Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Eric Vs. 365 - Day 142 - Need for Speed: Heat

For all of the crap EA (and others) get for how they do business it isn't as if they want to make bad games and piss people off. They usually actually listen to criticism and make things better, either through patches of current games or making the next one better, or both. Case in point - Need for Speed: Heat. Basically all of the problems people had with NFS Payback are absent from Heat. People will probably still pretend like it sucks anyway, though. Keep reading to learn more and watch gameplay.

I've talked before about why people didn't like NFS Payback - even though I do like it - which was using random cards for upgrades, microtransactions, scripted story events and police chases, and funky feeling gameplay. Well, good news haters, all of that is gone in Need for Speed Heat. There are no MTX. The upgrade and progression system is just like the old days. Real unscripted police chases are back. And the gameplay has been tweaked to be ... better? It feels kinda like Ridge Racer now. Anyway, all of those things you said you didn't like were fixed! EA listened! Now go do some mental gymnastics to come up with why you won't like this one.

I should say that I didn't play a ton of NFS Heat. I played the 10-hour trial via EA Access on Xbox One and only actually played a couple of hours of that. I did like what I played a lot, though, and see no reason why the rest of the game won't be solid as well. Of course, I've liked every Need for Speed, even the "bad" ones, so what do I know.

One other thing I want to talk about, which I hinted at in the opening paragraph, is how EA, Ubisoft, Bethesda, etc. get a lot of hate for the way they do business. Here's a newsflash - The only difference between these bad, evil, untrustworthy companies that want to suck your wallet dry with certain practices is that they are transparent about it while Sony, Nintendo, and all of the rest of your favorites are screwing you over from the shadows instead. All of these companies are trying to earn a profit. Every single one. Money is the most important thing. They aren't your friends. They aren't all warm and cuddly and want to do right for gamers. They want to make money. Period.


The fact is that games today cost exponentially more to make than they used to, but the price consumers pay hasn't changed. In order for the games industry to continue to exist, companies have to find new ways to make money. Of course, they could always make smaller and cheaper games that don't cost a hundred million dollars to make and games as a whole would probably be better if "AAA" went away entirely ... but that won't happen and MTX and service games and season passes and other revenue streams are going to continue being the norm. 

But, please, keep up the meme of EA being somehow more evil than every other game publisher. You don't look stupid at all.