When comparing Gears of War: Ultimate Edition vs Need for Speed (2015), the Slant community recommends Need for Speed (2015) for most people. In the question“What are the best LAN party PC games?” Need for Speed (2015) is ranked 67th while Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is ranked 96th. The most important reason people chose Need for Speed (2015) is:
Users can tune and customize their cars to their liking. This makes for a great way to change how a car drives to make it control more to your liking. There are two different drive modes available for each car, Drift and Grip. Drift allows for a more loose driving that makes for an easy way to drift around corners and curves. Grip is a more controlled experience where the car is more stable on the road. Besides these two options users can customize many other aspects such as tire pressure or breaking power.
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Pros
Pro Nice improvement in graphics over original console release
The game has been cleaned up for PC and optimized. It can be played at 1080p at 30fps, all while performing smoother than it did on s=console. So for those that have not played the game before this would be the definitive version, and for those that have, if they would like to experience the game again in a way that improves over the original, the PC version is a good choice.
Pro Fun cover system thanks to smart AI
The cover system is the main mechanic in this game, and it is something that needs to be used often thanks to the smart AI of enemies. Some will flank you while others may come running straight at you, which means you need to balance where and when to use the system in order to outsmart the enemies surrounding you.
Pro Additional content over original PC release
There are 5 extra levels added to the game (that were not in the original PC release) as well as the addition of two new multiplayer modes (Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill). The 5 campaigns add to the story of the game and have one of the best action sequences to be found. The two new multiplayer modes add to the replayability, as these modes will mot likely feature many players for now to go up against being that they are new to anyone on PC.
Pro Fun multiplayer
One of the best aspects of the game has always been the multiplayer modes. Players will have a lot to experience here, especially when considering there are two new modes. The gameplay in multiplayer plays at 60fps and features some of the most fun arcade third person shooting out there thanks to the great cover mechanics and overly powerful and over the top guns.
Pro Well told story
Every aspect of the game helps to flesh out the story being told in Gear of War. Objectives and environment plays a big role here as the player learns more and more as they progress, but not though overly explanation based cut-scenes but through the game itself. Each objective the player needs to complete brings them a bit further in the story and in understanding why what is happening. This helps to make the player feel more involved, especially when expanded upon through well crafted environments. While the world in the game may be outlandish, it feel believable because it has all been presented well to the player.
Pro Tuning cars returns to the franchise
Users can tune and customize their cars to their liking. This makes for a great way to change how a car drives to make it control more to your liking. There are two different drive modes available for each car, Drift and Grip. Drift allows for a more loose driving that makes for an easy way to drift around corners and curves. Grip is a more controlled experience where the car is more stable on the road. Besides these two options users can customize many other aspects such as tire pressure or breaking power.
Pro Open world gameplay
Much like Burnout or Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed features open world gameplay where in the player can pick or choose which races they would like to compete in by driving around the map to certain markers. This makes for a more realistic environment due to the fact that you can just drive around to anywhere you want. The open world is loosely based on Los Angeles, an d is a good sized map for plenty of exploring.
Pro Multiplayer is expansive
Being that the game is always online, there will be many players on the map that can be interacted with by joining their crew or just flat out racing anyone at anytime. This aspect of the game is quite fun and players can spend hours not even bothering with the story section of the game by just hanging out with friends and racing. Once a crew is joined players can race as teams as well, so this give a nice group competitive aspect to the game, where everything is not so competitive but requires cooperation.
Pro Fantastic graphics
The game looks quite good. All races take place at night or dusk/dawn, making for great lighting on the tracks with good reflective lighting as well as wet roads that look quite sharp. There are also little jaggies to be found when using anti-aliasing, which makes for a very smooth looking game as well. Everything about the graphics speaks to the polish that the game is trying to display, and it exceeds any expectations on the graphics front overall.
Pro Good gameplay variety
There is a good mix of races on the map that players can choose to compete in. Traditional races, drifting events as well as Gymkhana events ensure that the layer will never get too board with doing the same thing over and over again. Which is a good feature for a racing game as many tend to do only one or two things.
Cons
Con Unbalanced multiplayer weapons
most people will be playing with a shotgun as it is too powerful when compared to other weapons and offers the best range and power for the type of cover gameplay this game offers. Sniper rifles often are overpowered as well, which can make for mismatched gameplay in multiplayer for those that like to use different weapons over a shotgun or sniper rifle.
Con Singular button for multiple moves causes some issue
There is one button that is assigned many different moves in the game such as rolling, running, vaulting or just moving from one cover to the next. The way this is designed means that the player needs to be close to an area where this button will do a certain move, the trouble being that the game may not be precise in this as one move may happen that was not the intended. This can easily cause trouble when in the middle of a hectic firefight, which can be very frustrating.
Con Too much rubberbanding
When racing against AI opponents the cars will often use a technique called "rubberbanding" where in it is impossible to lap cars no matter how fast you are going as once you start getting too far ahead, the cars behind you will speed up unnaturally in order to keep the race more difficult. This can be frustrating an immersion breaking as it is very unrealistic as well annoying that the game does not up the difficulty through the AI with a more natural and believable way of driving.
Con Graphical problems
Cars fall into the map.
Con Poor day and night transitions
While racing the course will shift from day to night and back again, numerous time, though these transitions are done poorly and are a bit jarring. This ruins the immersion of the game as it is quite noticeable and happens frequently.
Con Low amount of cars
While the roster of vehicles is diverse, the amount is quite less than games like Forza which is limiting to those that would like to see many more cars to play around with.
Con Poor execution of story
The story sequences of the game are played out through live action in a very unappealing way. the characters are often way over the top and unbelievable and are just flat out poorly written. While it can be appreciated that these are caricatures, the demographic that they are trying to target with them is pretty unpalatable.
Con Story mode is short
The story mode can easily be beaten in a casual two days of playing the game, making for a really short experience for a full priced title.
Con Poor in game navigation
The game will highlight ones route for a race with blue arrows on the road, being that the race are mostly nighttime this means that certain obstacle can be difficult to see. The way the races work, the route is unknown until the race begins and is exacerbated by the hard to see road due to it being night. Basically the more difficult races will need to be raced numerous times until the racer is familiar with the course. While this has always been an issue with open world racers, Need for Speed definitely has not made any improvements and may even be considered worse at navigation than others.
Con Online only
The game forces a constant internet connection for the game, meaning those that would like to play offline due to not having good or constant internet can not play the game. This also means there is no pause menu, so even when racing solo, there will be no way to stop the action for say when the doorbell rings or a phone call comes in.