Sports Games

Two weeks after the event EA Showcase , let's talk about Need for Speed: The Run, thanks to a new journey to London which allowed us to touch to the multiplayer component of the first title developed by Black Box as well as to try another piece of "country" single-player, of which we speak, however, only a couple of days. For now, space for online racing.

The theme of the various modes of Need for Speed: The Run is definitely a desire on the part of the development team, to make the player feel constantly part of a persistent online community.
You can already see from the way Auto log constantly updated on the results of their friends while tackling the single player, but emerges by force in the structuring of real multiplayer. Approaching the line of the Run that there will never waiting in a lobby, hoping to find opponents to play with, and there is always at hand to join a game. How is it possible?

In fact, the answer is quite simple. On the one hand, of course, if the system is about to start a race, you are immediately thrown inside, ready to go. On the other hand, on the contrary, if only sessions are already underway, here you can enter the track during a race. Obviously you'll end up starting with the major disadvantages, perhaps twenty or forty seconds. And at this point, quite rightly, one might wonder what the meaning is. And the sense is, and is twofold. On the one hand there is the charm of having fun with the impossible comeback, shooting a thousand on the turbo and trying to regain position after position, the other is the fact that the whole game, single player and multiplayer, is crossed by a system of experience points and levels cross.

Whatever you do playing Need for Speed: The Run contributes to the improvement of their status and the accumulation of points through which later unlock cars, bonuses of various kinds and even power-ups, for example related to the duration of the turbo in the race. Points are earned simply by running, winning, doing special maneuvers or even satisfying conditions which may vary from race to race and that, in multiplayer, are also determined through a sort of wheel of fortune pre-race (which can confer, for example, an award bonus XP for those who place it among the top three). In short, even participate in a race where you have no hope of victory, because it started late, it makes sense, tied to the growth of their profile. And, according to Black Box, it is more fun than spending time in a lobby waiting to find players for a game.

Beyond this, the game system provides a number of possible competitions organized in thematic play lists. Each play list includes between three and five races, grouped by "topics". There are even competitions devoted to super cars rather than city races illegal, to dart in areas affected by the force of nature or the type of stroke and so on. It also gives the team, everything is structured so as not to have certain self evidently more effective than other and therefore provide a more varied and balanced competition. For our part, a strong series of races met, we can say that the flowing fluid and fun multiplayer, but the race lacks a bit in the strict sense 'personality and, in fact, moves away from the distinctive features of the game, eliminating the charm the journey on the road and fighting environments in favor of arcade races between we have had so many. All this is not necessarily bad, but perhaps proved more convincing than the uninteresting Challenge Series mode.