Unrealism in NFS : Most Wanted

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RS3RS

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
Messages
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I just spent several hours playing the NFS:Most Wanted demo. It's an awesome, awesome game idea, and it's tons of fun to play, but there are few things that could make me think twice before buying it.

I love the concept - an NFS: Underground type layout, with cops. Nothing could be better. But there's just a few annoyances that drive me insane whenever I play it.

First of all, I hate the "dramatic camera angle" thing that it does whenever you go airborn, or in the speed challenges when you first see a cop. Yes, I know I just took a ramp, and the flashing lights and sirens were enough to tell me that this car is a police cruiser. I don't need you to pause the game for 5 seconds to show me an up close view of what just happened.

The throttle is either all, or nothing. I know that's how it has to be with keyboards, but there's nothing more annoying than sitting there doing a burn-out for 5 seconds straight in the Viper before you even start to move. They should just pretend there's some fancy traction control system and program that in or something.

The cops. The cops are super human. I can be screaming down the road in the Viper going 150 mph, and see a cop going the other direction. 5 or 6 seconds later, he's right at my side trying to push me over. That's simply never, ever, ever going to happen. The cop cars can go 0 to 100 in 1/2 second, brake from 100 to 0 in 4 feet, and make hair-pin turns at 185 mph.

They should make the cops more realistic, and to make up for it, perhaps let them use spike-strips in their road blocks, classic NFS style. What cops in that situation wouldn't use spike strips? Helicopters too. That would be an interesting factor, trying to hide from a chopper.

Damage should be implemented as well. If there's a road block, and I ram a police car at 120, I shouldn't go straight through him, being able to drive off without problems, while the cop car sits there smoking. Maybe give a health "counter" like a FPS shooter, or, better yet, do like they did in Porsche Unleashed and make the steering not work as well if you hit something to screw up a tire, or let the brakes suddenly go out, or have engine problems and not be able to "pull" as well from that point on.

And, of course, lose the lame music / ricer theme, but that's just the obvious part. :p


Anyway, just wanted to rant a little. Like I said, it's a great game to play, I just think it could be better with a few minor changes. What do you guys think?
 
RS3RS said:
First of all, I hate the "dramatic camera angle" thing that it does whenever you go airborn, or in the speed challenges when you first see a cop. Yes, I know I just took a ramp, and the flashing lights and sirens were enough to tell me that this car is a police cruiser. I don't need you to pause the game for 5 seconds to show me an up close view of what just happened.
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You can turn that off in the options.

RS3RS said:
They should make the cops more realistic, and to make up for it, perhaps let them use spike-strips in their road blocks, classic NFS style. What cops in that situation wouldn't use spike strips? Helicopters too. That would be an interesting factor, trying to hide from a chopper.
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They do use spikestrips in their roadblocks, you need a high wanted level. There are also helicopters.
 
I agree it has it's flaws but it's the best one since they started the underground crap. The cop AI definetly could use some tweaking I just can't see the vanilla police cruiser keeping up with me at 180 :( But overall i'm enjoying the game more than the previous ones by far.
 
Fun game, but not going to last long on my list of things I play unless I can get my DFP wheel to work correctly.......seems I have to use a combined axis for the pedals....that alone takes all the real fun out of the game for me.
 
FiZ said:
You can turn that off in the options.


They do use spikestrips in their roadblocks, you need a high wanted level. There are also helicopters.
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And to add to this about the other points:

The game IS and tries to be a arcade racer....bulldozing through cops without a scratch and overall the opposite of real driving has been a staple of the Hot Pursuit series. Cops have also always been supercars as well, it makes the game much more intense to always have them on your ass. The game makes up for this by adding in tons of shortcuts that you can lose cops and those policebreakers that get rid of them.

The ricer underground thing is actually pretty humerous in the story....i think they actually overdid it on purpose as a parody. If you mean ricer as far as customization, you don't have to customize your car so why complain about an extra feature?

The music is a worthless complaint because it's subjective, and they can't really have a soundtrack in a racing game everyone likes...i personally think the music is good (the racing music). Hardly any rap except during the menu, which you can turn off.
 
auxout said:
I agree it has it's flaws but it's the best one since they started the underground crap. The cop AI definetly could use some tweaking I just can't see the vanilla police cruiser keeping up with me at 180 :( But overall i'm enjoying the game more than the previous ones by far.
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I disagree. U2 had far more customizability, and tuning your car was very rewarding. The AI and rubber band kill MW for me.
 
BTW, there is a way to eliminate the "forever long burn-out". If you take a moment to look at the needle on your speedo it'll turn blue once it gets to a certain RPM range. If you keep the needle around there (by tapping the accelerator) the "burn-out" is either eliminated all together or diminished.

What I usually do is wait until the counter says "1" before I push the accelerator button.

It's the same concept as the Drag Races but this works on all the races now. And it even works in Free Roam.

And again, another review of a game that a person has only played a few levels of.
 
Moose777 said:
And again, another review of a game that a person has only played a few levels of.
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That sums it up right there.

Every point in the OP's entire post is nullfied because he reviewed a game based on a demo. And the gripe about playing with a keyboard, it's damn near 2006, it's about time to invest in a gamepad. ;)
 
Why would you want realism, its a game and Arcade game made for pleasure and fun. We want escapism, the laws of world physics dont apply. We want fun and excitement. If you enjoy FPS games but require more realism, join the Army and be all you can be. If you want realistic driving games, get in your car and drive to Wal Mart... Simple!!!
 
MW is the first NFS I enjoy since NFS 3 and PU. I loved PU, probably the most "realistic" of any NFS game. Still arcad-ish but one of the most realistic.

BTW where is the "role reversal" I loved in NFS 3 playing as the police trying to catch the racers. I'd love this mode again.


That said, my ideal driving game would be:
GTR or GT Legends level of realisim (and controls/wheel support), with a nice modeled city (NFS:MW steup is good enough, just makes the curbs a bit higher), and a realistic acting police, with a few uber cars like a Z06 or Viper.

And keep many of the game modes from MW. Oh and a number of cars similar to GT4 but no repeat models.

Ah if only I had 30-40 million dollars....
 
Bane said:
Remember San Francisco Rush? I wish that was more realistic.
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Ha, I love that game. My little brothers and I still play it when I'm at home. Looks like absolute ass compared to today's games, but it sure is fun.
 
You're complaining about Need for Speed... being unrealistic? I figured it was pretty much assumed.
 
my advice, if u want realism! by a Honda and hit the streets!@!!!
 
Bring back Porsche Unleashed!!! Best. Racing. Game. EVER!
 
Ok gripe time:

I know NFS:MW is not realistic, nor did I have that expectation. But everytime regarding any game someone suggest that game would be killer if it was more realisticm, people insist on saying "oh well go drive a car if you want realisim, or go join the army if you want realistic FPS, etc, etc"

It is annoying as hell. Some of us like games that "simulate" parts of reality. It allows us to get drawn into the game more. but we also don't want to do it in reallife due to the real life downsides...

there is nothing wrong with wanting a game like NFS:MW but with realistic/believable physics, AI, etc. we obviously can not go out and recreate the game in real life without serous injury, death, etc, so all the OP is suggesting is that the game would have even more fun if it more accurately portrayed the basic physics of real life.

why do you think Falcon 4 is still popular and played? It was one of the most bloated buggiest games of it's time, but it is about the closest thing to flying a F-16 your typical computer nerd is ever going to get. Some of us enjoy that level of sophistication, and that applies to driving games, we don't demand perfection, just something believable.

Bottom line: NFS:MW is a fun game, but some of us would like to see something with the same concept but a more realistic approach.
 
I'm glad the cops are able to catch up to you rather quickly as its easy enough as it is to lose them..


[H]
 
-Sean Casey said:
Bottom line: NFS:MW is a fun game, but some of us would like to see something with the same concept but a more realistic approach.
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and yet that isn't a valid complaint because you damn well should've known the game was going to be like that, as every NFS pursuit game has.

It's like me complaining that half-life 2 doesn't have more rpg elements or magic.
 
I haven't tried this option yet, but there is an option to disable "catch up" which I believe will stop the other cars (cops too) from being able to catch up to you that quickly.
 
The only truely realistic part of NFS:MW is the GFX.
The lighting looks amazing and the everything has a very nice look to it.
Other than that, the cars don't handle as realistic as say NFS:pU, but it is a different game.

Also OP, if you played the full version game you would know damn well why it would suck huge balls if your car was realistic when it comes to damage or impacts. Spending 40k on upgrades only to lose your car as soon as the cops make a road block would suck so badly!

The Cops need to be super fast or the game wouldn't need to have cops in it, cause what would be the point of having cops when you can out run them with no trouble. I am only @ level 3 on the HEAT scale and it's fucking hard as hell already sometimes.

When you have a OJ chase with 16 cop cars all that can do 250 KMH+ on your ass, and they try to box you in, them you have to ram through 3 road blocks one after another. It gets damn hard to lose them some times. My longest chase so far was 38 mins and I was seriously trying to lose them!

The Roadblocks change up depending on how you smash through them. You might smash through the small gap between cars and it will work, but next time there might be a car behind that gap. Or you might smash T-Bone style right through the door of a car and send it flying, next time it might be and SUV with another car behind it to block the impact better!

The cops in this game can be very unrealist when it comes to speed, I agree a basic Heat level 1 patrol car shouldn't be able to keep up with me @ 240KPH, nor should an SUV, but like I siad, they need to be or the game would be very easy!
 
bobthebaker said:
and yet that isn't a valid complaint because you damn well should've known the game was going to be like that, as every NFS pursuit game has.

It's like me complaining that half-life 2 doesn't have more rpg elements or magic.
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That is my point. We are well aware what the game was before we purchased it, we are not saying it is a bad game.

As for every NFS game.... NFS PU had some basic damage modeling. Heck it even had a horn and turn signals.

Personally I love the game, my view is that I'd love it even more with those added realism elements. Heck, I don't even think the OP was complaining, just talking about what they would like to see.

I just get sick of tired of hearing "if you want realisim go drive your car". Instead of saying that at least come up with reason why you think the added realism would detract from the game (even if it was optional).
 
Majin said:
The only truely realistic part of NFS:MW is the GFX.
The lighting looks amazing and the everything has a very nice look to it.
Other than that, the cars don't handle as realistic as say NFS:pU, but it is a different game.
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The graphics are pretty nice, I wish the rain would block your view more and required that windshield wipers be used, but it does look great. The speed blur is over done. I noticed that it seems like the slower cars get their speed blur sooner, but I could just be imagining things.

Majin said:
Also OP, if you played the full version game you would know damn well why it would suck huge balls if your car was realistic when it comes to damage or impacts. Spending 40k on upgrades only to lose your car as soon as the cops make a road block would suck so badly!
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Well this is the problem, if one item is made more realisitc, then every part needs an increase. NFS:pU had limited damage. Reduction in handling, speed, steering, etc. Of course if the cops were not uber cops you'd have to find a gap to squeeze through or do a u-turn and find an alternate route (obvious wuoldn't work for circuit style courses).[/QUOTE]

Majin said:
The Cops need to be super fast or the game wouldn't need to have cops in it, cause what would be the point of having cops when you can out run them with no trouble. I am only @ level 3 on the HEAT scale and it's fucking hard as hell already sometimes.
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Flip side being if things were more realistic you wouldn't be able to drive as fast thus giving police cars an easier chance. The AI does suck in this game, if I just keep going in circles around the same part of town eventually they all just crash behind me. IMO a good AI would note that you approach area X from direction Y, Z many times in the last T amount of time. And have pursuit vehicles branch off and lay spike strips or setup a road block. right now it appears that the positioning of those is mostly random.

Majin said:
The Roadblocks change up depending on how you smash through them. You might smash through the small gap between cars and it will work, but next time there might be a car behind that gap. Or you might smash T-Bone style right through the door of a car and send it flying, next time it might be and SUV with another car behind it to block the impact better!
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Aim for the back of a car, seems to push it out of the way the best. Personally I love getting chased, I'll keep them going as long as I can. It can be easy sometimes to disable all of the pursuit vehicles before the reinforcements arrive thus getting a cool down persiod that you can't break unless you find a roadblock.
 
well...the only thing i hate is.....if you ram the back end of a police car in a roadblock, you fly right through losing maybe 20 MPH, but if you hit the front end (where the engine "weighs it down more") you are stopped dead...i could be doing 160 through it and im stopped dead in my tracks.......and the spike strips..if im roding on my rims ill still be able to move, ill just lose about 80% of my traction and not be able to go over 50 MPH maybe, but just be stopped dead? thats not cool......


oh yea..last thing..i promise..


when i got to i think heat level 5, as soon as i did i saw a roadblock ahead of me, and the CHOPPER whas part of the roadblock..i was like..cool..and hit the chopper, now since its HOVERING and not sitting on the ground, you owuld think the force of a 1+ ton object hitting a hovering chopper at 150MPH would budge it at all....but noooooooo it stays right where it is....and again, im stopped dead...


whenever shit like that happens i just hit the reset button on my PC...because when stupid shit like that is the thing that gets me busted im not gonna take that....


unless i have get out of jail free markers, which i finally ran out of (had 5)

ps...sorry for any spelling errors..im not gonna try to fix em...
 
The pursuit mode annoys the hell out of me. You can work as hard as you like at dropping cops but really, above heat level 3, the primary way to lose cops is to drive off-road and into pursuit breakers.

When cops can do 180s practically in place, and go from 0 to 180 in 5 seconds, you lose any incentives to try to ditch the cops through steering. You lose them primarily from getting to a location and then running into pursuit breakers. I want cops to at least slow down when I P.I.T them, or slam them into the path of 18-wheelers. It's also ridiculous when a cop does a perfect head-on collision with an 18-wheeler, with me flying up behind at 170-190mph and smooshing the cop into the truck from the back in a pincer press...the cop SURVIVES.

Even if you lose that one, they randomly assign more cops in front of you unless you're off-road, there should be a mechanism for me to lose cops via creative manuevers, not by driving into waypoints.

Main thing that irked me is that after heat level 3, cop cars seem to only be destroyed by flipping them. I enjoyed escaping via annhilation:( God I'm going to hate heat level 5.
 
kelbear said:
The pursuit mode annoys the hell out of me. You can work as hard as you like at dropping cops but really, above heat level 3, the primary way to lose cops is to drive off-road and into pursuit breakers.

When cops can do 180s practically in place, and go from 0 to 180 in 5 seconds, you lose any incentives to try to ditch the cops through steering. You lose them primarily from getting to a location and then running into pursuit breakers. I want cops to at least slow down when I P.I.T them, or slam them into the path of 18-wheelers. It's also ridiculous when a cop does a perfect head-on collision with an 18-wheeler, with me flying up behind at 170-190mph and smooshing the cop into the truck from the back in a pincer press...the cop SURVIVES.

Even if you lose that one, they randomly assign more cops in front of you unless you're off-road, there should be a mechanism for me to lose cops via creative manuevers, not by driving into waypoints.

Main thing that irked me is that after heat level 3, cop cars seem to only be destroyed by flipping them. I enjoyed escaping via annhilation:( God I'm going to hate heat level 5.
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hell your gonna hate 4.....but at 5 you get HEAVY SUVs, not light, AND the cops get vettes and the chopper is more aggressive.......

but i keep getting busted on heat 4 no matter what i do, i keep having to do short sprints of pursuits just to get some bounty, and even then i can;t complete the milestones i need.....

one BL #3 i need to either, nail 32 cop cars, or evade the pursuit after 8 mins of running, which by then i get busted..

its those GOD DAMN SUVS every time!
 
4b5eN+EE said:
hell your gonna hate 4.....but at 5 you get HEAVY SUVs, not light, AND the cops get vettes and the chopper is more aggressive.......

but i keep getting busted on heat 4 no matter what i do, i keep having to do short sprints of pursuits just to get some bounty, and even then i can;t complete the milestones i need.....

one BL #3 i need to either, nail 32 cop cars, or evade the pursuit after 8 mins of running, which by then i get busted..

its those GOD DAMN SUVS every time!
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I've already been at 4 for awhile. I can lose the pursuit, but only by playing boring like I'd described i.e hitting pursuit breaker waypoints, instead of trying to actively get rid of cops. Something I liked to do in the earlier chases was to match speed with a cop as a road split neared and then slam them into the other path as I took my own. The computer just makes that cop disappear and makes another in front of me >.< Anytime I try to drive aggressively, some accident occurs and I get busted. I always to have to stop shifting past 4th gear and just casually drive off-road through pursuit breakers if I really want to escape.
 
KillerMonkey said:
I disagree. U2 had far more customizability, and tuning your car was very rewarding. The AI and rubber band kill MW for me.
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Alot of customability was fine but forcing me to do it for "rep" with lame ass parts I didn't want was stupid and I hated that. It sucks about the tuning but hell I don't want need for speed to be gran turismo I want it to be need for speed get in a car and tear some shit up. Nothing brings back better multiplayer memories than NFS2 or NFS HP just plain fun.

Agreed the AI is non existant, they slam on the brakes in the corners let me pass then fly up on my ass catching up a few seconds later. The cop chases on heat level 4 just suck, they don't have to box you in and slow you down they just box you in and wham 160 to 0 in .5 seconds. Then to top it off other times their cars magically bond with the ground or something so you can't push them, it's lame. Agree with whoever said the engine thing is ridiculous too, I'm doing 160 smashing cars and watching cops do head on collisions and keep going yet we have to worry about engine weight? Seems like frustrating realism in a total unrealistic game.
 
4b5eN+EE said:
hell your gonna hate 4.....but at 5 you get HEAVY SUVs, not light, AND the cops get vettes and the chopper is more aggressive.......

but i keep getting busted on heat 4 no matter what i do, i keep having to do short sprints of pursuits just to get some bounty, and even then i can;t complete the milestones i need.....

one BL #3 i need to either, nail 32 cop cars, or evade the pursuit after 8 mins of running, which by then i get busted..

its those GOD DAMN SUVS every time!
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I'm in the same situation :( It's no problem reaching the milestone, but getting away with it isn't. No matter what I do, a cop always pops up somewhere behind just when I'm about to evade. And if I somehow manage to evade them, they find me in my freakin hiding spot :(
 
Same here, I have better luck cooling down continuing to drive or hiding in a non official hiding spot, such as the stadium.
 
Say, wanna know a secret about the cop chases that will be sure to amuse you for at least a few of those milestone/level up challenges?

It's called manual transmission, and 1st gear.

I know, I know, those of you who use automatic are thinking "oh great, some elitist wants me to shift", and the manual users are thinking "uh... what about it?". Well, first, you have to understand two things. One, your car is practically indestructable. Cop cars can be knocked out, at least early on, by a few nudges. You have MBT armor. Two, and this should be relatively obvious, your cars performance in terms of torque, accelleration, and whatnot tends to be better at the higher RPM ranges.

So, what am I trying to get at? Start a milestone, any milestone. Doesn't matter, since you'll be doing them all. Now, stay in first gear. Don't leave it unless you get bored. Seriously, just stay in first gear. By midway through the game, I have a Lancer EvoVIII and a Impreza WRX, and this works for both. It helps to performance tune your car for max steering, max turbo (as in best performance at high RPMs, worst at lower), and maybe (although I haven't tested it thoroughly) lower ride heigth to keep you from flipping.

Then, go to town. Do whatever you want. Trust me on this one, the police can't stop you. They try to box you in, you turn towards them. They spin out, you keep going. You're going slow, so you have plenty of time to ram other cars, streetlights, objects, whatever you feel like. Worst case scenario, one presses directly up against you and when you attempt to turn them you notice your car slowing down a bit. Hit the nitro for extra push (no speed of course, you're red lined remember?), or swerve a lil in the other direction and them bump them. It's hilarious. You'd be suprised how impotent roadblocks and spikes are when you're travelling around at 50 miles an hour, casually destroying any cop car that gets near you.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not perfect. There are a feeeeeew situations where you will simply have 10 cars around you, and despite your best efforts cannot get the tiiiiiny amount of space your car needs to get moving/ramming/escaping. Tough luck, there.

Even if you feel this approach is cheesy, try it out just once. It's funucational! Especially if you start a level 1/2 heat, because ramming one of those vehicles at full speed 1st gear with a lil nitro to help will flip them 90% of the time. Wheee!

Edit: Oh, one other amusing thing about doing this. I've actually escaped level 3 and 4 heat pursuits like this. Well, not fully. I lost all pursuers, and both times turned around and went back to grab 'em (I was after the milestones). I suspect that part of the reason you can escape like this is that since you sloooowly go past a block that stops all the other cops, you aren't travelling fast enough to spawn the next wave up ahead. That, or they spawn and are waiting.. either way.
 
im asian..and i dont like RICER music neither..who the fuck listens to that dumbass headache giving music ..."when they drop pills they do" i dont care..that shit is dumb..only fairies listens to that shit....hahah just wanted to express my opinions...on TRANCE/RAVE/TECHNO aka gay music...
 
Toilet Duck said:
It's called manual transmission, and 1st gear.
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I have played this game with Auto and It's lazy.
You have no control over your car.
Why anyone would play with Auto is a mistery to me.

Being able to shift gets you so much more control over your car, and allows you to do things like you said " full torque push"!
 
NFS MOSTWANTED IS FOR ME A VERY GOOD GAME I AM NOW AT BLACKLIST NUMBER 7 i BOUGHT THE GAME 2 WEEKS AGO .FOR WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT THE GAME IS THE COPS IT'S NOT UNREAL IT'S LIKE REAL LIFE.
 
Majin said:
I have played this game with Auto and It's lazy.
You have no control over your car.
Why anyone would play with Auto is a mistery to me.

Being able to shift gets you so much more control over your car, and allows you to do things like you said " full torque push"!
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you can also manually shift while in auto....both ways, up and down
 
I hate the jump camera, I like the cop zoom though. As for the throttle and brake being all or nothing, I use a gamecube controller to play the PC version and have the pressure sensitive shoulder buttons set up as gas and brake, and they work perfectly. I can feather the break real nice, and accelerate just right to avoid burning out too much.
 
L0ony! said:
Why would you want realism, its a game and Arcade game made for pleasure and fun. We want escapism, the laws of world physics dont apply. We want fun and excitement. If you enjoy FPS games but require more realism, join the Army and be all you can be. If you want realistic driving games, get in your car and drive to Wal Mart... Simple!!!
Click to expand...
QFT.
The one thing I would love to see for racing games is a Steering wheel setup that has gas/break/clutch pedals AND a proper shifter... and games that support it. ;)
 
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