Need for Speed Retro Ride Nabs Me…

Need for Speed World is full of exotic cars that you can buy and drive.  Prestige marquees such as Lotus, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Lamborghini are all represented at the in-game dealership.

And I have no interest in any of them.

But they put an early 70s Nissan Skyline GT-R on the weekly web specials list and I could not buy it fast enough.

I think that is actually a '72 model

Amongst all the shiny new cars, I could not resist this box.  The Hakosuka’s ugly retro charm was too much.  It is like a Japanese Ford Cortina Mk. II.  (Which I would totally buy as well.)

I painted it a horrible shade of green that reminds me of Japanese cars of the era (our neighbor had a Datsun 510 in this color) and took it out on the road.

In my garage

It is a tier 1 car, so in races it competes against vehicles like my starter Nissan 240SX.

And this car is a screamer.  It hits 155 MPH on a straight away, it is light so it sticks to the road and corners well,  plus all the fun that read wheel drive brings with it.  Cash store bought cars come fully upgraded.  I am not sure you can even find better performance upgrades than they come with.  All you have to do is paint them up and you are set to go.

GT-R on the road

Of course, people complain about this.  Yes, this pretty much makes the game pay to win.

It isn’t like there is NO skill involved.  I have beaten new players in their store bough Porches with my mildly upgraded 240SX.

Theoretically, if you managed to get all the right rare tier 1 performance part drops (this sounds more like a fantasy MMORPG every time I write about it… daily quests, farming for drops… where is raiding?), you could bring your initial tier 1 car up to the level of performance of the GT-R.

But it would be pretty unlikely.

And so I had a nice win streak.  The race is yours to lose with such a cash store bought car.

But I do not race all that much.  I tend to do the gem hunt and a few police chases and call it a night.  I guess I am squandering my pay to win advantage.

EA got a bit of cash from me due to my affinity for retro vehicles.

Fortunately, they almost always concentrate on much more modern vehicles, so I am unlikely to have to worry about spending more money with them any time soon.  They can put up nice cars like that Aston Martin they just listed in the store, but unless it is the one James Bond drove in Goldfinger, I am not interested.

So I peek in at the weekly web deals and yawn…

Wait…  what is this week’s deal?

More retro flavor this week

Aww crap.  They have my number again.

How much boost do I have left?

19 thoughts on “Need for Speed Retro Ride Nabs Me…”

  3. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    @Ethic – I do pretty well with the keyboard, having already mastered the “Mario Kart tap” for steering on the DS.

    I got my el cheapo Rusty Hearts promotional gamepad last week and started trying it out with NFSW. It works, but I am simply not used to it at this point, so I cannot really say if it is better yet.

    All in all, the game fills the “15 minutes to an hour” niche for me in the evening. It replaced World of Tanks for the moment. Destructible terrain for the win. I do like plowing down rows of parking meters.

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  6. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    I am sort of surprised myself that, two months later, I still play for a bit almost every night. I don’t play for hours, but I find it amusing and relaxing to speed down the highway for a while, knock over road signs, and try to stay one step ahead of the law. It is low commitment, and the client with the standard graphics is a pretty reasonable download.

    I have a lot of “I wish” items for the game. I’ll probably make a post out of that. But I feel like I want a bit more than the game offers.

    On the other hand, the game has made me go read through all the driving games on Steam in search of something better, and I have yet to find it. The live world aspect, as minimal as it really is, remains a selling point I cannot replace.

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  7. XyzzySqrl

    For more in the big world aspect, there’s Burnout Paradise or Test Drive Unlimited 2…

    …but now I am off to try this game out, because it sounds kind of awesome.

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  8. Gazimoff

    I’ve never played this game, but I’m tempted to give it a try now that you’ve mentioned that it’s possible to go banger racing in it. Plus it gives me the incentive to get one of my XBox gamepads to work on my PC, which is something I’ve been meaning to do for a very long time….

    Not played many racers though since Metropolis Street Racer/Project Gotham Racing. How do the cars handle?

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  9. TheRemedy

    I’m not much of a racing game guy, but why not try Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit which this game seems sort of based on. Or if you’re looking for a more open world type experience with a bunch of random cars out there, you could try the newest Driver or Burnout: Paradise.

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  10. Vulpis

    *reads article* *reads wiki* Hee…would the ‘Team Escape’ mode quality for raiding to make the fantasy MMO comparison complete, perhaps?

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  11. Bronte

    Interesting. Thiis must be the first time I have heard someone in the blogosphere talk about this MMO-uh-R (?), and be excited about it. Would you recommend it?

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  13. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    @Gina – I’d buy that. I worked with somebody who had a white one with the gold top and stripe.

    @Bronte – Would I recommend it? I don’t know. Yes. No.

    I am a bit of a poseur car enthusiast, I like cars but not enough to actually own one that is cool or requires much attention. I read Car & Driver and have subscribed to it for more than 25 years. So I know about cars, but I haven’t had any grease under my fingernails since Potshot did a ring and valve job on my ’74 Duster. (No porting, no polishing.)

    So I like the game because it is simple, mostly free (unless I HAVE to have one of the cars in the store), and lets me drive a couple of cars I like. Judging from my behavior in game, I am mostly interested in driving fast, doing boot-leg turns, and running down street signs.

    But I have to imagine that an enthusiast, somebody who wanted the true driving experience, would find the game disappointing. The controls are very simple (see my first post on the subject), the car stats and upgrades are very abstract, the car sounds aren’t very accurate (I’ve been in a 70 Chevelle 454, it didn’t sound like that), and the handling, while it varies from car to car, is probably better than it should be.

    (The only exception to that last bit is the ’69 Charger, which handles just like a big Chrysler of the era; floaty, tough to center, and all over your lane.)

    So if you are like me and not in it for all the nitty gritty of cars, I think it is worth a download. If you’re going to balk at the lack of being able to shift or the level of abstraction, or if you already own a driving wheel and pedal system for your PC, you should probably pass.

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  15. Tipa

    There’s a huge local Chevelle scene here. Saw quite a few heading to some show in Massachusetts, and there were several at the Manchester Car Show last weekend.

    My NFSW story starts with Initial D, continues with my wonderful AE86 in the game, and ends with my real life Celica and Supra sitting in the driveway :)

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  16. Ethic

    So I started playing and I am having fun, already tempted to crack open the wallet. By the way, the Logitech controller works nicely with the game.

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  17. Ethic

    Well I cracked and bought some “credits” or whatever because it came with a Boss 302. I will probably buy the Escort Cosworth soon as I love that car.

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  18. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    I got that Boss 302 this past weekend myself, as I went to buy some boost because I had to have that Golf GTI Mk. I. I have the Escort Cosworth as well. I have an affinity for the cars that don’t look all that fearsome.

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