Going to pick up NFS:Shift, should I throw NFS:Undercover in the cart as well?

[AmberClad]

(I know they're completely different styles and one is more along the lines of GRID. )

I'm still not clear why Undercover got such bad reviews and if it's worth the $10 or not. Are these the same people who also dislike NFS:U / U2 / MW / C? (ProStreet was genuinely bad, imo) Or do they have a legitimate reason for panning the game, like it doesn't live up to NFS:MW?

Basically still confused after reading various pro and user reviews.

 

[Barfo]

I played it at a friend's for about an hour. Graphics are really poor (it still uses the NFSU engine, go figure). Performance is bad. Handling is awful, game play is meh. I wouldn't bother this game even if it was $3.

 

[Slick5150]

Yeah, underground was terrible.

 

[BassBomb]

No.

 

[mwmorph]

NFS Undercover graphically looked pretty identical to Most Wanted and played pretty identical to Most Wanted.

NFS Shift, in my opinion was created by a team of devs that like cars, but didn't know all that much about how actual race cars drive.

It is
unpolished,
Buggy (especially with ATI hardware)
Performance statistics make no sense (No your Corvette Works will not reach 201mph, think more 180mph, Lambo Murcielago Works Upgrade refuses to shift into 6th gear, cripples top speed to 140ish),
The performance bars seem somewhat relative,
Upgrading most cars are worthless,
Physics are completely off. It's like the cars are running 600hp, full race upgrades and then using skinny, family sedan, touring tires instead of racing slicks.
Ride height on some cars are off (or maybe how the game treats ride height/downforce is off), causing them to bottom out and drag on the ground on a fairly consistent basis. This obviously destroys the handling even more. Fixing the ride height issue destroys handling again.
Still keeping rubber banding AI. The AI Will rubber band to keep the front couple cars in front of you. You can have a lap time 10 seconds faster than the rest of the pack and somehow 1 car will always be ridiculously harder to pass than the others. Once you pass them though, you will never see those cars again except to lap them since the rubber band AI turns off after you pass them, allowing you to put up insane leads.
The Rubber band AI also applies to the 1 on 1 car battle races, which makes them unnecessarily difficult.
The insane leads once you pass them means you will never score aggression points. You always end up with 3x more precision points than aggression so good luck with that, small issue but annoying if you like the eliminator races v.s. hot laps.

All in all I guess I'm just venting my frustration, but it seems like NFS Prostreet with a great cockpit view and slightly improved physics. The driving experience is still off and I don't know what the reviewers were thinking praising it so highly. Maybe it's better with a wheel, but expect to go off the track a lot, slide a lot and crash a lot with a gamepad. The basic tire model is IMO the most important thing to get down in a game and this game gives you maybe 50-60% as much .cf as you should be getting.

I wish I would have waited for this game to hit a $20 bargain bin and had some patches. As of now, it's incredibly frustrating, but it's not like PC gamers have a choice, GRID 2 doesn't come out for a while.

I have no idea how the metacritic reviews for this are so high, must be reviewers that don't actually know how fast cars handle, because these are the worst physics I've dealt with in a semi-sim game outside of pro-street.

As it is, It's a 50-60% score game at most if you actually like cars beyond pretty paint options and rims.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
NFS Undercover graphically looked pretty identical to Most Wanted and played pretty identical to Most Wanted.

Yeah, see this is the part that has me confused. I keep hearing that the game is pretty much identical to MW, which would be a good thing in my mind, even if it is more of the same (I'm not expecting GRID or Forza here). Then I hear that the game sucks and people hate it...

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: mwmorph
NFS Undercover graphically looked pretty identical to Most Wanted and played pretty identical to Most Wanted.

Yeah, see this is the part that has me confused. I keep hearing that the game is pretty much identical to MW, which would be a good thing in my mind, even if it is more of the same (I'm not expecting GRID or Forza here). Then I hear that the game sucks and people hate it...

I think people got tired of the formula. Carbon was identical to Most Wanted too.

The thing Carbon did was notch down the difficulty. They made the rubber band AI weaker, which obviously meant better racing (No more 240SX doing 300mph in a corner) , but left the weak AI so it became overly easy. Maybe it was intentional to appeal to a wider audience, maybe not, but either way, you'll get bored breezing through the game like I did and I'm not particularly good at arcade racers.

 

[Barfo]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: mwmorph
NFS Undercover graphically looked pretty identical to Most Wanted and played pretty identical to Most Wanted.

Yeah, see this is the part that has me confused. I keep hearing that the game is pretty much identical to MW, which would be a good thing in my mind, even if it is more of the same (I'm not expecting GRID or Forza here). Then I hear that the game sucks and people hate it...

I'm a huge Most Wanted fan and I've been hoping EA makes a worthy sequel. Undercover was not it, I don't get why people say they're similar.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Barfo
I'm a huge Most Wanted fan and I've been hoping EA makes a worthy sequel. Undercover was not it, I don't get why people say they're similar.

That's pretty much what I was after :thumbsup: -- an opinion from someone who's actually played and liked Most Wanted.

Anyone have any thoughts on Burnout Paradise?

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: Barfo
I'm a huge Most Wanted fan and I've been hoping EA makes a worthy sequel. Undercover was not it, I don't get why people say they're similar.

That's pretty much what I was after :thumbsup: -- an opinion from someone who's actually played and liked Most Wanted.

Anyone have any thoughts on Burnout Paradise?

Burnout is well worth your time and money.

I spent $60 on it for PS3 and I played it in incredible amounts

 

[CP5670]

I'm still not clear why Undercover got such bad reviews and if it's worth the $10 or not. Are these the same people who also dislike NFS:U / U2 / MW / C? (ProStreet was genuinely bad, imo) Or do they have a legitimate reason for panning the game, like it doesn't live up to NFS:MW?

Basically still confused after reading various pro and user reviews.

I have been wondering the same thing. I loved MW and many others seem to have liked it too, but then everyone says Undercover sucks and it's a copy of MW.

I prefer unrealistic driving games over sims in general. GRID was good enough for me to complete the game, but even that was a little too far on the realistic side for my liking. Maybe I should look into Burnout Paradise.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: CP5670

I'm still not clear why Undercover got such bad reviews and if it's worth the $10 or not. Are these the same people who also dislike NFS:U / U2 / MW / C? (ProStreet was genuinely bad, imo) Or do they have a legitimate reason for panning the game, like it doesn't live up to NFS:MW?

Basically still confused after reading various pro and user reviews.

I have been wondering the same thing. I loved MW and many others seem to have liked it too, but then everyone says Undercover sucks and it's a copy of MW.

I prefer unrealistic driving games over sims in general. GRID was good enough for me to complete the game, but even that was a little too far on the realistic side for my liking. Maybe I should look into Burnout Paradise.

It only looks like MW, it does not play like MW at all.
Play Undercover for about 5 mins and you will turn it off because its steaming crap.

 

[brblx]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: Barfo
I'm a huge Most Wanted fan and I've been hoping EA makes a worthy sequel. Undercover was not it, I don't get why people say they're similar.

That's pretty much what I was after :thumbsup: -- an opinion from someone who's actually played and liked Most Wanted.

Anyone have any thoughts on Burnout Paradise?

i played and liked most wanted.

carbon and undercover are the same game, just with shittier cutscenes and less cop evasion.

edit- i even alternated between most wanted and undercover to see the difference. the cars drive the same, anyone who says otherwise is full of it.

 

[Sureshot324]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
NFS Undercover graphically looked pretty identical to Most Wanted and played pretty identical to Most Wanted.

NFS Shift, in my opinion was created by a team of devs that like cars, but didn't know all that much about how actual race cars drive.

It is
unpolished,
Buggy (especially with ATI hardware)
Performance statistics make no sense (No your Corvette Works will not reach 201mph, think more 180mph, Lambo Murcielago Works Upgrade refuses to shift into 6th gear, cripples top speed to 140ish),
The performance bars seem somewhat relative,
Upgrading most cars are worthless,
Physics are completely off. It's like the cars are running 600hp, full race upgrades and then using skinny, family sedan, touring tires instead of racing slicks.
Ride height on some cars are off (or maybe how the game treats ride height/downforce is off), causing them to bottom out and drag on the ground on a fairly consistent basis. This obviously destroys the handling even more. Fixing the ride height issue destroys handling again.
Still keeping rubber banding AI. The AI Will rubber band to keep the front couple cars in front of you. You can have a lap time 10 seconds faster than the rest of the pack and somehow 1 car will always be ridiculously harder to pass than the others. Once you pass them though, you will never see those cars again except to lap them since the rubber band AI turns off after you pass them, allowing you to put up insane leads.
The Rubber band AI also applies to the 1 on 1 car battle races, which makes them unnecessarily difficult.
The insane leads once you pass them means you will never score aggression points. You always end up with 3x more precision points than aggression so good luck with that, small issue but annoying if you like the eliminator races v.s. hot laps.

All in all I guess I'm just venting my frustration, but it seems like NFS Prostreet with a great cockpit view and slightly improved physics. The driving experience is still off and I don't know what the reviewers were thinking praising it so highly. Maybe it's better with a wheel, but expect to go off the track a lot, slide a lot and crash a lot with a gamepad. The basic tire model is IMO the most important thing to get down in a game and this game gives you maybe 50-60% as much .cf as you should be getting.

I wish I would have waited for this game to hit a $20 bargain bin and had some patches. As of now, it's incredibly frustrating, but it's not like PC gamers have a choice, GRID 2 doesn't come out for a while.

I have no idea how the metacritic reviews for this are so high, must be reviewers that don't actually know how fast cars handle, because these are the worst physics I've dealt with in a semi-sim game outside of pro-street.

As it is, It's a 50-60% score game at most if you actually like cars beyond pretty paint options and rims.

Have you ever actually played a hardcore racing sim? The developers for this game, Slightly Mad Studios, developed GTR 2 and GT Legends, both praised for their realism, so they most definitely know how cars are supposed to drive. Driving a high horsepower car to it's limits is actually very difficult in real life, and even harder in a racing sim because you don't 'feel' what the car is doing.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Sureshot324

Originally posted by: mwmorph
snip

Have you ever actually played a hardcore racing sim? The developers for this game, Slightly Mad Studios, developed GTR 2 and GT Legends, both praised for their realism, so they most definitely know how cars are supposed to drive. Driving a high horsepower car to it's limits is actually very difficult in real life, and even harder in a racing sim because you don't 'feel' what the car is doing.

Uh yeah, dev houses evolve and SMS has lost touch with when they worked with SimBin.

I have played GT2, GT3, GT4, Forza, Forza 2 AND I drive my friend's Porsche 996 GT3 in SCCA events occasionally. A couple years ago, I ran my own MR-2 through SCCA events. I have actually driven Willow Springs and raced Road America. I'm not some amazing championship driver but I know cars.

Have you actually played the game? The physics are not simlike, it obviously caters to the more arcadish "excited to be 4 wheel drifting through a corner" crowd.

I have never once seen a car 4 wheel drift through a corner. I have never once seen a car 4 wheel drift on the straights. I have never once see a RWD or FWD car 4 wheel drift on acceleration. I have never once see a car with 4 inches of ground clearance bottom out on a level straight.

This game is to put it simply, frustrating. It looks cool, but tries too hard to pass itself off as a visceral, exciting experience. Fact of the matter is, car racing is not about big power slides and spinning opponents off the track. It's not that exciting, ti's about precision and slowly working your way up, not some macho, ham fisted 4 wheel drift into a corner, followed by running all your opponents into the wall.

This is one of the most frustrating racing games I have ever played. It doesn't use arcade physics and feel, but it doesn't actually make the cars feel like cars so it doesn't have sim physics or feel.

I was really excited when it came out. The reviews were great, it looked awesome. The first race was odd, but I chalked it up to a control scheme that wasn't set yet. The following Tier 1 races were a bit odd, but I chalked it up to crappy tires on crappy cars, but it never improved. The racing experience for higher tiers is in a singe word, Crap. Some cars are worse than others, but all of them are unrealistic to some degree.