I have been playing a fair amount of Need for Speed Rivals since the release of the PS4 in Europe, and I am enjoying it for the most parts. However - the loss of convenience is what strikes me most about the game. Most inconveniences root directly in its *Always Multiplayer* gamedesign, like the inability to quickly restart an event as a racer, when one has attracted police attention, or the inability to start any event from anywhere.
Accounting for its *Always Multiplayer* aspect, there are lots of concessions to be made in order to prevent easy exploits breaking the competitive nature of multiplayer. Logic dictates that those concessions will always be made at the cost of convenience. In the case of Need for Speed Rivals, I'm not quite sure if the benefits outweigh the cost. Need for Speed is the definition of a *Convenient Food* franchise. Rivals is incredibly inconvenient at every turn, due to its *mingleplayer* focus. It doesn't quite jell for me.
Most games, by my point of view, are better if they are more convenient. Do all these upcoming *seamless multiplayer* games shoot themselves in their own foot? The inconviences inherent to such a thing are rarely a merit really. A clear cut between singleplayer and multiplayer still is the way to go for most games, it seems to me.
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