Here is my Need For Speed '15 wishlist. Basically what Ghost needs to "build".
-100-150+ cars. Mix of old/new, tuners/muscles/exotics, iconic cars/stuff we might not expect. I will let you get away with taking the car lists of all the NFS games and combining them, and then adding some newer (or older) cars that haven't made appearances in the franchise yet. That way we get as many different cars as possible. Don't hesitate to add cars. Also, make them sound good. Don't make 10 engine sounds and spread them out to 150+ cars. Make at least 75-ish. Maybe add racing cars that resemble road cars such as the Audi R8 LMS or BMW Z4 GT3, but don't put F1 cars in a Need for Speed.
-An important thing to me is balancing the cars. 6 tiers is what I prefer (Use The Run's tiers for structure or inspiration since those were excellent for the most part). Make sure each and every car has a fighting chance against other cars in it's own tier. Basically, give cars different strengths and weaknesses. DO NOT **** THIS UP AND END UP WITH A RANDOM SELECTION OF OVERPOWERED CARS. Now, because some people may prefer to stick with a lower-end car in Tier 1-3 (RX-7, Scirocco, Challenger, '69 Boss 302, Supra, Coxster/Cayman, or my personal favorite, the Alfa Brera, etc.), I have devised a thing where instead of spending money on a high end Tier 4-6 car (458, Aventador, Henessey Venom, etc), you can use said money to upgrade said low-end car to the performance of the higher-tier cars, so you can take on the guys in McLarens and Koenigseggs and win with your Evo or Mustang if you choose, or buy a nice Zonda or Carrera GT if that's what you prefer. This also prevents you from being restricted to only being able to race cars in your own tier, so you can race a Ferrari with your Skyline. Upgrading and car stats work like this. Similar to MW/Carbon, have different parts (Engine, Transmission, you get the idea) and 'packages' (Street, Pro, Race, maybe more like Track, Competition, Ultimate, etc since there's alot of upgrading to be done in this game.) You SHALL be able to tune the parts (tuning Nos for velocity, tires for grip, that stuff). You can tune your car for drifting if you want to make a sexy drift montage, or even for off-roading if that's what you like. The stats I prefer to be visible (in good ol' bars) are top speed, acceleration, handling, and nitrous. Durability/weight and ability to drift are optional.
-Customization. First, make it optional so that people with Alfa 8Cs and Aston One-77s do not have to customize if they want to appreciate the beauty of their cars, but everyone else can put still lots of stuff on their rides. I do not want customization to get in the way of progression. But I do want it to be deep. The ability to create your own body kit by mixing bumpers, skirts, headlight covers, etc., would be great. Autosculpt might as well be implemented but again, don't force people to go through the trouble if they don't want to. Have rims, spoilers, roof scoops, hoods, all that stuff, with the versatility I was talking about with the body kits. Have different types of paint (Metallic, Matte, Chrome, Iridescent, the lot) and for pearlescent paintjobs, maybe have the gradient system from (I can't believe I'm saying this) Rivals. The ability to choose from factory colors and the option to paint individual body panels is a good idea. Window Tints, Ride Height, and MORE THAN SEVEN RIM COLORS are also must-haves, and then there's vinyls. Basically have a massive selection and a detailed editor (NFS World actually has a pretty good vinyl editor, but we can still do better than that). Look at Forza if you still need inspiration. And finally, you can customize your license plate. What about neons and spinners and all that flashy Fast & Furious stuff? Well, the customization does not need to flashy or over-the-top, it should just be versatile and diverse like ProStreet, so I say it isn't necessary.
-Now, onto the driving model. The Run had a good driving model in my opinion, so we will basically use that. Well, either that or The Run mixed with the Underground-era driving model. No Criterion Bullshit necessary. Drifting takes skill and getting used to the car, but you do get a small nitrous reward for drifting sucessfully without killing yourself. When you crash, it should be something like HD-era GTA (it isn't a racer obviously but perhaps with some tweaks the crashing could work for a game like NFS). If you hit Optimus Prime's truck mode at 220mph, MAYBE have some sort of drama. But do not have a 5-second cutscene. Maybe like 1.5 seconds. At the most. **** you Craig.
-For the map, we're obviously mixing urban and rural here with a day/night cycle and dynamic weather. Great, now make it huge and diverse. Some ideas for the city part include a downtown area that lights up with neon lights at night sorta like the Tokyo track from Asphalt 8, as well as a financial district, a beach/resort area filled with modern houses connected to a coastal road, and industrial area, Chinatown, Little Italy, a Vegas area, and a big-ass highway. The sketchy areas underneath the highways should have some road (They'd be perfect for some illegal street racing culture cutscenes and race starts at night). Just make the city diverse and not just buildings. Make the country a diverse place as well. A mountain road inspired by the Stelvio Pass or Transfăgărășan, a snowy, icy Colorado place, a coastal road as I mentioned earlier, a desert, several canyons like in Carbon, some forest passes, and an area inspired by Yosemite National Park would be nice. Having lots of offroad trails that would be connected in some sort of network would be awesome for rally style racing.
-Progression and Career mode go like this. You start with a Tier 1 car, obviously. You can choose between a Tuner, Muscle, or Exotic like in Carbon, but the class you choose at the start of the game does not restrict you to cars of that class, it just allows you to unlock different cars faster. If you choose Exotic, you unlock Exotics and high-end cars easier (when you get to the point where you'll be using high-end cars), while with Tuner and Muscle, you unlock Tuners and Muscles (respectively) as well as better performance parts easier, since Tiers 4-6 are mostly made up of Exotics. You can buy cars with money (Not SpeedPoints) once they are unlocked, as well as sell them for more cash. You go to the menu and select races from a map that tells you everything about the race (Length, difficulty, reward, restrictions, time of day, weather, etc.). You progress through the career mode by taking over territory like in Carbon and making your way up a Blacklist like in Most Wanted. Perhaps have 15 major territories (I know that's a lot, but some can be smaller than others), with each one owned by a crew led by a Blacklist member. You win races to gain territory, which earns you rep. You can also gain rep from police pursuits. You can choose to only race instead of do pursuits or vice versa, but it's encouraged to try both. The crew system from Carbon also makes a return and works pretty much the same (you get new crew members from defeating enemy crews or progressing through the game, the crew members help you in races). You eventually get to the point where the Blacklist member challenges you and you get a shot at taking over their turf. You don't have to win every single race to beat the #1 Guy and win the game, but you need to win at least 85% of them to get to where he is. This way you can have a ton of races in the story mode, but players can choose which races they want to play in order to unlock stuff and progress through the game. The Career alone MUST provide at least 30 hours of gameplay, with some bonus stuff to unlock by completing extra races/tasks after beating the story.
-There might as well be a story. However, keep it restrained and simple like in the Underground Era/The Run. I'm not asking for a super deep story with character development and shit (a bit of character development would be nice, but don't try too hard to include it). You can basically make it about a street racer (the player) who comes to some county place with a big metropolis in the middle that's filled with street racing 24/7. The player decides to become the most notorious and powerful racer in the area by going up the blacklist and taking over land. The player, the chick who helps you, a main antagonist, a bunch of bosses, and perhaps a guy who seeming helps you but then turns out to be either an rival racer or an undercover cop/bounty hunter are all the characters needed. Use CG cutscenes like in The Run and other modern games. NO FAKE YOUTUBE CUTSCENES.
-Police Pursuits should be in the game, but do it right. I like to be able to cruise around in Free Roam peacefully, so to start a chase, you can start one from the menu like in Most Wanted. There are 6 Heat Levels. The overall difficulty of the pursuits should be around MW2005, so no cops with dumbass AI like in Undercover or Burnout Paradise: Most Wanted, or cops with broken OP weapons like Rivals.The cops don't have EMPs or anything stupid, but as you increase your heat level, they use tactics such as roadblocks, spikes, helicopters (to track you down), Rhino SUVs/ SWAT Vans, and faster interceptors (I'd prefer if they started in Crown Vics but they eventually send Corvettes/something comparable, then Aventadors/something comparable, then Venom GTs/you get it by now). You can disable cop cars using Pursuit Breakers or by heavily damaging them (Possibly include a health bar system, but only show the bars when you ram the cops, not all the time, so it looks less stupid) You earn bounty for infractions, and your bounty in the chase is also used to increase your Heat Level. If you escape, you get away with your bounty and you can split it into a Rep bonus and a cash reward for your hard work. If you busted, you lose everything, and some of your money. On a seperate note, having racers that are actually undercover cops occasionally join your races in Career (and in Quick Race and Multiplayer if you allow it) would be dope.
-Game modes include Sprint, Circuit, Drag, Elimination, Lap Knockout, Speedtrap, Time Trial/Checkpoint/Tollbooth, and Hot Pursuits. The Hot Pursuits (or any part of the game for that matter) do NOT involve "powers" (pursuit tech). It's just a long race where cops are after you. The other race modes should be self-explanatory for the most part.
-A Challenge Series providing an additional 3+ hours of gameplay. Each challenge is restricted to a certain tier. You can use any car in stock form from that tier, or use custom cars from your career or the 'My Cars' feature. If you have a sufficiently upgraded car, you may be able to use that as well. The Challenge Series should encourage using a variety of different cars, though.
-Soundtrack. Take the different types of soundtrack we've had in the series over the years and clump it together. This basically means having a good mix of 90's techno from the "roots" games, the hip-hop from the Underground era, some metal like in good Most Wanted, modern EDM like in the new games, and some other random songs (like the Spanish rap song that was in The Run)
-Online (and LAN) Multiplayer works like this. You can select options (tier, game mode, a bunch of other stuff) that will get you into a certain room or just set those options to 'Any' and let the game throw you into a room if you choose. You can invite friends into your lobby, and show off your cars. You then select the car you're actually gonna use, vote for a route, then you're literally off to the races.
-NO ALLDRIVE BULLSHIT AT ALL. I don't care how cool it sounds on paper, no one likes AllDrive. It is completely broken in the first place, and completely unnecessary as long as you have good Multiplayer. Which you won't with Alldrive.
-Split Screen. Put it in the fucking game. We all love split screen, we don't love passing the controller around nearly as much. So add a split screen mode.
-Car sharing system similar to Forza. Basically, allow players to upload custom cars they feel proud of and show them off, with the ability to buy it for a specific cost in Career mode(I feel it should be based on the value of the car, visual parts, and upgrades, rather than having douchebags charge ridiculous prices, but have an option to give it away for free).
-Photo Mode. Shut up, I like taking pictures of my cars. Basically take the photo mode from Hot Pursuit 2010/The Run and probably add the ability to open/close the hoods and doors. That's all you need to do.
-60 FPS. Why not. It will stop people from complaining, that's for sure. Just make the PC port.... better than Rivals' PC port. A lot better.
-Wheel Support. Some people like to use steering wheels.
-Whatever you do, do NOT use Frostbite 3 or Frostbite 4 or Frostbite 9000 or whatever. Stop forcing a racing game studio in charge of a long-running, (sort of) highly sucessful racing franchise to use the engine from your CoD competitor franchise. After playing Rivals I wouldn't exactly praise Frostbite 3's capabilities.
That's basically my ideal Need For Speed. Take notes Ghost.
(Not written by me.)
Log in to comment