Need for Speed: The Run detailed, racing to stores Nov. 15

by Ben Gilbert on Apr 29th 2011 9:55AM

Following yesterday's teaser reveal of Need for Speed: The Run, EA has today spelled out some details we didn't know and confirmed some that we inferred from the trailer. First and foremost, the game is indeed speeding toward a holiday release date of November 15, 2011 in North America (and Nov. 17 in Europe). EA Black Box is at the wheel (as rumored), with EA DICE's Frostbite 2 engine under the hood.

Additionally, The Run will feature the much-loved Autolog feature (as loved in Hot Pursuit and Shift 2), as well as the "hot cars and crazy-fast chases" we've come to expect from the NFS series. As seen in the trailer, the game will follow racers cross-country (Cannonball Run-style) from San Francisco to New York, with plenty of stops in between. EA's announcement also notes that "entering the race is just the beginning," with races taking place in "dense urban traffic," on "icy mountain passes" and "narrow canyons." Presumably we'll find out more about The Run as E3 approaches, this June.

Need for Speed: The Run (box art)

Source: EA

Tags: 3ds, black-box, box-art, dice, ds, ea-black-box, ea-dice, electronic-arts, frostbite-2, microsoft, need-for-speed-the-run, nintendo, pc, playstation, ps3, q4-2011, racing, release-date, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (60)

Worst Need For Speed name EVER!!!

@tjaldid

you're right NFS: underground rivals was a waaay cool title....

Personally, I kind of like it. Though I also think that they should drop NFS naming altogether, only alluding to its affiliation to the franchise with the logo nfs logo perhaps.

Shift
The Run
Hot Pursuit

IMO, they'd stand out on their own better that way.

@eat it
Saying something is the worst doesn't necessarily make all the other options cool.

@Epoque
Listen to reason and HIRE THIS MAN

Need for Speed: RUN -- The Hotly Anticipated Sequel to Mirrors Edge.

@The Albatross
You should know better by now that you do must not speak of this subject lightly.

@The Albatross

I hate you so much right now

Sounds interesting, especially the cross country cannonball style but why use frostbite 2?

@BrianZeluz
Probably cheap thanks to existing licenses maybe? Who knows. EA does.

@Banksyliveraa yeah that's probably it alright good old cheap ass EA. All I could think of was frostbite in the battlefield series and couldn't figure out why a racing game would need destructible buildings

@BrianZeluz Why is this a bad thing? Seriously, 'cheap ass EA'?

Maybe the engine is just that versatile that it can be used for a variety of genres to great affect. And being that it's an internal EA engine, their studios can collaborate to more closely in enhancing and specializing the engine for each game.

to great effect*

@Banksyliveraa
Licences? DICE is owned by EA, there's no licence fees involved

@TheShaper
*are

@BrianZeluz
You obviously haven't played Split/Second

@BrianZeluz

To crash into shit and make it break into millions of pieces why else would they use Frostbite for?

@Epoque Personally I find EA to be cheap because of:
1. The VIP code system, while I'll admit it's a good idea on their part to counteract preowned sales, at €15 its a rip off.
2. The monotonous, regurgitated shite which they spew out and call a blockbuster game is laughable. The latest MOH for example was just a money grabbing exercise.
3. Their love of money grabbing DLC. I'm not saying paid DLC is a bad thing, Undead nightmare and the gta4 DLC are a case in point but EA makes you pay for stuff that they purposely left out of the game on release so that they could charge you an arm and a leg for it as DLC a few weeks later.

On an aside note I will never forgive EA for dropping its rugby series.

@TheShaper You're right I haven't but as far as I was aware they were all scripted events and would not require a progressive, evolving damage system such as frostbite 2.

@KinseySS Obviously yes that is why you would use frostbite 2 but my point is what purpose does it serve in an NFS game. I've played a fair amount of these, the good and the generally atrocious and not once have I come across a situation where destructible buildings are required in a "realistic" racing game.

@BrianZeluz the only "realistic" racing game in the NFS series is Shift. Everything else is about as arcadey as it gets. Unless you really believe you can make a 100MPH hairpin turn by just yanking on the handbrake for a second.

@MDizzy Shift realistic? Good joke. Would have been realistic if it was a racing game based on tracks made of ice. This series went downhill after Carbon.

@BrianZeluz You do know that the Frostbite 2 engine does more then destructible buildings, right?

The first NFS that caught my attention since the PS1 era. Will keep tabs on it.

it has potential...

If it's anything like Hot Pursuit, I'm picking this bad boy up at midnight.

I just don't know if I should care considering Criterion isn't behind it.

Then again, Black Box did do Hot Pursuit 2 / Underground / Most Wanted. And I am a really big fan of the Skate series.

Alright, I'll keep an eye on it.

Sooooo, they go from not wanting to milk the NFS series to releasing 2 in a single calendar year. 3 in the span of two calendar years.

@Bentzero

surely there are people that are just getting into gaming that have never played one before. They might be really excited.

but yeah I don't care I've played a dozen of these games

@kgoo867

1. At what point were either one of us whining? I'm merely pointing out the fact that EA once said that they don't want to milk the series and yet they're doing it more now than they ever have before.

2. Let's get real. Only the truly hardcore know that it's by different devs just like we know which CoD was made by the better crew.

3. Shift 2 has "Need for Speed" on the front of the box. It's just minimized a bit so morons won't see it.

4. Pwned

@Bentzero
considering all 3 games have come from 3 different developers and all 3 have very different playstyles, i dont think it really counts as milking it

@phatman516

Considering that all three titles are NFS games I do. What part of "milking the series" do you guys not get?

@Bentzero just because they have NFS in the name doesnt mean anything, milking a franchise is what Activision did to Guitar Hero, continuous onslaught of games with the exact same gameplay, these games (at least Hot Pursuit and Shift) do not play the same, and the ONLY thing they have in common is that they are racing games, and have NFS in the titles

@Bentzero
I suppose it technically milking, yes. But that word has such a negative connotation because of what it usually means - releasing near identical iterations of the same thing for the sole purpose of making money without effort being put into individual quality, advancement, and uniqueness.

NFS:HP, Shift, Shift2, and now Run don't fit that at all. I think they recognized a couple years ago that AAA arcade racers weren't really being made ( I know that before Split/Second, I personally was starved for one). Arcade racers came out but not with AAA polish and depth, and rarely without a tuner street racer theme. So they made the decision then to relaunch the NFS brand with a number of high quality, AAA games developed by different studios. That's me theory.

So far, it seems to be working. In recent years I'd hear NFS and just shrug it off. Now? I hear NFS and assume going in (to read the article) that its high quality. It's up to them to continue to prove that to me.

I haven't bought an NFS game in like 10 years (and the last one I played was that early 360 Fast and Furious inspired one, oof) but man, a balls out cross-country race really does sound uncharacteristically inspired for a Need for Speed. Consider me interested.

"the game will follow racers cross-country (Cannonball Run-style) from San Francisco to New York, with plenty of stops in between. "

Well I hope so, you'd need at least a few bathroom breaks....

@Shockwave

Just cut a hole in seat all the way through the car and just drive.

Need for Speed: The Runs

The roads would be covered in skid-marks.

Quality over quantity? What's that?

@Lerkero

For the most part, the NFS has had both quality and quantity recently in my opinion.

@kgoo867
I'm talking about quality within the franchise and not just quality of each individual game. What does Need For Speed even mean if they are gonna put the label on so many games with little relation to each other in the development studio and in consistency.

sounds like a lot of NFS in a year but this does sound pretty good. I'll keep posted.

I may not be interested in this NFS game but this is a chance to see how well the Frostbite 2 engine works on consoles.

Hot Pursuit is still rocking my Xbox. Might pick this title up, looks interesting.

feel like going to the bathroom for some reason.

BC2 Trail bikes and im sold.

And now I see what Call of Duty is turning into...a never ending series!

If this was a rockstar game.. I would be excited because it would be the huge open world game that EA is going to market this game as. But knowning its coming from EA you know it just going to be a series of point to point races with some live action story inbetween the races.

With that said... Rockstar go make the game EA will Market this game to be please...

@Harpdogg I think they did a good job with open world in Undercover...You could drive where ever you wanted...in fact there was no option to just start the race from the menu. If you wanted to race, you select it and the GPS would direct you to where you needed to go.

If you clowns don't like the NFS series, so be it...move on. No need to sit around your computer making fun of it. Its a different type of idea...I like it.

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