Games
After a year in the garage, Need For Speed is back for a nitrous-fuelled reboot.
Racing games have traditionally come in two flavours: simulation and arcade – and currently simulation is in pole position. Forza Motorsport 6, Gran Turismo and Project Cars do their utmost to capture the feel of the tarmac, the deteriorating grip of the tyres, and the shifting of weight as different forces act upon your car. In the same way, DiRT Rally – and now Sébastien Loeb Rally work hard to capture the true essence of rallying – with every pebble, hill and surface mapped in excruciating detail.
Realism is all well and good, but what about when you want to drift your ride round a corner at an utterly impossible angle? Since 1994, there’s been one obvious answer: Need For Speed. One of the most entertaining, enduring and loved franchises across all platforms, Need For Speed has come to represent the fun-loving, extreme side of racing.
After a few lacklustre sequels, Need For Speed has spent a year on the jacks, but now it’s ready to roll with an all-new reboot. Featuring a team with experience on games like Burnout and Forza Motorsport, the forthcoming Need For Speed could be the best yet. Red Bull Games spoke to Craig Sullivan, creative director at Ghost Games to find out more.
As with many EA titles, gamers have come to expect an NFS every year or so – just like they would FIFA or Madden – but this time Ghost Games and EA have bucked the trend, instead spending an extra year working on a totally fresh model. More than just a respray, the new Need For Speed is different on every level. “The game is built on entirely new foundations, so really everything is new or reworked,” says creative director at Ghost Games, Craig Sullivan. “We wanted to take a year out and deliver something that the fans of the series really deserved.”
Need For Speed is back to its former glory – and it’s mainly thanks to the pit crew at Ghost Games. A studio with enormous pedigree, the team currently working on Need For Speed includes members who previously worked at Turn 10 and Rockstar. “Every person in the team brings different experiences to the project. It’s hard to call out any individuals in particular, they’re all here on merit and we’re incredibly proud of every single one of them,” explains Sullivan.
So where to start? Like any racing game, getting the cars right has always been a fundamental part of the Need For Speed formula, and one that Ghost Games has been sure to nail: “The car models are mostly built from the same computer models that the real manufacturers use, so we have things like air caps on the wheels and lettering on the tyres themselves” says Sullivan. “Tiny things that you can only see up close in the garage, but when you’re customising your car but they make a difference.”
Of course, the cars have to drive as good as they look – and Ghost Games has a surprise up its sleeve. Rather than forcing gamers to drift like madmen as per usual, the latest instalment of the franchise tears up the rulebook, letting gamers blur the line between sim and arcade. “For the first time in Need for Speed history you can tune your car to drift around the corners, or you can completely switch the drifting off and drive in a more realistic way like the classic Need for Speeds, ” reveals Sullivan. “It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long time – unite the two types of handling and cater for both types of fan – but it’s incredibly hard to pull off and balance, so both styles are competitive with each other.”
While EA hasn’t yet revealed just how many cars we’ll get to drive, we already know where we’ll be able to drive them. “With the power of the Frostbite engine we can model a huge city twice the size of our previous game in immense detail and really go to new levels of realism with the lighting,” Sullivan explains. Without doubt, Need For Speed is the best-looking street racer yet, with miles of inviting tarmac rendered in ridiculous detail – and cars so real-looking you can feel every ding and scratch.
Early on in the process, the team dropped any idea of a last-gen port, so Need For Speed has always been developed with the current-gen in mind. And the results are stunning: “At any point you can stop the car and see the incredible detail throughout. It’s pretty cool, and something that still surprises us as we play,” Sullivan adds.
Although eye-wateringly pretty, Need For Speed has never really been about gorgeous graphics. Instead, it's come to represent the outrageous, nitro-fuelled world of night racing – with all the theatre it brings – and thankfully Ghost Games have kept that character in the reboot. “Need for Speed has to be fun to play,” Sullivan reminds us. “With this game we wanted to deliver on a number of things including rich customisation with authentic cars and aftermarket brands, stunning visuals, representing cultural relevance, an intelligently connected experience, and of course cops – there has to be cops.”
As you’d expect, there’s enough vinyl wrapping and turbo-boosting to satisfy anyone's inner boy-racer – but there’s also a new range of game modes to explore. “Racing is cool but I think Need For Speed is a game that can be more than that. We always think of it as an action driving game, particularly when you look at things like narrative and cops,” Sullivan explains.
Like recent NFS games, the new reboot is as much about storytelling as it is about driving: “We’ve also added huge new features such as the Five Ways to Play, with five separate storylines inspired by five real-world automotive icons. This will encourage players to try out the different styles of driving in order to earn REP (reputation) – Speed, Style, Build, Crew, and Outlaw,” Sullivan adds. Throw in real-time composition technology that allows the team to blend motion-captured actors with gaming in real-time, and the result is a expertly weaved narrative – underpinned by a great driving experience.
Need For Speed also lets prospective street racers engage in online races with up to seven of their friends. Sullivan also says EA is planning to support the experience with a live service, complete with free content and challenges. The result? Gamers have a constant onus to race and attack every bend – long after release. But that's all down the road, and until then, the studio is adding the finishing touches to what could be the best Need For Speed game yet.
Featuring new ways of storytelling, tweakable car-handling, and all the ridiculous features we’ve come to love from the series, Need For Speed combines the old with the new, and it marks an exciting turning point for a game that’s etched into the memories of new and old racers alike. “We’re fans of the game too, so this matched with the things we wanted to bring back or go deeper on,” concludes Sullivan. “Once we started making the game it was obvious that we were essentially redefining Need for Speed for this generation. ” We can’t wait to take it for a spin.
