By Jim Rossignol on June 6th, 2011 at 10:43 pm.
The new Need For Speed, The Run, game looks quite unusual: a mix of the expected chase-driven races with some scripted stuff, and some getting out of the car and running about. Hmm! Pretty intense, though, it might actually be worth keeping an eye on. (Says me, who pretty much gets bored of NFS games after a few minutes these days.) That seems like it something that should have happened earlier – dragging more traditional action events into racing games. And we’re overdue a truly linear kinda racing game in the manner that FPS games are linear, right? Trailer below, there.
06/06/2011 at 22:47 NR says:
Not on topic, but I haven’t seen Quinns around all day… You guys didn’t actually throw him down a mine did you o_0?
06/06/2011 at 22:49 Jim Rossignol says:
I’m afraid so.
06/06/2011 at 22:51 Navagon says:
I’m sure he’ll be okay. Minecraft has trained him well.
07/06/2011 at 00:25 Ginger Yellow says:
At least he’ll finally have some iron.
07/06/2011 at 09:13 Oozo says:
It was a salt mine. Oh, the irony! (No pun intended.)
06/06/2011 at 22:52 Linfosoma says:
The racing looks good, but the incredibly stupid scripted scenes with QTEs made me rage.
07/06/2011 at 08:34 syntax says:
It looked like the dev was having to tap a button for every fucking step his character took.
Ugh.
07/06/2011 at 17:38 Nic Clapper says:
Yea like if you want cutscenes in your game show the damned cut scenes. Developers: imagine watching a movie with QTEs…would that actually make you ‘feel’ like you were ‘in’ the movie? No, it would make you feel like doing something else. Then, imagine failing it, and having to start the movie over. So immersive!
06/06/2011 at 22:52 Navagon says:
QTE overkill in a driving game?
:(
06/06/2011 at 22:59 Pemptus says:
Wow. QTEs with branching paths. In a driving game. Quo vadis EA?
06/06/2011 at 23:01 Kaira- says:
Well, that looked surprisingly interesting. Last NFS-game I played was Porsche Unleashed, lots of things have changed since then. Still, I’ll wait for a review or two before making any decisions.
06/06/2011 at 23:08 Flameberge says:
Quick time events and complete linearity… Sad face. The concept behind this game is brilliant, the implementation looks a bit rubbish. Also, the animation of the character and some of the scripted roll overs is a bit… naff.
I think this game will be arriving at the much lower level of what I expected from Black Box, rather than what I hoped they would deliver with the concept.
06/06/2011 at 23:10 Text_Fish says:
I wonder what happens if you don’t choose the police car? Or whether you even have a choice?
06/06/2011 at 23:14 Sinomatic says:
QTEs like this (unnecessary and not remotely challenging) lead me to believe that the devs are nothing more than frustrated film directors.
*sadface*
On the upside, the actual GAME bit looked rather lovely.
06/06/2011 at 23:33 frenz0rz says:
Does that man have adamantium legs?
06/06/2011 at 23:49 somini says:
I was thinking it would improve on the sheer brilliance of Most Wanted…
I was wrong.
07/06/2011 at 01:03 shoptroll says:
I was expecting something closer to Cannonball Run based on what they said earlier. Instead I got Underground pretending it’s GTA with QTE laden cinematics you could make a cup of coffee before you had to push a button.
If this is the fruits of EA trying to focus on “hits” I’d love to know what drugs the management is on.
07/06/2011 at 01:18 Luk 333 says:
Train chase. I want a trains chase! With the car on top of the train, if we’re going with the Transporter feeling.
07/06/2011 at 01:28 gou says:
bleh the last batch of nfs titles are so game-assisted that the racing itself is a glorified qte anyway
07/06/2011 at 03:21 Gabe McGrath says:
Erm, if you’re being chased through a normal city,
you don’t have GIANT ANIMATED “>>>>>>>>” SIGNS on each corner.
#duh
07/06/2011 at 03:54 cookie says:
QTEs…woo…I suppose the core demographic that this game is aimed towards will lap it up, enjoying the…challenge it presents.
07/06/2011 at 04:22 Untitled says:
It’s like watching a DVD but having to press the play button every few seconds
07/06/2011 at 04:30 wazups2x says:
Yep, QTE’s are the worst. Seriously, if you’re going to show me a cut scene just let me freakin’ watch it!
07/06/2011 at 05:12 vash47 says:
Press X to walk.
07/06/2011 at 05:47 Mr_Initials says:
Press triangle to not die
07/06/2011 at 06:11 pakoito says:
The actual races look ok? WTF? They’re the same rail wall they’ve been doing for the past 10 years. Not even one inch of graphical improvement.
07/06/2011 at 08:31 Earl-Grey says:
Need For Speed: The Trots?
Surely Need For Speed is the Call of Duty of racing games.
07/06/2011 at 08:42 max pain says:
Hahaha what is this shit? Racers have cutscenes mixed with Heavy rain gameplay? Hilarious.
But not everything looks shit. It looks like you actually have to use brake in this one.
07/06/2011 at 08:47 fuggles says:
That looks all sorts of retarded. Why when being shot at by a helicopter is your most pressing concern ‘Avoid the spotlight’? In a fully lit city your greatest fear is being even more illuminated, unless maybe you are very prone to sunburn or it’s a high powered UV lamp to skin cancer you into arrest, heck if that’s the case I would totally give up.
Loved NFS: HP, playing as the cops was awesome, this looks plain silly. Next time how about NFS: Cannonball run?
07/06/2011 at 13:10 Simes says:
“Need For Fewer Quick Time Events”
07/06/2011 at 13:10 Gnoupi says:
Aside from the QTE events, the driving parts seem heavy and boring as hell.
I have close to no impression of speed watching that. I thought it was the framerate, but no, the timer is smooth, so it’s really just the whole driving, which is flawed.
Now I understand why they gave the previous episode to Burnout’s developers. This one is obviously developed by the same guys as “world”, “undercover”, “pro street”, and all the disappointing episodes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EA_Black_Box).
07/06/2011 at 17:13 Axess Denyd says:
My basic rule: Any racing game that is best played from an outside view has no chance of being good.
07/06/2011 at 18:30 MartinNr5 says:
I like both the linearity and the QTE.
Still can’t grasp the hating on QTE.
07/06/2011 at 18:34 Vinraith says:
Whew, for a second there I was afraid this POS was a Criterion game, pleased to see their time isn’t being wasted so. Sadly, the NFS franchise doesn’t carry much currency anymore. Hot Pursuit 2 was the last of the original NFS golden era, Underground 2 and Most Wanted were pretty good but not focused on the aspects of racing I most enjoy, and then there was a long spell of total disinterest. The recent NFS: Hot Pursuit revival by Criterion was pretty good. More of that, less attempts to tell a story (ugh) and definitely less getting out of the car (which is to say, no getting out of the car) please.
10/06/2011 at 23:43 Jason Moyer says:
If I were making a racing game called The Run, it would be an homage to Cannonball Run set in the early 80′s with classic 60′s/70′s/80′s supercars, Each stage of the race would be a large, non-linear area with a starting point, destination (say, a diner where the racers meet up before the next stage) and the player left to find the optimal path between those two points. No floating magical arrows or other bullshit, just pure cross country racing through cities, farmlands, mountains, deserts, etc. and a loose story connecting each stage without QTE’s or anything, maybe some dialog trees but mostly the story would flow based on what happened in the races – you could complete the entire game from beginning to end even if you lost every stage, it would just change the branches that the story followed. And the entire thing would be done with a cheesy 70′s Burt Reynolds action movie feel. The hardest thing to code in the game, aside from making detailed 20-30 minute racing areas, would be the traffic AI and the police (who could respond to speeding, hitting cars, running lights, etc). There would need to be a lot of variety in the storyline changes based on getting stopped by the cops or winning/losing to certain competitors but it wouldn’t be near as complex as, say, an Obsidian story tree. There could also be funny random Fallout-style random events, driving through the desert and having Christe Brinkley pull up next to you in a Ferrari and winking, etc. It would have flavor, humor, atmosphere, and visceral racing.
Please tell me I’m not the only person who would play this game.