EA hasn’t had the best luck with their AAA title releases as of late. Star Wars Battlefront II is still the butt of many jokes after the debacles of their progression and microtransaction systems, some of which are being investigated by the government. But, just two weeks before that launch, another EA game was met with hostility, Need For Speed Payback. The latest title in the renown racing series had a lot of the same problems that Battlefront II did, mainly a progression system tied to Loot Boxes and microtransactions.
Admittedly, EA and developer Ghost Games dialed it back a bit to free it up to players, but there were still many issues with the game. For example, the game doesn’t have some of the features that many online racing games are known for. One of the most popular player requests out there right now is an online “Free Roam” mode. Well…
Online Free Roam coming 2018, Happy New Year from everyone at Need for Speed! 🎆 pic.twitter.com/Ht8cRsvQQA
— Need for Speed (@NeedforSpeed) January 1, 2018
…now you’re getting it! If you haven’t played this franchise, or recent racing games, an online free roam mode merely means that you have the entire game world (or a good chunk of it) to ride around with your friends in whatever car you want just for the heck of it. There is a much smaller version of this in Need For Speed Payback, but it’s reserved for times when you’re waiting on a lobby to fill up. With this much larger version, players will no doubt get to have much more fun. As for when the mode will arrive, we don’t know yet, Ghost Games wants to be “100% certain” it’s done before giving a date.
Now, all that being said, there are still many problems with the game, and EA and Ghost Games are going to be working hard for a while to fix them.
It’s perfect game 😉