Need for Speed Rivals Best NFS title?

Seeing as the reactions to Need For Speed Rivals in this forum were similar to mine (pure awe at how bad it was) I think we should be discussing better times: What is your favorite Need For Speed game and why?

I personally loved NFS Underground 2, I think it was groundbreaking. I remember playing for 6 straight hours even though the music was unbearable because the mechanichs were so ahead of its time. What do you guys think?

 

I agree with you. Underground 2 was amazing because it combined the very extensive car customization options and general atmosphere of Underground 1 with an interesting open-world environment. While I do love the ability to play as the police in series such as Hot Pursuit and Rivals, overall, I think that the Underground series was the pinnacle of Need for Speed for me. The variety of unique event types was much more interesting than the basic race, time trial, and pursuit types of Rivals.

One thing that I do like about Rivals is the ability to do everything with friends, but even this is a bit limited, since only six people can be in one online room and there's no real way to set up lobbies like in the 2010 Hot Pursuit. I feel like if there was a Need for Speed game that combined Underground's customization and unique game modes, Rivals' open world multiplayer, and Hot Pursuit's lobbies, along with the ability to set up custom events and options, it would probably address a lot of the most common complaints with the way the series is headed. Of course, that is certainly a lot to ask for, and there's really no way to please everyone, so I have no idea how that would turn out in practice. I'd definitely try it out though.

 

I liked Most Wanted the most. I loved the mechanic of being able to ram into police barricades and I thought that was a seriously innovative addition to traditional racing games. It kind of makes me wonder why not many other racing games adopted this mechanic since new games usually copy some details from other predecessors.

 

Oh man, I had forgotten about the first Most Wanted. I played that game for so much time. I think for me it has to be a tie between that one and Underground 2. I remember ramming into police in slo-mo and having so much fun when I was younger. I think my memory was clouded by the new Most Wanted which was pretty good, but nothing compared to the old one.

 

My favorite need for speed would be NFS Carbon. Not many people like it but it was my first need for speed and it was all I played in my spare time. Story was excellent and at the time it came out it had the most cars to date in a Need for speed game and plenty of upgrades for each car. I had so many good times with that game and I still remember them since I was a little boy. The next NFS I got was prostreet. That was a HUGE graphical improvement over carbon. I still enjoyed prostreet too.

 

I've never played NFS Carbon. Have you played any of the games that have been mentioned? How do those games compare to Carbon? I liked Pro Street too, but I feel like Underground series beats it out of the water. In what consoles did Carbon come out? I'm going to have to check it out, you spiked my curiosity.

 

It really was exceptional which is why it boggles me why they just seemed to abandon it right after, and also like I said I'm surprised no other game has tried to duplicate it. Ramming into the police cars was majority of what made that game so fun for me.

 

I would say that the best Need for Speed game from the series is Need for Speed Underground. I played many Need for Speed games, but played Carbon and Underground for most of the time. My favourite is definitely Need for Speed Underground because it is the bullseye, it offers you everything you want in a excellent racing game. Nice graphics and audio and ofcourse the gameplay is awesome.

 

i loved the drag racing aspect of underground specifically. the whole game was a masterpiece for its time and still holds up today. but the drag racing provided me with countless hours of fun

 

Carbon is pretty fun, it introduced the "Canyon" game mode which resembles Initial D style racing. It's pretty exciting. Other than that though there aren't too many new elements to the game, it was the among the first to have some notion of "racing gangs" which The Crew and Drive Club are looking to take to the next level with their games.

 

2010s Hot Pursuit is the best, up with Underground 2 which is one of my all-time favorite games back in the day of Gamecubes and PS2s, and NFS III Hot Pursuit on the PC in 1998 was the cream of the NFS series before Underground hit.

Now, as a guy that loves racing games alot, 2010s Hot Pursuit has indeed bought it back to its roots and reminds me alot of NFS III HP. The cars, the way the game is presented and the fast paced arcade fun.

I love the Burnout series and I agree with people when they say Most Wanted (2012) is an alternative clone of Paradise. In my opinion, its too similair and not 'real' enough. Its a fun game, but over way to quick, not nt favorite for sure.

Hot Pursuit (2010) on the other hand does feel like a burnout game, but brings the game back to its roots in terms of theme, feeling and charm. Its no where near as over the top as Most Wanted (2012) and thats a good thing. Its all about blasting fast cars on long, fast roads. Yes theres NOS, who cares. NOS is fun. Theres enough differences in physics between burnout games and Hot Pursuit for me to not consider it a true Burnout rip-off, and im a pretty harsh critic when it comes to these kinds of subjects on games - Its one of Criterions best games along with Paradise.

What im trying to say is that, for me, Hot Pursuit (2010) did bring back fond memories of NFS III HP, bringing it forward to modern day prowes while keeping its theme, presentation and racing true to the older games of pre-underground.

#59​

From my list, 2010s Hot Pursuit is the best, up with Underground 2 which is one of my all-time favorite games back in the day of Gamecubes and PS2s, and NFS III Hot Pursuit on the PC in 1998 was the cream of the NFS series before Underground hit.

Now, as a guy that loves racing games alot, 2010s Hot Pursuit has indeed bought it back to its roots and reminds me alot of NFS III HP. The cars, the way the game is presented and the fast paced arcade fun.

I love the Burnout series and I agree with people when they say Most Wanted (2012) is an alternative clone of Paradise. In my opinion, its too similair and not 'real' enough. Its a fun game, but over way to quick, not nt favorite for sure.

Hot Pursuit (2010) on the other hand does feel like a burnout game, but brings the game back to its roots in terms of theme, feeling and charm. Its no where near as over the top as Most Wanted (2012) and thats a good thing. Its all about blasting fast cars on long, fast roads. Yes theres NOS, who cares. NOS is fun. Theres enough differences in physics between burnout games and Hot Pursuit for me to not consider it a true Burnout rip-off, and im a pretty harsh critic when it comes to these kinds of subjects on games - Its one of Criterions best games along with Paradise.

What im trying to say is that, for me, Hot Pursuit (2010) did bring back fond memories of NFS III HP, bringing it forward to modern day prowes while keeping its theme, presentation and racing true to the older games of pre-underground.​

Last edited: Friday at 8:36 PM​

fpsnting, Friday at 8:33 PM​

#59​

From my list, 2010s Hot Pursuit is the best, up with Underground 2 which is one of my all-time favorite games back in the day of Gamecubes and PS2s, and NFS III Hot Pursuit on the PC in 1998 was the cream of the NFS series before Underground hit.

Now, as a guy that loves racing games alot, 2010s Hot Pursuit has indeed bought it back to its roots and reminds me alot of NFS III HP. The cars, the way the game is presented and the fast paced arcade fun.

I love the Burnout series and I agree with people when they say Most Wanted (2012) is an alternative clone of Paradise. In my opinion, its too similair and not 'real' enough. Its a fun game, but over way to quick, not nt favorite for sure.

Hot Pursuit (2010) on the other hand does feel like a burnout game, but brings the game back to its roots in terms of theme, feeling and charm. Its no where near as over the top as Most Wanted (2012) and thats a good thing. Its all about blasting fast cars on long, fast roads. Yes theres NOS, who cares. NOS is fun. Theres enough differences in physics between burnout games and Hot Pursuit for me to not consider it a true Burnout rip-off, and im a pretty harsh critic when it comes to these kinds of subjects on games - Its one of Criterions best games along with Paradise.

What im trying to say is that, for me, Hot Pursuit (2010) did bring back fond memories of NFS III HP, bringing it forward to modern day prowes while keeping its theme, presentation and racing true to the older games of pre-underground.​

Last edited: Friday at 8:36 PM​

fpsnting, Friday at 8:33 PM​

 

Best NFS tittle to this day will remain NFS Underground 2 for me, the games that came later didn't reach the same amount of fun in the gameplay if you ask me. I played almost all of the NFS games to date, but I have yet to find a better NFS game that was Underground 2. I hope that they will surprise us with a game that is better than the one I mentioned, because I really want to see one that fits the criteria. I'm not saying that the NFS games released before or after Underground 2 were bad, I'm just saying that they weren't as good as they could be.

 

The original Hot Pursuit was an incredible game, and so was its sequel. Those are my favorite NFS titles by far, even though they're so old.

 

Definitely need for speed underground 2. That game was one game that I have never grown tired of playing and I think that it is still the coolest racing game that I have ever played. I think it is the best game in the franchise ever.

 

Underground 2 Plasystation 2
It still has the deepest customization of the entire franchise which I loved how no 2 cars ever looked alike. Im still hoping that they bring this to a newer game or at least some form of it.

 

I think I'm going to have to go with Most Wanted. It was my first and also the one I enjoyed most. It had a fleshed out story, the cars were beautiful and customizable. I still remember my black cobalt with giant robot on the side. It may be nostalgia speaking but that was the best in my opinion. In reality it just might be my favorite.

 

I will agree with most of you and say that the best one is Underground 2. I don't think there were any games with such customization when Underground 2 was released. It's truly the masterpiece of NFS franchise.

 

I'll go with Underground 2. Carbon was an excellent one, but it didn't keep me playing for so long, only about a month or so. It was NFSU2 that I kept coming back to. Somehow, it was perfect for me. Underground 1 was the first NFS game I played, so when a better and improved version came out, I was fascinated. The choice of cars is also excellent. What I didn't like in Carbon was having to choose only one of three types.

 

Underground 1 for me, at the time I was impressed with the sounds of the cars, the customisation was great and just driving around was a lot of fun. I really felt like I owned the car that I was driving - it was my little baby!

 

I have spent hours playing this one! I liked that you could choose the difficulty level for each race. In most games, you must do it in the beginning and can't change it later on. I also adored the soundtrack. I think I know almost every song from the game. This brings back a lot of good memories. My favourite song was Kimosabe. What about you?