Hands on with Need For Speed: The Run

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Hands on with Need For Speed: The Run

Need for Speed: The Run is the boldest departure for a series known for its laser-like focus on fast cars and tight driving mechanics. For the first time in Need for Speed history, you’re not a nameless, faceless driver; You play as an actual person named Jack. And Jack is facing tough times. “He’s a marked man,” explained Product Manager Darin Perfonic in a hands-on showcase last week. “He’s got serious problems with some guys who want him dead.”

Those “guys” are actually wiseguys — the Mafia. And Jack’s last, best hope for survival lies in entering The Run, a sprawling 3,000-mile cross-country race from San Francisco to New York City. With a cool $25 million for a first-place finish, The Run represents Jack’s last chance for salvation before the goodfellas find him and settle Jack’s debts — permanently. “Imagine a Michael Bay summer action-driving movie and that you get to play it,” Perfonic elaborated. “That’s our vision. We want to create a playable summer blockbuster.”

Need for Speed: The Run (Run for the Hills)Need for Speed: The Run (Run for the Hills)

Sitting behind the wheel of The Run, I was struck by the game’s gleaming graphical fidelity and huge draw distances. The graphics are based on the Frostbite engine, better known as the rendering technology that powers the Battlefield series. “Frostbite allows us to iterate really quickly and to create a lot of environment depth,” Perfonic noted. “It’s also allowing us to make the biggest Need for Speed game ever — more than 300 kilometers of track.”

The cross-country theme and new tech also lends The Run some welcome visual variety, with tracks ranging from the heavily populated downtown urban settings of San Francisco and Chicago to the lush valleys of Yosemite, the imposing mountains of Colorado, and the sprawling plains of the Midwest. You won’t only be battling fellow racers and the mob, but also the elements. In The Run, environmental hazards such as dust storms and blizzards are just as dangerous as an aggressive competitor.

Need for Speed: The Run (Run for the Hills)

With The Run’s emphasis on cross-country pack racing, you’ll begin the game dead last in the race and slowly work your way through the pack as you approach the final showdown in New York City. Each state in the game tasks you with passing a certain milestone. “If you don’t make the cut, you’re out of The Run,” Perfonic added ominously. “It’s a new element we haven’t had in the series before, and it pushes you forward in the game.” When you win races and completing challenges, you’ll earn XP that you can use to access new cars, new challenges and other rewards.

The Run includes another first for the venerable Need for Speed series: the ability to leave your car. “You can’t get out of the car whenever you want,” Perfonic clarified, “but the narrative will force you into certain situations and you’ll have to advance the story.” The out-of-car sequences help provide some context for why you’re switching cars mid-race — especially once the mob catches up with you in Chicago. “You’ll drive multiple cars. The fiction drives what vehicle you’ll commandeer,” Perfonic explained.

My play session was set early in the game on the outskirts of Las Vegas, a dusty desert track riddled with dirt-road shortcuts. Based on my hands-on experience, the racing physics felt like a hybrid of NFS: Hot Pursuit and NFS: Shift, with the arcadey accessibility of the former and the weightier vehicles of the latter.

After my hands-on time was over, I was left with many, many more questions. Will the racing extend from cars to other vehicles such as motorcycles? “You’ll have to wait and see!” Perfonic teased. Perfonic did confirm that multiplayer will be a major focus and that the social-media-infused Autolog feature will make a return from NFS: Hot Pursuit.

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64 Comments

13 Author Replies

  • I think it would be great if they just did a game that had both elements from Most Wanted/Hot Pursuit AND had straight legit racing also. You start with illegal racing and end up doing it professionally. And have it to where you could stick to whichever style you prefer.

    It looks like they have added classic muscle cars….I like that. But again, they need to make racing games so that after you finish the main story or whatever, you still have a reason to pick the game up again. Hard to justify spending $60 on a game that when you finish it, that’s it.

    These aren’t the days where people were happy enough with beating their old times. Flesh out the online more, support the game with extra maps, etc.

    For example, added replay to this could be to race BACK the other way once you’re done.

  • Hot Pursuit is better.

    reasons being

    1. Cops

    2. Crown Victoria

    That’s all you need.

  • For some reason I got sick of racing games. Don’t like them anymore, at all.

  • Are those graphics possible in PS3?

  • Will the run have cinematic takedowns like Hot Pursuit and Burnout Paradise? I was always a big fan of those and every game seems to have their own take on them. Burnout Paradise had the best yet IMO

  • cops need to have a presence, certainly….are mafiosos chasing you during the races as well?? and i saw the 70s icon, Pontiac Trans Am… that should be a staple of more racing games… period…

    these comments need to have a word or character counter… i just typed a good reply and it got erased because it was too long and i had no idea… thanks guys.. so appreciate the wonderful Blog that cant even feature a character counter…

    EA, or someone, needs to take note… make a Destruction Derby-style game… i dont mean Full Auto or Twisted Metal… car combat has been done… but we havent had a proper derby game since the PS2, with Test Drive Eve of Destruction…. get it done already… this gen does NOT have that kinda game… give us customizable rides, tracks, current gen physics and graphics, and multiplayer works perfectly for a game like that.. i’d buy it day 1…

    and for those whiners who keep asking for cross game chat, get over it… its been 3+ years for the PS3 and still no cross game chat.. .go buy the 360 if you want that feature… just get the guys phone number, grab a headset and talk that way…

  • can we customs our cars

  • @ OutcastMosquito on July 30th, 2011 at 5:50 am said:

    and btw this uses the frostbite 3 engine

    Ummm…no it doesn’t. Battlefield 3 runs on Frostbite 2.0. You have your “3” in the wrong place. Before you correct other people like you are superior, check your facts.

  • @lyfestory about the derby heck yeah it certainly needs to be done well said.

  • To be honest, I loved Criterion for Paradise but they provided such little support for Hot Pursuit at annoyingly high prices that I will probably pass on The Run. (However, it is more of the former than the latter.)

  • @RavageX

    Whether you see this or not, I agree with both your posts. The split decision sounds like a great idea and these games do need more replay value (which Hot Pursuit PS3 had VERY little of.)

  • I’m looking forward for this game…I hope the NFS series come back…I was spent hours and hours playing the PS2 series until pro street launch who I think ruined the series…the NFS HP is very good so I hope the run will be too.

  • is there going to be full damage on this nfs?

  • ok my only question i have is what states do you go through on the way to the final destination new york? do you head through pennsylvaina? cause it looke it

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