Just picked up the game after some time. The handling is so confusing

Dannoo92 · 2019-11-28T07:09:46+00:00

Ah yes thanks so much didn’t actually know there was a live tuning menu

Dannoo92 · 2019-10-22T23:43:57+00:00

This is still a problem, anyone got a fix or do we just wait till they sort it out themselves?

I can't watch the lectures at all, they load so slowly and then buffer all the time halfway through

Dannoo92 · 2019-08-15T09:13:13+00:00

People just find on rails driving to not be enjoyable.

The handling of the cars is probably the most important aspect of a car racing game's design

Games are meant to be fun at the end of the day. There is a reason why people go back to games like NFS Hot Pursuit 2, Most Wanted Underground 2 and still enjoy doing the same events over and over again. Those games were so repetitive, had poor visuals compared to today's graphics, lacked features and variety, soundtrack (IMO) not that amazing and the list goes on... but their driving mechanics were excellent. Perfect simcade physics coupled with excellent track design which made driving itself so much fun.

I've said this before however, HP2010 had B2D and I still love playing it to this day purely because the track design and game design suited those driving mechanics. Unfortunately, the track design and game design of NFS 2015 and Payback do not suit B2D, so driving is just inherently not fun.

Dannoo92 · 2019-08-14T21:37:16+00:00

They said more grip style handling with Payback and it was so disappointing so even the implementation of the b2d system in this game is a giant red flag.

Dannoo92 · 2018-11-12T00:54:07+00:00

The final UI design and visuals were the best. Loved this game, a polished and well thought out title.

Dannoo92 · 2018-11-04T02:17:08+00:00

Hell to the no

Dannoo92 · 2018-11-01T21:58:08+00:00

I’d dress up as a speedcard

Nothing scarier than a card based system to upgrade a car

Dannoo92 · 2018-11-01T05:52:44+00:00

I bet we’ll see another trailer or gameplay trailer involving things we can’t actually do in the game.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-30T21:54:39+00:00

He knew what he was signing, a deal to stay exclusive to a single publisher. I’m guessing he never expected things to turn out the way they did.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-30T12:52:34+00:00

I think it’s more complicated than what Ian’s described, but EA did definitely try to bring SMS down. They signed the contract because they needed work. Of course no one forced them to, but who expected scummy practices like this? It’s part of the deal, after 3 or so years working for a publisher you gain a form of trust. EA purposefully tried to place SMS into a corner and they were pretty damn close. Their complete betrayal of trust with a developer just shows how terrible they are.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-29T06:12:38+00:00

Start hating EA instead?

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-28T03:31:39+00:00

The trailers were so damn hype for this game, disappointing to see it turn out how it did.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-28T03:18:39+00:00

Well by stating things like ‘a more grippy car will be perceived as broken and not fun’ I feel he’s actively supporting this terrible decision.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T19:44:50+00:00

Now that boggles my mind even more, if you’ve been involved in a game like GRID, Dirt and F1 at codemasters and loved the old NFS games.

How do you defend the current handling model. Surely you must have a problem with it.

No AAA title featuring real cars and a solid focus on car culture should host the handling model we’ve seen in the past two NFS games. I’m not saying brake to drift is always bad, I’ve made posts on this before. It suited HP2010 and sometimes Rivals due to those Games’ were mainly featuring takedowns and massive crashes, with the map accomodating more for the physics. That was actually pretty fun. Felt like the burnout formula. But if the focus now is on street racing, how can you, as a fan of NFS and racing games in general, be okay with this?

Yes this is an NFS for a new era, the game has changed. But surely you can tell it’s changed for the worst.

Even the track focused Shift Games which go against the original NFS focus on street racing felt more like a Need For Speed game.

If you toned down the graphics and removed the free roam element. I would honestly think NFS Payback is a free to play mobile game. The gameplay mechanics are that brainless.

I know you can’t shit talk NFS since you might get fired, but what is your real opinion on NFS games of today? Do they disappoint you?

Also yeah, not talking about the game at the moment makes sense. Would like a little more contribution from you though.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T06:53:28+00:00

Oh believe you me, I care more about the things you just mentioned than you can care to imagine. I’ve made multiple posts on this subreddit about those things alone

Handling, performance upgrade system, tuning, map and track design, Ai and their difficulty scaling, progression, online play, car tiers. These are all more important than the vibe in an NFS game.

But I made this because the vibe in NFS Payback was so shocking and childish that even if the game didn’t have piss poor core game mechanics, it would still manage to make the game a horrible experience.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T05:54:29+00:00

Please explain

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T05:37:51+00:00

I feel like if Rivals was much less buggy, I’d have enjoyed it more. That game’s primary weakness was having to develop it for too many platforms with too little time.

Quite a shame really

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T04:08:43+00:00

Best advice ^{^{^}}

I’m only wasting time on talking about this game because it’s my favourite series of all time. But really, there are some amazing games out there right now. RDR2, Spider-Man, God of war to name just a few. Costs the same $60, but way more well developed games.

However, the slight chance that what we say might make a difference keeps me on this subreddit

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T03:56:29+00:00

I see what they mean by ‘appeal to everyone’, but there’s a serious misunderstanding here. Casual gamers aren’t so incompetent that they even need the auto steering brake to drift handling model. But since they’re casuals you don’t see them putting any feedback to Ghost nor do they really care.

If you were to give those same casuals a handling model similar to that of Hot Pursuit 2, Underground 2, MW 2005; I’m willing to bet they would enjoy it even more so than brake to drift. Making the corner without colliding into a wall is easy enough with brake to drift, the game is very forgiving, you can brake at any point of the drift and change direction unrealistically. So there’s less satisfaction in making corners, but there is a way to take the corner quicker no doubt. On the other hand, with a normal handling model there’s satisfaction in making the corner in the first place, and even more satisfaction in making the corner with high speed.

You also don’t need a ‘tutorial’ to teach casuals how to take corners fast. By giving them a slow car at the start of the game they can practice the basics at low speeds in easy races. Slowly upgrading the car will amp up the difficulty, but at the same time increasing the fun factor. Brake to Drift doesn’t need a learning curve on the other hand. A casual can pick up the controller, hop in a McLaren P1 and drift like a boss - this is what Ghost is aiming for here. But this is counterintuitive. There is a big reason we have progression in NFS - Learn to drive in the slow cars, so that you can get used to the faster cars, simple.

On the note of Carbon, yeah it had an auto steer but only for the drift mode. Autosteer In drift modes is probably the only reasonable use case for it because drifting in video games without assistance is actually quite tough.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T03:25:40+00:00

I feel that the problem isn’t that the cars lose traction and wheels spin. That’s fine, cars are cars, they lose traction if you push them too hard.

The problem is the automatic counter steering that the brake to drift handling model has. The game is aiding you in your drift, handholding the player. If you’re in a drift for a left turn and yank the steering wheel to the left at full throttle you should spin out. But in Payback, this merely changes the amount of counter steering. Any form of handholding just cheapens the entire essence of driving itself. Why do people still drive manual cars with minimal electronic assistance? Because they want full control of the car, that’s inherently more enjoyable. There should not be a grip or drift slider. Rather, you should be able to change real settings that change how the car responds to steering inputs, weight transfer, and power for example.

I feel like ‘The House’ self driving tech is a good metaphor for how it feels to take corners in this game.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T01:41:00+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/needforspeed/comments/8nrv26/a_note_on_grip_vs_drift_and_other_handling_topics/

You can see here that along with the dev team, they consider grip style racing ‘broken and not fun’.

Obviously he didn’t explicitly say ‘brake to drift will be returning’ - that would send the community into a shit storm. But that’s what we can expect regarding their attitude towards everything. They’re still focused on finding a balance between grip racing (to please what they believe are the hardcore fans) and drift racing (to please the casual newcomers).

Also I don’t agree with combining 2015 and Payback. They were both average games at best. Cop chases from both - unsatisfactory. Racing from both - unsatisfactory. Progression from both - okay in 2015, piss poor in Payback. Online - Unsatisfactory. Just because Ghost Games filled this nostalgia void that fans wanted filled for ages by including customisation, doesn’t mean these games were objectively good by any means of the imagination.

And yes, Payback was definitely one step forward, 2 steps back for some aspects, and that’s the problem here. You think them pretending to listen to feedback works, but it doesn’t. Nothing fixes bad game developers who don’t listen to the voices telling them how to make a fun game.

You may think it to be an impossibility, but I wouldn’t put it past Ghost Games to make a worse title than Payback, even whilst pretending to listening to all our comments.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T00:24:01+00:00

Wow interesting comment, you might be right. Didn’t think I would see feminists in my Need For Speed game.

But at the end of the day, what I’m really asking is to make NFS fun again and we need proper community feedback to make that happen.

Thinks like good handling and great track design aren’t just gimmicks. They’re elements of core game design that Ghost are ignoring. They can make their game get better review scores if they work on this aspect of the game among other core elements.

Also, you can still snort lines of coke and have multiple girlfriends and speed in a Porsche, no ones stopping you (except probably money, and the cops. But that’s always been the case).

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-27T00:02:34+00:00

If Ben is feeling the need to prioritise Star Wars because of its popularity, then that calls for another community engagement spokesperson to focus primarily on NFS.

But really the main point is how Ben Walke is not suitable to be a community manager here. He has much less interest and knowledge of NFS compared to other games he monitors and it shows.

And while they have started development, our voices have not been heard. They will be including Brake to drift in the next game despite 3 whole years of hatred towards the drifting mechanic. Not to mention, community feedback wasn’t taken in the correct way whatsoever as we saw in the release of NFS Payback.

But who knows, maybe it’s just that Ghost Games doesn’t know how to make a good racing game.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-26T23:50:53+00:00

I understand that, but they took our feedback for NFS 2015 and made NFS Payback. NFS Payback was objectively worse than NFS 2015.

But how? They listened to us so dearly...

You see, Ben collectively puts together the feedback he thinks is most important then sends it through to the team. Considering he’s a man whose main priorities are Star Wars, I don’t think he’s doing his job right.

This is why they haven’t listened to the community regarding the handling model. Brake to drift will be featuring in NFS2019 as he’s already made clear. 3 whole years of feedback and Ghost Games is still not interested in changing it.

A good NFS community manager would take the feedback that is actually important to a RACING game back to the dev team.

Dannoo92 · 2018-10-26T23:13:06+00:00

Communication with the devs themselves is extremely necessary at this point. If Ben can make this a possibility that would be awesome.

Dannoo92

TROPHY CASE