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Giant Bomb Review

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Need for Speed Rivals Review

3
  • PC
  • PS4
  • XONE

There's a fantastic game hiding inside of Need for Speed Rivals, but there aren't enough systems in place to draw that greatness out where it belongs.

It's racers versus cops, and the thing you'll quickly learn is that both sides are out of their damned minds.
It's racers versus cops, and the thing you'll quickly learn is that both sides are out of their damned minds.

You might not have noticed, but there aren't too many "arcade" racing games out there these days. A genre that once flourished has been reduced to a fairly small number of contenders, and with the Burnout franchise seemingly on the shelf, many of the minds behind it have been pumping out quality Need for Speed games for the last handful of years. This year's edition is Need for Speed Rivals, a game that attempts to drag everyone online in a cat-and-mouse, open-world take on a lot of the work that you may have seen in 2010's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Real-life vehicles armed with stun mines, turbo boost, and shockwaves may sound like a great time, and if you're in the exact right situation, it very much is. Unfortunately, the game doesn't do enough to bring players together, resulting in an online game that feels empty, cold, and lifeless.

Unless you explicitly tell the game to keep you offline or connect to a private game, the first thing Rivals does upon firing it up is connect you to as many as five other players, all of whom will be driving around the same world that you are. If you find that they're boring or bad people, you can ditch that game in search of another. But by default, the game is one big online game with career progressions that can benefit from working together... or opposing one another. The game has two separate career paths that you can swap between any time you're not on the road. The racer career gives you races and events where you get away from the cops. The cop career has you busting racers and completing time trials. Each progression works a little differently, too. Racers build multipliers and earn "speed points" while they're out on the road. The longer you stay out, the more you can earn. But if you get busted or wrecked by the cops, you lose all of those unbanked points, making the entire game focus on the risk of losing it all in a flash versus the reward of eking out a few more points. Cops don't lose points--they take points away from the racers they bust. Cops don't have to pay for cars, but they also can't upgrade any of their cars' performance.

Whether they're AI-controlled or humans, the cops are a real hassle.
Whether they're AI-controlled or humans, the cops are a real hassle.

While the game is working ideally when all six of the players in the world are doing roughly the same thing, with cop players trying to take out racer players and so on, the open roads in Rivals are packed full of AI drivers on both sides of the law. If you're racing, you can challenge any AI racer you see to a quick race. If you're patrolling, you can hit the sirens any time you see a racer and start a pursuit. It's a large world with very few ways to force players together, though. So more often than not, the servers simply give you six players who all go about their own business as they try to complete events and sets of challenges called "speedlists." If players do happen to come together and end up interacting, everyone involved earns more points. You can also use a GPS to draw a map line to the other players, but since those players are probably still driving while you're trying to catch up to them, it's largely futile. The game would really benefit from some sort of way to force players into a single event. Instead you're left to put on your headset and convince strangers that you should all drive to the far side of the map for a race or something. If you have a set of Need for Speed-loving friends, this might not be such a big deal. But if you don't, the multiplayer side of the game feels like sort of a sham.

No matter how you play, the end results are the same. As you complete speedlists you move through chapters of a "story" on both sides of the career. These are edited-together clips of instant messaging chat and fake YouTube as the racer side of the struggle attempts to gain fame while the cops crack down on things as best they can. Even though there aren't many cutscenes to throw to between events, there's still enough dialogue to make both sides sound like lunatics, with the racer constantly sounding like he's just shy of trading his cars in for guns and forming a proper militia while the cop sounds like he took the job just to crack skulls with a billy club. Either way, the writers should probably seek therapy.

If you download the Need for Speed app for iOS or Android you can send nitrous refills or helicopters in to help or hinder your friends, but the constant app crashes and failures to connect made this a real drag.
If you download the Need for Speed app for iOS or Android you can send nitrous refills or helicopters in to help or hinder your friends, but the constant app crashes and failures to connect made this a real drag.

The truly criminal part about Rivals' inability to bring people together is that it's actually a great game. Conceptually, the career advancement makes sense and makes for an interesting struggle between two different-but-relatively-equal sides. The handling is great, allowing you to weave through traffic when necessary while also letting you just tap the brakes and make minor adjustments to touch off huge, glorious drifts around hairpin turns. It also looks nice, with a frame rate that might not be as smooth as you want out of a racing game, but at least it's stable across PC and next-generation platforms. That said, the notion that the PC version is locked at 30 frames-per-second is especially ridiculous. Even still, considering its higher resolution options, it can be the best-looking version of the game, with the PlayStation 4 behind it. The Xbox One version is roughly on par, but parts of it look a little grimy when compared to the PS4 version. All versions have substantial load times when you enter or exit the world, which can happen pretty frequently, depending on how often you need to change cars, pick a new speedlist, or just escape the cops for a bit.

Rivals feels like it's on the cusp of greatness. The pieces are all there--the handling is exciting, the soundtrack is solid, and the systems that surround the multiplayer help build meaningful battles between racer and cop. But with just six players driving around the entire world and no good way to pull those players together for some true multiplayer activities, those pieces go absolutely nowhere, leaving behind an empty world that might as well not even be online at all. It's a real shame.

Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

99 Comments

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Chrisatgiantbomb

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Just make a Burnout game. I like the Hot Pursuits and Most Wanted 2 but this cop chase thing gets old. These games do not look as good as Burnout, those lines that move on stuff like lamp posts get irritating. This new generation should have none of that. In real life those edges don't move, they need to keep the arcade handling, make them drive like GTA V. I' d love to see something like Underground 2 with drift events and no cops, they knew how to do it back then.

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Rekt_Hed

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FUCK.SAKE! Just let me have one full retail game that justifies me having a PS4......

At this rate I'm gonna have to swallow my pride and get a copy of AC 4....FUCK YOU UBISOFT FOR DELAYING WATCHDOGS! GOD.....fuckin, fuck it!

!UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

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Jazz_Lafayette

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Aww, man.

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Sooty

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Edited By Sooty

@fisk0 said:

@joeyravn said:

Do you guys remember when everyone was saying that the "next-gen" would bring better console ports to PC? Yeah. I can't believe we fell for the lie.

Loading Video...

Welcome to 1992, when games made for an 386 ran way too fast on a 486. It's hilarious that something like this could still happen, I really can't recall that happening, beyond maybe some menu animations, since 1992-93, since the 486 and Pentium era games have been able to perform quite well on hardware way beyond what was available at the time they were made.

I guess the Quake III engine games like Q3A and Call of Duty had some framerate related bugs, but not affecting speed like this, just the game's physics (you could jump higher and survive longer falls if you played them at 120-200 fps than at 60).

Dark Souls does this too if you unlock the framerate.

Dark Souls also runs at 60 FPS perfectly if that's what you set it to, where as NFS Rivals remains broken at anything above 30.

So it's not really comparable.

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cavemantom

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Every open world racing game that doesn't rip off Driver: San Francisco's minimap is wasting an elegant solution to shitty GPS lines and big glowy arrows all over the game world.

If you haven't played Driver: SF (you should), the minimap is at the top center of the screen, and pressing Y/triangle makes it a few times larger. It's a slick solution that keeps your vision centered near the road, and lets you spot and choose a route for yourself without distracting your attention, halting the action, or making you take your left thumb off the steering stick.

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chivs688

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It's like they've been building up to an actual great game over the past few games. The latest Most Wanted was just a bland open-world singleplayer racer, then Rivals is just the expansion on that with a bit more interesting world and some more interesting concepts and features with online and dynamic racing/cop chases.

Here's to hoping the next game is the culmination where it all comes together and we get a really great game.

Or, you know, Underground 3.. :)

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Devildoll

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Edited By Devildoll

I hate that this is locked at 30 on pc.

its built on frostbite, how can it not support 30+?

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HellknightLeon

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@msavo: Nope. Its out on Xbox and Pc... so you would just say "This game is bad".

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NPfeifer

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Edited By NPfeifer

The past few NFS games have been pretty average, so :/

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buneroid

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Edited By buneroid

@chivs688 said:

It's like they've been building up to an actual great game over the past few games. The latest Most Wanted was just a bland open-world singleplayer racer, then Rivals is just the expansion on that with a bit more interesting world and some more interesting concepts and features with online and dynamic racing/cop chases.

Here's to hoping the next game is the culmination where it all comes together and we get a really great game.

Or, you know, Underground 3.. :)

Underground 3 yes please. Knowing EA though it would just be called Need for Speed: THE Underground.

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ThomasCro

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@chivs688: I need Underground 3, I will sell my shoe for that.

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Devildoll

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Edited By Devildoll

@thomascro: Everyone wants Underground 3.

Problem is....
That game would be too good.
People wouldnt grow tired of it in time for the next need for speed release.
So it'll never happen.

Greedy bastards ;)

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Ares42

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I think Jeffs has the wrong perspective on this game. It is not a multiplayer game, it's a singleplayer game with baked in multiplayer components. You can do aboslutely everything in the game by yourself (and in many cases that's also preferrable). I do agree with him that it has poor multiplayer options though, but again I don't believe that's the focus here at all. I think the idea was to make the kinda game we saw over and over at E3 this year, the "you're playing by yourself and all of a sudden you run into another player" experience.

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thebunnyhunter

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Yeah its definitely not as good as last years Most Wanted, that world felt like there was tons of stuff to find while exploring.

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zenmastah

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What a season to be a PC gamer, this locked at 30 fps, ACIV running like shit..i really thought things would continue to progress instead of regress but i guess it comes down to money like it it always does.

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shinofkod

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Edited By shinofkod

I've been playing the hell out of this game since launch. I do think it's more of a single player game with coincidental convenient multiplayer features. It's not like Most Wanted which was more focused on being a multiplayer game. I've found busting other vehicles as a cop, particularly human controlled ones, to be a true edge of my seat experience; I've barely even touched the racer half of the game because I've had such a blast on the cop side. Personally I'd give it a **** rating. Definitely in my personal top 5 list for GOTY in what has been a relatively weak year to this point.

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deactivated-5a46aa62043d1

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God, I want a new Burnout.

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semaphore

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If they added a multiplayer menu option to queue up for events instead of being dropped into the open world, that would solve the biggest issues with the game in my opinion.

I've played a lot of this game online on both sides of the law and my interaction with players never exceeded more than one or two other people at a time and absolutely never included a race or hot pursuit event.

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Krystal_Sackful

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Edited By Krystal_Sackful

What happens if you don't connect your console to the internet? How does it determine how the other cars drive?

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Jensonb

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I've pre-ordered this to go with my Killzone Shadow Fall PS4 bundle on Friday, but really only because Driveclub got delayed. Before that, I was going to play Driveclub on PSPlus and buy Lego Marvel Super Heroes.

I'm disappointed the multi-player aspects are a bust, but as long as the driving is fun (which Jeff says it is, and my taste in arcade racers usually lines up with his) I'll be satisfied enough. it certainly seems to look gorgeous on next gen, which is nice. Most Wanted (2012) looks okay, but the sub-HD resolution is pretty apparent. I'm really looking forward to that 1080p racing glory.

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spookytapes

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Don't buy this for the mutiplayer. It's fun enough though. The open world is beautiful on PS4 and the frantic feeling of trying to back to a safe house while the cops are chasing you so you don't get busted and lose all of your credits is really satisfying and something I haven't really felt in other racing games.

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squidraid

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@chivs688: It's really not a more interesting world, either. Rivals feels like a step backwards from Most Wanted across the board. Actually having to buy car upgrades again is a step up, but there's just a lot less to do in the open world than there was before. It's the classic "fix one problem and create a million more" school of game development.

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bathala

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imagine 64 players like BF

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Zevvion

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What a season to be a PC gamer, this locked at 30 fps, ACIV running like shit..i really thought things would continue to progress instead of regress but i guess it comes down to money like it it always does.

Not sure what you mean... 30fps locked is heaps better than a 60fps on paper that dips everytime something is going on to 30-40. Also, I heard ACIV runs great?

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AstroCow

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@zevvion said:

@zenmastah said:

What a season to be a PC gamer, this locked at 30 fps, ACIV running like shit..i really thought things would continue to progress instead of regress but i guess it comes down to money like it it always does.

Also, I heard ACIV runs great?

This is the first time I heard ACIV runs poorly on PC. And then I found this article "Slyvain Trottier says PC optimisation does not top the list of priorities given its similarities with next-gen consoles": http://www.develop-online.net/news/aciv-producer-on-pc-you-don-t-really-care-about-performance/0186305

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Ethereal

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I have been greatly enjoying this game, but I also think that this is a very fair review. In the 10 or so hrs I've played I think I've been in an actual event with another player once. I don't really mind that per say, but it definitely begs the question of "Why?."

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Zevvion

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Edited By Zevvion

@astrocow said:

@zevvion said:

@zenmastah said:

What a season to be a PC gamer, this locked at 30 fps, ACIV running like shit..i really thought things would continue to progress instead of regress but i guess it comes down to money like it it always does.

Also, I heard ACIV runs great?

This is the first time I heard ACIV runs poorly on PC. And then I found this article "Slyvain Trottier says PC optimisation does not top the list of priorities given its similarities with next-gen consoles": http://www.develop-online.net/news/aciv-producer-on-pc-you-don-t-really-care-about-performance/0186305

I failed to read you were talking about the PC version. Yeah, Ubisoft has been somewhat poor on that stuff for most AC games haven't they? It's too bad they still think PC gamers don't want options, and kind of strange actually. It should be clear by now that they care a lot about that stuff. Although, it wouldn't be the first time I heard a producer say something that was completely disconnected from the user base.

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Cameron

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@snail said:

Nooooooooooooooooo. Criterion is supposed to make good games! Good games! That's why they got Black Box off of this franchise!

If it makes you feel any better, this one was made by Ghost Games. Criterion might have had some hand in it, but it wasn't their game. We can still have faith that Criterion will give us a great game next year.

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THRICE_604

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Really enjoyed the couple of hours I've spent. The only complaint is the "connectedness" of the game preventing you from ever pausing the game really pisses me off and keeps me playing in short bursts.

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padrino

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So true that the one missing piece is a way to get the online players together. The shame is, it seems so easy to fix. Why not just let players issue a "challenge event" and have that notify all the players who can just go to the map and start that event just as you can when you first exit the garage mode. As long as there was a cool down time for players "challenges" so they could not spam, I think this could work really well. Its a shame especially because 2010's Hot Pursuit did match making with random players very well. Even if they could not figure out how to do this in the open world mode, they should have provided a similar mode in this game. I really like the game but this is exactly what keeps this from being a great game.

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deactivated-5ffc9b71f33ff

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I'm playing on the PS4 and I'm really enjoying the game. Took me a few races to actually understand the generally concept, but once I did I've had a lot of fun.

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chilipeppersman

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Edited By chilipeppersman

@npfeifer: yep hot pursuit is the only one I have enjoyed from NFS from the past few years

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radioactivez0r

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Edited By radioactivez0r

@csl316: I also loved the online in HP (60+ hours), and I guess it was my fault for not paying enough attention to this pre-launch because I assumed it was a bit of a return to that structure.

I come to NFS games for the MP at this point; when I drop into a world with 5 other people (!?) and 2 of them aren't even showing on the map probably because they are playing SP, and I have to drive across the map to try and run into one of the other few and then miss and they get away...yeah it sucks. I guess I'll treat it like a single player game with multiplayer incidentals, but that's super disappointing.

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csl316

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@radioactivez0r: Yep, so Jeff's review is spot on. Great core game, missed potential online.

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rustyaries

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I actually like the more focused NFS Rivals. It's kinda refreshing, I can just jump in and play for bit. The one problem with playing games with friends is being home online at the same time as they are, as my work schedule has changed I noticed that I dont play MP games with the people I used to because they are not online at the same time as me.

Hopefully going forward everyone just steals Forza's driveatar mechanics and just uses that in all racing games for AI characters.

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EXCellR8

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Edited By EXCellR8

I'd probably give the game a slightly higher rating, as the "All Drive" feature is kind of a neat way to race with people, public or private. I've had some pretty ridiculous matches go down and other times online it was a bit more spotty. But sometimes I prefer to go off and do my own thing anyway...

When I first started playing I had a tough time doing anything as a racer, but once i learned the map a bit it became a lot easier to outrun people and not lose all of your points. It was really frustrating in the beginning but as I played it more it leveled out.

PC version was giving me a lot of shit so I ended up trying the PS4 version. Looks fantastic but honestly it's wayyyy too busy. Between the lighting and the particles, and smoke, and dirt, and whatever else flying around I was often completely blinded and it was really affecting my experience. I got better obviously but the first couple of hours were, at times, pretty infuriating.

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X_Marksman_X_Sniper_X

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I would give this game a 3.5/5 stars. The reason is it's a great game and all don't get me wrong, but there are still a lot of improvements needing to be made. I think the game itself is just too "scattered". There are too many situations where I hit guard rails because you can hardly keep up to speed in a race.

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Dx7MfZb

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Well i hate the tacked on online and no ability to pause the game, and how about that 30 minute tutorial on how to play a racing game which you can't skip. And to me each car drives the same, boring. Black box maybe made some strange desing choices but at least they knew how to make nfs fun, criterion and ghost not really

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abrasion

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I've played about 10 hours of this and I like it - but Jeff is right, with some tweaks this could've been really good -and they are damn close too :/

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TheNoseBear

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Great review, but now the important question - How's the NFS movie?

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Connor15

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Hi I'm looking to buy Need for speed rivals but I'm not sure what console to buy it with I'm currently on the xbox 360 is it better on the xbox one? Pls help

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Connor15

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