Need for Speed Rivals - Xbox One

First, let me say that I've been playing the NFS games since the franchise first started. The games have only gotten better and better as time has gone on, and I love the fact that they have worked out licensing with all of the major car manufacturers such that you're driving the best starters and exotics. I’ve played the franchise on different devices – PSP, PS Vita, Xbox 360, and now Xbox One. The game is incredibly addicting. The fact that you can play as a racer and then switch to cop allows you to play the game from two different angles, so when you finish with one career, the game just doesn’t hit the shelf.Let me break this down into the following categories:Pure Gameplay: I give the game 5 stars for its overall gameplay and it’s because the game is just a blast to play. I have a similar racing title and while it’s great, NFS brings an exciting aspect that really makes your heart beat fast. The graphics are incredible, the music that they chose is good, the surroundings are incredibly detailed – it’s just a really well put together game. There are a few annoyances for me though.Online Gameplay: Starting I believe with Most Wanted, the cloud became an integral part of a NFS and with Rivals, it’s even more so. If you are looking to play with your friends or some random folks around the world, it’s doable with an Internet connection and an Origin account. There is a downside to this – not everyone that you’re going to meet is going to be nice. Prime example – I was sitting in my car changing through the music when some guy flies down the road and nails me. Somewhat frustrating to say the least and that’s going to happen more and more as we play with strangers. Another frustration – sometimes I would need to be “migrated to a different host”. This was painful at times as I would need to sit there for minutes and wait to be able to play again. After a few times of this, I decided to switch to the private gameplay setting and it’s been great.Speed points: While this was part of Most Wanted, I believe the format has changed slightly in Rivals and it’s a big pain point for me. You’re required to “bank” your speed points at a hideout. While this is great in theory, it gets complicated when you try to stay out on the streets too long. You’re constantly trying to get your vehicle repaired in between races and pursuits because if you get busted, all of your speed points are gone. For me, when I need to raise a lot of points to upgrade my car, I would do a quick race or pursuit and then immediately find a hideout and be done with it. Maybe the system would be better if your speed points were saved each time the vehicle got repaired – this would be better than the hideout because each time you enter, the game has to spend time processing, so you’re waiting each time. This is a fairly frustrating aspect of the game for me.Bugs: I’ve encountered a couple bugs; at least they appear to be bugs to me. The first one was pretty rare. I was driving at top speed and hit the edge of the map. My car jumped over the concrete barriers and got stuck in the construction zone. No amount of driving could get me out and I lost all of the speed points I had collected because I had to reset the game. Seems like the developers can do a better job of detecting a situation where you are outside the bounds of the game and just reset the car for you. Another one is that in some random cases, the map will all of sudden appear while I’m playing, causing me to lose sight of my game.Difficulty: It feels like the game is a bit harder. I’m currently at racer rank 10 and the cops are fairly aggressive if they chase you enough. I really wish the car could withstand more damage – it’s fully upgraded in terms of durability, but I can’t stay out too long with cops trying to take me down. I worry a bit that when I reach rank 15 to 20, things will be incredibly difficult, but we’ll see.Music: I really wish the game offered flexibility over what tracks you want to play. I have a couple particular tracks that I really enjoy listening to and it’s a pain to cycle through every track looking for them. In addition, I wish that you could control whether songs play during a pursuit or not. As it stands, when you’re in a pure pursuit or interceptor, the in-game theatrics music is playing and whatever song you were listening to is lost. In general, I think there’s a good variety of songs, but most of the artists are not well known.If you love driving cars, you'll probably love this game.

I bought this for my little brother. I think I played it more than he did. It was the first xbox game I've ever played. After getting the hang of it I was hooked! I enjoyed the challenges and having to figure out how to solve them to get to the next level. I purchased a nice car and tricked it out. After earning a ton of money I purchased a couple other cars. Each car handles differently and it was challenging to learn how to handle new cars.I wish there was a head-to-head option with a split screen, so I could play against my little brother. I also wish you could play offline. We had an issue with the Internet going down and I had to wait for service to be restored before being allowed to play.Overall, I'd highly recommend this game. It's a great option for someone who doesn't want to play a killing game, and the option of being able to be the cop or criminal makes it like two games in one.

Reminds me so much of the Hot Pursuit released just a few years ago that provided so much fun for so much time. Rivals delivers the exact same experience in a world that it is breath taking. Pursuit tech offers a variety of methods to escape the cops or take down the racers and the progression system is great. I see why people are complaining about the servers and disconnects but plenty of games have server issues when they first come out. Give it a little time and Ghost will roll out some stability fixes. The always alive world will keep you playing for hours on end, and if you want to play by yourself that's fine too. The only reason people will complain is because it's not just like a recreation of their favorite need for speed, but rivals is being created by an all new developer so don't expect it to be exactly like past games. All in a all, it's just a really fun game.

Need for speed Rivals is an absolutely phenomenal game from beginning to end but a few issues bog it down.There are two sides that you can join and change at any time. You can either be a cop or a racer. From the very start you are either given a Mercedes if you're a cop or a Porsche Cayman if you're a racer and those are just the beginner vehicles.Visually the game is beautiful even after all these years. The little details as rain drops dripping off the cars are impressive. The only thing that looks choppy would be a lake on one side of the map. When it comes to the map there are Deserts, forsests, little towns, and mountains covered in snow. I do wish that the map was a bigger. However it's still fun and have a lot of awesome jumps and turns.Practically all of the cars in the game are either sports cars or hyper cars with a few muscle cars in the mix. They all look and sound amazing. Unfortunately there is no manual transmission, drag racing, tuning, or extreme customization. You can add a few decals on your car and change the paint. You can also upgrade your handling, speed, acceleration, strength, and durability and thats all of the customization you can get. The developers clearly focused more on the gameplay and that is the highlight for Rivals.The roads in the game are spread out and it makes it easy to push cars to their limits. You'll find yourself easily cruising at around 150mph which is one of the reasons why the gameplay is fast and crazy. You'll be drifting around corners at insane speeds while other cars are flipping and crashing all while you're chasing or being chased. This makes not only racing but driving in general so unpredictable and fun. A casual cruise can quickly turn into a chaotic chase since the game is about cops chasing down racers. This can also be frustrating because sometimes when you unlock a new car you just want to drive it around a little but then chaos erupts when you have a dozen police vehicles on your tail. I wish there was a mode where you could just drive without being bothered. Another problem is that sometimes a police officer will spawn right in front of you during certain races which is a problem when you're speeding down a highway going over 250mph. This is especially frustrating when you're a racer and you're trying to escape the police because this can be a common issue. The only difference is that outside of racing, sometimes an officer will spawn behind you or something making escaping practically impossible. The good news is that you can always enter a safe house at any time. The Police officers get free, faster, and much stronger vehicles (REPAIR SHOPS ARE ESSENTIAL IF YOU'RE A RACER) as a result being a racer is much more difficult plus you still have to compete with other racers. One more thing: if you're a racer you have a "heat" level. The higher the heat level the more money you earn from completing events or just driving like a maniac i.e. drifting, near misses, etc. Dangerous driving increases your heat level and if you have a hyper car (the fastest cars in Rivals) your level is usually already a 5 as soon as you leave the garage. If you have a high heat level the cops will also try even harder to detain you using helicopters, roadblocks, or faster and stronger cars. The highest heat level is level 10 and if you make it to that level you will be making a ridiculous amount if money but you'll be chased down by Bugatti's, Koenigseggs, and Hennessy Venoms which are the fastest and deadliest cars in the game. Cops also get huge rewards is they take down racers with high heat levels which can make the online experience very adrenaline inducing since players will be essentially chasing down your bounty. It's an incredibly neat, fun, and tense system unless you total your ride or are arrested because then you loose all the money that you earned while you were out and about (cops dont have to worry about loosing their money when they wreck their rides I dont think). It's why the game is as tense as it is. You could be making hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to afford that new sports car you just unlocked but you might have the entire police department chasing you while your car is low on health so you have to make the decision: Should I go to my safehouse and store my money? Or should I continue to do more races and make even more?To make combat with other vehicles even crazier, you are given the opportunity to buy abilities to help you escape or harm other drivers. All of them are fun and definitely make difference. The only one that I have a problem with would be the EMP which is incredibly annoying since in many cases there is no way to avoid it. It locks onto you and there are only two ways i know to deal with them. One way is to have the jammer ability on your car and the other way is to just hit the brakes and get out if the way of the driver thats locking onto you. Thtas a problem if you're being chased or something.Online the stakes are just as high but even more fun when you've got friends to work or compete with. Anyone can be a cop or a racer and there's still plenty of NPC cops and racer around. The only downside to playing online would be when you're migrating hosts which is rather annoying.Overall the game is my favorite racing game I've ever played and is definitely in my top 3 games of all time. It is just so fun and really is 5 star potential but it has issues that can't be overlooked and that takes it down a star.