NEED FOR SPEED VS TEST DRIVE DEBATE

[Aryanenzo]

AH, need for speed series versus Test drive series
personaly i like the old need for speed games but u dont like the old test drive games.
I think the need for speed series is way more iconic...
LET THE DEBATE BEGAN...

[USRW_Lone_Wolf]

Need for speed is a ricer's game. Enough said.

[Breathemetal]

Ricers

Go buy a real car

[dawso_s]

Just look at the longevity of TDU, we are still playing it and looking for more. How many have played NFS Carbon and now deleted it...

[Sergeant_Banner]

Originally Posted by USRW_Lone_Wolf

Need for speed is a ricer's game. Enough said.

Originally Posted by Breathemetal

Ricers

Go buy a real car

Originally Posted by dawso_s

Just look at the longevity of TDU, we are still playing it and looking for more. How many have played NFS Carbon and now deleted it...

Yes, but those are the Underground/MW?Carbon series (Carbon sucks !)

Remember NFS: Porsche unleashed ?
Or NFS: High stakes ?
Or even NFS: Hot Pursuit 1/2/3

Best was High Stakes IMHO, great gameplay, but i'd have to say PS1 rather than PC (i just got the pc version today, no where near as good graphics as PS1 (still, same game, year etc)

Yet the old TD series were good aswell, so im on both sides here

Sarge

[Theycallmepres]

without a doubt carbon sucked big time. everything started going down hill when underground came around. but before that the NFS series was a whole lot of fun. i played hot pursuit everyday.

as for the test drive series, ive only played test drive 6 before playing TDU and it was actually a pretty fun game as well.

[Antitenant]

I say they're too different to compare. But to break it down some, here's how I see it (for the record I've played TD5, TD6, TD (PS2), TDU, and All NFS games except NFS:U2):

Favorite NFS Game: Hot Pursuit II
Favorite TD Game: TDU

Better Single Player: NFS
Better Multiplayer: TDU

Car Selection: TDU
Though I don't like the under-representation of Japanese cars. Some people say "No Ricers" but calling all Japanese cars Ricers is like calling all American cars Muscle or all Italian cars Exotic. A police car & uniform also would've been a nice unlock.

Car Upgrades: NFS
You are physically allowed to do more with your car in some of the later NFS games

Sound: NFS
I could hear the roar of my engine. As for music, its a draw...both kinda suck in my opinion.

Police Chases: NFS
NFS3 and Hot Pursuit II, even Carbon

Lifespan: TDU
There's enough freedom that the game doesn't have to end once you complete it. There's only but so many times you can do the same tracks over and over before it drives you crazy.

[Jake33]

Deciding between the two on a Test Drive forum, is pretty easy to see witch is gonna win..

I enjoyed the Need For Speed Series, up 'til Carbon, I liked doing all the performance mods and everything, and changing my gear ratios, if Test Drive, or Eden did this with TDU, I would have loved this game. Hopefully we get some user suggested ideas in the upcoming sequel.

I'll give my vote to the Test Drive Series.

Jake from 360 forums.

[Thrill Yeti]

I'm a big follower of the NFS games, but I feel that carbon was a big let down, as it only lasted me 3 days, while Most Wanted was so long I stopped playing. Since I bought TDU in February It has always been something I play, without getting bored. So I have to hand it to the test drive series.

[AmericaSpeed]

My favorite NFS game was Motor City Online. Sure, it wasn't an official NFS title, but it was originally going to be NFS: Motor City.

Mid-development it was changed to an MMO and renamed.

It didn't have the free-roaming environment of TDU, which would've been a major boost to the game...but the racing was good, and the car customization was incredible. No "upgrade packages" for you, pal...you had to choose individual components to build your own engines, suspensions, etc.

If you wanted a 1000hp engine, then you built one and dropped it in the car. If you wanted 400hp, then you built that instead. Great fun.

[maxtorque81]

Originally Posted by USRW_Lone_Wolf

Need for speed is a ricer's game. Enough said.

just like sarge said, wat about NFS 1,2,3, and even 4, not ricer games right there. need for speed 2 was me all time fav. for ps2

[SlikRik]

Carbon was definately too "fake" for me. Just the weird customization and unreal racing were like, ugh.

I've been an NFS player since High Stakes. Porsche Unleashed is definately my favorite, due to the LARGE amount of cars (all Porsche's granted, but still..) Underground was a risky switch to tuners, which some liked, some didn't. However, apparently it did pretty well, I enjoyed Underground (having beat it 5 times), and they even made an Underground 2 directly after. (Took em a few years to make another Hot Pursuit, which wasn't all that hot.) Underground 2 was the best for customization, although alot of the customization was completely useless, as well as the first NFS game to feature the free-roam. What I really like about Ug2 was the tuning, one of the greatest aspect of the game IMO. Most Wanted was pretty good cuz it combined almost all the other games and rolled em into one, supercars, tuners, cops, customization, free roam, etc. I thought MW was pretty well done, the cops were possibly the best part of the game. But like I said before, Carbon was trash.

Now when comparing NFS to TDU, that's kinda hard to do. TDU's aim was to create a Racing MMO, while NFS's aim was to create an arcade racer with some kinda story or plot, especially in the later games. The car physics of NFS have definately gotten a lot better since the old days (hopefully Pro Street's will be good). The physics of TDU are also pretty good however. TDU obviously has a much better selection of cars than many NFS games combined. NFS definately wins out in customization, TDU's leaves a lot to be desired, especially with the simplistic 3 stage package customization, and no tuning options.

Overall, I think TDU was designed much better (forget the bugs and stuff) than any NFS game, seeing how it has many little features and incredible realism with great gameplay, which is what I like in a game. TDU impressed me much more during the first play than any NFS game did, and several months later it's still one of my favorite games ever (I just wish I had a PC that could do it justice). Although I'll give NFS a bunch more chances to make a kickass game.

[Fargo]

Originally Posted by SlikRik

Carbon was definately too "fake" for me. Just the weird customization and unreal racing were like, ugh.

I've been an NFS player since High Stakes. Porsche Unleashed is definately my favorite, due to the LARGE amount of cars (all Porsche's granted, but still..) Underground was a risky switch to tuners, which some liked, some didn't. However, apparently it did pretty well, I enjoyed Underground (having beat it 5 times), and they even made an Underground 2 directly after. (Took em a few years to make another Hot Pursuit, which wasn't all that hot.) Underground 2 was the best for customization, although alot of the customization was completely useless, as well as the first NFS game to feature the free-roam. What I really like about Ug2 was the tuning, one of the greatest aspect of the game IMO. Most Wanted was pretty good cuz it combined almost all the other games and rolled em into one, supercars, tuners, cops, customization, free roam, etc. I thought MW was pretty well done, the cops were possibly the best part of the game. But like I said before, Carbon was trash.

Now when comparing NFS to TDU, that's kinda hard to do. TDU's aim was to create a Racing MMO, while NFS's aim was to create an arcade racer with some kinda story or plot, especially in the later games. The car physics of NFS have definately gotten a lot better since the old days (hopefully Pro Street's will be good). The physics of TDU are also pretty good however. TDU obviously has a much better selection of cars than many NFS games combined. NFS definately wins out in customization, TDU's leaves a lot to be desired, especially with the simplistic 3 stage package customization, and no tuning options.

Overall, I think TDU was designed much better (forget the bugs and stuff) than any NFS game, seeing how it has many little features and incredible realism with great gameplay, which is what I like in a game. TDU impressed me much more during the first play than any NFS game did, and several months later it's still one of my favorite games ever (I just wish I had a PC that could do it justice). Although I'll give NFS a bunch more chances to make a kickass game.

Well said.

I love my ricer games but I don't think its possible for EA to come up with anything that will compare to TDU.

[liquidsilk]

Good Question. Personally, i think that in the past ,Need for Speed mad better games. However, ever since Carbon, They seem to have ruined it.

But, NFS ProStreet is coming out Nov. 2007. It looks promising due to the following reasons.
-Good Cars (08 M3, 07 Skyline, 08 Evo X, etc.)
-Damage (not just scapes)
-Serious racing (can bring 2 cars to an event, if both are damaged to the max, you are disqualified)
-New Graphics (have been working on it since they started working on Carbon)

-Screenshots> http://www.nfsunlimited.net/prostreet/screenshots

[Xmodsrcool]

Originally Posted by liquidsilk

Good Question. Personally, i think that in the past ,Need for Speed mad better games. However, ever since Carbon, They seem to have ruined it.

But, NFS ProStreet is coming out Nov. 2007. It looks promising due to the following reasons.
-Good Cars (08 M3, 07 Skyline, 08 Evo X, etc.)
-Damage (not just scapes)
-Serious racing (can bring 2 cars to an event, if both are damaged to the max, you are disqualified)
-New Graphics (have been working on it since they started working on Carbon)

-Screenshots> http://www.nfsunlimited.net/prostreet/screenshots

they have 2 teams, working on alternating titles.

The team working on ProStreet was the same that worked on Most Wanted.
I'm looking forward to that.

I'm not looking forward to the next title, made by those who did carbon.

[specVtuner]

Its a tough one, all of the previous Test Drive games were ok. I owned Test Drive 4 for PC and rented TD 1 or 2 for sega genesis - can't remember which. I'll admit at the time they were good. But I don't really have any memorable moments playing them.

Now as for the NFS series, hell ya, played every single title, owned most of them, all but porsche unleashed (not a big german car fan, italian cars are so much better - should have been ferrari unleashed). I'll agree with most here, carbon was a let down. Ever since EA has been treating their devs like sweatshop workers and releasing a title every year - each time they've gotten worse and just a rehashed version of the previous year.

TDU beats them all, while I will miss customizing, the exotics are worth it. Still should be a customizing option with Nissan cars using NISMO parts...

[sketch424]

Well like X said, (loosely) fingers crossed that Pro street is gonna be as good as it looks, can't wait to see what the gameplay is like. That will be the deal breaker.

[MCO_AJ]

Originally Posted by AmericaSpeed

My favorite NFS game was Motor City Online. Sure, it wasn't an official NFS title, but it was originally going to be NFS: Motor City.

Mid-development it was changed to an MMO and renamed.

It didn't have the free-roaming environment of TDU, which would've been a major boost to the game...but the racing was good, and the car customization was incredible. No "upgrade packages" for you, pal...you had to choose individual components to build your own engines, suspensions, etc.

If you wanted a 1000hp engine, then you built one and dropped it in the car. If you wanted 400hp, then you built that instead. Great fun.

[sketch424]

Wow that game would be awesome if it were around still, maybe with a bit more modernisation and stuff too just to keep up with the times. Reminds me of SLRR 'cept that one isn't multiplayer yet.

[[NFBS]Lowrider]

MCO would have been great if anyone besides EA would have done the game.

It had very buggy online play. was online only and pay to play

Laggy as laggy can be. and EA dropped it soon as they realized they didn't have the know how to pull it off. I feel bad for all the people that had payed to play. cause they didn't get what they payed for. when EA shut it down, all it's payed customers had a expensive coaster for there drinks. I was in the beta for high stakes. which never made it out of beta stage btw. Still best online racer ever to date. not just because of the racing, but the community was the best. the online interface made it very easy to make friends and find your friends. The only thing ever gave/gives me near the same rush is...you guessed it TDU

[cerebus23]

Early nfs games were good, heck i bought the ps2 just so i could drive the 512tr in nfs r&t had most wanted and high stakes for pc and the number of cars people made for them were awsome at the time, didnt get into prosche since i never been a huge fan of prosche. Of course EA went to enormous pains after mw or was it high stakes (i forget) to make sure people could not add custom cars to the game and then the series just went downhill.

Had td 1 and 2 for commodore 64/128 i remember playing the heck out of them after that i honestly kinda lost track of the series think they were moving to ibm pcs and i was not one of the lucky few to get a pc early on.

The moment i head about test drive unlimited tho and what they were trying to do i watched and waited eagerly and impatiently for it, especially after the xbox version came out two or three months prior to the pc version and so little word, i was lucky to get in the closed beta and played the game all the time i could, preordered the dd game that was sporked and played the heck out of tdu at retail when they sent me a dvd to make up for the dd fiasco.

SInce nfs has fallen so far from its roots and insists of sticking horrible body work on exotic cars as well as hondas TDU was such a godsend it was a blessing.

[RampanteF130]

High Stakes was my favorite NFS title, but it's apples and oranges to me as far as comparing them.

[d0sitmatr]

Originally Posted by specVtuner

(should have been ferrari unleashed)

I have a MOD for NFS4 called "ferrarri challenge"

[bob71]

ya know, NFS doesent have to be a ricers game if you don't want it to be, You have a choise to mod your car any way you want in NFS.Wheather it bee for looks or power. Make it what you make it, ya get what you pay for.

[Amilo-D]

Need for speed series started very high up, but went downhill after the peak, which was NFS Porsche.


Test Drive series started in middle with TD1-3, then went straight down with TestDrive 4.5.6.7 and god knows how many other rubbish games in series. However.. unlike NFS, TDU brought standard strongly up.

As of yet, NFS series have more enjoyable games overall (NFS3,4,5 and Carbon) while TD series only really have TDU (or TD3 but its way too old now).

So for now NFS series is ahead, but TD series will hopefully change that with TDU2

[Xmodsrcool]

Originally Posted by Amilo-D

Need for speed series started very high up, but went downhill after the peak, which was NFS Porsche.


Test Drive series started in middle with TD1-3, then went straight down with TestDrive 4.5.6.7 and god knows how many other rubbish games in series. However.. unlike NFS, TDU brought standard strongly up.

As of yet, NFS series have more enjoyable games overall (NFS3,4,5 and Carbon) while TD series only really have TDU (or TD3 but its way too old now).

So for now NFS series is ahead, but TD series will hopefully change that with TDU2

...but... but TD5 was my first racing game! it rocked!

[Roadie]

At this point in time I would have to say TDU. The early NFS games up to underground were good (could have been great without EA) but they bottomed out after that. TD was also good early on except for TD6. Urban cornering at 120mph and no tire squeal or loss of traction? Oops, did that statement just resemble Midtown Madness?

IMO, the Undisputed King, has to be Gran Turismo! Incredible selection of cars, physics, tuning, scenery and graphics. I really wish they would port it to PC but I don't think they would be able to keep up the integrity of the game. <sigh>

---Edit
typos.

[Antitenant]

Although not part of the poll, personally for me the racing game I had the most fun with ever was Midnight Club (specifically MC2 for PC). The game itself was fun, but once you started editing files you could do everything from creating new car skins, visual upgrades, performace upgrades, flying (that led to some fun times), and change the look of the city. No other racing game I have played has compared to the amount of fun I had with that game. We would take our modified cars out for racing, Mod CTF, and general cruising. It was cool because your car's performance actually depended on how well you were able to tune it. It was a cool little community to be a part of.

[Millerbear]

Originally Posted by Roadie

At this point in time I would have to say TDU. The early NFS games up to underground were good (could have been great without EA) but they bottomed out after that. TD was also good early on except for TD6. Urban cornering at 120mph and no tire squeal or loss of traction? Oops, did that statement just resemble Midtown Madness?

IMO, the Undisputed King, has to be Gran Turismo! Incredible selection of cars, physics, tuning, scenery and graphics. I really wish they would port it to PC but I don't think they would be able to keep up the integrity of the game. <sigh>

---Edit
typos.

EA has been with NFS since day one, EA being a new company and having to get an outside sponsor, Road & Track magazine, to help their game get out. I loved NFS 1 to death, I played it non-stop until I got my hands on NFS II. So on, and so forth. I've played every NFS game to date, and I still own everything from High Stakes on (My first 3 NFS discs were lost when my family moved, they may very well be in a box somewhere in our attic). I started Test Drive with TD:Off Road. I am unsure whether this was the first game in the series, I assume not, but I still liked it a ton. I remember being obsessed with the Land Rover Defender 90. My experience with TD has not been as extensive as with NFS, however, as I have only owned 5 TD games (Off Road, Off Road Wide Open, TD5, TD for Xbox (horrible), TDU).

As it stands now, TDU is a much better game than the past NFS games following the same format, free-roaming street racing. However, NFS:ProStreet looks very promising, and might be the kick in the pants NFS needs. Since both of the series' are not deceased yet, it's hard to say which is better. At this point in time, my vote goes to TD.

[Jonny*Hoon*It]

Need for speed if you dont like playing good games. Test Drive has always been the most interesting take on driving games. And lets face it, anything made by EA has been touched by the devil himself.

Dont give EA anymore money for crying out loud. I'm sick of seeing four million add on packs in the shops.

Gran Turismo the greatest racing game ever? You been smoking crack or something? It's more of a train simulator than a driving simulator, utterly unrealistic and slow.

Mario Kart however.... oh baby

ps- Been playing PC games since the days of the apple acorn. I even have a copy of test drive 1 somehwere at home..... I dont think it would have stood the test of time though. Some of you would never of had to deal with monochrome screens or CGA graphics. Be thankful