Let me see if I can them in order of release from memory:
Need for Speed 1 (Was an instant hit among gamers after a poor diet of the horrible Lotus 123 games.)
Need for Speed 2 (Much better graphics, licensing and better gameplay)
Need for Speed 3 (A big step up in terms of visuals and a revolutionary game at the time)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (I felt the best Need for Speed game ever. The cop chases were revolutionary.)
Need for Speed: High Stakes.(Basically like NFS:HP, but with your care up for grabs. You could lose hours of progress after one loss.)
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed. (PCG loved it, but I hated it. Was boring and started you from the 50s! WTF? Innovative though.)
Need for Speed: Online (Massive disappointment after finally coming out. Also EA introduced some money grabbing crap that was scary.)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (Let you be the cop. How cool is that? But the physics were a lot worse)
Need for Speed: Underground (First come back after a long haitus. Was flashy and fresh, but the maps, music etc sucked.)
Need for Speed: Underground 2 (For the first time since I can remember EA wasn't bothering with the innovation.)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (A few cosmetic changes etc etc., but the basic copy and reverse the maps for every race remained.)
Need for Speed: Carbon.
You can see a sad trend from this. I'd say the next gen of NFS started with Underground, while the changes they made with NFS:Online showed the evil shit they would try to pull later.
Back in the day Electronic Arts were about innovation as well as style. I remember they were one of my favorite developers. And the music in those games was fantastic. They had hot a soundtrack full of excellent electronica music, that really set the mood for racing in exotic cars on what were some futuristic looking tracks.
It wasn't just the music that was so Euro, and perfect for the exotic cars. The rest of the presentation came off as one really special episode of
Top Gear . There was a whole museum section where you could explore the insides of the car as a voice over told you all the juicy details regarding speed, power etc. The camera angles weren't just restricted to the outside, but you could drive from the inside checking out all sorts of bits including the steering wheel and speedometer.
One of the coolest fucking thing was how they'd get a few concept cars from the leading desingers in the world. Some cars that weren't even sold were in the game to every intricate detail.
What I really miss was having split screen racing in the PC NFS games. Why the hell did they remove those options? Also for old times sake some of you should download Romulus's NFS title track.
Unfortunately people are idiots and would rather have something trashy than sophisticated. I knew the ugly truth when I was greeted with crappy hip hop music in NFS:Underground, and presentation that looked like it went from James Bond to the hero of xXx.
edit:
Well this thread inspired me to hit wiki and this is rather interesting and a nice reminder of the history of the series:
linkyNeed for Speed III: Hot Pursuit added Hot Pursuit mode, in which the player either attempted to outrun the police or be the cop (playing as the police was only available in the PC version), arresting speeders. It is the highest-selling of all Need for Speed games and is the most popular one.[verification needed]
NFS III took advantage of the multimedia capabilities of the CD-ROM by featuring audio commentary, picture slideshows and music videos. This game also is the first in the series to allow the downloading of additional cars from the official website. As a result, modding communities have sprung up to create more vehicles which would otherwise be unavailable to the game.
There you go, that's the multimedia stuff I was talking about. Interesting that it is the best selling NFS game, which is especially amazing when you consider that it hadn't hit consoles. Maybe people aren't such idiots after all, and it is only Electronic Arts.
edit 2:
Faithful reproduction of the insides of exotic cars:
edit 3:
LOL I was looking for a torrent for the old school NFS music and the most popular one is called
"Need for Speed music 1-5: When the music was actually good."Man I would kill for an old school NFS game with the kick ass music and representation worthy of a BBC car magazine. I almost feel like loading up an old NFS game on Win Me heh.
The thread inspired me to listen to an old NFS title track and my sister came into my room and said,"Hey that's from need for speed!". Anyway I've uploaded a track so you all can listen.
Xessive probably has this, it is by Romelus. I know it isn't the most mind blowing thing ever, but is better than the trash we have to put up with now.
Shit I've go no where to host an mp3. Can anyone help?
