Need for Speed

Need for Speed (NFS) is a series of racing computer and video games by Electronic Arts released on platforms including personal computers, Nintendo, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable consoles. The games consist of racing with various cars on various tracks.

Origin of the series

Need for Speed was originally developed by Distinctive Software, a game studio based in Vancouver, Canada. Prior to Electronic Arts purchase of the company in 1991, it had already created popular racing games such as Stunts and Test Drive II. After the purchase was made, the company was renamed Electronic Arts Canada. The company capitalized on its experience in the domain when it began developing the Need For Speed series in late 1992.

Electronic Arts Canada and Electronic Arts Seattle continued to develop, and expand the Need For Speed franchise for many years. In 2002, another Vancouver-based gaming company, named Blackbox Software, was contracted to continue the series with the title Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. Blackbox was acquired by Electronic Arts shortly before the game's publication and the company was renamed Electronic Arts Blackbox. Since then EA Blackbox has been NFS's primary developer.

Need for Speed installments

The Need for Speed (1994)

The original Need for Speed was released for 3DO in 1994 with versions for PlayStation, PC (DOS), and Sega Saturn following shortly afterwards (1995 and 1996). The first version featured chases by police cars which remained a popular theme throughout the series - the so-called Hot Pursuit editions (Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted) have sold better in the marketplace than intervening versions. The initial version also featured an obnoxious opponent who taunted the player if the computer won the race or the player got arrested (which happened with the third ticket.)

The first installment of the NFS series was beyond doubt the only serious attempt to provide a realistic simulation of car handling and physics without arcade elements. Electronic Arts teamed up with automotive magazine Road & Track to match vehicle behaviour, including the mimicking of the sounds made by the vehicles' gear control levers. The game also contained precise vehicle data with spoken commentary.

The Need for Speed#Road & Track Presents: The Need For Speed: Special Edition (1996)

A little known edition of The Need for Speed, Special Edition is sometimes considered as the lost episode of Need for Speed, though it wasn't significantly different from the 1995 PC release.

Available only on PC CD-ROM, it contained both a DOS and Windows 95 version. The Windows 95 version supported DirectX 2 and TCP/IP networking, included 2 bonus tracks and various enhancements in the game engine. This was the last game in the series to support DOS as subsequent releases for the PC only run on Microsoft Windows 95 or above.

Need for Speed II (1997)

NFS II featured some of the rarest and most exotic vehicles ever available, including the Ford Indigo concept vehicle, and features country-themed tracks from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. A new racing mode was also introduced in NFS II dubbed Knockout, where the last racers to finish laps will be elimated until the only leading racer remains, and wins.

Many fans of the first edition of Need for Speed were disappointed to find NFS II was arcade-like instead of preserving the realism of NFS. Though the gameplay was arcade-like, the levels were intricately well designed. In addition, track design was more open-ended; players could now "drive" off the asphalt, and even cut across fields to take advantage of shortcuts.

Special Edition (1997)

The special edition of NFS II included one extra track, extra cars, and support for Glide, the then-burgeoning 3D graphics standard used in 3Dfx's Voodoo and Voodoo 2 graphics cards.

V-Rally (1997)

Released in the United States in late 1997 for the PlayStation, it was essentially a European rally game, V-Rally, with the circa-1997 Need for Speed logo tacked on. It received mixed reviews.

Hot Pursuit (1998)

NFS III added Hot Pursuit mode, in which the player either attempted to outrun the police or be the cop (playing as the police was only available in the PC version), arresting speeders. Most cars and tracks were available at the beginning of the game. The objective was to unlock the rewards by winning races. It is the highest-selling of all Need for Speed games and is the most popular one.

NFS III took advantage of the multimedia capabilities of the CD-ROM by featuring audio commentary, picture slideshows and music videos. This game also was the first to allow the downloading of additional car models. A community of car builders for the game sprung up as a result.

High Stakes (1999)

High Stakes (US title) and Road Challenge (European title) was released in the summer of 1999. It was widely criticised for being too similar to NFS III, especially due to the fact that all of the tracks from NFS III were contained in NFS HS/RC (amongst others).

Nevertheless, High Stakes introduced several new types of gameplay: High Stakes, Getaway and Career. High Stakes is a racing mode in which the reward was the losing player's car. Getaway requires the player to outrun a pursuing police vehicle for a given time period. Career mode incorporates a monetary reward system that allowed a player to purchase vehicles and performance upgrades while earning cash by racing in a chronological set of tournaments.

Another innovation was the introduction of damage models. Vehicles which have been involved in accidents featured visibly crushed car bodies and suffered from performance penalties. After a race in Career mode, the player was given the option to purchase repairs.

V-Rally 2 (1999)

A completely redesigned sequel to the 1997 original, Need for Speed: V-Rally 2 was released in the US on October 1999, to much better reviews.

Porsche Unleashed (2000)

Porsche Unleashed (US title), Porsche 2000 (European title) and Porsche (in Germany and Latin America) was different from the previous versions because it featured only Porsches and featured a wealth of information regarding them. The cars handled more realistically than in any other NFS game, and there is an in-depth catalogue of different Porsche parts that span throughout the years. The player had to win races in the Evolution career mode to unlock cars in chronological order from 1950 to 2000. Porsche Unleashed also featured a Factory Driver mode, where the player had to test Porsches with various stunts and move on with his career. The game was also the first NFS game that didn't have a split screen mode. In later years, it was released for Game Boy Advance.

In terms of game construction, it is most often hailed as Need For Speed's best collaborated effort to bring forth one singular car brand and amplify and deepen the depth of knowledge both on history and motor functions. It features historical videos and many pictures of old photos of Porsche vehicles. The Evolution concept was a hit for many people, creating many new Porsche fans due to the game's high level of academia and depth of Porsche cars. The Factory Driver was also a different kind of unlocking, except to do with performing and excelling in certain slaloms, speed races, deliveries, etc. Many of the missions were considered to be really difficult; anyone who manages to finish Factory Driver can be called a great "computer" driver.

Motor City Online (2001)

Although officially bearing no Need for Speed prefix (while the working title of the game was known as Need for Speed: Motor City), Motor City Online, was an MMOG variation of Need for Speed released by EA Games on October 2001, featuring mostly American coupés and muscle cars from the 1930s to the 1970s. The game allowed players to pit each other in several modes of racing through the Internet, and were allowed customization of the player's driver, garage and vehicles. Motor City Online went offline in 2003.

Hot Pursuit 2 (2002)

The debut Need for Speed title of Blackbox Software and the first Need For Speed for the "next-generation" of consoles, Hot Pursuit 2 draws primarily from the gameplay and style of NFS III; its emphasis was on evading the police and over-the-top tracks featuring lengthy shortcuts. While well-received by the press, it lacked the realism and sheer depth of Porsche Unleashed. Strangely, different versions of the game were produced for each system; the best version, according to the gaming press, was the PlayStation 2 version, with the Xbox, GameCube and PC versions generally considered inferior. (EA Seattle did those versions, and they were not ports of the PS2 version which was developed by Black Box Games.)

Some of the cars included in the game are the Ferrari F50, the McLaren F1 and its F1 LM variant, the Porsche Carrera GT concept car, the Lamborghini Murciélago, and the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR. The game also allows players to chase down speeders as the police.

For the multiplayer mode of the PC version, GameSpy's internet matchmaking system was used in place of Local Area Network (LAN) play. Hot Pursuit 2 is also the first Need for Speed to forego an original instrumental rock/techno soundtrack in favour of songs sung by licensed song artists under the EA Trax label. The game is also the first in the series to lack an in-car cockpit view that was available in preceding Need for Speed titles.

Underground (2003)

A complete reimagining of the series' formula, Need for Speed: Underground offered a career mode featuring a storyline, and a garage mode that allowed players to fully customize their cars with a large variety of brand-name performance and visual upgrades. All races now take place in a city at night, and there are no police pursuits—characteristics that were reused in the sequel Need for Speed:Underground 2. Instead of hundred-thousand dollar exotics, Underground featured vehicles associated with import tuner culture. This, plus the increasingly arcade-like controls, became points of controversy for NFS fans. Despite this, Underground was commercially very successful. This may have been due to the popularisation of the tuner culture along with hip hop culture, hence, increased sales of the game.

It is rumoured that the car manufacturers were very strict in how their vehicles were to be portrayed in this game, especially considering the "illegal street racing" reputation of the tuner culture. EA took some effort in making the races appear as sanctioned racing events, and included a public service announcement in the game's introduction. In addition, vehicles do not have damage models at all.

While the PC version of the game featured Internet multiplayer, it strangely lacked LAN multiplayer capabilities. This limitation could be overcome with the use of third party utilities.

Underground 2 (2004)

Need For Speed: Underground 2, the sequel to the commercial hit Need for Speed: Underground, was released on November 15, 2004. A demo of the game was placed as a "late" easter egg in finished copies of the EA Games and Criterion Games collaboration Takedown, and completed versions of NFSU2 also have a demo of Burnout 3 in the game.

In Underground 2, the story continues, but there are new racing modes such as the Underground Racing League and Street X, new and more tuning options, as well as a new method of selecting races—just driving around the city (similar to Grand Theft Auto) and selecting race "beacons". Also included is an "outrun" mode where a player can challenge random opponents on the road and the race leader will attempt to distance themselves away from the opponent to defeat the opponent (similar to Tokyo Xtreme Racer). Underground 2 also introduces several SUVs, which could be customized as extensively as other Underground 2 vehicles and used to race against other SUV racers.

The game wasn't as successful as Underground, mainly due to some features that were in the game, but not expanded on. The sound systems, for example, could be put in the trunk of cars, but served no purpose other than sheer flash (not unlike the numerous carbon-fiber parts throughout the game that do not alter the performance characteristics of the vehicles). It also suffered from a debatable soundtrack. Another complaint some had was with the strong product placement for companies with no connection to auto racing, such as integrating the logo for Cingular, an American wireless communications company, into the game's messaging system and displaying it on-screen for much of the gameplay.

Need for Speed: Underground Rivals (2005, PlayStation Portable)

Based off the Underground series, Need for Speed: Underground Rivals is a PSP game released on February, March and September 2005 for Japan, the United States and Europe, respectively. In addition to Japanese cars, Rivals features several American muscle cars, including those not featured in previous Need for Speed: Underground games, such as the 1969 Dodge Charger, the 1967 Ford Mustang, and the 1997 Chevrolet Corvette C5.

Most Wanted (2005)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the latest major incarnation of Need for Speed, released on 15 November, 2005, and is one of the first games released for the Xbox 360. Most Wanted takes the series back to its roots, with police chases making up the body of the gameplay, and includes the Grand Theft Auto-like free-roaming of Underground 2, but with less extensive vehicle customization features than in the Underground series. Also, there is the "Black Edition", a special edition which features additional races and two bonus cars, a specially-tuned BMW E46 (M3) GTR and a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, and also includes a Black Edition-only behind-the-scenes DVD.

Most Wanted 5-1-0 (2005, PlayStation Portable)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted 5-1-0 is a PSP port of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, released at the same day as its console and personal computer counterparts. Similar to Most Wanted, Most Wanted 5-1-0 features a similar Blacklist 15 listing and Career Mode, with the addition of "Tuner Takedown", a play-as-the-cop mode not featured on Most Wanted. Most Wanted 5-1-0, however, lacks many elements of its other console and PC counterparts like cutscenes and storyline. The title of the game is based off the numerals "5-1-0", which is the police code for street racing.

Carbon (2006)

Need for Speed: Carbon is the next upcoming title for the Need for Speed series. Little is disclosed of the game at present, but nighttime racing has been suggested and car models such as the 2008 Dodge Challenger Concept and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution may appear in Carbon. The game is set to be released in November 2006 for Windows-based personal computers, video game consoles and handheld game consoles.

Cover cars

The following lists vehicles featured in most or all Need for Speed cover arts, including the early V-Rally series.

Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed - Lamborghini Diablo (rear wheel).
The Need for Speed SE - Same image as The Need for Speed, but darker.
Need for Speed II - McLaren F1 and Italdesign Cala (Lamborghini Cala).
Need for Speed II: Special Edition - Same image as Need for Speed II, with the addition of a Ferrari 355 F1 between the two cars.
Need for Speed: V-Rally - Subaru Impreza (GC) rally car.
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit - Lamborghini Diablo, with a police car in the background, likely to be a pursuit version of the Diablo (PlayStation cover) or of the Chevrolet Corvette C5 (PC cover).
Need for Speed: High Stakes - Porsche 911 Turbo (993) and Ferrari 550 Maranello (rear angle).
- Need for Speed: Road Challenge - Mercedes-Benz SLK (R170).
Need for Speed: V-Rally 2 - Peugeot 206 WRC rally car.
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed - Porsche 911 Turbo (996).
- Need for Speed: Porsche 2000 - Same as above, but different color & angle.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 - Lamborghini Murciélago, with multiple police cars and a helicopter in pursuit.
Need for Speed: Underground - Nissan Skyline R34 (front left angle).
Need for Speed: Underground 2 - Nissan 350Z (front wheel).
Need for Speed: Underground Rivals - Nissan 350Z and and another undefined car (likely to be a Toyota Celica).
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - BMW M3 (E46) GTR, (rear left angle, while the vehicle is drifting), with a Chevrolet Corvette C6 police car and reinforcements on the BMW's reflection.
Need for Speed: Carbon - To be determined.

Controversy

Concerns about the game's possible encouragement of speeding and evading legal authority surfaced when a copy of Need for Speed was found in one of two street racing Mercedes cars in Toronto in January 26, 2006; the street racer was involved in an accident which resulted in a taxi-driver's death. ^*

It should be noted, however, that celebrity-endorsed advisories have been included in opening cutscenes of Need for Speed titles since Need for Speed: Underground, stressing that players should only race within the games, as well as advising gamers to drive responsibly in real-life. This indicates that there was some recent effort in part of the games' developer to ensure that the players were informed on the dangers of imitating reckless driving.

External links

Official NFS website
Most Wanted PC demo
The Need for Speed series at MobyGames
Wine Application Database on Need for Speed II
Need for Speed website directory at the Open Directory Project
Need for Speed website directory at Alexa Internet
NFSCharts; index/directory of 86 popular Need for Speed fansites.

Need for Speed | PlayStation Portable games

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