Need for Speed Unbound

geez, games are releasing in alpha states these days...now you need a vBIOS update to patch the game?...and not just any GPU but the latest and greatest ones from Nvidia...another recent game also had an issue that only affected the 4000 series (Plague Tale: Requiem)
Or card makers are doing things with out testing it either, but agree, games have been released in "Alpha" status for years, once pre-orders started and all the pre-order tools jumped on board, paying for a game with out even a demo, only pre-rendered crap as an example, game companies knew they were set for life....
 
There's always that 10 hour trial if you have Xbox Game Pass PC, but on the EA App. $70 is pretty steep, and this is a nice way to try before you buy (or, wait until it goes on sale or drops to the EA Play tier).
 
Downloaded. Played 2 races. Turned it off. Bargain bin purchase. Took me 20 mins to find the exit game button. 2 races took me about 5 mins. 👀 🤣

I will do the 10 hours but don’t feel like it as I know that saves don’t carry over usually in EA stupid games.

I will be ok for game pass or 10 bucks for this.
 
Downloaded. Played 2 races. Turned it off. Bargain bin purchase. Took me 20 mins to find the exit game button. 2 races took me about 5 mins. 👀 🤣

I will do the 10 hours but don’t feel like it as I know that saves don’t carry over usually in EA stupid games.

I will be ok for game pass or 10 bucks for this.

Need for Speed Unbound: FSR 2.1 vs. DLSS 2 vs. DLSS 3 Comparison Review


Need for Speed Unbound is out now, with support for NVIDIA's DLSS Super Resolution (DLSS 2.4), NVIDIA's DLSS Frame Generation (also known as DLSS 3) and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 (FSR 2.1). In this mini-review we take a look, comparing the image quality and performance gains offered by these technologies.
 
The game is not worth $70 IMO.
I agree.
Downloaded. Played 2 races. Turned it off. Bargain bin purchase. Took me 20 mins to find the exit game button. 2 races took me about 5 mins. 👀 🤣

I will do the 10 hours but don’t feel like it as I know that saves don’t carry over usually in EA stupid games.

I will be ok for game pass or 10 bucks for this.
I think saves are intended to carry over- but probably through whatever files are stored locally? I'm trying again tonight but I have a lot of issues with it- somehow, like NFS Heat, I have the same issue with actually trying to drive in the physics/handling model. You can't rebind the controller buttons. Manual transmission kinda sucks. The weird way the cars drift makes the 3rd person camera view almost mandatory.
if anyone in here is on an amd gpu, they have a new driver out for this. havent seen it mentioned yet...
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-22-11-2
Strangely, just like with NFS Heat, I've had issues where Windows reports that DX12 thinks the device was removed.
 
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I did rebind controls. But did them on Keyboard so not sure if controller rebind is not allowed.

No performance or other issues. Game runs at about 200 fps for me or something with Nvidia frame gen.
 
Getting old sucks. Remember, when we were kids in the 90's and we looked back at the 60's is the same amount of time between now and our kids looking back at the 90's :eek:

If you had kids on top of working a 9 to 5 job time goes really fast. I had a lot of free time without having kids but my job killed it for me anyway. Tech addiction makes time go even faster. You can't slow time but can make in more meaningful.
 
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Kinda sad, but I just setup Burnout 3: Takedown on the ole emu again....

(Still my favorite mindless "racing" game of all time)
 
No body ever liked drifting in any game. They need to take that shit out of racing games.
I enjoyed it in Underground 2 and Carbon, but that was in a separate game mode. I don't like having to deal with a physics model that pushes drifting so much in the primary game mode. It's why I dropped NFS Heat.
 
Not sure if this is specific to Gamestop (or just console) but NFS:U is already getting discounted:

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There was a solid drifting mode in the original Grid iirc.
I think you're right, but the mechanic in that one was infinitely better than this. And even still, it was tolerable, but it was a chore. Racing and drifting are not the same thing. Make a drifting game and see how many people buy it. I doubt very many
 
I've been playing this over the last day, and I'd say it's pretty good. The surprising thing about it is that the game is challenging in an honest way. Unlike seemingly every other game out there, you can't just roll up in your 1980's Corolla and suddenly beat new Porches and Ferraris. You're actually supposed to be happy with getting 3rd or 4th and you can only win when the other racers colossally screw up. The AI doesn't seem to cheat necessarily, either. If they have a better car, they're simply faster than you and vice versa.

The "plot" is as ridiculous as ever, but it's easy enough to ignore. The game doesn't explain the game mechanics particularly well, either. They just start throwing stuff at you and you're just supposed to figure it out, which is strange. Other than those 2 things, I'd say it's a worthwhile NFS game. The package can't touch the last two Forza Horizon games, BUT the racing AI is quite a bit better.
 
As I progress further, it seems like there's a lack of content. I'm doing the same races and events over and over. The game actually nerfs my ability to improve my car by limiting events to cars that are below a certain score. I'm still really enjoying the race AI (although Forza's rewind has ruined me), but I'm wondering if this game ever truly opens up. I've completed "week 1" (of 3 apparently) and so far week 2 is the same stuff.
 
I'm hearing good things about the game...sounds like the best NFS since Most Wanted...graphics are also getting high praise...Digital Foundry had this in their Top 10 games of 2022 in terms of graphics
 
I'm hearing good things about the game...sounds like the best NFS since Most Wanted...graphics are also getting high praise...Digital Foundry had this in their Top 10 games of 2022 in terms of graphics

Nah. I liked it for the first couple hours, but it gets progressively worse the further you get. Graphics-wise, I don't think it's any better than Heat. Compared to Forza Horizon 4 or 5, it's not even close.
 
I'm hearing good things about the game...sounds like the best NFS since Most Wanted...graphics are also getting high praise...Digital Foundry had this in their Top 10 games of 2022 in terms of graphics
Digital Foundry isn't the end-all-be-all for graphics... and their takes on gameplay haven't always been great.
Nah. I liked it for the first couple hours, but it gets progressively worse the further you get. Graphics-wise, I don't think it's any better than Heat. Compared to Forza Horizon 4 or 5, it's not even close.
I've actually considered getting this game on sale, but your posts reminded that the races don't get much better, and the forced "chases" after winning certain races just gets annoying.
 
Digital Foundry isn't the end-all-be-all for graphics... and their takes on gameplay haven't always been great

their technical breakdowns on the tech powering games is one of the very best...they go in-depth into graphics settings which are also excellent...I haven't seen them talk too much about gameplay except in a very general sense...I don't think anyone uses them for gameplay analysis
 
I picked this up for 32 bucks because I wanted to complete my NFS games library. However, this is one of the worst and least exciting NFS games I have played. The racing is really terrible and the fact that it takes ages to get cash is ridiculous. Not sure why they need to add "grind" in NFS games. I hope they fix the cash payouts but right now I am locked in B races because I don't have cash for A races. So I need to continue doing B racing garbage.
 
I picked this up for 32 bucks because I wanted to complete my NFS games library. However, this is one of the worst and least exciting NFS games I have played. The racing is really terrible and the fact that it takes ages to get cash is ridiculous. Not sure why they need to add "grind" in NFS games. I hope they fix the cash payouts but right now I am locked in B races because I don't have cash for A races. So I need to continue doing B racing garbage.

IMO, the more annoying thing is that once you finally get enough $ to upgrade your car (or buy a new one), you'll discover there are only like 3 races per day where you can use it. The rest are still lower tier races, so you have to have multiple cars. It works like that all the way to the end of the game, too. You'll have an S+ car you can only use a few times a week. By the 3rd week you'll start to hate this game.
 
IMO, the more annoying thing is that once you finally get enough $ to upgrade your car (or buy a new one), you'll discover there are only like 3 races per day where you can use it. The rest are still lower tier races, so you have to have multiple cars. It works like that all the way to the end of the game, too. You'll have an S+ car you can only use a few times a week. By the 3rd week you'll start to hate this game.
Wow, that is downright stupid. Wtf?
 
Oof....I was kinda hopeful for this, but I hate to have my doubts confirmed.

Also, long live burnout.
 
At first I liked the game, mainly because the way it opens doesn't involve the same day/night weekly grind thing. Once the "real" game starts, it goes downhill quickly. It's disappointing because the AI is good. It doesn't cheat or rubberband. It does put a premium on getting a fast start and cheating corners, though. That's the only way you can ever win vs. cars that are better than yours.

Honestly, I liked Heat and I think it's a better game. This one feels rushed outside of the racing AI. Instead of things like more tracks (there aren't many), tutorials, and utilizing the left 1/3 of the map they just kept adding more weeks to the story.
 
Just picked up the "NFS Collection" (2 games?) on Steam based on comments here. I already had several of them, but lacked NFS: Hot Pursuit Remastered and NFS: Heat which both have great user scores.
 
Just picked up the "NFS Collection" (2 games?) on Steam based on comments here. I already had several of them, but lacked NFS: Hot Pursuit Remastered and NFS: Heat which both have great user scores.

Both of those games are good, and better than Unbound IMO. I haven't played the remastered version of Hot Pursuit, but the original 2010 version is one of the best NFS titles, period. Heat has a ridiculously corny plot, but is otherwise a good game. It does a good job of allowing you to interact with other racers playing online without being obnoxious or forcing you to enter a separate mode. Don't want to interact with them? You don't ever need to. It's similar to Forza, but maybe even better. Unbound shuffles anything related to other racers to a totally different mode, which makes everything feel more sterile than it already does.
 
I found payback better than Heat especially in the story and progression department. Also they patched out the grind so when I played it (years later), the game was fine in terms of no need for micro transactions or other bull crap.

Heat was OK. Hot pursuit remastered is good but I think way too short. Definitely worth a playthrough.
 
I'm absolutely a freak because I liked Most Wanted 2012- zero actual "plot" and some trippy sequences when you consider it has absolutely no "characters" and it let the cars just be... weird.

It hasn't aged well, but, that's how it goes sometimes.

Anyway, another thing that bothered me about Unbound- I did not like manual transmission. It's just not that kind of game for me.
 
IMO, Unbound is worth a look if you've already played the better games in the series and it's on sale for $30'ish. The game doesn't suck and it isn't the worst game in the series or anything like that. It's just below average with some very obvious flaws. The biggest one being that it's grindy as hell and you'll end up doing the same 5-10 races over and over and over.

Plus, right now there are simply plenty of other current-gen games in the genre that are better. Dirt 5, NFS: Heat, and (especially) Forza Horizon 4 & 5 are better arcade racers. GRID Legends is roughly on par with Unbound. Those are all on Gamepass, so they're super cheap to play, too.
 
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