The online racing simulator
Need For Speed Undercover
(118 posts, started )
I don't think the graphics are on par with Crysis. Imo the graphics don't even look that good. The bloom is ludicrously high and I would much rather have LFS gfx with the addon textures than that NFS rubbish.
Why are there so many flamers in this thread? take a ****ing chill pill, lie down in a dark room , whatever, if you dont like Need For Speed Undercover, why post in the thread entitled "need for speed undercover"?

Anyway, that aside. I got this game for christmas and i can hardly leave it alone, it's a great arcade racer, and the pace is incredible, i find myself flying through streets at 350km/h smashing through fences, dodging oncoming traffic, and out running the police.
This is how need for speed should have been from the very start, again, don't start bitching about arcade vs simulation, and calling me a "ricer boy", i ENJOY sim racers, thats why i play LFS, RFactor and GT5p , but i also ENJOY arcade racers, like midnight club and NFS, It's a matter of opinion, if you don't like the game, don't post your spam in it's "Fan Thread".

Honestly, i thought most of you guys are adults, most of you, i'm only 13, and i have some common sense, you guys need to grow up big time.

Ok, im finished now
Lol half the forum got told by a 13 year old

Quote from JasonJ :fairly reasonable system. e8400 DualCore + 9600GT 512mb + 2GbRam

It's selling well for consoles, so I doubt they will patch it for PC. EA don't give a hoot about PC and this release proves it. It's not really completed TBH.

Yeah, that's how it is now unfortunatly. Many PC developers release substandard products for our beloved platform (Take Fallout 3 as a major example), and many couldn't give a monkeys. A few release a game and then make an actual attempt at fixing it, which is what needs to happen with more development teams imo.
Quote from S14 DRIFT :Lol half the forum got told by a 13 year old

Well, i think i made my point?

Im 81% through the game, i have these cars, with all PRO parts installed -
-Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 [heat level 5]
-Porsche 911 GT2 [heat level2]
-Mitsubishi Evo X [heat level3]
-Ford Escort Cosworth <- My murciélago basher [heat level1]
-Dodge Charger SRT8 Hemi Super-Bee <- sounds threatening, huh ? [heat level1]

all these cars (except my lambo) where pinkslips
I haven't been busted once! im unstopable
Quote from brandons48 ::
I haven't been busted once! im unstopable

in a arcade game......

everybody is unstopable in NFS
Quote from G!NhO :everybody is unstopable in NFS

except my girlfriend... seriously, i'm never letting her drive a maxed out lambo at level5 heat ever again x].

that pursuit was only, what? 30 seconds long?
Quote from brandons48 :except my girlfriend... seriously, i'm never letting her drive a maxed out lambo at level5 heat ever again x].

that pursuit was only, what? 30 seconds long?

:doh: lol


stupid NFS...
Quote from brandons48 :Why are there so many flamers in this thread? take a ****ing chill pill, lie down in a dark room , whatever, if you dont like Need For Speed Undercover, why post in the thread entitled "need for speed undercover"?

Anyway, that aside. I got this game for christmas and i can hardly leave it alone, it's a great arcade racer, and the pace is incredible, i find myself flying through streets at 350km/h smashing through fences, dodging oncoming traffic, and out running the police.
This is how need for speed should have been from the very start, again, don't start bitching about arcade vs simulation, and calling me a "ricer boy", i ENJOY sim racers, thats why i play LFS, RFactor and GT5p , but i also ENJOY arcade racers, like midnight club and NFS, It's a matter of opinion, if you don't like the game, don't post your spam in it's "Fan Thread".

Honestly, i thought most of you guys are adults, most of you, i'm only 13, and i have some common sense, you guys need to grow up big time.

Ok, im finished now

Since you're 13 years old, I assume you don't know about the older NFS series.
Dodging traffic? Yea, every 5 minutes maybe, outrunning the police? You can beat them on a bicycle.

I'm playing Midnight Club now, and playing that I constantly think: this is how NFS should have been! The interior view, arcade but fun gameplay, simple story with not too many failed cut scenes, free city which actually feels like a city and not a ghosttown, ...
Quote from sgt.flippy :Since you're 13 years old, I assume you don't know about the older NFS series.
Dodging traffic? Yea, every 5 minutes maybe, outrunning the police? You can beat them on a bicycle.

I'm playing Midnight Club now, and playing that I constantly think: this is how NFS should have been! The interior view, arcade but fun gameplay, simple story with not too many failed cut scenes, free city which actually feels like a city and not a ghosttown, ...

I also have MC, and i agree, there are aspects to it that are much better than NFS, but sometimes i think there is too much traffic. and the handling feels a bit off, but other than that I agree, the NFS cops aren't much of a challenge, but the MC cops aren't exactly difficult . I just need to play MC some more, get into it.
Quote from brandons48 :I also have MC, and i agree, there are aspects to it that are much better than NFS, but sometimes i think there is too much traffic. and the handling feels a bit off, but other than that I agree, the NFS cops aren't much of a challenge, but the MC cops aren't exactly difficult . I just need to play MC some more, get into it.

Too much traffic? You should go to a city, you wouldn't be able to race there
And it's quite correct, it's crowded in the centers, but in the hills it's calm. I think traffic is perfect, although I sometimes focus on the map so hard I run into them head on Mostly happens during the traffic light races or delivery jobs.
Quote from sgt.flippy :Too much traffic? You should go to a city, you wouldn't be able to race there
And it's quite correct, it's crowded in the centers, but in the hills it's calm. I think traffic is perfect, although I sometimes focus on the map so hard I run into them head on Mostly happens during the traffic light races or delivery jobs.

it usually happens to me on the second to last corner xD
well, pretty nice game this one...got to check some screenshots out and I ust say that those are very realistic cars, I don't know if they're close or have the same great graphics' detail as GT5, but that left me astonished. But since I'm not able to buy the game (or parts to improve my PC's performance so it can handle the game), I guess I'll have to be happy with Youtube videos.
I've always liked the NFS games, but with the last 2, ProStreet and now Undercover, the fastest cars seem more like Star Wars swoop racers than cars because of the hyper speed and grip. I made an example youtube video. Click on the lower right icon box to see the video in full screen mode (1280x720p).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8mHZ_j6MQo&fmt=22

or a more reasonably sized, not overly compressed, 640x360 half size windows movie version:

http://jeffareid.net/nfsuc/nucsbbznds.wmv

I'm not sure why but the hi-def videos for games don't look as good as the real life based ones, or perhaps youtube is cranking up compression factors on the newer ones. An example to compare with from an older video I submitted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUVRUMc7DP8&fmt=22

Regarding the storyline, it's better than some popular fictional movies. In NFS racing games, conflicts are settled with cars instead of guns, so the stories aren't exactly realistic.
Quote from JeffR :Regarding the storyline, it's better than some popular fictional movies.

Its as predictable as it can ever get, it's nowhere near being good

I'd prefer a predictable straight forward story (here's the bad guy - take him down) than a storyline with a predictable "twist".
Quote from speedway :played through it already, here's my opinion

good things:

- decent storyline, at least thats what kept me playing despite all the sh*te in the game which i will later explain
- shaking off 15+ cops IS fun
- some nice cars in it
- those highway battles are pretty intense as the traffic in that game mode is just insane (even more if you cant be bothered to hit that time-slower-thingy)

bad things (this will take while):

- fooked up performance, the game still looks pretty much like most wanted, yet it manages to get worse frames than crysis, note: this is rumoured to happen on newest and 1337-est hardware as well
- load screens pretty much everywhere
- needed to put my sunglasses on because of all the bloom effect (btw, only thing thats racing faster than yourself is the sun travelling across the sky)
- ridiculous motion blur, this and the bloom cannot be specifically turned off in the menu
- clipping bugs
- i couldnt figure out how to turn the "action cam" off, after driving through a speed braker to loose the cops, i had to see my tires being flat several times, simply because that damn action cam didnt let me see where i was going and thus hit laid out nail stripes
- no in-car view!!
- ...which makes setting up the logitech pretty pointless imo

- fooked up music....seriously...WTF happened to those cool rock songs we had in earlier nfs games
- engine sounds just dont sound right to me

- really poor handling, even for an arcade game, cars stick to the pavement like both were magnetic
- dont bother assigning a key to the brake, you wont need it, simply release the gas for a sec and your magically pulled more into the corner, cars wont oversteer btw
- if you hit a turn key (even just for the split of a second) the car steers 100% rightaway, which slows the car down dramatically, there were several times where i was passed in corners and just couldnt do anything about, nice keyboard support

- inconsistent diffculty, some races are won by 30+ seconds, others are almost impossible, the fact that your opponents get a huge speed bonus when they're behind you makes it even more frustrating
- police SUV's travelling at 350km/h...yeah, i believe that

- really poor acting in the story sequences (which is actually amusing again)

there are probably way more things ive forgotten about now, might add them later

edit: the best NFS in the last 5years is called TDU btw

cars do oversteer.

the 240sx with full power and no traction mods...


the game itself is rather fun, mainly when on level 5 persuit, at 260 mph, understeering into walls.
Quote from speedway :cars wont oversteer

It's now selectable. Go to the tire tuning for any car and set it to drift, and you'll get a lot of oversteer. Underground 2 probably had the best oversteer physics, but with Undercover it's now optional.

Quote from JeffR :Regarding the storyline, it's better than some popular fictional movies. In NFS racing games, conflicts are settled with cars instead of guns, so the stories aren't exactly realistic.

I should also include that in the world of NFS, only cars and not occupants are harmed by crashes. Movie fad comparason, conflicts settled by break dancing.

Quote from squidhead :Its as predictable as it can ever get, it's nowhere near being good.

It's a racing game, not a movie. You can only do the new guy in town works his way up to being top guy a few times. Toca Race Driver 2 probably did the best version of this. NFS Porsche Unleashed's factory driver mode had a similar storyline, but used static pictures, text, and audio comments after each event.

I'm not sure how to tie in a good story into a game based on racing, pursuits, and crashing. EA probably doesn't want to go back to the bad boy image from Underground now that pursuits are back. In High Stakes, the pursuits were separate from the career mode, and the player can choose to be the cop or the evader. Except for Porsche Unleashed's factory driver, the older NFS games didn't have a storyline, but I don't know how well a new NFS game would sell if there wasn't some semblance of a storyline.

So for myself, I don't expect much of a story line. It's similar to the old game 7th guest, where you solve a series of puzzles completely unrelated to the storyline in order to view clips that take you through the storyline.

For me, the rest of the game was OK, the free roam area includes over 100 miles of road, and there is a huge amount of scenery, although I think Underground 2's night time views, especially overlooking the city from up high in Jackson Heights were probably the best for any NFS game. The bloom effects were overdone, but they can be turned off. The visuals are good, but cause some stuttering at high speeds on some tracks on some computers.

There is a test car that can be unlocked with a savegame editor, the Audi R8 speedtest, that quickly reaches well over 350 mph, up to 400 mph depending on tuning, and I assume it was used to test for stuttering, but apparently not at all tracks. Nothing else in the game, not the AI, cops, or the helicopter can keep up with this car, which quickly leaves them behind, so the so called "rubberbanding" effect is more of a high level of performance of the AI as opposed to being tied to the players actual speeds. Underground 1 was the only game to have an issue where the adaptive AI would actually exceed the players performance at a few events, but there were workarounds (using a car with a low top speed, such as a Miata with stock transmission).
Made another video in response to a request from an ea forums member, this time a checkpoint event, so a bit more variety during the run, and I managed not to head on with the traffic. As I mentioned before, the fastest cars are just a bit too much overdone (excessive power and grip) in Undercover and ProStreet. Even though NFS games are all arcade, I miss the power oversteer physics that Underground 2 had. I redid Underground 2's career mode a couple of months ago just to check it out again.

640x360 wmv version
http://jeffareid.net/nfsuc/nucreoznds.wmv

1280x720 youtube version (if full screen used, otherwise it's a slightly cropped 853.3x480 in desktop mode):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQuRfJMgsms&fmt=22
Quote from G!NhO :ok go play NFSU or ........................ lol

you know, NFS is just a fallout of reality type of game. the cars are real, but not the driving. when i get, I'm getting that '67 Camaro RS/SS. they also are incorrect on the names sometimes. like Corvette C6 ZO6, '67 Camaro RS/SS, and they don't know what year the 240SX is. I think, its '95, cause in '96, the 240 has a spoiler, and more power. Still, NFS is okay. My favorite is Pro Street. I wish LFS could have something like that. Upgrading your cars, giving them more aerodynamics, making the car look how you want it, and then give it some power! That would make LFS SOOOOOOOO cool.
Example of "takeout" mode and speedbreaker (slows down time) in Undercover, done via car ramming. Early last year, there was some chat about using weapons to do this, similar to "The Matrix" games where the player either shoots or drives the car while the AI does the other half, but I don't know if it was just speculation or if the developers considered it and dropped the idea. Also you get a better idea of the graphics in this video, one of the things EA is good at (if you turn off the motion blur junk).

640x360 wmv video:
http://jeffareid.net/nfsuc/nucremltes.wmv
Quote from GrIp DrIvEr :you know, NFS is just a fallout of reality type of game. the cars are real, but not the driving. when i get, I'm getting that '67 Camaro RS/SS. they also are incorrect on the names sometimes. like Corvette C6 ZO6, '67 Camaro RS/SS, and they don't know what year the 240SX is. I think, its '95, cause in '96, the 240 has a spoiler, and more power. Still, NFS is okay. My favorite is Pro Street. I wish LFS could have something like that. Upgrading your cars, giving them more aerodynamics, making the car look how you want it, and then give it some power! That would make LFS SOOOOOOOO cool.

Everyone would just create the best car and race that So not much point in it.
Quote from LFSn00b :One thing wondered me on NFS:UC. Why does the road look like it is wet? :S

Because EA made a new water shader for NFS and liked it so much so they wanted to put it everywhere in the game, so the road is really wet in many places, and there's plenty of water in almost everything, even though there is no rain in this game
Quote from sgt.flippy :Everyone would just create the best car and race that So not much point in it.

What about creating something called 'racing points.' The more events you win, the more points you get, and you get to spend the points on improving all your cars! <- now that's an idea. (that could include teams aswell.)
Quote from LFSn00b :One thing wondered me on NFS:UC. Why does the road look like it is wet?

EA Black Box must like the look to bring it back for Undercover (ProStreet didn't have it). Since High Stakes, there has been rain or wet roads in all the NFS games except Hot Pursuit 2 and ProStreet. Undercover doesn't have rain, but it's early morning most of the time so there's dew on the streets.

This goes back to High Stakes (1999) where weather and day/night mode were options:
http://jeffareid.net/nfs4/n4dc.wmv

The extreme case is in Underground 1:
http://jeffareid.net/nfs7/n7os.wmv

Underground 2 had rain (near end of video):
http://jeffareid.net/nfs8/n8chtc.wmv

Most Wanted also:
http://jeffareid.net/nfs9/n9rupgt.wmv

and Carbon (just views here):
http://jeffareid.net/nfsc/nfscview.wmv
Ever heard of youtube? I'm not going to download your movies to my harddrive
Quote from sgt.flippy :Ever heard of youtube? I'm not going to download your movies to my harddrive

You don't have to download them. The videos will stream live, just like youtube, but with better buffer managing and quality, assuming you use Windows Media Player or the equivalent. The videos will end up in your temporary internet files folder, making for a quick save if you choose to do so after viewing one. Just click on the link to view the live stream, don't do a save as.

Quote from sgt.flippy :Everyone would just create the best car and race that, so not much point in it.

Except that there is usually more than one dominant car, depending on the track, and there are multiple tiers (different peformance classes) in many of the NFS games. A classic example, is McLaren F1 GTR versus Mercedes CLK GTR in High Stakes and Hot Pursuit 2. For Carbon, it was the Corvette Z06 versus the Audi Lemans prototype. Depending on the track, one of the dominant cars would be better than the other. For Undercover, it's the Bugatti (high speed), Z06 (overall), and Zonda (tight tracks).

Need For Speed Undercover
(118 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG