To begin with, I would like to briefly introduce myself as a gamer. When I was 7-8 years old I got a PSone as a gift with a "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing" game, which is other one which I will always remember. That PSone has seen many other nice games, of which lots were racing games. They might not have have been too great in terms of graphics, engines and so on... But they just worked, they were fun and memorable experience, great it many ways. I think in the days when performance and graphics were much limited by hardware devs could have focused much more on style and fun factor of the games, making them more iconic. Naturally there were PStwo, and PSthree (or was there ? My mind already was into PC master race then ). Games for PSone stopped. I was looking to something next, as soon as GTA3 came out my mind was all about PC. Then NFSU (first one) came out, and I was crazy to get a PC. Unfortunately, as we weren't doing very well it took a few years for me to get it, I just have had a couple chances to play it at friends house. After finally getting the PC and NFSU it was magic. I know by now it seems that NFSU is so much for me because it was sort of big wait, but it really wasn't that. Here is why. The game was last of its kind, when arcades were still a product that was meant to be great experience, before it was meant to be great money maker before anything else.; The game was very challenging. By picking hardest option (for most reward) you really had to work for it. It wasn't very hard at the beginning, but as the game was progressing you could feel it getting more tight, with some extra hard races here and there in between. I still remember the liveries of those AI cars which were super strong; Really really good tracks. I would like to find out who has designed the tracks, but that guy, or team was spot on with it. The atmosphere was incredible. The flow was excellent. Incredible challenging not to hit some city objects, and great rewards of taken risks. Nicely working AI "citizens" traffic also provided great adrenaline and "style" points was nice touch. Tracks were also incredible in terms of aesthetics it really was spot on. Oh yeah and trains - crazy stuff. I keep remembering - shortcut roads and gambling to take or not to take them was really awesome; The sound effects - I can't forget the real time reverb effects from surrounding objects, added great deal of immersion; Nitro blur and jumps - perhaps very arcade, but it was awesome; Revolutionary graphics for the time for what I have seen; Great choice of game style, very well crafted product; Tuning the cars was amazing system, excellent for 14-15years old guy to use; Going through the game felt very solid experience, not too easy, a good challenge, I actually used to get similar emotions when racing in ALOOG-1 or STREETFIGHT servers, which were greatest community servers of AC; They have had managed to make drag racing actually very interesting - thats an achievement. I probably could remember more things. But it is enough. I was very excited for NFSU2, but it turned out not to be so great IMO. Even though surprisingly when I ask some guys, mostly they prefer NFSU2 over NFSU. IMO NFSU2 was the starting point when game developers learned what makes most money, and it has became more important of what makes great game. Just few points on that: Not being too hard. It was just way easier. Not so much a challenge, as a result quite boring and unrewarding, just a matter of time; Being an open world was slightly silly and not too meaningful; Tracks and city was not as good; Simply many things which I found great in NFSU weren't there or so good. I think it would be possible to go wider in this topic, another example could be call of duty games, when devs learned to make more money making games games, instead of greater experience providing games.... It was getting worse later, with and exception of NFSMW, IMO, which was ok, but still lacked. I frequently have this idea, which I would actually love to see becoming reality. It would be difficult, but I think it could happen. Now imagine: NFSU(1) recreation, an updated version with todays graphics standards, AND most importantly KUNOS hired and lots of money paid for implementing AC vehicle handling physics, onboard stuff, minorated online mode included, and the rest pretty much same as it was Wouldn't that be an insane simracing title ? Here is the video I found of what probably was the hardest race to beat in NFSU: Just update and un-arcade it, and thats it What do you think ? maybe you have other games in your memory, which you think could be awesome of "dis-arcaded" ?
