racing game. Yes, you still had some pursuit tech, but it seemed much more focused than the other games. I think the open world is the biggest problem with the other games. That's one reason why i'm happy that Evolution decided to just make a course based racer with DRIVECLUB instead of doing the trendy thing which is to make an open world racer.

The open world wont be a problem if they did it like Burnout Paraside . as a sandbox where you have awesome city design and just pure fun with no cops and crap(but cops are NFS trademark thingy). sadly the cities are awful full of long empty roads in Rivals and MW.

 

[SolidSnakex]

The open world wont be a problem if they did it like Burnout Paraside . as a sandbox where you have awesome city design and just pure fun with no cops and crap(but cops are NFS trademark thingy). sadly the cities are awful full of long empty roads in Rivals and MW.

Paradise's races annoyed the hell out of me because they didn't even mark a basic route for you to stay on. The start up just showed you where you'd begin and where you had to go. So, it was very easy for you to get completely screwed if you happen to take a wrong turn, which was quite easy to do.

 

[p3tran]

so, i just bought nfs rivals two days ago, exactly when i read the news that driveclub is being "sandwiched"(!) from april to november.
i must say i find rivals enjoyable, but has some problems. from the no pause button to the silly way servers work (or dont work).

so help me understand this: there is "ghost hq" and "ghost help" offices, and they are slashing "ghost help"? or is ghost in whole thats getting an axe?

 

[Nokterian]

Hot Pursuit was a great mix of both. It did take place in an open world, but selecting an event to race in would drop you into a closed section of a track. So, you were going to be taking the exact path that Criterion wanted you to take. There were some shortcuts along the way as well, but you couldn't get t-boned into a wrong route or miss a turn because the map updated too slowly. In HP I actually tried to beat the times of people on my Friends list, while I never even bothered with it in MW or Rivals. There's just too much unpredictability in open world racers for me to care about setting fast times. And then its worse once you introduce performance upgrades. There was NOS in HP, but everyone had that and it was more about how you used it more than anything else.

That's why i even rebought during a PSN sale on PS3 for 5 euro's still my favorite racing game imo. And i still play it today. Yes i have even Rivals on PS3 but didn't touch it mutch unlike HP2010. People who are still playing it please add me to PSN! I wanna beat ya

 

[Miles Quaritch]

in general racing games are dying breed (both arcade/futurastic/sim). so a racing games only studio is like a zombie at this point.

Yep and it's a crying shame, arcade racers are one of my most played and love genres, to see it die out has been very hard to stomach.

Still, there's some hope for arcade racer fans in the not too distance future with Driveclub and Forza Horizon 2.

 

[Zok310]

I wonder if the EA board are taking a pay cut?

Doubt it

 

[Glass Rebel]

So I assume Rivals didn't perform as well as they had hoped? Such a mess what happened to Criterion and Ghost.