The next instalment of the Need For Speed franchise has taken the spotlight in the racing games scene today with an announcement, giving the fans a date and time to write down in their agendas.
What we expect to be a trailer will be dropped as a youtube premiere this Thursday, October 6 at 5PM CEST (8AM PDT).
There are already some infos to gather from the short video and a picture - potentially the game's cover - which appeared briefly on EA's website in the racing game's list section before being removed.
Rumours insisted heavily towards the game featuring "anime" style elements, prompting a lot of people to expect an Auto Modellista like artistic direction with cellshading. But at the same time, the word "photorealistic" was also used by sources close to the game, prompting confusion within the fanbase.
The global artistic direction seems to be heavily focused on street art culture, with graffiti being omnipresent in the material we got today. The car featured on the cover art - a new entry in the NFS series, the Mercedes 190E AMG Evo II - doesn't appear to be modelled drastically differently than what the 3 previous games gave us if you ignore the shaders effects, and it looks like the Chicago environments will retain a realistic appearance as well.
The cartoonish elements, which will be layered on top of everything else, appear to have a more western flavour than what the word "anime" would lead many to expect. The street art cues, the colours and overall style are actually very reminiscent of Jet Set Radio, a roller skating game originally released by Sega in 2000, which featured electro and hip-hop music, and used graffiti extensively as part of its gameplay.
To complete the focus on street culture and strong visual identity, word has that the characters would be getting the cartoon / comic treatment as well. If that proves to be true, expect colourful and unique character designs.
Although we still don't have much in terms of visuals for now, NFS Unbound already strikes with bold choices, and promises to look like nothing else in the racing game genre. And since Criterion is in charge of the development of this game, we can assume some more fast paced elements, with Burnout inspired mechanics, combined with this new visual personality has good chances of leading to high energy vibes. If your curiosity has been triggered, rendezvous in two days for the official reveal.
What we expect to be a trailer will be dropped as a youtube premiere this Thursday, October 6 at 5PM CEST (8AM PDT).
There are already some infos to gather from the short video and a picture - potentially the game's cover - which appeared briefly on EA's website in the racing game's list section before being removed.
Rumours insisted heavily towards the game featuring "anime" style elements, prompting a lot of people to expect an Auto Modellista like artistic direction with cellshading. But at the same time, the word "photorealistic" was also used by sources close to the game, prompting confusion within the fanbase.
The global artistic direction seems to be heavily focused on street art culture, with graffiti being omnipresent in the material we got today. The car featured on the cover art - a new entry in the NFS series, the Mercedes 190E AMG Evo II - doesn't appear to be modelled drastically differently than what the 3 previous games gave us if you ignore the shaders effects, and it looks like the Chicago environments will retain a realistic appearance as well.
The cartoonish elements, which will be layered on top of everything else, appear to have a more western flavour than what the word "anime" would lead many to expect. The street art cues, the colours and overall style are actually very reminiscent of Jet Set Radio, a roller skating game originally released by Sega in 2000, which featured electro and hip-hop music, and used graffiti extensively as part of its gameplay.
To complete the focus on street culture and strong visual identity, word has that the characters would be getting the cartoon / comic treatment as well. If that proves to be true, expect colourful and unique character designs.
Although we still don't have much in terms of visuals for now, NFS Unbound already strikes with bold choices, and promises to look like nothing else in the racing game genre. And since Criterion is in charge of the development of this game, we can assume some more fast paced elements, with Burnout inspired mechanics, combined with this new visual personality has good chances of leading to high energy vibes. If your curiosity has been triggered, rendezvous in two days for the official reveal.
