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Exclusive: Need for Speed Underground 2 Q/A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
11/05/2004
We chat exclusively and gain the lowdown from producer Scott Nielsen...
The Need for Speed (NFS) franchise has been up and running for a while and with each subsequent release the brand grows larger and more impressive. It is hard to know how a developer can continually create new ideas as well as push technology when the concept is focused on one subject matter â“ cars! EA do not have a reputation for creative excellence and innovation for nothing. Derek dela Fuente spoke with Scott Nielsen â“ Need For Speed Underground 2 - Associate Producer.
Need for Speed: Underground 2 features new game modes, performance customization and tuning, along with more than 30 licensed cars. It will offer the challenge that gamers yearn for and its look will mirror the sophistication Need for Speed fans have become accustomed to!
TVG: The success of Need for Speed: Underground has been quite simply staggering; did you expect this level of demand, and do you think you can continue the success with the sequel?
After E3 in Los Angeles last year, the buzz around the development of Underground was unbelievable, creating really high expectations for the game. We were really excited with the game when it went to manufacturing and were cautiously optimistic with our own expectations. I think the phenomenal success of the game was a bit surprising to us, but at the same time it really validated the fact that we created something special. This year is a little different as the expectations for Underground 2 are extremely high right from the start of development. Itâs extremely important for us to deliver a great sequel that builds on the foundation that Underground laid and at the same time innovates in enough areas to give the player something different and special.
TVG: Please elaborate on the open-ended design of the sequel; exactly how far does this go, are players free to just drive around and take up challenges when they wish? On a similar note is there enough within the environment to sustain playersâ interest when theyâre not racing or moding their car; i.e. both GTA3 & Vice City are crammed with things for players to do when theyâre not undertaking missions, such as trick bonuses, etcâ¦
I think this is one of the most revolutionary aspects of Underground 2 - the open world environment. This year the world is huge and itâs all interconnected. You can literally drive from one end of the world to the other and anywhere that you can see on the map. The first Underground was really a collection of tracks that were in the same world but you could only drive on them one at a time. This year you can drive from a circuit event to a drift event to a drag event without ever leaving the world. You can be racing in a point to point race and drive right past an area where a drift event is taking place. The world is alive and things are happening as you drive through it. There will also be some discovery involved where youâll have to talk to other drivers to find out where things like the performance tuning and visual tuning shops are located and then actually go and find them in the city. Weâre really building on the idea that once a player has entered the world of Underground 2, they never have to leave. Itâs a much more organic approach to the game this year.
With regard to diversity within the âopenâ environment, itâs important to keep in mind that Underground is a car racing game and not an action-adventure game like the GTA series. Knowing that, I think youâll be quite impressed with the amount of content featured in Underground 2. I canât reveal the specifics right now, but weâve got lots of cool things planned to keep you engaged while exploring the environment.
TVG: Many fans have expressed their desire of seeing Hot Pursuit modes back in NFS; will we see these in Underground 2 or do we have to hold on until the next NFS: Hot Pursuit title?
As weâve talked about with the first Underground game, we feel the police are, and will remain, the main focus of the Hot Pursuit franchise. The game modes and play revolve around it. We continue to spend a lot of time figuring out how to make the cops fun and tuning how they affect the game play experience. Many other companies have thrown cops into their game as a feature, not as a focus, since Hot Pursuit has come out and it typically feels like an afterthought. Gamers are smart. They can tell when youâre throwing something in to get another âbullet pointâ on the back of the box.
The Underground seriesâ focus will remain more on the exploration, tuning, racing and customisation of your car. That in itself is enough to fill an entire game!
TVG: Need for Speed: Underground used a variety of visual effects to create a breathtaking sense of speed; could you please explain in a little more detail what was involved, and what we can expect from the sequel in this area?
The development team at EA, Black Box, is extremely talented and intelligent and they know how to build a fantastic driving game. We wanted to bring a fresh perspective to where we thought the look of the game could go and Senior Art Directors, Habib Zargarpour and Neil Eskuri, have done a fantastic job of focusing the visual direction for the game.
Few video games have done a good job of portraying a real sensation of speed. Many techniques need to be used in concert to create a believable sense of speed. Habib really helped to focus the interaction of things like camera movement, lighting and composition of the scene, in addition to objects flying overhead, to create what we believe is the most amazing sensation of speed seen in a driving game to date.
For Underground 2 weâre adding a far greater variety of terrain as well as implementing a cinematic look. Weâre exploring some really cool visuals at the moment, mostly involving colour, to try to achieve a mood and feel like youâre sitting in a theatre watching a movie. You should notice a real distinct colour and feel/mood for each different area of the world.
TVG: The announcement about the game makes note of new game modes, perhaps you could elaborate on this a little for our readers?
I canât reveal any of them right now, but I can tell you that there will be over seven different race modes in Underground 2. I think everyone will find enough events that they want to play and should have a lot more freedom this year to actually choose to pass certain events or play more of a specific event type if they really like one in particular.
TVG: Besides the major change towards an open-ended game design, what are the other major improvements that lay in store for gamers this Autumn?
The interconnected world design really changes the way the game plays from start to finish when compared to the first Underground and, as a result, has allowed us to change and adapt a lot of the core framework into something that feels quite different but is equally as engaging as Underground was. One cool new feature in Underground 2 is the player will be able to tune the performance of their car. The ability to tune parts was the most requested feature that we heard during our consumer feedback research from Underground and thatâs why it has become a focus for Underground 2. We really want to give the player the same flexibility mechanically that we gave them visually. At the same time, we donât want to turn the game into the type of experience where you need to know about wheel camber and gear ratios to be successful. The game is being designed to be easy to pick up and play with a lot of performance tuning depth for those players who want to dig into it. The fail safe is that as a player youâll never be able to mess up your car permanently because for each part, kit, and package there will be a way to re-set it back to its original performance specs.
TVG: What new cars can we expect to see featured within Need for Speed: Underground 2; which one will players be striving to get their hands upon?
The car list for Underground 2 has already been settled on and I think players will be pretty happy with the choices that weâve made. Unfortunately, weâre still in negotiations with some of the manufacturers so I canât mention the cars right now, but it will definitely be a broader selection of vehicles than we had last year. If youâve watched the tuning scene over the last year you will have noticed that the type of vehicles being tuned is really starting to run the gamut. Things you wouldnât think of as being tuned last year are showing up all tricked out this year.
The majority of cars on the list will still be hard-core tuner cars. We had a long list last year and we had to make some pretty painful cuts to the get the cars done. Weâll be going back in time to bring back a couple of older models and weâll also be looking into the future for a few cars we think will be big on the scene in the next year or so.
TVG: If you had to expand on one real innovation or surprise in NFS: U2 what would it be?
If I told you the answer to that then it wouldnât be a surprise anymore, would it? (Said with a smile on his face!) I really think players will be blown away with the open world environment that the game is set in. Not from just a visual point of view, but also from a âgame-mechanicsâ point of view. Weâve really tried to show some innovation as to how a car racing game can be designed and played from start to finish. Iâm hesitant to reveal much more than that right now after seeing some of the driving games that are going to ship later this year - itâs pretty obvious that theyâve learned a few things from Underground that theyâre attempting to apply to their games. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I shouldnât be surprised that other games are trying to build on the many things that made Underground so successful.
TVG: The game is being created on a number of formats. Are there separate teams and what would you say is the showcase machine â“ The PC?
The majority of the same team, EA Black Box, will once again be working on Underground 2. We share quite a bit of common code between the platforms but also have dedicated Art and Engineering Leads for the various platforms. Most of the features are developed for the PS2 console and then adapted to the other platforms and tweaked/tuned by the different platform teams to try to get the most out of that feature on their specific platform. The main reason for this has to do with the huge disparity in terms of the install base for the different platforms. From a technical standpoint, it doesnât make a whole bunch of sense to design great features that cannot be shared across all of the platforms. This approach to design ensures that all platforms have the same great feature set and then those that can be tweaked or tuned to improve performance or looks can do so.
TVG: What is the state of current development?
The team is currently working hard towards our Alpha milestone. Things are looking really promising right now and weâre quite excited with the direction the game is going. I look forward to being able to show the public their first look at the game in the very near future!
TVG would like to thank Scott for taking the time out to answer our questions; weâll have more coverage on Need for Speed: Underground 2 soon.
