Codemasters and Criterion Merge to Helm Future Need for Speed Games

[Famine]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Codemasters and Criterion Merge to Helm Future Need for Speed Games​

Criterion Games has absorbed Codemasters Chesire, doubling the Electronic Arts-owned studio’s efforts for the Need For Speed franchise...

 

[ICEYOU3]

Criterion and Codemasters as one, sounds magical. Hopefully EA doesn't find a way to mess this up

 

[PJTierney]

Incase anyone hasn’t heard of Codemasters Cheshire before, that’s the team that worked on ONRUSH and DIRT 5 🙂

DiRT Rally and GRID are Codemasters Southam, F1 is Codemasters Birmingham.

 

[KoldStrejke]

Like I Said. the NFS series is Dead Officially.

 

[Arkseven]

EA announced last March that the next, yet-to-be-named Need for Speed title would fall short of its 2021 release window, as Criterion was occupied with other duties within the company: assisting DICE on the development of Battlefield 2042.

And still, BF2042 didn't even released as a working, functional game


I wonder what they're going to do now. Back to Hot Pusuit/High Stakes? Same drift handling? I know many dislike the drift, but at least it's fun in both HP 2010 and Rivals.

I really don't want another street racing NFS set in a empty open world. Ghost tried to create a world for both HP/Tuners players with Payback and Heat having highways and a city, but it seemed a little "off", like something was missing.

At the end it's always the same question: is NFS Underground 3 needed? another High Stakes? what about a sequel to Pro Street? (no, that is not PCARS 3 )

NFS has so many types of games that now it's hard to say what exactly is NFS. If 45% of the players want a new NFS like Hot Pursuit, another 45% want a new street racing NFS and the 10% left is happy to play both versions, what the hell you do then?

 

[StealthVel]

Like I Said. the NFS series is Dead Officially.

It's What Now?

 

[kjb]

And still, BF2042 didn't even released as a working, functional game


I wonder what they're going to do now. Back to Hot Pusuit/High Stakes? Same drift handling? I know many dislike the drift, but at least it's fun in both HP 2010 and Rivals.

I really don't want another street racing NFS set in a empty open world. Ghost tried to create a world for both HP/Tuners players with Payback and Heat having highways and a city, but it seemed a little "off", like something was missing.

At the end it's always the same question: is NFS Underground 3 needed? another High Stakes? what about a sequel to Pro Street? (no, that is not PCARS 3 )

NFS has so many types of games that now it's hard to say what exactly is NFS. If 45% of the players want a new NFS like Hot Pursuit, another 45% want a new street racing NFS and the 10% left is happy to play both versions, what the hell you do then?

I am part of the 10% who like both versions. I think with Heat if they continued to support it would have been great. I agree about the street racing in an empty world again. We are at the point where that shouldn't be an issue with having empty cities. It looks like it might be out later this year so we will see what all this brainpower that they have gathered comes up with

 

[Rustyhole]

Criterion today is not the Criterion that made Burnout. EA's just trading on the name. Hopefully this turd will be this gen PS5 exclusive and not tarnish the last gen PS4. But I doubt it.

 

[Tjoppie]

Idk. NFSU 2 hit the spot for me. I liked the sound. The music is still added to my playlist to this day. It leaned more towards the racing than some or other cheesy story that they try to force in there. It went downhill from there. Even Most Wanted with the live acting was to much cheese for me to handle. Took away some of my enjoyment. My opinion…

Me be like - NFSU2 meeting Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero and having a baby. Yes please!!

 

[KoldStrejke]

Idk. NFSU 2 hit the spot for me. I liked the sound. The music is still added to my playlist to this day. It leaned more towards the racing than some or other cheesy story that they try to force in there. It went downhill from there. Even Most Wanted with the live acting was to much cheese for me to handle. Took away some of my enjoyment. My opinion…

Me be like - NFSU2 meeting Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero and having a baby. Yes please!!

Yes I agree NFS:UG2 was the summit of the NFS Series.

These are the best of the series;

The Need for Speed (1994)

Need for Speed II (1997)

Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999)

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000)

Need for Speed: Underground (2003)

Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)

Need for Speed: ProStreet (2007)

Need for Speed: Shift (2009)

Shift 2: Unleashed (2011)

with that said.

We Need FULL Controller Support every Button and Axis Mappable. No, we don't need another burnout style game.

 

[fwyflyer]

Porsche Unleashed was the highpoint for me. As for lowpoint, once they started omitting the in car cameras, the whole series went straight down hill.

 

[SomeGamer2021]

I would LOVE if they created a new Shift game. I loved the adrenaline the game had on hardmode!

 

[GTxForza]

I'm curious about Need For Speed 2022.

 

[gtrotary]

The only acceptable game for code masters to create next is Dirt Rally 3.0. I will be taking no questions.

 

[JacoJa]

We Need FULL Controller Support every Button and Axis Mappable. No, we don't need another burnout style game.

100%. No one ever mentions the importance of mappable buttons. The last few NFS games have been borderline unplayable because of the awful controls. Something so basic, yet tarnishes the entire experience.

NFS Heat had a fun little nugget, where the gear downshift button was also the same button to bribe the police. Always a very expensive downshift... Just ludicrous.

 

[evldave333]

There's a weird feedback loop with NFS its sells despite its mediocrity in all regards, so who's to blame?

 

[MagpieRacer]

The only acceptable game for code masters to create next is Dirt Rally 3.0. I will be taking no questions.

Different Codemasters studio. And with them having the WRC license from 2023, wouldn't bank on a DR3 coming anytime soon. Would love to be proved wrong, DR2 is my most played Xbox game of all time.

 

[AnklaX]

Not happy with how either have done gameplay/physics in the past decade or more. They need to figure out a good driving model.

I'd like a NFS World Tour game. Take the best tracks from their 20+ years of NFS, remake them. Do a Pro Street or Dirt style Campagne where you tour the world and take on street racers on all those great tracks. Even Assetto has Proving Grounds from NFS2. I'd like to race again on Hometown, or Celtic Ruins, or Schwarzwald. Maybe even bring back some cars that were only seen in the series like the Isdera Commendatore, or the Italdesign cars. Even recreate the FZR2000 or the El Nino as reward cars. What's so difficult, EA? Just draw on your rich catalogue.
Maybe go for Underground style game after that.
EA just have to make up their mind to do a good game and it will be easy for them. They're competent but their greed and losing touch with reality has caused them to fall from their previous position and NFS to fall away from the position it had in pop culture.
You still have Fifa to make stupid, just do NFS good.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Not happy with how either have done gameplay/physics in the past decade or more. They need to figure out a good driving model.

I guess it depends on what your expectations are with physics and gameplay, but Burnout Paradise and NFS Hot Pursuit can hardly be considering critical failures or games lacking in fun gameplay for the majority. Codemasters Cheshire has its roots in Evo Studios who did DriveClub and Motorstorm, again not games typically looked back on as bad. Dirt 5 actually seemed to borrow quite a lot of ideas from DriveClub and Motorstorm, could definitley feel the old Evo Studios influence in that game. Dirt 5 for me only really lacked in difficulty, the AI, and therefore the game, was quite easy to beat. But I found it good fun.

Granted, they also did OnRush which was generally a failure, but I think that's as forgotten for them as it is for us.

I personally think for a more action/arcade style racing game, I would have difficulty thinking of 2 better studios to merge to create one.

 

[SimTourist]

Lol more like Codemasters Trashfire, making the worst racing games of all time.

 

[Famine]

Incase anyone hasn’t heard of Codemasters Cheshire before, that’s the team that worked on ONRUSH and DIRT 5 🙂

DiRT Rally and GRID are Codemasters Southam, F1 is Codemasters Birmingham.

Eh, Warwickshire is just Birmingham with trees.

 

[strela]

Lol more like Codemasters Trashfire, making the worst racing games of all time.

Isn't Codemasters Cheshire like Evolution Studio? Your reply doesn't make much sense.

 

[kjb]

I would LOVE if they created a new Shift game. I loved the adrenaline the game had on hardmode!

They did create a new Shift game it was called Project Cars 3 !

We Need FULL Controller Support every Button and Axis Mappable. No, we don't need another burnout style game.

I agree 100% that is the one thing I really hate about NFS:Heat I can't map the buttons on my PS5

 

[PJTierney]

Eh, Warwickshire is just Birmingham with trees.

You're not wrong.

Isn't Codemasters Cheshire like Evolution Studio? Your reply doesn't make much sense.

That's the lineage, yes.

Sony dumped Evo, Codemasters hired most of their staff, EA then bought Codemasters.

 

[Mr_D]

Yes I agree NFS:UG2 was the summit of the NFS Series.

These are the best of the series;

The Need for Speed (1994)

Need for Speed II (1997)

Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999)

Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000)

Need for Speed: Underground (2003)

Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)

Need for Speed: ProStreet (2007)

Need for Speed: Shift (2009)

Shift 2: Unleashed (2011)

with that said.

We Need FULL Controller Support every Button and Axis Mappable. No, we don't need another burnout style game.

Funny you omit Hot Pursuit and Hot Pursuit 2 which were my favourite arcade racing games of all time. Allthough Underground 2 and Most Wanted are pretty high up there also

 

[Ryan81]

I doubt we'll see much improvement tbh. Like others have said, the NFS franchise has been on s steep downhill spiral for the last 15 years or so. Actually, ever since they cut cockpit view altogether and focused on street racing, tuning, rude boii crap etc. Redeemed themselves briefly with Shift and that's it.
The original, II, III, High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed were 👌

 

[SWAGMASTER69]

Well, from what I've seen from those "leaks" (definetly not intentional) and overlyexcited BlackPanthaa (definetly not paid) you can expect the new NFS to be an Asphalt 9 + NFS Heat game, possibly releasing even on mobile phones.
I'd love to be wrong but I haven't played a solid NFS game since 2010...and every time when people get excited, hoping that this time it's going to be something new and cool, and this time they will definetly make a great game, they fail to deliver...

 

[SestoScudo]

I doubt we'll see much improvement tbh. Like others have said, the NFS franchise has been on s steep downhill spiral for the last 15 years or so. Actually, ever since they cut cockpit view altogether and focused on street racing, tuning, rude boii crap etc. Redeemed themselves briefly with Shift and that's it.
The original, II, III, High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed were 👌

I played them all I dont think Mw and UG are bad eventhough im a big time fan of the old school nfs era.

Nfs has done supercars, exotics, jdm, muscle cars and track racing along with the underground scene that NFS has taken up so many identities that has split many camps.

You have the old school fans, mw fans, ug fans, pro street fans and nfs shift fans you name it.

I really enjoyed NFS Heat despite its flaws.

People just cant decide what game nfs should be not to mention there hasnt been a proper game for years it has always been hits and misses while transferring it to other developers then closing down studios.

But honestly NFS does not need a story as the cars are the stars thats why Nfs most wanted story is a cringefest I really hate it same with Nfs carbon. Really we are better off without garbage stories. I know nfs ug 1 and 2 had stories but their stories was pretty simple be at the top.

Also we dont need celebrities or whatever. Spend that money on tbe game rather than bringing celebrities or whatever. We dont need them.

 

[strela]

Yeah the NFS fan base is so diverse that you just can't satisfy the majority yet alone all of them. And even when you try to please a certain group it always fail for some reason. I know people that think MW 2005 is the best in the series while Undercover is the worst. They are the same games to me. At least the gameplay is the same. Same with fans that wanted UG3 instead of 2015 garbage. 2015 is the closest you can get to a UG3 game, imo.
Don't even want to think what the High Stakes fans are expecting (would want) from a NFS. Maybe NFS Assetto Corsa edition...

 

[T0MMY3688]

Well, from what I've seen from those "leaks" (definetly not intentional) and overlyexcited BlackPanthaa (definetly not paid) you can expect the new NFS to be an Asphalt 9 + NFS Heat game, possibly releasing even on mobile phones.
I'd love to be wrong but I haven't played a solid NFS game since 2010...and every time when people get excited, hoping that this time it's going to be something new and cool, and this time they will definetly make a great game, they fail to deliver...

It is probably just a further updated version of Heat, Criterion was supposed to release it last year until it got push back for BF2042. I think it will be fine if it is just more NFS Heat with a new art style, considering the game support ended early and it had decent potential.

I think Codemaster came in too late to really make any drastic changes for NFS 2022. Will be interesting to see what happen to the next NFS with Codemaster Chesire and Criterion worked on it full time.

As for a mobile phone version, there is a new NFS for mobile phones made by Tencent using UE4 got leak recently: