Need for Speed Does A Threesome

Three new Need for Speed games were announced today by Electronic Arts, leaving the gaming world - or at least the part of it that still has some common sense - in a blissful indifference, at best. While some might find the idea of a NFS threesome quite exciting, we dare question how EA will be able to churn out three quality titles in less than a year, after years of pushing the franchise down a steady slope.



Well, no use trolling over spilt booze, so let's get on with the news. As they say in the announcement, "we listened to the gamers when they told us they wanted a wider range of experiences" (big mistake!), so they're now ready to pop the cork off their new NFS games: Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Nitro and Need for Speed World Online.

NFS Shift sounds like your run-of-the-mill racing game (think Race Driver: GRID for instance), and this first screenshot shows nothing spectacular, either. "A racing game built by racers for racers", "a level of realism never before seen in a Need for Speed title", "an incredible authentic and immersive driving experience", "a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit viewpoint", "an unrivaled sensation of racing at high speed" - the usual PR talk. The one true flicker of hope shines from the fact that it's being developed by Slighty Mad Studios, formerly known as Blimey (the guys behind GT Legends and GTR 2). NFS Shift is planned for release on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PSP in autumn 2009.


Next up, NFS Nitro (working title) is being developed by EA Montreal solely for Nintendo's Wii and DS consoles, also with an autumn 2009 release in mind. It will be an arcade-style racing game with a unique visual design and new gameplay ideas. But for now, I see no point on insisting on it. The *cough* "screenshot" attached in the announcement may give you a slight idea about the visual style, but that's about it.

Finally, NFS World Online ended up with a way too exciting title. And a bit tragic one, too, if we're to recall the fate suffered by the late NFS spin-off, Motor City Online. Yeah, long-term online support is definitely not one of EA's strong points. This time, they're aiming for a "Play 4 Free" PC racing game boasting little more than "sophisticated online matchmaking features". It may be multiplayer, it may be online, but there'll be nothing massive about it, I can bet on that. In fact, this latter project co-developed by EA Black Box and EA Singapore is so dubious, that it will only debut in Asia during summer 2009. After that... don't know, and pretty much don't care.

Oh, by the way, there's also a fourth NFS title in the works / plans, but EA says that one is still a secret. I wouldn't mind them keeping it that way for, like, ever.

Tags:  DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360, driving, EA Black Box, Electronic Arts, Slightly Mad Studios (Blimey)