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EA reveal new Need for Speed gameplay and trailer at E3

The NFS logo

EA took the cover off their Need for Speed “reboot” (after an extensive not-quite-two-year hiatus) to showcase how the new Need for Speed is all the best parts of the most popular Need for Speed games, in one game!

The new Need for Speed features custom parts and real-world #brands, drifting and stunts, police chases, and high-speed racing.

It’s a new game, I swear.

EA’s Marcus Nilsson explained how the new game would combine, “The innovation and visuals of Rivals. We are bringing 20 years of history together for the definitive Need for Speed.”

The thing tying it all together is your character’s quest to “become the Ultimate Icon.” As in previous NFS games, you’re climbing the ladder of a fanciful street racing scene, attracting the attention of other racing Icons.

They promise that this game world will be twice the size of Rivals, and will feature “the richest customization ever seen in an NFS game” and with the “the hottest after-market brands.”

The gameplay footage showed live-action custom builders who were eagerly anticipating the arrival of a Godot-like racing icon who might never show up, but they put aside their fear and have the player customize a car and charge into the existential battle that is street racing. After driving around, the player gets into a race where he is graded across five categories:

  • Speed
  • Style
  • Build
  • Crew
  • Outlaw

These represent the five progress tracks that will define your Need for Speed career. And at the end of the race, a Twitter message flashed across the top of the display showing that a high-speed chase and lots of drifts had achieved that most momentous of events: being noticed on Twitter.

Honestly, it looked really busy, and kind of interchangeable with Rivals, just with more built-out customization options and an extra focus on Underground-style street racing. That’s probably exactly what Underground fans want, since EA kind of abandoned that approach in the last few years. But it does not exactly scream reinvention after Most Wanted and Rivals.

The new Need for Speed is coming on Nov. 3.