Everyone is saying that they need to bring back the Underground stuff back. But some people are saying that they need to bring back that theme because ''Underground'' is the roots of need for speed. There goes the line. The roots of NFS was super cars, high speed driving and cops. Not tuner cars, deep customization etc etc. It's clearly that those peps have not experienced the old PS1 days (and some of the PS2). I played the HECK out of Need For Speed 2 when i was a kid because of the fantasy tracks and the cars. It was a pretty interesting game. So at the same time, I don't really agree of the Underground idea but i dunno. I think that the upcoming NFS will probably be Underground themed. Maybe, I dunno.
I honestly really hope that it's Underground themed. Underground 2 was my first NFS game, followed by Carbon, then Most Wanted (2005 edition). While I don't have a problem with the whole "supercars and cops" idea, you can only have so many Lambos and Ferraris before the game starts to become stupid. I like supercars as much as the next guy, but I will always have an appreciation for a lightly-yet-tastefully modified Golf GTI or a replica Initial D AE86 or a rally-tuned Impreza STi. Hell, I'd rather have one of those three than a Zonda or a 458 IMHO.
I'd like to not see a NFS game for another 3 or 4 years, and then have a game that's actually new. Either that or just kill the franchise. It's gone completely shit after Carbon, with the only decent game being the 2010 Hot Pursuit remake. But EA won't do either of those, as they're only interested in money so they sell the same shit every year and idiots still buy it. So as for a game that has just a year of work on it, I guess a proper MW remake would be the best option. I mean, the 2012 version was LITERALLY a Burnout Paradise reskin.
It wasn't even a good reskin, either. It was pretty much just Burnout Paradise with a kinda-sorta different-ish map and licensed cars. That's it. I'd honestly much rather wait a few years for EA to start from scratch and completely build a Most Wanted/Underground 2 type game from the ground up than wait until the end of the year for a bullshit excuse for a NFS that has an absurdly small, supercar dominated car list on a tiny, poorly made map with terrible, unrealistic physics and too much dependence on online multiplayer servers that suck ass, too.
I'm probably speaking well outside my element, since racing games were never really my cup of tea. But it seems to me that any series that elapses 20+ years is either going to become completely stagnant, or tries so many new things to wow people, that it starts dividing the community into its various sub-genres. Need for Speed did the latter. Therefore, any new establishment would be criticized to hell and back for not appealing to everyone's preference. Not saying anyone is wrong, it's just that the series has tested the waters of 3-4 entirely different styles, and has left impressions of 3-4 entirely different games in the minds of current fans, all under the same name. When the Need for Speed some fans grew up with is not next up in development, the developers see the dark side of nostalgia plastered across forums and comment sections. Some want flames and boost, some don't. Some want tracks, others want open world. Some want customization, yet others want a story. I feel like it's almost the opposite problem. They've done too much. Too many things. They've driven (ha) themselves so far from stagnation, that they don't know how to perfect a product that's always changing, or how to appeal to such a diverse audience. Well, that and EA.
I bought a 3DO just for the worlds first NFS. It was such an epic game, to actually be on a real looking freeway and make the cars crash was unbelievable. I bought #2 and #3 and loved them. After that I couldn't have cared less.
