What is this?
If you're talking about the update to the Eliminator, (a battle royale-esque mode where you can eliminate others through challenging them to a point-to-point race while also winning or picking up better cars along the way) what they did was just adding police-themed cars to the mode, and equipping some of the cars already in the mode with police lights, which doesn't really make it any closer in style or vibe to pre-Underground era NFS games. I just played Eliminator again recently, and quickly picked up an RS6 Avant car drop after starting with the Mini. Getting the RS6 was something I already experienced before, but this time, the car has blue blinking lights on the roof. Doesn't really make me excited, but it's an okay addition. I think it's there so some players can have some sort of a "pretend play" feel of being a cop chasing a baddie or something like that. As far as I know, there's no new mode in this update, nor is there any real change to an existing mode in terms of functionality.
On the other side, I grew up playing High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed on the PS1 (among other racing games like GT2 and so on), so I believe I can somewhat understand the nostalgia you feel for the 90s NFS games. When I finally played Underground, I was quite surprised by the lack of exotic cars, and the fact that the fastest car in bone-stock form within the game was an R34 Skyline GT-R and not something more bonkers (not that I hated it, and don't get it wrong - I don't dislike the Underground era games). I just missed the F50, Diablo, Porsches, etc. When I finally played Most Wanted, my faith in the series was somewhat restored, but despite having supercars again, I somehow missed the ability to change the bumpers one-by-one like in Underground. And yet there's still something missing that's not carried over from the 90s games. The vibe and scenery are just not there. They're replaced by this bad boy, juvenile, street racer vibe. Not that the 90s games were less criminal, because they also involved illegal street racing. I can't quite explain it. I missed the experience in simply blasting down a beautiful, mountainous countryside road with a supercar.
And then there's this guy who was a friend of mine when I was a teenager. He literally thought that Need for Speed II = Need for Speed Underground 2. While talking about going back to the roots, in his mind, he was thinking of Underground 2. I tried to explain what the roots were like; what the 90s NFS games were actually like, and he really didn't get anything that I said. A simple Google search could've helped, but seemed like he didn't even try. That really annoyed me, but looking back at it, I see it was silly to waste time and energy being annoyed by something like that. Gotta treat yourself better. There are other things worth getting angrier and more annoyed at.
Speaking of Forza Horizon 4 though, if you take away the music festival setting, and the fact that there are no cop chases, it can still somewhat feel like a 90s NFS game. There are tons of supercars and some of the roads are beautifully reminiscent of, say, Route Adonf and Kindiak Park from NFS High Stakes. I would argue that most of the time, the vibe is closer to 90s NFS than the NFS games from Underground to Undercover (ProStreet excluded). And that's a good thing for me. The electronic music in the game can't quite match the upbeat vibe brought by Rom di Prisco, Saki Kaskas, Junkie XL, etc., but that's a minor thing.
Moreover, if they do implement a cop system in a Horizon game similar to the ones in 90s NFS games, I don't see why it should make one upset as a 90s NFS fan. The idea of the thrill in outrunning a cop is in the minds of many people, even before NFS was a thing. Like filmmakers. It's not really theft of intellectual property rights. I do think it would be great if it's in the game. Doesn't have to be tied into the progression system, maybe a setting you can turn on and off for fun in solo mode in offline street races, or even during solo free roam.
Anyway, I think the car I'm looking forward the most to in this update, is the Rover SD1 Vitesse. I'm a bit of an uncultured swine, so I only knew it first from Top Gear. Would be great to also have the Triumph Dolomite Sprint and Princess 2200 HL that Hammond and May drove in that episode, respectively. The game's set in Britain, so having more British cars do make sense...eh, whatever. It's actually not that important. I'm just starting to pointlessly ramble on and on.
