Need for Speed Unbound - General Discussion

[Ak1504]

For everyone that likes to take screenshots...

Ah ok.

I hope this tool will work with Unbound at some point and if the creator of it can update it

NFSMods - [NFSH] Camera Toolkit

Need for Speed: Heat - Camera Toolkit V2 The tool to control in-game camera and its various features. Tested only on LICENSED...

nfsmods.xyz

Here we go !

NFSMods - [NFSUB] Camera Toolkit

The tool to control in-game camera and its various features. Tested only on LICENSED non-trial version of game with the lates...

nfsmods.xyz

 

[NLxAROSA]

The Mini is best-in-class for B-class I think. AWD, starts out with a fairly low rating so you can tune it up nicely. Handles like it's on rails. 👍

 

[GTvsForza]

Finally got through the first week with the BRZ. Don't know if it's as reliable in A+ now, so might reconsider my car choice.

 

[TJ13]

Right now it's 40% off on Amazon for the Standard Edition.
Just in case someone wants to get it right now.

 

[Turboteg90]

No digital codes tho.

 

[PJTierney]

Anyone had an issue with Achievements not unlocking?

I’ve got one for doing 10 Takeovers, it’s the last one on my list before 100% completion. Looking at my Challenges stats I seem to have completed around 20 of them so far 🤔



On another note, VW Golf 76 upgraded to S+400 is terrifyingly quick, give it a go 😳

 

[NotThePrez]

Pro-tip for those that have or are planning on unlocking the Aventador S Roadster: Don't cheap out on the Differential upgrade. Anything but the Elite Differential makes the car violently unstable when hitting or going over kerbs, even if you have the car at 100% Grip with one of the other diffs.

On another note, VW Golf 76 upgraded to S+400 is terrifyingly quick, give it a go 😳

Based on what I've been seeing, the Mk.1 GTi is to this game what the 911 RSR was to the last 3 NFS games in terms of performance and brokenness. I can definitely say that it is actually busted in S-Class with the right engine swap and upgrades.

Also apparently the game lets you downgrade the 488 Pista into B-Class with one of its engine swaps, which is beyond stupid.

 

[GTboyz]

Need for speed unbound is going on sale this Sunday 12/11 for $44.99 @gamestop and $39.99 @target

Edit: Amazon $41.99

It's been only like 2 weeks since it's released and it's already on sale?

 

[GTvsForza]

Pro-tip for those that have or are planning on unlocking the Aventador S Roadster: Don't cheap out on the Differential upgrade. Anything but the Elite Differential makes the car violently unstable when hitting or going over kerbs, even if you have the car at 100% Grip with one of the other diffs.

Based on what I've been seeing, the Mk.1 GTi is to this game what the 911 RSR was to the last 3 NFS games in terms of performance and brokenness. I can definitely say that it is actually busted in S-Class with the right engine swap and upgrades.

Also apparently the game lets you downgrade the 488 Pista into B-Class with one of its engine swaps, which is beyond stupid.

One of the V8's and a 5-Speed gearbox with other Super and Elite parts bring it down to B. I just saw Militia's video about it.

 

[C_Raccoon23]

Managed to get the game at a discount so here are my first impressions. I’m currently early in Week 2 and playing on Intense difficulty.

- Unbound hands down has the best driving model of the post-Rivals games. Heat's driving physics to me were acceptable at best, but driving actually feels good in Unbound. And thankfully, drifting is no longer the dominant way to drive.

- Before playing, I wasn't sure how I felt about designing the career mode around a calendar system, but now that I've experienced it firsthand, I actually quite like it. While the game is really stingy with money (at least in Week 1), once I made meeting the Qualifier requirements my main priority, everything else flowed nicely. But this system may not be everyone's cup of tea since you don't have as much agency compared to Heat's career structure.

- I personally don't care for the drift and Takeover events and I only bother attempting them whenever they happen to have a high payout. I'm certainly not wasting my money building dedicated drift cars. IMO, Carbon was the last game to have fun drifting.

- I was on the fence about the game's artstyle from the beginning. It wasn't a deal breaker for me at all but at the same time, it did feel a bit forced. I'm glad there is an option to pick gray tire smoke at least, so that it looks somewhat normal. I quickly got used to the effects though and they are the last thing on my mind when I'm actually playing the game. There are more important things to keep your eyes on when racing and escaping cops. Speaking of which...

- Police pursuits are a mixed bag for me. On one hand there are improvements over Heat, like gas stations being on a timer instead of limited uses and being able to wreck cops without damaging your car. However, the game is too aggressive with the cop's spawn rates and I hope they're toned down a bit in a future update. It becomes really annoying trying to reach an event without being detected, especially if it's far away. Unfortunately, this makes the police more of a nuisance than a legitimate threat a lot of the time.

- I have to say this game’s pursuit themes are on the weaker side. Only Heat 5’s music seems to capture any sort of dread or intensity that you want the player to feel when they’re being chased by the police.

Overall, I'm enjoying Unbound so far and looking forward to playing more of it. I just hope that unlike Heat, this game gets ongoing support until whatever the next NFS title will be.

 

[EngieDiesel]

It's been only like 2 weeks since it's released and it's already on sale?

It is also close to Christmas, so no better time to get a quick boost in sales with a short term markdown.

 

[Ak1504]

10/10 Video

 

[MedigoFlame]

Got the game during the sale from Target with an extra 5% off with my brother's Target card. So far it's...okay, but I don't find myself enjoying it quite as much as Heat in a way. Money has been hard to come by (just finished Week 1) and I can't say I'm enjoying the constant rise in heat for any event, even the "chill" takeovers that are rather dull to play. In the beginning, I definitely recommend just going about and finding the collectibles to not only get a decent buildup of money, but also some higher class cars early on.

Playing on "Relaxed" setting still manages to feel rather ruthless with both the rubber bandy AI racers and irritating with the cops. The cops feel fairly easy to lose in early levels of heat, but once you get to heat 3 which is all to easy with how much is built up from events, it just gets tiring. NFS Heat felt near impossible with a slow car to lose the cops, but it got better later on so I can only hope it'll be the same for Unbound. Reaching Heat 5 after just...4 or so events is annoying and even more so with the delivery missions that pop up halfway across the map, discouraging me from even wanting to go there.

As @Terronium-12 said, the buy-ins are a little ridiculous when you end up earning so little and almost doesn't feel worthwhile for the minuscule bets.

Also, is anyone else annoyed by the fact that you can't go back to the garage and tune something without ending the day/night? Either I'm missing something, but I'd like to tinker with my car before an event if I realize I missed something when tuning....

So far I don't mind the game, but it has so far been a little more annoying than Heat with the AI. Feels like the devs just want to kick you in the nuts, even for playing on the "easier" difficulty setting. (Or I just suck at the game) Kind of wish I got it for PC instead and waited for mods as it doesn't feel...all that fun to me compared to Heat.

 

[Moglet]

It definitely gets easier as the days go on, during week 3 I'm taking home $30,000 a day or so, with my record being $84,000 for a single day. Once you unlock the last garage level ($100,000 cost) you can fit a device to your car that doubles the amount of time it takes cops to spot you. I have it on my main Evo and it means I can drive around the map without ever being spotted, unless there are multiple cops in a row or I've reached heat level 5.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Looks like more content is underway, but after the holidays for sure: CM post on EA forums.

For those not wanting to click:

The teams are gonna take a quick holiday break before getting back to Lakeshore.

An upcoming series of post-launch content updates and experience packs, as well as free access to new modes, social features, and progression for Lakeshore Online.

The first update will focus on expanding social play features, and future updates will bring new modes and features, cars, customization content and more.

 

[C_Raccoon23]

No better feeling than losing my money two nights in a row. Let’s see if I can keep the streak going.

I can at least confirm that even if you get busted, you still keep any cars you win from an event that night. In this case, I got the Murcielago.

 

[Moglet]

No better feeling than losing my money two nights in a row. Let’s see if I can keep the streak going.

I can at least confirm that even if you get busted, you still keep any cars you win from an event that night. In this case, I got the Murcielago.

I'm told that if you get busted you can close the game on the "Busted" screen and you won't lose the cash when you re-launch. It only works on that screen though. It's technically cheating but it's single player so it's not really an issue IMO.

 

[FT-1]

I'm told that if you get busted you can close the game on the "Busted" screen and you won't lose the cash when you re-launch. It only works on that screen though. It's technically cheating but it's single player so it's not really an issue IMO.

As someone who has done this on a cause of occasions (hey, the game is grindy enough as is), I can confirm this does work.

It is important to note you should not press continue when you are on the busted screen as this triggers the autosave. Quitting at any point before then, even mid-chase, should leave you at a fuel station with all the cash you have accumulated from the day/night before the chase. Your heat will still be there, but cops will not be chasing you.

 

[Moglet]

Good to know! I've never even got into trouble at heat level 5 as I've only ever entered it after an event near a Safehouse - I plan the order of my night events like that to avoid the frustrations caused by the cop spawning system at high heat levels. After the event, providing I drive in the opposite direction to the approaching helicopter, I can usually sneak around the cops (you can find the undercovers on the map even when they're not visible) and get back unscathed easily with the add-on that doubles the time it takes to get spotted.

 

[PJTierney]

🙂

 

[Ak1504]

Rags To Riches: How A Dusty Mercedes 190 E Became The Latest NFS Hero Car

Rags To Riches: How A Dusty Mercedes 190 E Became The Latest NFS Hero Car - Speedhunters

But this isn’t Need for Speed’s first rodeo. And when you gather a team of die-hard automotive enthusiasts together – including people from EA Games and Speedhunters – the end result isn’t always dictated by brand perception or OEM objectives. No, its main purpose is incredibly simple: to...

www.speedhunters.com

 

[Terronium-12]

So I feel I'm really familiar with almost everything the game has to offer and I'm going to focus on the things the game could do better.

- Do away with the buy-ins as they are now. I've griped about this before, but it's silly that the buy-in comes from the race reward and not your wallet. It makes the race "reward" amount incredibly misleading and compounding that is the fact that if you don't have enough for the buy-in in your wallet you can't do the race. What? Why is the game penalizing me for something that's utterly irrelevant to the way the feature/mechanic actually functions? It's artificial (albeit very low level) progression gating.

Solution: Show the actual amount being won, or, since the numbers work out to be effectively the same whether it comes from your wallet or deducted from the race winnings, get rid of buy-ins entirely. What purpose does it serve? The mechanic seems like it would lend itself better to multiplayer. Or, turn it into some sort of "high stakes" (pun thoroughly intended) multiplier, where a portion of the initial buy-in is returned/added onto the race winnings.

- My number one gripe with the game is its consistency and the blatant lack thereof. You tune a car for grip and it still drifts; you tune a car for drifting and its somehow difficult to break traction at certain points or it powerslides into wild snap oversteer. Half of the time I genuinely don't understand how the game wants to be played. Crashes. No, not application crashing, I mean vehicle crashing. How does this work, exactly?

Sometimes I crash into something at 40mph and nothing happens, other times I hit something at a particular angle at the same speed and it counts as a crash (and then divine momentum pushes the car left or right into a flip even though the collision was entirely front-loaded). Yet, I can somehow run up the rear of a police cruiser at 160+, kill the cruiser and my car is completely fine. All I want is consistency, which leads me to another thing: smashables.

Something else I've griped about before. Either commit to this entirely or don't do it at all. I've said this before, but why is one type of fence/guardrail/barricade breakable but others are a diamond fortress?

Solution: I want to play an arcade racer, not something that's having an identity crisis. It's like a pseudo simcade, but not? Please pick a lane and stay in it. This of course has nothing to do with smashables.

• Rubberbanding. We don't need to talk about this nor offer a solution. It's stupid. If I'm ahead, I'm ahead. I don't need Shimizu sticking to the ground with more downforce than an F1 car and carrying Mach 1 speeds to catch up to me.
• Not being able to upgrade cars whenever is silly.

Solution: Allow car upgrades at any point without having to forward time and forfeit whatever racers are on the map during that time.

• Shimizu is stupid and I will go out of my way to kill him every single chance I get. If you get in front of me in that LaFerrari, you've turned this into a game of Burnout and I will t-bone you with reckless abandon. Oh, that's not a gripe but a further highlight of the rubberbanding BS.
• Cops are omniscient. There's no other explanation for how they're seeing me in the black of night, through trees, over a hill. Also, how in the hell do they know where races take place on a closed circuit? That literally makes no sense. Street races? Fine. You can make up whatever headcanon you want and it would make sense, but on a track? There's no reason for them to be alerted to anything.

Solution: I'm evading human beings, not gods.

 

[EngieDiesel]

I found the game got a lot easier after realizing three things:

1: You have to play like it's Mario Kart. The game is designed around non-stop boost chaining and if you're not charging up yellow bars constantly, you'll never keep up due to how painfully slowly nitrous recharges.

2: Each class has one car that's going to curbstomp everything else. Whatever AI car flies out a mile ahead of everyone else in any given race, just buy that one and max out its 0-60 times as much as you can without bumping up to the next class, slap on the highest level diff you can to maximize its handling slider, and you'll basically win everything guaranteed.

3: High level police chases are basically "get to the highway, keep going till the helicopter runs out of gas and has to leave, then u-turn onto the nearest onramp, drive down and sit underneath it for a while". The highway is mostly deserted at night so it's a low risk escape avenue, if the police cars manage to navigate up the ramp after you (they usually just Blues Brothers themselves trying to make the turn) it's easy to smoke them if your acceleration is high enough, and they don't spawn nearly as much up there as they do on surface streets.

 

[Ak1504]

2: Each class has one car that's going to curbstomp everything else. Whatever AI car flies out a mile ahead of everyone else in any given race, just buy that one

Thats how i played Gran Turismo back in the days. In Unbound i have great races with the car of my choice so idk about that theres a problem.

 

[Terronium-12]

3: High level police chases are basically "get to the highway, keep going till the helicopter runs out of gas and has to leave, then u-turn onto the nearest onramp, drive down and sit underneath it for a while". The highway is mostly deserted at night so it's a low risk escape avenue, if the police cars manage to navigate up the ramp after you (they usually just Blues Brothers themselves trying to make the turn) it's easy to smoke them if your acceleration is high enough, and they don't spawn nearly as much up there as they do on surface streets.

Mine is "cause as much damage as humanly possible". If a cop spawns in front of me, I'm going for the kill.

I want to build a pickup tank and get into H5 pursuits just for the hell of it.

 

[seco46]

So I feel I'm really familiar with almost everything the game has to offer and I'm going to focus on the things the game could do better.

- Do away with the buy-ins as they are now. I've griped about this before, but it's silly that the buy-in comes from the race reward and not your wallet. It makes the race "reward" amount incredibly misleading and compounding that is the fact that if you don't have enough for the buy-in in your wallet you can't do the race. What? Why is the game penalizing me for something that's utterly irrelevant to the way the feature/mechanic actually functions? It's artificial (albeit very low level) progression gating.

Solution: Show the actual amount being won, or, since the numbers work out to be effectively the same whether it comes from your wallet or deducted from the race winnings, get rid of buy-ins entirely. What purpose does it serve? The mechanic seems like it would lend itself better to multiplayer. Or, turn it into some sort of "high stakes" (pun thoroughly intended) multiplier, where a portion of the initial buy-in is returned/added onto the race winnings.

- My number one gripe with the game is its consistency and the blatant lack thereof. You tune a car for grip and it still drifts; you tune a car for drifting and its somehow difficult to break traction at certain points or it powerslides into wild snap oversteer. Half of the time I genuinely don't understand how the game wants to be played. Crashes. No, not application crashing, I mean vehicle crashing. How does this work, exactly?

Sometimes I crash into something at 40mph and nothing happens, other times I hit something at a particular angle at the same speed and it counts as a crash (and then divine momentum pushes the car left or right into a flip even though the collision was entirely front-loaded). Yet, I can somehow run up the rear of a police cruiser at 160+, kill the cruiser and my car is completely fine. All I want is consistency, which leads me to another thing: smashables.

Something else I've griped about before. Either commit to this entirely or don't do it at all. I've said this before, but why is one type of fence/guardrail/barricade breakable but others are a diamond fortress?

Solution: I want to play an arcade racer, not something that's having an identity crisis. It's like a pseudo simcade, but not? Please pick a lane and stay in it. This of course has nothing to do with smashables.

• Rubberbanding. We don't need to talk about this nor offer a solution. It's stupid. If I'm ahead, I'm ahead. I don't need Shimizu sticking to the ground with more downforce than an F1 car and carrying Mach 1 speeds to catch up to me.
• Not being able to upgrade cars whenever is silly.

Solution: Allow car upgrades at any point without having to forward time and forfeit whatever racers are on the map during that time.

• Shimizu is stupid and I will go out of my way to kill him every single chance I get. If you get in front of me in that LaFerrari, you've turned this into a game of Burnout and I will t-bone you with reckless abandon. Oh, that's not a gripe but a further highlight of the rubberbanding BS.
• Cops are omniscient. There's no other explanation for how they're seeing me in the black of night, through trees, over a hill. Also, how in the hell do they know where races take place on a closed circuit? That literally makes no sense. Street races? Fine. You can make up whatever headcanon you want and it would make sense, but on a track? There's no reason for them to be alerted to anything.

Solution: I'm evading human beings, not gods.

On the subject of buying and swapping parts anywhere, they would just have to enable it at meetups, if you can swap cars there anytime you could swap and buy parts there too.

 

[Turboteg90]

I seen to be enjoying the game by doing 2 days at a time, other than that it seems really repetitive.

 

[Terronium-12]

I'm considering a second playthrough because once you complete The Grand, the game just...loses all appeal to me. There's no garage dialogue, no phone calls, nothing. Game loses a decent chunk of its charm (the character interactions, if you can imagine that for a modern NFS game) once that's done.

Not to mention I played it super conservatively and the only car I actually splurged on was the Giulia. Should I do a second playthrough (and I think I will) I'm giving myself an absurd amount of money to buy what I want, when I want. I'll probably get the 488 right away as well so that's another thing I'd be able to use earlier in the game and not the...3 or 4 races I ended up using it in.

 

[Wolfman_UK]

Got this for Christmas and apart from the nuances already stated in this and other threads, I am thoroughly enjoying the game.

Just starting the 4th week so will be interesting seeing what and when DLC comes out bearing in mind the game has been out nearly a month.

And as for the animations.......I was dreading them, but actually, you can ignore them...... or they can be helpful (knowing you are still drifting being 1 example). They don't take away from a good game.

If that is your only worry, give the game a try.

 

[Moglet]

I made a fair bit of progress over the holidays, completing the story as well as collecting all bear collectibles, all graffiti collectibles, and smashing all billboards. I'm now attempting to complete all of the events but some of the speed runs are a total pain due to the way the traffic seems to spawn right in front of you at times! The camera dropping below your car at the slightest hint of getting air and then landing is still as frustrating as ever too. I'm looking forward to seeing what content gets added and which bug fixes make it into the first patch.