Online multiplayer free roam is coming to Need for Speed Payback. Ghost Games and Electronic Arts confirmed the popular request is being worked on now, with an expected release later this year for all players. Currently, multiplayer free roam is only possible during lobby waits while queuing up for races. The coming update will allow players to take their arcade rides onto the streets of Fortune Valley and act like YouTube stars without being yanked out of their tomfoolery to play an actual match.
Electronic Arts’ season of loot boxes is off to a cracking good start. First, the publisher had to turn off the ability to buy goodies in Star Wars: Battlefront II due to widespread negative reaction, now they’re revamping payouts in Need for Speed: Payback. According to Ghost Games’ update, players will see increased experience rewards, faster restocks on garage upgrade offers, and an overall better mix of prizes in the game’s “bait crates” – which may be the most on-the-nose name for loot boxes yet.
We believe that owning a garage of customized cars is part of the essence that makes Need for Speed what it is. We’ll keep making tweaks, based on your feedback, and we’re committed to making car progression a much more enjoyable experience.
It’s not a complete suspension of the system, but a little slowdown on the curve.
Need for Speed’s newest update features community sharing of custom wraps. The Showcase Update for Ghost Games’ surprising racer has added the ability to share custom livery designs, (called “wraps” in the ultra-bro world of Need for Speed) like in more recent Forza games. Forza, of course, is the game that proved if you give people a canvas, some of them will inevitably create the most detailed offensive content imaginable. It’s like the internet itself, writ small!
If you’re tired of old-fashioned stock stickers like Red Bull and Penzoil lamely adorning your Need for Speed ride, you can now browse other people’s hand-crafted anime princesses and curse words to download and use. The update also add more customization parts and a photo mode so you can capture the epic grandeur of Sailor Moon spread-eagle on your Nissan Skyline.
Admit it. You’ve missed Need for Speed. The nitro-jammed neon-lit arcade drifter has been missing from the landscape since 2013’s Need for Speed: Rivals and street racing just hasn’t been the same. While everyone has been revving their engines in more serious fare like DriveClub, Assetto Corsa, Project CARS, and Forza Horizon 2, what’s a budding chop shop aficionado to do? You could play The Crew or even the decent bit of marketing fluff that was Forza Horizon Presents Fast & Furious, but neither title had the same obnoxious mix of bro-humor and faux thug earnestness that Electronic Arts perfected in the Need for Speed series. Ghost Games and EA has announced that our wait is over. Need for Speed (no subtitle) is coming this Fall to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and the developers told GameSpot that they’re really going to concentrate on delivering a good story.
“We are taking a very innovative approach to how we tell a story. That’s actually probably as much as I can say at this time. If you just go back three years with Need for Speed: The Run, there were stories in Need for Speed. Absolutely not the best executed stories. But we had stories. And I think a missing piece from the last games we had has been narrative. I think we can deliver a better game to our fans if we connect to them emotionally through story.”
If it means more quality scenes like this one, then bravo!
That’s not a live-action commercial for an upcoming videogame. That’s the full trailer for DreamWorks’ Need for Speed movie starring Aaron Paul and Scott ‘Kid Cudi’ Mescudi. It also has Michael Keaton spitting poetry into a microphone for some reason.
