Game: Need For Speed Undercover

As i write this dear reader I cannot begin to convey my satisfaction and frustration at one of EA’s latest titles Need For Speed Undercover.

The story line and cut scenes, actors ect are ok and the attention to detail on the cars graphics are nicely done but on the subject of graphics that’s as far as attention to detail goes as the environment looks out of step when compared to the car, I guess they compensate for that by simply blurring the background when your doing anything.

I think of on the developers said in an interview on the game before it was released that he had spent 6 years or something on the mechanics of the games specifically on the cars themselves, how they move about and react to certain things ect.

After a few days playing this game I can probably say that this guys either wasted 6 years of his life or EA as usual don’t allow time for proper bug tests and so on, id say a bit of both.

This game is fantastic don’t get me wrong, they’ve gotten rid of that shitty Battle Machine crap in Pro Street, brought back the cops, and added more ways to customize your car but at the same time, like they did with Most Wanted they took some customizability away, and when you win important races now you don’t get to actually keep the pink slips for yourself to do whatever you want, even sell the cars to get money… ohh o you just get a list of cars in the pink slip section to simple “add” to your garage and mod them.. but you cant sell the pink slip cars, even if you do them up!

There is something to be said about all this “make it real” crap in games, and that is that if you want to make a game “real” or as close to real life as possible you have to make the entire game as close to real life as possible, you cant just make the car and the player at a level which is confined by the “real life” design and then make the rest of the game with little to no limitations in regards to what it can do.


Strange Car Corner Behavior

Sometimes in races and this does happen often enough to notice, you would be taking a tight corner or a bouncy tight one and your car could jump gears and go spastic all the while sending your speed from as low as 60km then shooting it way up to 250km before you even leave the bloody corner, that’s 200 – 60 – 250 all in a second, and I have played a fare few car games in my time and to be honest I have never seen anything like it.

Civilian Traffic

When your coming head on to them seem to make an effort to not avoid you but to HIT you, of which im sure is a dirty cheap trick to “try” and make the game that much more exciting and probably harder, of course some people might argue that its to not only do the above but to test your reaction time... When your coming down a straight at 330 odd in a Shelby and there has to be at least 300m distance from you and this civilian car and only just before you pass it the civilian seems hell bent on swerving into you rather than avoid, hmm lets reflect on this for a second.

Lets say im in my Ford Focus, at the speed limit on a highway and I see a Shelby Mustang on the wrong side of the road traveling at speeds that my car can only dream of, would I:
A) Get the fuck out of its way or
B) Swerve madly into it

Minimap

In some areas of the city and country side you can hardly see where your going with the sun and tight corners ect and its hard enough with that going on and having a minimap that often than not you can hardly see or I should say make out.



All in all this game in reality whilst I like it enough to play it and on some occasion I have fun with; this game is just a mix of every NFS game before it, I mean I can easily see Underground, Most wanted, Carbon and probably saddest of all Pro Street, This further proves just how unoriginal EA are, and the Devlopers cant explore their imagination and creativity enough to make a unique NFS title, they have to cut, paste and molester other titles to create one before the deadline!

I feel sorry for the the guys who sit there pouring they’re talent into a game that’s not going to be appreciated as much as they would have liked all because they had a deadline to keep.

For the guys who make games I have to say that EA is a sinking ship, they’re quality is becoming stupid and laughable and pretty soon if not already is going to inspire more people to download EA games rather than buy them, and you the game dev might be thinking well screw them but please understand our positions, we go out buy a game for 70 – 100 bucks (AUS) and it is crap, we feel we’ve been ripped off and EA seems to improve upon this every year which is hardly an imporvment.

I understand EA want to win the war on piracy.. well they cant… switch it to consoles and i guarantee you the piracy sector will shift, its all about demand and if all the games are on console then consoles wont be a safe harbor for long now will it?

Make good quality games and you might actually encourage people to buy them rather than to download them, For years EA has kept cutting corners and setting deadlines all to meet that marked date on the calendar…

Ill be giving this game the flick however as im not enjoy it as much as I want to, it sometimes feels like work and when your nto having fun with a game its time to play something else. I might also mention that with my purchase of Pro Street of which was a disappointment, not only the game itself but the entire thing even graphics… it was all a waste of 80 bucks and with that fearing that id be ripped off again I simply downloaded NFS Undercover… and im glad I didn’t buy it.

For the record ill be buying Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Empire Total War, DOW2 and Battlestations Pacific, note that neither one of these titles has an EA affiliation.


…and im not the only one thinking like this.

Devs! Jump ship to Activision – Blizzard at least they give you ample time to let you have fun making fun.