View Full Version : Another "succesfull" part of famous series...

11-12-02, 11:26 AM
Is there anybody who had been playing NFS series from the first episode (cca 7 years ago) ? I mean, I heard that they should be adding segments back to the game as it used to be in NFS1. There`s no better fun than to play 3 segments and you try to play each one the best you can and than you compare your final time with your friend`s time.
Instead they gave us 4 environments with 3 tracks for each. But, those tracks are so similar that in the end you choose the longest one so you at least can play it longer. Oh no, I`ll have to play NFS1 again...

I would forgive developers the segment issue, but what I can`t forgive is lack of Hall of fame. I even can`t compare my times with my friends ! WTF ? This is supposed to be a racing game ? You have to remember your times or write them down on paper ! Sh!t.

Why do they have to reinvent the wheel all the time ? They had weather & night already in NFS3. Why isn`t it here ? Oh, yeah, they were creating new engine from scratch. I bet they were even coding low-level I/O routines from scratch. No, just joking. After all, why use something that is done already ? Or wasn`t it EA that has published previous titles ? Maybe not, but changing daytime works by simple change of colors & contrast and the car lights are in every FPS we have today (flashlight). So ?

If I imagine those woods (forest) tracks to be run at night & rain, I`m feeling ecstasy. But, I`ll have to die without playing them with such conditions. No, this wasn`t sarcasm. I like those woods tracks very much.
But you know, I have NFS4 & NFS6 installed currently. I start NFS:HP, change day&night, change rain&snow and play. Then, I start NFS:HP2, and nothing like that ? So why did they name it HP2 ? I know, marketing. The name is known already.

BUT, from when do we have games that are sequels and have less features than the original ???

I would even forgive that the performance sucks a lot here. My AMD XP2100 and GF3TI500 are having troubles in 1280x1024, so I had to switch back to 1024x768. Yuck, how blocky and grainy on my 19", but at least it`s smoother. Nevermind, this is new game, so one can expect that it will have higher HW requirements. BUT, I CAN`T SEE SOMETHING NEW FROM ENGINE STANDPOINT COMPARED TO NFS4 ! Except few more poygons on cars of course. But even if there`s no car visible (Free Run Mode), the game has high HW requirements.

There`s only one reason for this:
(part from conversation between engine programmer (EP) and game producer (GP)):
EP: Hey, I`ve got this loading of track and rendering done. It`s rough but it works! Now i need some month or two to play a bit with optimizations. We could raise the fps by 40% at least !
GP: Go to hell, man. Everybody has 2,5 GHz CPU with at least GF4TI4600. Why should you optimize ? You better work on a car physics! You promised me that you will write one from scratch and not just update the old one.
EP: Well, OK, but you know i have such a stupid feeling now. This algorithm is just damn raw. I wouldn`t have a problem to optimize it, really !
GP: No, just forget it. Nevermind mind, it looks the same as NFS3 which ran on my P-120 with voodoo1. At least it might run on T-Bird 1200 with GF3.
EP: It runs on T-Bird-1200.
GP: So ?
EP: OK, I was just asking. But what shall we do about daytime&weather change ?
GP: Noooo, I told you. we have to finish it till our deadline. We don`t have more money to work on it longer. After all, people will buy it. It`s NFS after all, isn`t it ?

Well, another part of "great" NFS series...

Sorry for rant, but i couldn`t help it, I`m just so much disappointed by this game (and I did devote some time to it, I finished whole Championship).

11-12-02, 11:36 AM
You forgot one

EA: Get us some *** damn money already, idiots! I don't care if it isn't finished! What do you think we exist on???