Discount Need for Speed Rivals - Xbox One

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List Price: $59.99
Sale Price: $49.00
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I'm a big fan of most wanted and had high hopes for this game but after playing for a few hours I'm bored out of my mind with this game.

There's so many things about this game that I don't like, but it will start of with the positives.

First off the game is beautiful. This is why we got next gen consoles, so games can look this great. Cars look outstanding, and the environment looks very realistic.

There's a good amount of car customization. A wide range of colors, rim colors, custom license plates, decals and performance upgrades as well.

But besides that there's not much positive about the game.

To start with the negative the most important thing about the game, the driving is pretty bad. Cars feel stiff and unresponsive. When I'm driving a Porsche it feels like I'm driving a sedan. I don't know show to explain it but cars just feel heavy.

But even worse is when you are driving there's nothing to do. The world is a good size, but it just feels empty. There's a very limited amount of cars on the road as well. Police chases aren't nearly as cool as they were in most wanted. I loved getting chased down by police trucks, and cops laying down tire spikes in the road and setting road blocks it was great but none of that is in here.

And like i said the world is empty and boring. Not nearly as many stunt jumps and there's no cool or interesting land marks to check out.

Also something I was big fan of in most wanted was the multiplayer. I though it was fantastic, just free roaming with people, starting random races, it was great but none of that is in this game. There's multiplayer but it's not the same.

Graphics9/10

Gameplay-7/10

World-7/10

Online-710

Sound-7.5/10(sound really isn't that good, cars really sound the same)

Single player-6/10(not much variety)

Overall this game is all polish and no substance. The game looks great, but it doesn't deliver. It's just a boring game.

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I haven't played the Need for Speed series since my childhood, but Rivals has made me a fan again. It is hard to beat an arcade racer where you are either driving away from the cops or pursuing speeding vehicles and trying to put them against the wall.

The best aspect of the game is actually after the chase sequence is over with when you have to "bank" your credits by visiting the nearest command post or hideout location. This feature really puts pressure on you as a gamer when you try to decide if enough is enough or if you want to go back out there and risk losing all of your points.

My only issue so far is the multiplayer experience. It runs very well, but it is difficult to find your friends with a map so large. I know they are going for seamless multiplayer, but I would rather set up matches with my friends to make it easier.

However, a lot of fun is still to be had while jumping online. It is great to have 3 v 3 against friends and race through the streets going 150 mph+

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I'm not the world's biggest racing game fan, but I've always had a soft spot for the Need for Speed Hot Pursuit / Most Wanted games. The cop vs. racer dynamic has always struck me as infinitely more compelling than "5 people driving to get to point A to see who gets there first." Need for Speed Rivals takes all that I've known and loved about past NFS cop / racer games and makes it that much better using the power of next-gen consoles.

First off, the graphics. The game is beautiful. Moisture on the cars after bad weather, explosive accidents, crazy lighting / reflections, insane particle effects, etc. You can go on and on about the graphics but it's no surprise how good they look since the game runs on DICE's Frostbite 3 engine. If you play Battlefield, you'll probably smile as you drive by trees or bust through a fence in NFS since the effects are more or less identical to crushing a fence in Battlefield. Frostbite 3 feel free to power as many games of mine as you want because you're beautiful .

The game also has a ton to do when you're not just staring at it. I haven't quite wrapped my head around every feature yet, but I really like the open world dynamic and how you can choose to be a cop / racer and approach different lists and objectives as you see fit. Autolog is back (not sure if it's still called that anymore, might just be Speed Wall) that is constantly updating you with your top speeds and times and comparing it to your friends, which is great incentive to keep playing. I think your open world experience is supposed to be integrated with other humans (think GTA V online) but so far, I've been the only one in all my play sessions. Probably due to the fact that the X1 has only been out for 48 hours.

Overall, Need for Speed is a great racing game for racing fans and non-racing fans alike. There's a lot to see and do here whether you're really into cars or not, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to change up their first person shooter / sports menu with a high-speed, dynamic racing experience.

Honest reviews on Need for Speed Rivals - Xbox One

If you are looking for a racing game that is easy to pick up have some quick fun with friends and not worry about in depth tuning than I think this game may be for you. I overall think the game looks amazing. My biggest downfall comes from my preference to sim racers which this game is definitely not. Think of this game as a high budget Hollywood flick. It has all of the styling's of things you want to see but leave you thinking, "that would never happen in real life". Even though I prefer Sim racers over arcade style racers there are plenty of good things Need for Speed Rivals does right.

The game opens with tutorials of both sides of the law (I prefer Cops). These tutorials have you up and driving in minutes with as much info as you need to play the game well. Once you get into the game there are a plethora of activities to take part in and friends to compete against. You might even bump into a friend driving around because the AllDrive system blends Single Player and Multi-Player together. AllDrive, to me, was the best aspect of Need for Speed Rivals. Living worlds seem to be becoming the new hit in terms of playing with people online and this game does it very well. I never felt like the game was over populated while also never feeling like I was ever alone.

I personally would have liked to see more real life simulation in terms of police chases and techniques. There is a lack of real car damage and the small damage you can see seems to be gauged by a meter instead of car performance which is a disappointment but as I stated this is about a quick visual experience with friends. More car tuning and parts options would also have been welcomed.

So if you enjoy a game that is fun and instantly gratifying with lots of big crashes and a forgivable driving style this is definitely a game you want to give a try but if you prefer sim games with a lot of depth you may want to look elsewhere.

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I grew up playing the Need for Speed series starting on the Playstation 2. I had countless hours of fun joining different races, upgrading my garage of cars and eventually beating the game by unlocking everything. Need for Speed Rivals allows you to do all the same things, but within a mechanic of chasing each other around as either a Cop or a bandit street racer. Pursuit tech is an awesome edition to cars and the different combinations can alter the game.

The gameplay is nice and, for a launch title, really displays the depth of lighting and textures that the Xbox One is capable of. As others have stated, the game has sorts of an MMO component to it that allows you to jump in and out of races with your friends and other people online, versus having random CPU AI-controlled cars filling up the lineup in all of your races.

With that being said, you should not compare this game to the likes of Forza 5. It is not a true racing game where you can finely tune cars and race on all of your favorite or even known tracks. I found the game mechanic to be solid, but extremely repetitive. There is no story line like previous iterations of the game, which leads me to believe the developers are expecting you to play online with multiple people. The police scanner audio accompanied by every action in the game is slightly annoying and the "calls" can be out of context. Also, the interface to jump in and out of races/matches/chases is hit or miss. A number of times I went flying by the starting line only to back up and have others whiz by me. Also, your two camera options are equally terrible. There is a hood cam (barf) and a third person cam right above the spoiler which is often too low to see through your car to the road up ahead. Yuck!

I would wait for this game to come down in price before I made a purchase as I did not see value priced equally with Forza 5 or most of the other launch titles for that matter. However, if this was a $30-35 game I think it would be appropriately priced for the experience and replay value.