If you've been following Criterion's updates for Need For Speed: Unbound, this year's latest entry in the venerable racing series, you'll know that a lot of them bring back previous Need For Speed games. content in.
One element of these plans is apparently to use a steady shot of nostalgia to appeal to people whose childhoods were inseparable from the idea of covering the Nissan skyline in tear-jerking vinyl and neon lights, and then use it to smoke some poor guy in a souped-up Corsa fool. However, with NFS itself approaching its 30th birthday, Criterion senior creative director John Stanley reiterated that Unbound's mission is to start shaping the “ultimate NFS experience,” rather than just trying to fit all previous entries into one big stew pot Medium pot without a second thought.
iGamesNews
During a developer roundtable celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Need for Speed franchise attended by iGamesNews, Stanley talked about where Unbound currently stands in its 2024 vision, revealed in February, and how it ties into every Need for Speed game in history consistent with the facts. The usual goal is to have its own specific vision or calling card to help differentiate it from other entries.
“You can’t be everything,” he admits, “but be one of the ideologies of the year — Need for Speed Year 2 [Unbound] – Always around Kaizen, actually kind of practicing this idea of small-scale, iterative improvement. “
“It’s not about becoming like Need for Speed [Unbound] then that's everything [game] – Everything and every feature in Need for Speed - We're very carefully picking and choosing content that we know will resonate with our fans. You can see this in the volumes we completed.
Watch on YouTube
“Right old drag mode, it really resonates, it's something different for us, I've been wanting to get it in for a long time and I'm glad it's back in the game now right. Drift mode right, Yeah, check it out, that's it. Cops vs. Racers, yeah, so all of that is very much like a high-level, iconic piece of Need for Speed - we can't add everything, but the really important stuff is for sure is going to resonate, let's go back, let's add them in.
“Then once they come in, they stay. If they're great and players like them, we index them more, and if they're not, we just focus our attention in the right place. So, we Start building the true core of Need for Speed and then try to move forward.”
Stanley and his team have just revealed the latest update for Unbound – Volume 9 – which will be released on November 26th. It will bring a new PvPvE multiplayer mode called “Lockdown” which is all about stealing rides from lockdown and choosing whether to risk losing everything if you don't catch the rescue truck in time, and The NFS series features the first-ever rideable motorcycle – the BMW S 1000 RR – so it'll be interesting to see if either one can catch up enough to become part of the core of future Need for Speed titles.
