Need for Speed Undercover

Need for Speed Undercover—Interview

by John Gaudiosi

Electronic Arts' Black Box Studio has gone back to the racing franchise's roots with its latest installment, Need for Speed Underground. Players go undercover as Lieutenant Keller and infiltrate organized crime syndicates in Tri-City. The game's producer, Scott Nielsen, was on hand for the official launch party at San Francisco's Bubbles champagne lounger -- along with two Lamborghinis and Hollywood actress Maggie Q, who plays Federal Agent Chase Lyn. Nielsen talked about the new game, which ships for PC and consoles November 18.

What went into the decision to go back to your roots with this game?
We are tremendously proud of ProStreet, we set out to make a more sim-oriented racing game and we believe we succeeded. This year, with Need for Speed Undercover, we wanted to build a true next generation action driving game utilizing innovative gameplay like highway battles and our all-new Heroic Driving Engine all woven into an engaging cinematic story with top tier acting and directing talent.

Can you explain what the heroic driving engine is?
This year, we have created the all-new Heroic Driving Engine. This physics engine gives the player the ability to complete high-performance driving maneuvers as they push the car offensively and defensively to the limit as they compete against racers, cops and other opponents.

How big is this world for Need for Speed Undercover?
Need for Speed Undercover is a free-roaming environment featuring three distinct cities connected by an enormous highway system. In total, players will take out opponents and evade cops as the race along over 80 miles of roads.

How many different types or kinds of vehicles will be in the game? You had Lamborghinis at your launch, are they in the game?
Need for Speed Undercover continues the tradition of featuring some of the world’s best licensed cars. We’ll be talking more about the specifics later on but I can confirm we will have some exotics like Lamborghinis.

Can you talk about the type of experience a gamer with an NVIDIA card will get from this game?
High-end PCs with the latest video cards will enjoy all the bells and whistles that the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game have to offer – all the models in high definition, all the hi-res texturing, and all the rendering shaders and f/x. It will be a state-of-the-art experience, to be sure.

How do you work with NVIDIA on projects like this?
We’re very proud of our relationship with the NVIDIA folks and they work quite closely with us to ensure that our code is optimized for performance on these devices. They provide us with access to their testing facilities and talk regularly with our engineers to discuss solutions to all kinds of rendering issues and challenges.

How much depth is packed into the game?
There are literally hundreds of race experiences in Need for Speed Undercover across multiple race modes. The most dramatic new modes is the all-new highway battle. We wanted to push the chase concept to the limit so we created highway battles. These pulse-quickening multi-car chases require steady hands and split-second timing for players to take out their prey while fighting off cops and other adversaries.

What kind of online gameplay will there be?
We are very excited about our online and multiplayer modes this year. I think we’ll be delivering something quite unique this year. We’ll be talking more about the details later on.

Did you create this game's engine from scratch or build from previous games?
The Need for Speed team is continually enhancing and improving its driving engine. For example, in Hot Pursuit there were 4 tuning points that impacted a vehicles performance this year with Undercover there are 400 individual tuning points that are being utilized to create a realistic action driving experience.

What role do steering wheel peripherals play in developing a franchise like this? Any idea how many people play games like this with a wheel?
We are cognizant that gamers play our game across multiple systems using a variety of controllers, including steering wheels. Our focus is to create a game that is an exciting action driving experience regardless of controller.

What do you think PC gamers will be most excited about with this new game experience?
Need For Speed Undercover gives the PC player a chance to enjoy a truly “next gen” action driving experience with an amazing new Heroic Driving Engine, new race modes such Highway Battle, and a contemporary Hollywood-quality story. Its best of breed on every level and PC players will feel and enjoy that from start to finish.