Sunday, March 23, 2014
Need for Speed (NFS) is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts (EA) and developed by several studios including the Canadian company EA Black Box and the British company Criterion Games.
The
series released its first title, The
Need for Speed in 1994.
Initially, it was designed exclusively for use on fifth generation video game consoles,
but later on was reworked to be able to be used on all seventh generation consoles by 2008. All members of the series
consist of racing cars on various tracks, with some titles including police
pursuits in races. Since Need
for Speed: Underground, the series has integrated car body customization into gameplay.
Need for
Speed is the
most successful racing video game series in the world, and one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. As of October 2009, over
140 million copies of games in the series have been sold.
In June
2012, following Black Box's restructuring, British developer Criterion Games announced that it was in full control
of the Need for Speed franchise. However, in August 2013, Swedish and
British developers Ghost Games,
Ghost Games UK and Criterion
Gamesjoined forces for the foreseeable future of the Need for Speed series. At the time, Ghost Games UK
staff consisted of 80% of former Criterion Games employees
All the games in the Need For Speed (NFS) series employ the same
fundamental rules and similar mechanics: the player controls a race car in a variety of races, the goal being
to win the race. In the tournament/career mode, the player must win a series of
races in order to unlock vehicles and tracks. Before each race, the player
chooses a vehicle, and has the option of selecting either an automatic or manual
transmission. All games in the series have some form of multiplayer mode allowing players to race one
another via a split screen, a LAN or
the Internet.
Although
the games share the same name, their tone and focus can vary significantly. For
example, in some games the cars can suffer mechanical and visual damage, while
in other games the cars cannot be damaged at all; in some games the software
simulates real-car behavior (physics), while in others there are more forgiving
physics.
With the
release of Need for Speed:
Underground, the series shifted from racing sports cars on scenic point-to-point tracks, to an import/tuner subculture, and street racing in an urban setting. To date, this
theme has remained prevalent in most of the following games.
Need for
Speed: Shift and its sequel took a simulator approach to racing, featuring
closed-circuit racing on real tracks like the Nürburgring and the Laguna Seca, and fictional street
circuits in cities like London and Chicago.
The car lists include a combination of exotics, sports cars, and tuners in
addition to special race cars.
Most of
the games in the franchise include police
pursuits in some form or other.
In some of the games featuring police pursuit, the player can play as either
the felon or the cop. The concepts of drifting and dragging were introduced in Need for Speed: Underground.
These new mechanics are included in the tournament/career mode aside from the
regular street races. In drift races, the player must defeat other racers by
totaling the most points, earned by the length and timing of the drift made by
the player's vehicle. In
drag races, the player must finish first to win the race, though if the player
crashes into an obstacle, the race ends.
The
concept of car tuning evolved with each new game, from
focusing mainly on the mechanics of the car to including how the car looks.
Each game has car tuning which can set options for items like ABS, traction
control), or down force, or for
upgrading parts like the engine or gearbox. Visual tuning of the player's car
becomes important in tournament/career mode after the release of Need for Speed: Underground 2,
when the appearance is rated from zero to ten points. When a car attains a high
enough visual rating, the vehicle is eligible to be on the cover of a fictional
magazine.
Like all
racing games, the Need for
Speed series features an list
of cars, modeled and named after actual cars. Cars in the franchise are divided
into four categories: exotic cars, muscle cars, tuners, and special vehicles. Exotic cars feature high performance,
expensive cars like the Lamborghini
Murciélago, Mercedes-Benz SLR
McLaren, Chevrolet Corvette and the Ford GT; muscle cars refer to the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger and the Chevrolet Camaro; while tuner cars are
cars like the Nissan Skyline and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. The
special vehicles are civilian and police cars that are available for use in
some games, such as the Ford
Crown Victoria in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010
video game) and garbage trucks,
fire engines and taxis in Need
for Speed: Carbon.
Originally
the series took place in international settings, such as race tracks in Australia, Europe, and Africa. Beginning with Underground, the series has
taken place in fictional metropolitan cities. The first game featured traffic on "head to head" mode,
while later games traffic can be toggled on and off, and starting with Underground, traffic is a fixed
obstacle.
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