A new Need for Speed game is on the way

If you had to draft a top ten list of the best racing games of the last decade, Need for Speed…would not feature on it. Once the de facto name in the genre, EA’s signature driving series has fallen on hard times as of late. From the heady days of Underground and Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed as a brand just isn’t the powerhouse that it used to be and has been left in the dust by the likes of Forza Horizon, Gran Turismo and Project Cars.

It’s a pity, because while 2015’s Need for Speed was a much much better game after it patched out the annoying dudebros who’d call you every 23 seconds so that they could pretend to be extras in The Fast ‘n Furious, 2017’s Need for Speed Payback was a lesson in mediocrity. Buggy and driving around its sandbox with a checklist of open-world tropes, Payback felt like a version of Need for Speed that was going through the motions.

And hell, don’t even get me started on the CaRPG mechanics where you had to equip parts to your vehicle in order to up the vroom vroom. Two years later, EA is feeling the urge to slip into top gear (not that one) once again, as a new instalment in the franchise is on the horizon. That’s the news that came out of the latest quarterly earnings report, where EA revealed that a new Need for Speed game would be released in the near future. Probably end of this year. Probably.

And that’s it! Beyond the mention of a new Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare game (YASS KWEEN), EA didn’t mention anything else. Still, I’m always keen for a Need for Speed game if it’s done right. Just dial down the pale imitation of Fast ‘n Furious, add a proper upgrade system that requires you to purchase parts for your vehicles instead of playing cards and maybe tone down the predatory microtransactions that entice players to engage in some pay to win behaviour.

Or as Jeremy Clarkson would say:

I’ve just jinxed the game, haven’t I?

Last Updated: May 10, 2019