Info about Need for Speed™ Unbound: Official game description: Compare Need for Speed™ Unbound Editions ======================================== Need for Speed™ Unbound Ultimate Collection =========================================== Unleash the ultimate Need for Speed Unbound experience in one package with the Ultimate Collection. The collection includes Need For Speed Unbound, instant access to all post-launch premium content, and the Vol. 9 Premium Speed Pass. Get access to 9 fully customizable cars, over 45 Customs, and 100+ additional cosmetics. INCLUDES: * Keys to the Map * Vol. 9 Premium Speed Pass\*\* (upon release) * Vol. 8 Premium Speed Pass * Vol. 8 Dynamic Catch-Up Pack\*\* (Including Premium Speed Pass Content, upon release) * Vol. 7 Dynamic Catch-Up Pack (Including Premium Speed Pass Content) * Vol. 6 Dynamic Catch-Up Pack (Including Premium Speed Pass Content) * Vol. 5 Catch-Up Pack * Vol. 5 Customs Pack * Trick or Street Swag Pack * Vol. 4 Catch-Up Pack * Hip Hop Origin Swag Pack * Vol. 4 Customs Pack * Vol. 3 Catch-Up Pack * Robojets Swag Pack * Vol. 3 Customs Pack Need for Speed™ Unbound Palace Edition ====================================== The London-based skate brand joins Lakeshore’s heated streets with a full tank of exclusive content only Palace Skateboards can deliver. Buy\* Need for Speed™ Unbound Palace Edition and get: ----------------------------------------------------- * 4 stunningly intense, new Custom Cars \*\* including: * Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series 2020 * Volkswagen Golf GTI 1976 * BMW M3 Evolution II E30 1988 * Mercedes-AMG G 63 2017 * Palace Driving Effects * Stacked Palace Clothing Pack containing 20 items * Palace Decals and 'Palifornia' License Plate * Tri-Ferg Character Pose and Palace Banner Artwork About the Game ============== Race against time, outsmart the cops, and take on weekly qualifiers to reach The Grand, Lakeshore's ultimate street racing challenge. Pack your garage with precision-tuned custom rides, and light up the streets with your style, exclusive fits, and a vibrant global soundtrack that bumps in every corner of the world. Updates to the game come in the form of Volumes as the game builds towards becoming the Ultimate NFS Experience in one place for the first time. **VOLUMES** * **VOL. 9: LOCKDOWN** — Ride or die with your crew. Break into Lockups using NFS's first motorbike and claim the Hot rides inside, plus the arrival of the fully customizable Subaru Impreza WRX STI ’99 and Honda Integra Type R ’98 * **VOL. 8: Cops vs. Racers** — Relive the original thrill of the chase with the return of Hot Pursuit mode, Pursuit Tech, and all-new Cop Progression, plus the arrival of the fully customizable Porsche 959 S ‘87 and Lotus Evija ‘23 * **VOL. 7: Drift & Drag** — Discover new feels for classic skills, featuring the reintroduction of Drift and Drag modes and League progression, and the arrival of the fully customizable Ford Mustang Dark Horse '24 and BMW M3 Competition Touring '23 * **VOL. 6: Head to Head** — Jump straight into the competition with a new dedicated PVP mode featuring weekly playlists, and crush your rivals with the introduction of 3 fully customizable Audi cars * **VOL. 5** — Show that you’ve reached the top of the scene * **VOL. 4** — Celebrate 75 years of Porsche * **VOL. 3** — Work together to crush intense stunt-based challenges * **VOL. 2** — Head back into the city as Lakeshore evolves Release date: Dec 1, 2022 Categories: Racing Simulation, Vehicle Customization, Open-World Exploration, Multiplayer, Arcade Racing, Police Chase Mechanics, Progression System Feature scans: - MTX: score 85; verdict: Predatory Monetization and Poor Gameplay Mechanics; summary: The analysis of user reviews for the game reveals several key issues that significantly impact the player experience. The most prominent concerns include the excessive and expensive DLCs, which are seen as a cash grab by EA. Players also express dissatisfaction with various gameplay mechanics, such as handling and the car tier system, which affect the fairness and enjoyment of the game. The battle pass system and progression mechanics are criticized for being repetitive and feeling out of place. Additionally, the story and character development are viewed as weak points, with players finding the story lacking in content and the characters unrelatable. Technical issues, including crashes and loading problems, further disrupt the gaming experience. Overall, these issues contribute to a negative perception of the game's monetization and quality. - Wiki: score 10; verdict: Needs Significant Technical Improvements; summary: The primary issues identified in the user feedback for 'Need for Speed Unbound' revolve around technical problems such as game crashes, lack of in-game guidance, and optimization issues. These problems significantly impact the user experience, causing frustration and disrupting gameplay. - Steam Deck: score 85; verdict: Broken; summary: The analysis of user feedback for the Steam Deck experience of a specific game reveals several critical issues impacting user satisfaction and gameplay. The most prevalent and severe problems include frequent crashes and stability issues, which render the game unplayable for many users. The EA App is a significant source of frustration, with users experiencing crashes, launch failures, and general instability across different platforms and regions. Controller and input issues are widespread, affecting users on various platforms and severely impacting gameplay. Performance and optimization issues are also notable, with users reporting high CPU and GPU usage, frame rate drops, and general poor performance. Online and multiplayer issues, including cloud save corruption and connectivity problems, further exacerbate the user experience. - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Interesting Storyline (weight 0.82): The storyline is described as decent and engaging. While not the main focus, it adds context and enjoyment to the racing experience. - Stunning Graphics and Visuals (weight 0.27): The game features high-quality graphics, beautiful scenery, and a unique art style that blends realism with comic elements. The visual effects and stylized graphics are highly praised by players. - Engaging and Challenging Gameplay (weight 0.19): The gameplay is described as smooth, dynamic, and challenging. Players enjoy the variety of race types, events, and the new nitro mechanism, which adds depth and excitement to the races. - Extensive Customization Options (weight 0.18): The game offers a wide range of customization options for cars, including visual tuning, performance adjustments, and artistic details. Players appreciate the depth and variety of customization, which allows for unique and personalized vehicles. - Active and Enjoyable Multiplayer (weight 0.08): The multiplayer mode is described as active and enjoyable, with a variety of event types and modes. Players appreciate the online content and the fun challenge it provides. - Diverse Car Selection (weight 0.05): The game offers a rich selection of cars, including rare and fan-favorite models. The variety of vehicles and the ability to customize them add to the game's appeal. - Meaningful Progression System (weight 0.03): The progression system is well-thought-out and satisfying. Players feel that the upgrades and resource gains are meaningful, adding to the overall enjoyment of the game. - Enjoyable Drift Mechanics (weight 0.03): The drift mechanics are praised for being fun and intuitive. Players enjoy the improved drift system and the variety of drift competitions available in the game. - Lockdown Mode (weight 0.03): The Lockdown mode is particularly enjoyable and adds a unique challenge to the multiplayer experience. Players appreciate the dedicated modes for PVP and Lockdown. - Engaging Money Earning Mechanics (weight 0.03): The money earning mechanics are interesting and engaging. Players enjoy the tension and excitement of losing and earning money through various gameplay activities. Common complaints: - Lackluster story and characters (weight 0.38): The story and characters are widely criticized for being bland, repetitive, and uninteresting. The dialogue is often cringe-worthy and the characters are shallow. - Poor handling and physics (weight 0.35): Many players have criticized the game for its poor car handling and unrealistic physics. The cars often feel like they are driving on ice or are too slow unless high-tier cars are used. - Criticism of visual and audio design (weight 0.31): The game's visual and audio design have been criticized for being cartoonish and out of place. The music is often described as bad and not fitting the game's atmosphere. - Issues with EA launcher (weight 0.25): The EA launcher is criticized for being buggy and unreliable. Many players have reported issues with the launcher crashing or failing to open the game. - Poor optimization and performance issues (weight 0.22): The game suffers from poor optimization, leading to low FPS, stuttering, and frequent crashes. Many players have reported issues with the game not launching or crashing frequently. - Grindy and repetitive gameplay (weight 0.18): The gameplay is often described as grindy and repetitive. Players feel forced to grind for hours to progress, and the lack of diversity in races adds to the monotony. - Unbalanced and aggressive police chases (weight 0.11): The police chases are seen as unbalanced and overly aggressive. Cops spawn too frequently and are often too difficult to avoid, making the gameplay frustrating. - Limited car customization and progression (weight 0.07): Players have expressed frustration with the limited car customization options and the restrictive car class system. The progression system feels grindy and unsatisfying. - Unbalanced AI difficulty (weight 0.03): The AI difficulty is often seen as unbalanced and cheaty. The AI can be overly aggressive and difficult to beat, making the gameplay frustrating. Gameplay feedback: - Extensive car customization (weight 0.36): Players can extensively customize their cars, including visual and performance upgrades. The game offers a deep tuning system and a wide range of cars to choose from, allowing for personalized gameplay experiences. - Open-world and story mode (weight 0.32): The game features an open-world environment with a story-driven campaign mode. Players can engage in various activities such as street racing, police chases, and story missions, with a day and night system affecting gameplay. - Arcade-style racing gameplay (weight 0.31): The game is focused on arcade-style racing with various modes such as police chases, street racing, and a battle royale event. It features a large variety of cars and customization options, but the handling and physics are more arcade-like rather than simulation. - Police chase mechanics (weight 0.27): Police chases are a significant part of the gameplay, with cops spawning unpredictably and frequently. This can break the game's rhythm and make races more challenging, adding a risk-reward system to the gameplay. - Online mode and multiplayer (weight 0.24): The game offers multiplayer modes and online events integrated into the open world. However, the online mode can feel empty, and the separation of single-player and online modes is noted. - Challenging AI and difficulty (weight 0.06): The game's AI provides a challenging experience, with difficulty settings that can feel misleading. The AI opponents are often ahead and make few mistakes, making races difficult to win. - Progression and unlock systems (weight 0.06): The game features a progression system tied to car upgrades and unlocks. Players can unlock new cars and race categories through challenges and in-game currency, but the progression can feel slow and unrewarding. Performance notes: - Performance and Optimization Issues (weight 0.13): The game suffers from significant performance and optimization problems. Players report low FPS, frame rate drops, stuttering, and high CPU usage, particularly on lower-end hardware. These issues are exacerbated by the need to restart the game after changing graphics settings. - Game Launch Problems (weight 0.12): Many players experience difficulties launching the game. Issues include multiple attempts to launch, failures on specific operating systems like Windows 11, and the need for system reboots. Additionally, the EA app is reported to crash frequently. - Graphical Issues (weight 0.11): The game has various graphical problems, including blurry visuals, demanding graphics settings, and distracting special effects. Some players find the graphics pleasant, while others report issues with clarity and performance on different settings. - Gameplay Bugs and Glitches (weight 0.1): Players encounter numerous bugs and glitches during gameplay. These include strange freezes when collecting items or during loading, error codes appearing, and alt-tab issues. The game is described as buggy with rendering issues and unrealistic physics. - Crashing and Stability Issues (weight 0.1): The game frequently crashes, both during gameplay and on launch. Players report issues with the game freezing, crashing into cars during races, and experiencing desynchronization problems. These stability issues significantly impact the gaming experience. - Technical Limitations (weight 0.03): The game engine is criticized for not being suitable for quality racing games. Additionally, there are reports of compilation stutters upon first boot and after driver updates, as well as framerate being tied to game speed. Recommendations: - Mixed recommendations on purchase (weight 0.19): Players have varying opinions on whether the game is worth buying. Some recommend it, especially at a discount or for fans of the series, while others strongly advise against purchasing it at all. - Value for money concerns (weight 0.18): Many players feel that the game is not worth its full price and suggest buying it only when it is heavily discounted. Some even suggest it's not worth it even if it's free. - Alternative game suggestions (weight 0.17): Players often suggest alternatives like Forza Horizon, NFS Heat, or older classics like Most Wanted and Carbon, indicating that they might offer a better experience. - Distrust towards EA (weight 0.01): Some players express a lack of trust in EA and state they won't buy EA games anymore, indicating broader issues with the publisher. - Audio recommendations (weight 0.01): Some players recommend turning off the dialogue audio, indicating that the audio quality or content might be lacking. - Enjoyment despite flaws (weight 0.01): A few players mention enjoying the game despite its problems, indicating that there are redeeming qualities. - DLC suggestions (weight 0.01): There are suggestions to buy the Ultimate Collection DLC, indicating that additional content might enhance the game experience. Other player notes: - Expensive DLCs and NPC design (weight 0.02): Players are dissatisfied with the high cost of downloadable content and the poor design of non-player characters. - Refund requests from gifted copies (weight 0.01): Some players who received the game as a gift are still seeking refunds, indicating dissatisfaction. - Profanity filter criticism (weight 0.01): Players are criticizing the game's profanity filter for flagging the word 'BAE' as inappropriate. Emotions: - Disappointment (weight 0.32): Players are disappointed with various aspects of the game, including poor controls, graphics, and map design. The story mode lacks engaging race modes, and the game suffers from launcher issues, unbalanced gameplay, and excessive police presence. Additionally, the art style and overall game experience do not meet the expectations set by previous versions, leading to a sense of letdown. - Frustration (weight 0.3): Players are frustrated with the game's difficulty, including poor vehicle physics and unpredictable police spawns. Technical issues such as game crashes, poor optimization, and bugs contribute to the frustration. The grind-heavy progression system and repetitive gameplay mechanics also add to the overall dissatisfaction. - Anger (weight 0.1): Players express anger over the game's pay-to-win mechanics, poor writing, and unbalanced AI difficulty. The frustrating police system, game crashes, and high CPU usage further exacerbate the anger. Additionally, the overuse of certain cars and poor storytelling contribute to the negative experience. - Appreciation (weight 0.06): Players appreciate the game's customization options, graphics, and improvements over previous versions. The engaging campaign, good soundtrack, and unique graphic style are also highlighted. The gift of a McLaren F1 and actual progression in the game are noted as positive aspects. - Enjoyment (weight 0.05): Players enjoy the multiplayer mode, intense and fun races, and solid gameplay. The driving and atmosphere are praised, along with the music and core aspects of the game that capture the true Need for Speed experience. - Satisfaction (weight 0.03): Players are satisfied with the game's graphics, customization options, and multiplayer modes. The well-integrated online mode, dedicated game modes, and improvements in story and customization are also appreciated. The inclusion of A$AP Rocky and realistic characters add to the satisfaction. - Excitement (weight 0.01): Players are excited about the adrenaline and action the game provides. The mechanics of escaping from cops after each race and the enjoyment of the game's challenge and variety contribute to the excitement. - Enthusiasm (weight 0.01): Players are enthusiastic about the game's excellent graphics, audio, and customization options. The love for various aspects of the game, including its visuals and sound, contributes to the overall enthusiasm. - Disgust (weight 0.01): Players express disgust towards the game's art style and music. The unlikable characters and poor dialogue further contribute to this negative emotion. - Joy (weight 0.01): Players find joy in the game's graphics and online game modes. The emotional impact and value of the game also contribute to the sense of joy. - Anger (weight 0.01): Players are angry about the AI system and economic system design. The overly powerful opponents in multiplayer mode further contribute to this anger. - Disappointment (weight 0.01): Players are disappointed with the gameplay mechanics and map design. The poor story mode also adds to the sense of disappointment. - Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Players feel nostalgic about the good memories of past NFS titles. The preference for old titles, which are more enjoyable and focused on driving, contributes to this feeling. - Frustration (weight 0.01): Players are frustrated with the high initial difficulty of the game. This steep learning curve contributes to the sense of frustration. - Satisfaction (weight 0.01): Players are satisfied with the excellent multiplayer mode. The well-designed multiplayer experience contributes to this satisfaction. - Disappointment (weight 0.01): Players are disappointed with the control issues and grind in the game. These aspects contribute to the overall sense of disappointment. - Tension (weight 0.01): Players feel tension due to the police chases in the game. The intensity of these chases contributes to this feeling. - Hope (weight 0.01): Players feel hopeful that the game is moving in the right direction. This sense of progress and improvement contributes to the feeling of hope.}