Best Need for Speed game you played?

[mr.]

What is the best NFS version you played and why? I am an addict of car racing games and I would like to have your opinions about Need for speed. What is the best among all the need for speed versions?

[PP Mguire]

In order of my liking.

NFS 3 Hot Pursuit
Most Wanted
Shift.

NFS3 (and essentially Sports Car GT) got me into racing games and overclocking. I played the crap out of Most Wanted because I went straight from Underground 2 to that. Shift got me into sim racing which is where I stand now.

[Frag Maniac]

Of their pure arcade games, I like Most Wanted and Underground 2. Of their arcade/SIM hybrid games, I like Shift.

Shift 2: Unleashed had the potential to be the best NFS arcade/SIM racer, maybe even the best racer period, but they changed the handling formula from Shift making it harder to keep the cars under control, the AI is too aggressive for the new handling, and the AI and events are unbalanced. You have to keep changing difficulty settings to get a consistent amount of challenge for your skill level. Some tracks the AI can't handle without DNFing, like Pergusa, and on other tracks that are harder to race, they can be hard to keep up with.

The first half of Shift 2 I played on Medium AI level, with traction control and ABS, but unlike Shift 1, I had to use steering assist. In the 2nd half of the game I had to drop the AI to Easy. I played Shift 1 all the way through on KB with Medium AI and no steering assist and just traction control and ABS with no driving line. Even people on wheels and gamepads were having trouble with Shift 2 that they didn't with Shift 1. Some patching and trial and error tuning options helped, but overall most seem to think they made Shift 2 a game that doesn't really fit the NFS series. It certainly doesn't fit the Shift series the way it was originally made anyway.

All they had to do to make Shift better was add the tracks and endurance events they did with Shift 2 and tone down the AI aggression. They did all those things, but then decided as well to make the cars very squirrelly without steering assist. Worse yet they left too much AI aggression in for the new handling to work without frustrations. I've also noticed the AI and overall event difficulty is far more unbalanced in Shift 2 than Shift 1. The perfect racer would be a Shift that has all the best elements from Shift 1 & 2.

I'd like to try Shift 2 on a good wheel, but I just can't justify spending big money on a wheel/pedal set that doesn't have craptastic pedal pots just for that one game. None of the other race games I have really require one to beat them without lots of frustrations. Basically it depends what type of NFS game you're looking for. The series started out with more SIM-like Hot Pursuit style games, then wandered all over the place to everything from glued to the ground arcade titles to more SIM-like ones like Pro Street and Shift 1 & 2. It's hard to label NFS anymore, the franchise has changed it's personality and dev teams too much along it's course for consumers to identify with it in a familiar way like they used to.

The Shift series is great if you want lots of real life authentic tracks, cars that look and sound nice, true to life G forces, and still have AI that gets a bit aggressive. They're not the kind of NFS games you necessarily want to jump into without a good control device though, depending how well you want to do at it and what settings you want to use. You also have to have the patience to tune the cars a lot to get the most out of them. You might be able to beat them on a mere KB, many have Shift 1, but Shift 2 is a PITA on KB.

I'm fine with just being able to beat a race game on any settings level that provides a decent challenge for me. I don't care to spend big money on a title specific control device and have to drag it out every time I play the few race games I own. If they made a small device other than a gamepad that is easier to play racers with than a KB, I'd be all over it, but I suck with gamepads and wheel/pedal sets are so damn cumbersome to setup and take down.

[PP Mguire]

Yea didn't like Shift 2 myself either and I do have a wheel. I got about half way through the game and quit.

[Dragon]

The first NFS Hot Pursuit (when you could actually use modded cars) Underground both, and most wanted. I liked the story mode of these games.

[Frag Maniac]

Yea didn't like Shift 2 myself either and I do have a wheel. I got about half way through the game and quit.

Yeah I don't for the life of me get why they thought the handling changes in Shift 2 would go over well considering there's still a fair bit of AI aggression at times and you still have to fight your way through the grid vs being given a position you earn. It's also extremely unbalanced. I find it odd that on a simple track like Pergusa, most AI crash out and can't finish, worse so at day then night. Then on tough tracks like Suzuka and Nords, it's like they suddenly get a brain and try to drop you with no handling problems whatsoever.

I've not yet totally given up on the Shift series. I really hope they'll make a Shift 3 with all the best things from Shift 1 & 2. I've even waded through EA's official forum for the series to convey that sentiment, enduring being lambasted by a handful of aholes who insist those of us that complain about the game are crap racers. I think much of the problem is EA likes to cater to a handful of butt kissing elitist racers anymore that pretend they're some kind of pros just because they have a wheel and can play on higher settings with it.

These trolls don't seem to get that a lot of players on wheels and pads complained of the same things the few of us on KB did. They just didn't stick around to argue the point much once they found out how arrogant and hostile the Shift 2 elitist get on the forum. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one defending those of us whom feel Shift 2 was made worse than Shift 1, and being on KB, I'm easy prey for the you're an idiot for playing it on KB comments. It's really sad that a few arrogant butt smooching punks can dictate how games are made anymore.

[PP Mguire]

That is exactly why I don't post on those kinds of forums for games.