Update Notes
Additions
Steering wheels
We know those of you that own a steering wheel are enjoying all kinds of racing games, and we want to give you the option to use your equipment in Need for Speed, too. We have been testing some steering wheels, but a few others that are not on this list might also work:
- Thrustmaster T300RS (PS4, PC)
- Thrustmaster TX (Xbox, PC)
- Thrustmaster T150 (PS4, PC)
- Thrustmaster TMX (Xbox, PC)
- Logitech G29 (PS4, PC)
- Logitech G920 (Xbox, PC)
- Fanatec CSL Elite Racing Wheel (PS4, PC, XB1)
For PC players: Make sure to install the Logitech G Hub, regardless of the wheel manufacturer and model you are using.
For Console players: Make sure that your steering wheel is assigned to your console profile before launching the game. When launching the game, press the respective steering wheel button on the title screen to enable steering wheel play: A on Xbox, X on PlayStation.
Please note that in order to access all features in the game, you will need to use a combination of steering wheel and controller.
Steering Wheel
Chat Wheel
To make communication in-game easier, we are implementing a chat wheel. That means you will be able to send pre-made text messages to friends or rivals. From saying hello, challenging players to a race or just asking them to follow you, we hope this feature makes communication easier for you. It also helps to cross language barriers, as incoming messages will be displayed in the same language that your game is set to. You can also turn the chat messages on or off at any time.
Chat Wheel
Keys to the Map
You might notice a new tab in the menu, the in-game store. It will feature the “Keys to the Map”. This is a real-money purchase which will uncover the locations on the in-game map, including collectibles, activities, and gas stations. You will still have to complete the activities like smashing billboards or 3-star jumps, but you won’t have to look for the locations. This is one of the things we announced around Gamescom, and you could also call it a time-saver pack.
Please note that one thing will not be revealed by the Keys to the Map: One safe house location will be uncovered and unlocked upon reaching a certain point in the campaign and is not included here.
Keys to the Map
Quality of Life improvements
Using a controller with manual transmission
- You have been bringing this one up a lot. When you’re driving using manual transmission on a controller, the bumper buttons not only are shifting up and down, but share a lot of different functionalities depending on context. You can bribe a cop, enter the garage, start an event, swap a car and more. Especially when shifting up after leaving the garage, this can be slightly awkward.
To improve the experience, all actions except shifting up and down now require you to hold the button for a short while to prevent accidental presses.
Note that this change only affects players that are using manual transmission.
Gas Stations
- You’ve been clear on that one: You want to showcase your cars in the best light, without any damage. We added some functionality to the gas stations to give your car a complete repair when driving through a gas station. Functional damage will be fixed, but also dust will be washed off and scratches repaired.
UI
- After finishing a night event, some UI elements will now stay on your screen. Both the minimap and the speedometer will remain visible, to make it easier to find your way to the nearest safe house if you want to bank your REP. Or to the gas station, if you need repairs and want to go again.
- We added a notification to the garage that will inform you if a server will be shutting down soon.
- Moved the “Escaped” notification to the bottom of the screen. It will now be shown in the same location as the “Escaping” notification after you escaped successfully. That should prevent a few accidents.
- There was no button prompt for “Back” in the decal menu, so we added one.
- The VoIP status bar is now visible on all screens if you’re in a party.
- When you quit a mission or event, the UI will now prompt you that all of your progress will be lost.
- We implemented a new waypoint icon and also polished some icons and notifications around the minimap.
Rewards for Drift events
- We updated the way rewards work for drift events. Now you will receive a reward even if you don’t hit the target score.
Bugfixes
Missions
- During the “Got Your Back” mission, Lucas no longer mentions the grille of Papi’s Camaro before offering you the mission to acquire it.
- Pushing Shaw into the water during the “Got Your Back” mission should no longer result in the inability to finish the mission.
- When restarting the second part of “Follow the Law”, Ana’s subtitles will now be synced with the voice lines.
- In the “Home Base” intro, the music should now correctly play throughout the cinematic.
- It shouldn’t be raining during the “Party Crashers” intro cinematic any longer.
- When you’re playing “Party Crashers” and quit during the “Ambushed” part of the chapter, the pursuit music should no longer be playing after you’ve quit the mission.
- In a different part of the mission, we moved a video wall and a speaker system so both you and the AI drivers are less likely to jump into them.
- Also during “Party Crashers”, near missing checkpoints will now correctly trigger mission events.
- Fixed an issue that would trigger incorrect voiceover lines by honking repeatedly during the final Chop Shop cinematic.
- When you’re in first place during the “Pit Potential” story, nobody should tell you “This is not looking good for you” anymore.
- We fixed an issue that would show the world in a very bright light that could be noticed as flash during the “Let it slide” mission.
- Ana should no longer get lost when driving to the “Make a name” event when you’re speeding too far ahead.
- When restarting “Get noticed”, Ana’s car will now spawn in the correct location.
Events
- The final cinematic of the “Birds Eye” drift trial will now be playing correctly.
- During the “Brake or Break”, a larger crowd will be cheering for you now.
- We reinforced the barriers in the start area of “Ceryneian Hind” so you should no longer be able to drive into them or get stuck.
- “Discovery” event should now start correctly after the countdown ends when “Challenge all” has been selected.
- A spectator at the start of the “Foxbat” event was defying gravity as he jumped down a light in an instant. He adheres to the laws of physics now.
- You should no longer be reset to jump in the water over and over and over and over when you fall into the water at the first jump of the “Heights” time trial. Or the last jump.
- The night event “Krom” now shows the night event outro and rewards.
- “Moonshine” Drift Trial should now be concluded by the correct cinematic.
- All AI racers should now follow the correct route during the “Needletail” event.
- During the event “Rollercoaster”, one checkpoint was missing flags, barriers and spectators, which have now showed up to cheer you on.
- The “Springbok” event is now correctly unlocked only after finishing the driving story.
- The game should no longer show a permanent black screen after the end of the “Yoshikazu” race and before the result screen.
- We fixed an issue that could lead to a spectator floating, which would only be visible when playing with other players and starting on the left side of the grid.
- When restarting an event multiple times, they should now have a countdown every time.
- Completing an event in a personal best on the challenge level should now be properly reflected on the leaderboard.
- During one of the off-road events, you could encounter Rokkit & Rokkit. They probably thought they had better chances of winning when signing up for the race twice. We had a chat with them and one of them agreed to give up their spot for another driver.
- Fixed an issue that could lead to AI drivers floating without cars when restarting events.
- When two players want to start the same event but each their own race, the countdown timer will now count down to 0 before the second player can start their race.
- On PC, you can now decline an event invitation with the key you have rebound that action to.
UI
- Activating photo mode in online play should no longer start the engine.
- In the snapshot gallery, your snapshots will no longer appear in the friends tab, but only in your tab.
- Before you can share a snapshot, a confirmation prompt will now appear.
- The camera will no longer be outside of the garage when triggering snapshot and entering a garage at the same time.
- When crashing a cop car, the “Crashed a Cop” wouldn’t always show, this should now be working correctly.
- In the Song display, “MNKYBSNSS - Otro Lugar” was not showing the artist and title when the song started playing - we fixed that.
- When “Novocaine” is playing, the artist will now be displayed correctly without underscores.
- Updated the Engine Swap UI in the garage for widescreen resolutions so text should no longer be overlapping.
- Fixed text of daily challenges that was overlapping the speedometer.
- The objective list will now automatically be presented on the screen after leaving the garage.
- The Racer challenges menu will stay on screen after one of the challenges is completed.
- Updated the Racer challenges menu on PC to display the button that closes the menu.
- After completing a daily challenge, the “tick” icon is no longer overlapping the daily challenge icon.
- The Objective menu that can be opened on the right side of the screen is no longer accessible while in the dealership or part shop.
- Some events have different car performance level recommendations. The lower one is the base level and the higher one is the challenge level. Looking at the crew leaderboard before starting an event could prevent the ability to switch between base level and challenge level of an event, which we now resolved.
- In rare cases, when crashing the car after a jump at Heat level 5, the car and UI would disappear, which should now be fixed.
- Updating a crew description with a text containing profanity would prompt you with “Operation successful”, it should now say “Operation failed”.
- Searching for a specific crew should now work correctly.
- You can now use an apostrophe when creating a crew.
- Some crew leaderboards were a bit slow to update, this will be quicker now.
- Fixed a typo in the Crew invite menu.
- When you’re in a cop chase and hit a cop car without crashing it, you should no longer be prompted with a message implying you did crash the cop.
- When getting busted during night with less than 10,000 Bank, there will now be a countdown to 0 instead of just 0 being displayed.
- We improved the readability of the “The League” notification you’re prompted after completing the respective chapter, increasing the opacity of the background.
- When you unlock a new car by completing the main story or one of the side stories, the banner will now no longer say “Leveled up”, but only “New Cars unlocked”.
- When you’re looking at the collectibles overview page of a district that has more than 8 collectibles of one kind, the items will now be scrolling.
- The scrollbar in some menus will no longer move beyond the background of the scrollbar.
- Toggling the the subtitles on or off in the settings will now toggle the option in the accessibility settings and vice versa.
- The Bank and Rep widgets will now appear in the same place across all menus.
- Removed the prompt for the player list while you’re in the Part Shop, as it is not accessible from there.
- Removed some duplicate button prompts in the dealership.
- In the event invite notification, the car rating of the player sending the invite will now be correctly displayed if it’s 400+.
Cars / Garage
- Starter cars will now show customization ratings.
- Cars should no longer be shown with car parts missing in the garage.
- When cycling through the cars in the warehouse and selecting one quickly, the correct car should now be swapped to the garage main spot.
- When playing on PC with a controller, pressing LB should no longer trigger the horn in customization menus.
- Spamming the Skip button while entering the garage should no longer place the car below the garage.
- Vehicles with gloss paint finish should now show correct shadows if showcased in the garage.
- The camera should no longer switch from the bonnet camera to the near chase camera when crashing into objects at high speeds.
- Removed the light letterbox in the garage.
- Updated the description of crew members’ Deluxe Edition cars in the garage showcase.
- When looking at car parts, the currently equipped part should now be counted towards the total amount of copies you have.
- When you’re in a high gear and are switching to a gearbox with fewer gears than the one previously equipped, the gear will now be switched to the highest possible gear available on the new gearbox. Example: If you are in 7th gear and switch to a gearbox with 5 gears, it should now display that you’re in 5th gear.
- We improved the readability of the “Need for Speed Rivals” license plate option in the customization menu.
- We fixed an issue that would prevent you from unlocking the Drift Story introduction. This could happen when you had a very, very specific combination of car parts that were just below the requirements to unlock the story, which was not reflected in the UI before.
- We bolted on some car parts of vehicles that shouldn’t have been removable in the first place.
- You can no longer select “Swap Car” in the garage if you don’t have a car to swap to.
- The message prompt instructing you where to share a custom wrap from will now correctly refer to “Library” instead of “My Wraps”.
- Customizing the fifteen52 rims on some car models will now apply the primary and secondary colors correctly.
- fifteen52 rims should no longer be clipping with brake discs when you’re changing the rim size to maximum.
- Improved the alignment of NOS visual effects for some exhaust models.
- When you’re in the garage, looking for part upgrades, have 2 parts for a specific slot, the stock part equipped and are hovering over the other (better) part, it will show the potential performance improvement. If you now sell the highlighted part, you would keep the stock part, but the potential improvement would still show in the UI. This has now been fixed.
- Rotiform Forged LVS rims now are visually consistent on different levels of detail.
- Scaling down the rim size of the BBS CH-R rims will now correctly affect the spokes.
Car-Specific
- Fixed an issue that could lead to a flickering texture when you’re customizing the color of the BMW i8 Coupe.
- Fixed a visual issue affecting the trunk of the BMW M4 Convertible when a decal was applied.
- The license plate interaction point of the BMW M4 GTS in the garage has been correctly aligned.
- Applying a decal to the BMW Z4 M40i with the Alchemist roof equipped will now fit the designated space.
- The “Speedhunters” exhausts will no longer clip through the “Speedhunters” rear bumper when equipped to the Chevrolet Bel Air ‘55.
- The Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 ‘17 is no longer floating when you view it in the showcase.
- The camera won’t pass through the side of the Dodge Charger ‘69 anymore during a night race intro. Nice.
- Designing a Ferrari 458 Spider ‘11 in the NFS Studio App using stock parts only and importing it to the game will not charge you any Bank.
- The windows of the Ferrari 458 Spider ‘11 will now be down when the roof is down. The same goes for the Lamborghini Huracan Spyder ‘18 and the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, which will also have the convertible roof equipped by default.
- The wing mirrors of the Ferrari F40 ‘87 are no longer floating and twitching when the side of the car is damaged.
- The Ferrari F40 ‘87 will no longer have a preview of the underglow in the “Swap Car” menu.
- When critically damaged, the rear bumper of the Ferrari FXX-K Evo ‘18 will no longer be shaking.
- Improved the mapping of decals applied to the rear window of the Honda Civic Type-R ‘15.
- Applying a decal to the side of the Honda NSX Type-R ‘92 will no longer affect the headlights when the “Rocket Bunny” side skirt is equipped.
- Fixed a visual issue that made the rear tires appear partially transparent when equipping the Speedhunters rear fender to the Jaguar F-Type R Convertible ‘19.
- If you’re taking the Jaguar F-Type R Convertible ‘19 for a ride, use the bonnet camera and the car is in a critical state, the hood will no longer block your sight.
- Improved the mapping of decals applied to the sides of the Koenigsegg Regera.
- The default spoiler of the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster ‘19 should no longer be raising when driving at high speeds.
- The camera won’t clip through the garage floor anymore when selecting an exhaust for the Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary.
- The player character shouldn’t be clipping through the bottom of the Lamborghini Diablo SV anymore.
- The trunk lid of the Land Rover Defender 110 is no longer clipping with the default roof when the car is damaged.
- We toned down the exhaust popping for the Lotus Exige S ‘06 a bit to make it sound less resonant.
- We fixed a visual issue that would show on the rear fenders of the Mazda MX-5 when you equipped Pandem rear fenders with a Speedhunters rear bumper.
- Toned down the exhaust flames of the McLaren P1 ‘14.
- When the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT R ‘17 is damaged, the grille should no longer be clipping with other parts.
- The camera view in the rim selection menu for the Mercury Cougar ‘67 now focuses on the rims.
- Equipping the Pandem front bumper and the Pandem front fenders will no longer make the bumper disappear on the Nissan GT-R ‘17.
- Fixed a visual issue with the second Nissan front bumper in the menu which could make it transparent in a spot where it shouldn’t be on the Nissan Skyline GT-R ‘99.
- When the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is damaged, its license plate will no longer clip inside the rear bumper.
- The Porsche 991 GT3 RS is now showing deformation properly when damaged.
Visual
- We took another look at the lighting in the garage. Sometimes, your character and one side of the car would appear darker than the other side of the car, this should now be fixed.
- Improved a cutscene with Ana, so her hair doesn’t clip with her neck anymore. Did you know that Ana is a real person, and her name is - Ana?
- Updated the look of the JuiceBox logo.
- Added Big Country Labs decals.
- While wearing the blue bandana, changing the hair color in the menu will now actually change the hair color.
- There were two pairs of pants that would clip through some tops. We’ve ironed that out.
- Two bermuda shorts had a pretty similar look, we added some color to make them more distinguishable.
- Some glasses would cause its wearer’s lashes to clip through them, which is now resolved.
- Fixed an issue where the camera would clip through the floor of the garage.
- Removed the background of a decal which was showing a square when it shouldn’t have.
- When using the Protanopia colorblind setting, all routes will now have the correct color.
- On PC, when you choose a different resolution and are prompted to confirm your choice, the confirmation selection prompt will now highlight an option.
- Added subtitles that were partially missing for one of Lucas’ phone calls.
- Put Italian subtitles back in sync during the prologue.
- Korean subtitles are now in sync during the “Proposition” chapter.
- “Did he just say Numero Uno?”: The subtitles are now synced with the voice line. Good old Kenny.
- Improved the Russian wording on the outro screen for Time Trial events.
- Increased detail on some ground textures in Port Murphy.
- Some AI characters that take photographs before race events just vanished after a while. They will now no longer disappear mid-scene.
- Fixed a rare issue that could lead to bright light overexposure in the garage.
- The pulsating light in the loading screen before night events should now be in sync with the music for all songs.
- You should no no longer be able to move the cursor out of bounds when looking at the map.
- Background images in the crew menus will now fit the chosen aspect ratio.
- Fixed an issue where some combinations of hairstyles and hair colors could result in slight flickering of the hair.
- When purchasing a car in the dealership and using it straight away, mission markers should no longer be visible in the loading screen.
- We replaced the image that’s displayed when you unlock the Polestar 1 ‘20 Hero Edition with a higher resolution image.
Audio
- Lucas could be a bit pushy when reminding you about going to race when you were close to it anyway. We talked to him and he should be more lenient now.
- There was a voice line playing in the garage that was triggered by the wrong event, so we removed it.
- We lowered the volume of the sounds the metal surface of the bridge between Westside and Eden Shores would make when driving over it.
- The large waterfall in Fort Callahan now makes a very calming peaceful sound.
- Blue barrels and big white tires now make a sound when a car is colliding with them.
- A sound should now be playing when receiving an event invitation.
- The helicopter cop chatter in the prologue now is more distinguishable and in line with the other cop chatter.
- When you restart an event using the prompt after the race ended, sometimes free roam music would start playing. This should no longer happen now.
- Improved the audio mix during Daytime race outros to make the music more audible.
- Cops should no longer talk about your Mercedes C63 AMG K.S Edition as “Mercedes G-Wagon” on the radio.
- Improved the audio quality of the cop chatter on PS4 controller speakers.
- Sometimes when the car would tumble and take off into the air, some audio effects would be missing. We fixed that issue to make it sound more immersive.
- When scrolling through the news articles in the main menu, you will now receive audio feedback.
- After completion of “Shattered Dreams”, the volume of the banter has been increased slightly to be in line with the other voice lines.
- After finishing an daytime event, if you press retry, the celebration sound should no longer play during the loading screen.
- Adjusted the mix of some voice-over lines to better fit the cinematic setting and reflect the environment during the “Ambushed” intro.
- Starting an event while listening to a phone call should now interrupt the phone call.
- During the Drift story tutorial, Wayne’s voice will now have a more consistent volume.
- When fast traveling, the fast travel sound should no longer be cut off.
World
- Bayview Park: Moved a respawn point further away from a ramp to allow players’ cars to build up enough speed to jump across the water.
- Port Murphy: Moved a respawn point, you should no longer be able to become stuck in a respawn loop when driving into water in a specific location.
- In a very, very specific scenario that would take too many lines to explain, it was possible to spawn under the map at the Fairview Fields gas station. This should no longer happen.
- There is a jump in Downtown that wouldn’t track any progress if attempted with a very high speed, this has now been corrected.
- Similarly, a jump in Grenada Wetlands should now award you with three stars if the cinematic is playing and you achieve the required distance.
- A cop car could get stuck in a loop on a bridge in Mendoza keys. We updated the logic, so they should be able to get out of there without making overtime.
- When entering a cop chase with a helicopter, escaping and coming back to the helicopter, it should no longer hover just above the ground.
- Cops should no longer start chasing you when you’re driving on the monorail tracks and they drive below you and shouldn’t notice you.
- The routing on the map during Chapter 5 will now start at the correct garage when using Arabic language.
- If you’re in a cop chase, the “Busting” meter is filling and both you and the cop crash into water, you should no longer be busted after being reset.
- Improved the cop logic in situations when you’re close to roadblocks.
- AI drivers will stick to the road when taking a specific turn in Sandpiper Forest.
- The same goes for a scenic location on Frontera Hills.
- And one in Grenada Wetlands.
- Improved a ramp in Palm City Raceway so you can no longer get stuck under it.
- One flamingo was hovering above ground in Frontera Hills, another one in Blackwood Heights, but they’re grounded now.
- To keep the balance, we also raised one flamingo that was partially dug into a Rockville hill.
- Billboards shouldn’t get smashed anymore when jumping above them and not hitting them.
Performance
- Improved client stability
- Fixed a crash that could occur during the “Breaking the Law” mission when you reached the starting line before Ana.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when reporting a player for an offensive wrap when the player didn’t have a wrap on their car.
- Fixed a few crashes that could occur in the garage.
- Fixed several other instances where the game could crash.
- Opening the world map should now be smoother than before.
- Fixed an issue where the game could hang when your car was pushed by the AI, resulting in jumping in the air and reaching extraordinarily high speeds.
- Jumping into an inaccessible part of the map and wrecking the car in the process should no longer lead to the game hanging.
Other
- The achievement “Swappin’” should no longer be awarded when the user wins an event with a stock engine vehicle.
- The achievement “Benefits are nice” is now correctly unlocked after finishing 25 events.
- Cops should behave smarter when they’re chasing a player that is then leaving the game.
- It should no longer be possible to enter the garage after accepting a party invitation to an event.
- When joining a party or inviting players to one, they should now be unmuted by default.
- Changing the controller vibration settings when using an Xbox controller on PC will now work as intended.
Release Timing - January 28
- PC - 09:00 UTC
- PS4 - 10:00 UTC
- Xbox One - 11:00 UTC
Estimated File Sizes
- PC - 3.5 GB
- PS4 - 5.65 GB
- Xbox One - 4.94 GB
