New Need For Speed "The Run" Uses Battlefield 3 Engine

[John Funk]

New Need For Speed "The Run" Uses Battlefield 3 Engine

DICE wasn't entirely telling the truth when it said Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine would never be licensed. This is not a bad thing.

Back in March, DICE told won't run on Windows XP [http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/02/battlefield-3-frostbite-2-engine-interview/] - would never be licensed out to other studios. "The Frostbite engine is solely created to make Battlefield games."

Apparently, someone at DICE changed their mind since then: EA announced that the next Need For Speed game, The Run, would be running on Frostbite 2.

[video=3142]

This is hardly a bad thing - as we've seen, the latest iteration of Frostbite is stunningly gorgeous, so it will likely be a good fit for a series which is (at least partially) glorified car porn [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8363-Review-Need-For-Speed-Hot-Pursuit]. Need For Speed has almost always been a good-looking series, so putting it on a powerful engine just makes sense.

As for The Run itself, all we have to go on (other than the engine announcement) is this teaser trailer that you see above, in which a man named Jack is trapped upside-down in a crashed car, and flashes back to the hot pursuits that (presumably) brought him there.

The trailer makes it look like this will be a more story-focused game than past Need For Speed titles, but it'll probably still be told via races where people go very very fast.

(1UP [http://www.1up.com/news/need-for-speed-the-run-powered-battlefield-3-engine])

Permalink

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

*stares at the screen*

Wooahhh...

Sorry, I'm a sucker for Need for Speed games. I wonder if it will be third person like Hot Pursuit or 1st like the Shift series.

That was an outstanding trailer. here's hoping it wont be another Undercover... yeesh...

Or even worse, another Pro Street.

 

[Irridium]

One more example of why developers' words should never be taken at face value.

Not saying the fact Frostbite 2 isn't used elsewhere other than Battlefield, but it's pretty sad how meaningless people's words are when all they want to do is market the shit out of their product.

Well, DICE is owned by EA, and EA controls the money flow, and probably wants to make as much money as possible to help cover The Old Republic, so yeah.

Or maybe I'm paranoid. Who knows. But either way, I don't mind more games using this engine. Maybe EA will make it their "standard" engine.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Hmm...hope it works out.

I woulda just used the Hot Pursuit engine. Shit was gorgeous already.

 

[googleback]

That was an outstanding trailer. here's hoping it wont be another Undercover... yeesh...

 

[Rarhnor]

How sad, if they've had timed the games release with the release of Fast Five, the game would've sold like crazy. Alas, it is EA we're talking about.

 

[Velociferocks]

DICE wasn't entirely telling the truth when it said Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine would never be licensed. This is not a bad thing.

Since DICE is now called "EA Digital Illusions CE" and are wholy a part of EA they haven't Licensed it to anyone.

 

[LGC Pominator]

The trailer makes it look like this will be a more story-focused game than past Need For Speed titles, but it'll probably still be told via races where people go very very fast.

Oh thats good, those are my favourite types of races

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I think that Teaser broke my Headphones! I really need to replace these nasty old things.....

OT: Frostbite "shtick" is the destructible Environments. Sure it "looks pweety" but "Car graphics" Plateaued YEARS ago. And they're NOT going to have Destructible environments in this, so one must ask what's the point, really?

 

[josemlopes]

I think that Teaser broke my Headphones! I really need to replace these nasty old things.....

OT: Frostbite "shtick" is the destructible Environments. Sure it "looks pweety" but "Car graphics" Plateaued YEARS ago. And they're NOT going to have Destructible environments in this, so one must ask what's the point, really?

Maybe they want huge enviorments, and I mean huge, from the trailer and some other info it will be a big race from San Fransisco to New York. Instead of little details such as destruction they could make the engine handle the size of the maps.

This is just speculation though.

 

[FlashHero]

ROADDDDD TRRRIPPPP...That looked like a map of the USA....Whos ready for a LONNNGGG HAUULLLL for YOURRR LIFFFEEEEE?

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I think that Teaser broke my Headphones! I really need to replace these nasty old things.....

OT: Frostbite "shtick" is the destructible Environments. Sure it "looks pweety" but "Car graphics" Plateaued YEARS ago. And they're NOT going to have Destructible environments in this, so one must ask what's the point, really?

Maybe they want huge enviorments, and I mean huge, from the trailer and some other info it will be a big race from San Fransisco to New York. Instead of little details such as destruction they could make the engine handle the size of the maps.

This is just speculation though.

If it's just linear highways, what can Frostbite do that other Engines can't? Sure they might be able to make Giant sprint tracks with the more capable engine..... but would YOU want to race for like a half hour straight?
It's not the engine that will limit the environment size. It's how long players are willing to hold down accelerate.

 

[kibayasu]

DICE wasn't entirely telling the truth when it said Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine would never be licensed. This is not a bad thing.

Since DICE is now called "EA Digital Illusions CE" and are wholy a part of EA they haven't Licensed it to anyone.

What that guy said.

 

[cerebus23]

Hard to say but by the trailer snips maybe this is a throwback to the old test drives that were checkpoint races, where you raced for time or raced against the ai head to head from one checkpoint to the next rally style.

tho being a nfs game i am sure that it will be arcadey as hell physics wise.

 

[RA92]

Frostbite "shtick" is the destructible Environments. Sure it "looks pweety" but "Car graphics" Plateaued YEARS ago. And they're NOT going to have Destructible environments in this, so one must ask what's the point, really?

NFS has always shifted from engine to engine. They stopped using EAGL, then started using Havok, then used The Madness Engine for its 'sims', along with Unity 3D for its MMORPG NFS:World, Chameleon for Criterion's Hot Pursuit, and now Black Box using Frostbite for The Run.

It's not like they have to license the engine - EA owns DICE. Maybe they just had it lying around...

 

[GeorgW]

My guess is that DICE didn't want others to use the engine but EA was so impressed that they forced them. Still, the Frostbite 2.0 is the best I've ever seen, so I guess it's good for us consumers.
I don't know about the game though, would have to see more. This does puts it on my radar. Also, it's out on my birthday I might have to celebrate being able to drive with a driving game.

 

[Kraiiit]

Story focused? Not sure how that's going to work out in an NFS game.

Also, Chell...? Is that you?

 

[Vrach]

I think that Teaser broke my Headphones! I really need to replace these nasty old things.....

OT: Frostbite "shtick" is the destructible Environments. Sure it "looks pweety" but "Car graphics" Plateaued YEARS ago. And they're NOT going to have Destructible environments in this, so one must ask what's the point, really?

Perhaps they want their cars and/or environment to be somewhat more destructible (perhaps have walls that can't quite withstand a ton of weight being hurled at it at 200 miles per hour)? I'm also kinda guessing Frostbite comes well optimized or just well built to showcase high quality graphics, might work well for physics too...

Until we see more of the actual game, we don't know, but it's a reasonable enough guess that Frostbite has far more up it's sleeve than destructible scenery and that NFS could utilize some, if not all, of it's ability. It's certainly likely to be more powerful than the standard engines EA uses.