Need for Speed World


Recommended Posts

nfsw-01-031610.jpg

It's rare to get excited for a Need for Speed project. Sure, it's a reliable franchise that's spawned a number of good, and sometimes great titles as of late, but innovation is hardly its strong suit. Considering the series' track record, I was surprised to find that one of EA's most ambitious and innovative upcoming titles is Need for Speed World, a free-to-play massively multiplayer online racer for the PC. It's the largest Need for Speed title yet, offering a potential platform for limitless updates, and it could easily become the last Need for Speed game EA will ever need to make.

Imagine a world not unlike the one found in Burnout Paradise and Test Drive Unlimited. Now, imagine those worlds with persistent online multiplayer functionality. Essentially, that's what Need for Speed World is. Even at its pre-beta stage, the gameworld is incredibly expansive, spanning over 150 miles of playable road, comprised of a "best of" tasting menu from the entire Need for Speed franchise. If there have been certain tracks, certain environments and certain streets you have enjoyed in previous games: chances are, you may find them in Need for Speed World.

The driving stays true to its more arcade-inspired lineage in World, a sensible decision considering the game is meant to be playable on a keyboard. Accessibility is a key aspect of the experience, with most moderately powered laptops able to join in. According to EA, all that's necessary to play is a computer equipped with a 2.0 GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and a 512MB graphics card. While capable of running off of relatively weak hardware specs, Need for Speed World is still no FarmVille, but its experience is certainly far more visually compelling than any mere web app.

Perhaps the most accessible aspect of World is its price. Like Free Realms and other MMO games on the market, Need for Speed World takes advantage of the "freemium" model, with a zero cost entry to play. Real money can be used to purchase rental cars, like an upgraded Porsche. There will be ways to purchase improved skills and vehicles, bypassing the free alternative: grinding. Should you prefer not to open up your wallet, you'll be able to progress through World by participating in both single-player and multiplayer races.

nfsw-02-031610-1268750011.jpg

It's easy to imagine both casual and hardcore racing fans drawn into the experience EA is developing in Need for Speed World. And with no cost to play, it seems foolish not to give it a try. EA is developing a fully-featured arcade racing game with one of the most ambitious online capabilities ever -- and isn't charging for it. That certainly sounds like a win for the gamer, especially when you consider the ambitious plans for expanding the world.

New areas will be introduced to the game every few months, increasing the playable world with each major update. Not only will there be new places to drive in, but there will be new ways to drive. For example, Need for Speed World will eventually feature a series staple: cop cars.

We'd love to see the ever-evolving playground of Need for Speed World to find its way to consoles, but we were told that it is "definitely not coming to consoles." By providing a strictly online-only game, EA believes there are "zero gates" to playing from anywhere. Like I said earlier, World is without a doubt the most ambitious project to fall under the Need for Speed banner, and open beta testers will be able to give it a test drive beginning today.

To enroll for your chance to join the Need for Speed World PC open beta, visit world.needforspeed.com. The first release of the game will be available this summer.

Source: Joystiq

Trailer & Closed Beta Gameplay: Online Race (Most Wanted Map?):

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/884236-need-for-speed-world/
Share on other sites

Hmm, interesting.

I always enjoyed the older Need for Speed games, but after Fast and the Furious came out and they started with the ricer stuff, they lost their appeal to me.

It's free so we don't have much to complain about. It looks like there is going to be some great competition considering Test Drive Unlimited 2 is coming out Q3/4 2010.

Hmm, interesting.

I always enjoyed the older Need for Speed games, but after Fast and the Furious came out and they started with the ricer stuff, they lost their appeal to me.

+1 Need for speed porsche unleashed FTW! Also signed up, Hope to get in :)

wait, how do you pay for 'skills' ? is this turning into some kind of RPG or something... i thought driving skill in a driving game was, well, something you have for real, not something that exists only in-game...

hmm okay just watched that video... that oil refinery place definitely looks familiar, i've gone through about halfway through Most Wanted

and that turbo effect is one of the ugliest i've seen... i thought his video card was glitching when he used the turbo

At least it looks like they're using the proper arcade physics from MW/Carbon, that's a good sign.

I don't know about you guys, but one of the things I like seeing from iteration to iteration is what kind of new graphics they have for the HUD/taco, they always need to innovate something new for that lol.

  • 3 weeks later...

Has anyone been invited to the beta? They just started Beta 3 today, but I've yet to get an invitation. I really want to try it, it looks kinda' fun, especially it being free and all. I don't mind micro-transactions since I just play casually. I've seen some of the custom car paint jobs and they're pretty cool. I dunno' how it works, but I've seen a Mario car, a pikachu, some hello kitties, etc.

nfsworld009.jpg

nfsworld001.jpg

:laugh:

I can't get past the "Please answer us some questions about you so we know if your in the video game industry" screen.. it scans and scans and scans.. :(

I'm guessing you tried some other browsers? I really wish I'd get invited, but it's too late. They sent out invitations for the 3rd beta today and I still haven't gotten one.

It's free so we don't have much to complain about. It looks like there is going to be some great competition considering Test Drive Unlimited 2 is coming out Q3/4 2010.

I thought the first one was horrible. I was a fan of Test Drive series until that one. I like Need For Speed, but anymore they seem to all be the same. I didn't play the last one though.

I'm guessing you tried some other browsers? I really wish I'd get invited, but it's too late. They sent out invitations for the 3rd beta today and I still haven't gotten one.

I just got past it, we'll see what happens. I have quite an extensive online history (Auto Assault, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, Champions Online, Chronicles of Spellborn, The, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Dofus, Dragonica, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Dungeon Runners, Eve Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XI, Free Realms, Guild Wars, Lineage, Lineage II, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Tabula Rasa, MapleStory, The Matrix Online, Priston Tale, RF Online, RuneScape, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, World of Warcraft and it's two expansions. ~ Of these, I beta tested at least four, if not more.) and I put that in my beta test report.

I just got past it, we'll see what happens. I have quite an extensive online history (Auto Assault, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, Champions Online, Chronicles of Spellborn, The, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Dofus, Dragonica, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Dungeon Runners, Eve Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XI, Free Realms, Guild Wars, Lineage, Lineage II, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Tabula Rasa, MapleStory, The Matrix Online, Priston Tale, RF Online, RuneScape, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, World of Warcraft and it's two expansions. ~ Of these, I beta tested at least four, if not more.) and I put that in my beta test report.

Good luck. Although not as much as you, I listed quite a bit as well... and I guess it didn't help me at all, haha.

The second screenshot above looks very much like the mountain underpass entry from Most Wanted.

Sounds like a good thing; the environments in Most Wanted were a breeze to drive around. Carbon's was a bit too confusing, and Undercover's not worth mentioning.

They've done well in my opinion to turn the series around in Shift, while ditching the open world racing concept from the Underground 2 -> Carbon series and reverting to the older mixed environment racing from older games. This free open world racer is a good compromise.

edit: mad lolz, a Pikachu car.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Nudge me when they bring back hardware audio acceleration so I can get my EAX 5 back. We've evolved graphics to real-time path tracing, but regressed audio some 15 years back in time with this stupid software audio stack.
    • Ocenaudio 3.19.4 by Razvan Serea  Ocenaudio is a full featured, fast and easy to use audio and music editor. It is the ideal software for people who need to edit and analyze audio files without complications. Ocenaudio also has powerful features that will please more advanced users. To assist ocenaudio development, a powerful toolset of audio editing, analysis and manipulation called Ocen Framework was created. ocenaudio is also based on Qt framework, a well known library for cross-platform development. Cross-platform support ocenaudio is available for all major operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Native applications are generated for each platform from a common source, in order to achieve excelent performance and seamless integration with the operating system. All versions of ocenaudio have a uniform set of features and the same graphical interface, so the skills you learn in one platform can be used in the others. VST plugins support Ocenaudio supports VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugins, giving its users access to numerous effects. Like the native effects, VST effects can use real-time preview to aide configuration. Real-time preview of effects Applying effects such as EQ, gain and filtering is an important part of audio editing. However, it is very tricky to get the desired result by adjusting the controls configuration alone: you must listen the processed audio. To ease the configuration of audio effects, ocenaudio has a real time preview feature: you hear the processed signal while adjusting the controls. The effect configuration window also includes a miniature view of the selected audio signal. You can navigate on this miniature view in the same way as you do on the main interface, selecting parts that interest you and listening to the effect result in real time. Multiselection for delicate editions To speed up complex audio files editing, ocenaudio includes multi-selection. With this amazing tool, you can simultaneously select different portions of an audio file and listen, edit or even apply an effect to them. For example, if you want to normalize only the excerpts of an interview where the interviewee is talking, just select them and apply the effect. Eficient edition of large files With ocenaudio, there is no limit to the length or the quantity of the audio files you can edit. Using an advanced memory management system, the application keeps your files open without wasting any of your computer's memory. Even in files several hours long, common editing operations such as copy, cut or paste happen almost instantly. Fully featured spectrogram Besides offering an incredible waveform view of your audio files, ocenaudio has a powerful and complete spectrogram view. In this view, you can analyze the spectral content of your audio signal with maximum clarity. Advanced users will be surprised to find that the spectrogram settings are applied in real time. The display is updated immediately when altering features such as the number of frequency bands, window type and size and dynamic range of the display. Ocenaudio 3.19.4 changelog: Adds fallback fonts so every language and symbol displays correctly Improves autosave and session recovery stability Improves region navigation and display Fixes a crash when the level meter is used on displays with a scaling greater than 200% Fixes memory corruption when using the silence selection tools Fixes crashes when closing a file while effects are still being processed Fixes a freeze when applying effects to many files at once (macOS) Fixes crashes related to audio devices on Windows Fixes invalid file names when exporting regions whose label is used as the file name Other bug fixes and improvements Download: Ocenaudio 64-bit | Portable | ~40.0 MB (Freeware) Download: Ocenaudio for Linux and Mac OS View: Ocenaudio Homepage | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Hasleo Disk Clone 5.8.2.1 by Razvan Serea Hasleo Disk Clone is a free and all-in-one disk cloning software for Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista and Windows Server that can help you migrate Windows OS to another disk, clone one disk to another disk or clone one partition to another location quickly and efficiently. Completely Free Windows Migration and Disk/Partition Cloning Software Migrate Windows from one disk to another without reinstalling Windows, apps. Clone one disk to another and makes the data on 2 disks are exactly the same. Clone a partition to another location without losing any data. Easily adjust the size and location of the destination partition. Convert MBR to GPT or convert GPT to MBR by cloning. Creation of Windows PE emergency disk. Extremely fast cloning speed and multi-language support. Supported OS: Windows Vista/Server 2008 or later, fully compatible with GPT and UEFI. Hasleo Disk Clone 5.8.2.1 changelog: Fixed an issue that caused disk enumeration to fail Fixed an issue where WinPE created under Windows ARM64 26H1 did not work properly Download: Hasleo Disk Clone 5.8.2.1 | 32.3 MB (Freeware) Link: Hasleo Disk Clone Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • This got me thinking, would you rather a self driving car prioritise protecting its passengers or everyone else? I'd choose the one that keeps me and my kids safest. At some point, these cars have to make those choices already, don't they? Wonder if we have a way to find out what way they lean.
    • The proportion (or number of iterations) has nothing to with this aspect of Copyright I am describing. In short, it doesn't matter how many times the manager tells you to change something or how. Your work product is always YOURS until and unless you then assign that to the person representing the client/company, usually for financial compensation -- either in salary or as a subcontract work for hire payment. if iterations determined copyright, then businesses would have learned to just keep making changes until they could claim they owned the copyright, without having to compensate the artist for their work. And that would be BAD. The only place where the amount of changes does have a role is in how much does a human modify a previous public domain work (from any source) before it is considered fair use or their own work, etc. For example, if a human makes substantial changes to a public domain (re: AI, by definition) work, then they can then claim that derivative work as their own...but NEVER the original version, of course. That's why anyone can make a movie about Dracula, for example, as long as it is based on the public domain novel, but not if they take new ideas from copyrighted movies made afterwards. As one of the people who personally advised the US Copyright Office on their recent ruling on these very issues, be assured that I specifically used the terminology precisely -- though I made it simple enough for laymen to understand it. If I made this confusing by doing so, I apologize. But, to be clear regarding your assumption that I would agree to your second statement that I quoted above -- the answer is NO. If AI does the work, no matter how much "direction" you give it, it cannot be copyrighted. All AI generated content is in the Public Domain and therefore the copyright cannot be assigned to ANYONE, even you -- until and unless substantial modifications are made to it BY A HUMAN BEING (yourself or a contracted artist/writer/etc.) and then that copyright on the derivative work is legally (in writing) transferred to you. This is a critical distinction. And it is important that people, especially AI sloppers, understand this. For example, YouTube is not paying AI slop generators for the copyright, etc. of their AI slop. What YouTube is doing is sharing AD REVENUE for permission to publish your AI slop. Copyright/ownership/rights never come into it. Importantly, that means that anyone can copy any AI slopware on YouTube, etc. and rehost it anywhere they want, even back on YouTube, and there is nothing legal that YouTube can do about it with regards to copyright protections, ownership, DMCA, etc. Anyone is legally free to use any AI slopware in any way they want. When this ruling was pending, I warned Disney legal of all of this before they did their OpenAI deal -- that it would literally dilute their entire IP portfolio forever. They ignored that warning for the PR and stock bump. But that is why, when the ruling came down last year, Disney quickly extricated themselves from that OpenAI deal, even eating the initial upfront fees -- followed closely by OpenAI ending their entire AI video generating business model. They adjusted their PR release dates to make this less obvious to shareholders, of course. Phew. I hope that this clears up the key distinctions for you and anyone reading. If you have any additional questions or even hypotheticals about AI and Copyright, please feel free to ask.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Collaborator
      ryansurfer98 went up a rank
      Collaborator
    • Week One Done
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      Skeet Campbell earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      Sharbel earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      553
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      188
    3. 3
      Michael Scrip
      78
    4. 4
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      74
    5. 5
      neufuse
      71
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!