If you're a level 5 racer, and you're having trouble with a race that you need to complete in order to jump to level 6, you can call in some assistance from a friend who's a level 15 cop, having her impede your competition so you can zoom to a first-place finish. Rivals features a gradual progression upward for both racers and cops, with players unlocking new cars and abilities as they earn speed points and rank up through 20 levels. Ghost expects users to collaborate and compete in ways the studio hasn't even considered, but one example Nilsson gave was the way in which AllDrive facilitates play between people who are at different levels in the game.
"It's an easier proposition to give it a chance in this game than it was in, for instance, Most Wanted, where you had to press the multiplayer button." And the only limit to AllDrive is players' imaginations, according to Nilsson. "I do think that this game becomes a lot more fun when you do play with friends," said Nilsson. ( Rivals does offer the option to turn off AllDrive for an entirely solo experience, or limit the pool of users to people on your friends list.) But that is indeed Nilsson's vision, and he pointed out that Rivals' interface - which doesn't require users to choose a separate "multiplayer" option from a menu - encourages players to try out AllDrive rather than dismiss it out of hand. Nilsson noted that he previously worked on Battlefield titles at EA DICE, and acknowledged that his vision of online games might be colored by that experience. Rivals "becomes a lot more fun when you do play with friends" "There's a lot of people, Need for Speed consumers, that want to play alone, and there's a very capable game to play alone out there that they can do." "First and foremost, this game is made to be able to played alone - the AI's really capable, scaling systems," said Marcus Nilsson, executive producer on Rivals, in an interview with Polygon following a recent hands-on demo of the game. The developers at Ghost Games believe that this system, which they call AllDrive, will make for a better Need for Speed title - if players just give it a shot. But as you're driving around Rivals' fictional, California-inspired setting of Redview County, other players can seamlessly appear in your game and play with you - or against you.
The world of Rivals still contains the standard Need for Speed campaign, although it's split up into two roles, racer and cop. Ghost is attempting to deliver a new kind of racing game, one that dissolves the line between single-player and multiplayer gaming.
Nfs rivals pc vs xbox one fps Ps4#
The PS4 version did suffer from a higher incidence of issues such as parts of the world failing to load, but developer Ghost Games assured us they would have those problems ironed out in time for launch.ĭeveloper Ghost Games' key point at its most recent press event, though, was that you don't have to play the game with other people online. Later, we switched to the PS4 version and were surprised to find a game that looked even more impressive than its PC counterpart, with better texture detail, improved lighting on cars and sharper graphics overall.
We spent the first part of our session playing the PC version of Rivals, which ran well, with a PlayStation 4 controller.
Nfs rivals pc vs xbox one fps windows#
Played on the PlayStation 4, Need for Speed Rivals is a more visually impressive, though currently slightly more buggy, version of Electronic Arts' upcoming racer than the Windows PC version.