The next stage of post-launch updates for Need for Speed Unbound — “Volume 3” — has been revealed, and is set to arrive in just over a week on Tuesday June 20.
As with the Volume 2 update back in March, the latest patch brings in new cars, new events, new features, and a raft of bug fixes and quality of life changes as EA continues to support the title.
Headlining the update is the addition of a new car, by way of the classic DeLorean DMC-12. Although not a particularly potent car as standard, the capacity for some pretty extreme modifications in NFSU should make one of the world’s most famous fictional time machines into a bit of a weapon.
Players will be able to access the DeLorean through completing a new one-shot challenge — making it available to purchase — which focuses on a new “Linkup” feature we’ll cover later in this article.
A further new vehicle is a legendary custom Dodge Viper SRT, which comes with a new paint finish vanity item. Players will only be able to acquire this car for a limited time through the new Speed Pass system.
This new system sees players picking up XP for completing various challenges, playlists, and the Linkups to earn levels in Speed Pass, with each level gifting exclusive vanity items. There’s 75 levels in total, and you’ll pick up the Viper at level 50. In addition, EA will remove the existing multiplayer ranking system, and compensate players with around 5,000 Bank per level.
Volume 3 Speed Pass will only be available until the start of Volume 4, so if you want the Viper you’ve only got a few weeks to blast through those levels.
Those who play on EA Play will also pick up a third car: the epic custom Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec, as a bonus item.
The new multiplayer feature is the aforementioned Linkups, which consist of co-operative challenges that spawn at one of seven locations on the map every few minutes.
Up to 16 players can play at once, and they’ll be required to complete different challenges — such as so much speed, or air time, or destruction — with targets that scale with the number of participants. Eventually the cops will come along and try to bust you, although there’s no real consequences within the event, but your Heat level can persist after event ends…
There’s also new Playlist events, with Drifting introduced to the challenges. Players will be tasked with setting the highest drift score on each circuit, and opponent cars will be ghosted for these events to aid better scores.
Also looking at multiplayer play, there’s a new chat wheel which allows players to quickly access a selection of a 50 phrases and 25 emojis to express themselves without having to deal with the often troublesome voice chat.
Players will also be able to take advantage of two new abilities in free roam, with a new system for fast travel (referred to as “teleporting”) and — in Lakeshore Online — free selection of time of day.
A new in-game store will also debut in Volume 3, with three items up for purchase with real money — arguably all cosmetic.
The least expensive item is a $5.99 Customs Pack, which adds three unique designs for the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, Volvo 242, and VW Golf Clubsport. At the other end of the scale is the $14.99 Robojets Swag Pack, that adds an extreme version of the Mazda RX-7 FD, along with 25 vanity items across all categories that follow the 80s-futurism vibe of the car.
Finally there’s a Ford Mustang GT Legendary Custom for $9.99, which also comes with a ten-level Speed Pass boost — allowing you to skip ten levels from your current level automatically, up to the maximum of 75.
Volume 3 will be available as a free update to Need for Speed Unbound across all platforms from Tuesday June 20.
