Jenkins' Reviews - Need For Speed World MMO

Yes sorry Kata but i have stolen your idea for review threads lol..

Well actually that's not true i used to review PSP games on the most popular PSP forum years ago,
so i thought i should start doing that again because of the amount of games i play.

Ok so earlier today i received an email from EA accepting my application for the closed beta of NFS:World.

The Download
The download was surprisingly small (1.4gb) considering the scale of this game,
however the beta doesn't include all the cars and is still after all a beta and we all know how things can change..

First Impressions
First impressions were pretty good, nice UI, game started up faster than something like TF2, also "Jenkins" wasn't taken as an alias so that was another plus for me lol.
However, the volume level for the music was quite low, and i checked the options and they were all on 100, so i turned my speakers up (mistake) and almost got blasted out of my seat when i actually got ingame.

The Map
From what i can work out, the map in this game is a combination of nearly every single street racing Need For Speed game so far, there are portions of the map that i actually think are from as far back as NFS:Porche 2000.

Network
Unfortunately this game requires a constant internet connection, also small things like "power ups" and cars also have a "connecting.." message before they are displayed, which makes me think they too are stored online (possibly for dynamic changes? who knows..)

Damage
Another unfortunate aspect is that the visual damage is just that, visual.
Smashing into a wall at over 240kmph doesn't effect the handling on your car in one bit, which leaves races open for abuse. (A thing i call "Barrier riding") Where its actually quicker to scrape along the outside edge of the road than to take the corner normally, this isn't always the best thing to do but on some sharp corners it's actually faster to do it that way which is disappointing.

Graphics
The graphics overall are quite amazing, it looks a bit like Most Wanted with Next Gen graphics,
however as mentioned before the damage physics are quite simplistic, and although once your car finally has had enough crashes to make damage noticeable, it seems a bit too... generic.

The Handling
The car handling is quite "hard" (stiff) aswell, it may be the car that i chose but i doubt it from the way people were talking about their different cars.
The lack of support for a controller/joystick had me quite disappointed aswell.
Racing games on the PC should include support for external controllers by default these days, without me having to resort to Xpadder to actually use one.
(That in itself has problems because there aren't enough buttons on the controller to utilise the racing features "power ups")

The Controls
The controls are your basic WSAD (or Up,Down,Left,Right arrows) and space for handbrake, however the typical controls stop there because with this new "power up" system you don't have the ability to control these "power ups" like old NFS games with nitro.
Instead they are controlled via the Numpad (8,6,4,2) which is where things like nitro are "activated" instead of just using a small portion from a bar/meter of nitro.
There are some pretty cool "power ups" but they are limited, and you have to advance to the next level (XP wise) or place 1st, 2nd or 3rd in a race or outrun the cops in order to earn more of these "power ups".

The Police
Which brings me to my next topic, the police.
Now i have always had a great time with Hot Pursuit games such as the NFSHP series, however the cops are either too dumb or way too smart.
I think they have tried to correct that in this version, but it is quite difficult to outrun them even when pulling some serious stunts and skilled driving.
Another downfall about these chases is if you are in a chase for say 15 mins, you earn points by running roadblocks, wiping out police cars etc, you lose all those points and hardwork if you are caught, which believe me, is very often.

Conclusion
In conclusion, i think the game is very thought out, which is surprising coming from EA. Overall i would say it is worth it but as an Australian, i am going to wait until Australian servers open, because the lag is a bit much to handle when your in a race with 7 other people from across Europe with over 350 ping.

Ratings
Graphics: 9.5/10 (see pic below)
Physics: 6/10
Gameplay: (still hard to say) 7/10
Story: There isn't one so, N/A
Performance: Also hard to say considering my specs, but from talking to other people i would say 6.5/10 for now (it's still a beta)
Sound/Music: 6/10 (car sounds can get annoying, music volume is too low but in its defence the dynamic music fits the game well)

Overall
7.2/10



NOTE: I was actually pleasantly surprised at the lack of EA propaganda in this game, for once EA aren't yelling at me with billboards and car vinyls "LOOK HOW GOOD WE ARE"



Hope to see you on the streets sometime soon!

nice review
but yeah, im not into car games lol

Don't closed betas usually have NDA's? It would be best to at least move this to a private sub-forum.

well the way i figure it is just search youtube for this game Lol...

Yeah it probably does have a NDA but A. im not leaking any of its data and B. i gave it a pretty positive review

If i released a closed beta even with an NDA i wouldn't be too fussed about people reviewing the game publically, plus if EA come here looking for NDA breaches then fucking roffle