For those who’ve been maintaining the updates Criterion’s been bringing to Want For Velocity: Unbound – the long-running racing collection’ most up-to-date entry this yr, you may know that lots of them have introduced again stuff from earlier Want For Speeds.

Regular pictures of nostalgia to tempt again in of us whose childhoods are inseperable from the concept of overlaying a Nissan Skyline in tear vinyls and neon earlier than utilizing it to smoke some poor idiot in a souped up Corsa are clearly a component of those plans. Nevertheless, with NFS itself now proper on the cusp on turning 30, Criterion senior inventive director John Stanley re-iterates that Unbound’s mission to start forming an “final NFS expertise” is not nearly attempting to stay each earlier entry in an enormous stew pot with out pondering.

At a developer roundtable in celebration of the Want For Velocity collection’ thirtieth birthday attended by VG247, Stanley spoke about the place the imaginative and prescient for Unbound in 2024 unveiled in February at the moment sits and the way it meshes with the truth that, traditionally, every Want For Velocity recreation to has usually aimed to have its personal particular imaginative and prescient or calling card that helps set it aside from different entries.

“You’ll be able to’t simply be every little thing,” he acknowledged, “however one of many ideologies over this yr – for this second yr of Want for Velocity [Unbound] – has been round Kaizen and really sort of dwelling this concept of small, iterative enhancements.”

“It’s not about progressively attending to be that Want For Velocity [Unbound] is then the every little thing [game] – all Want For Speeds that there have ever been and each characteristic that there’s ever been – it’s that we’re very fastidiously cherry-picking and choosing stuff in the meanwhile that we all know resonates with the followers. You see it with the volumes we’ve accomplished.

“Correct old skool drag mode, that basically resonates, it’s one thing totally different for us, I’d been desirous to get that in for a very long time, and I’m so pleased that it’s again within the recreation now correctly. Correct drift mode, yep, examine, that’s in. Cops vs racers, yep. So all of those actually like excessive degree, iconic items that Want For Velocity’s been – we will’t add in completely every little thing, however the actually large issues that resonate, for certain, let’s return, let’s add them in.

“Then, as soon as they’re in, they keep in. In the event that they’re nice and gamers love them, we index on them extra, in the event that they’re not, we simply focus our consideration in the correct place. So, we begin to construct up this actual core of Want For Velocity, after which attempt to take that ahead.”

The most recent replace Stanley and co have simply revealed for Unbound – Quantity 9 – drops on November 26. It is set to deliver with it a brand new PvPvE multiplayer mode dubbed Lockdown, which is all about stealing rides from lockups and selecting whether or not to danger shedding all of it should you do not catch an extraction truck in time, and the NFS collection’ first ever rideable motorcycle – a BMW S 1000 RR – so it’s going to be fascinating to see if both of these catch on sufficient to turn out to be a part of that core of Want For Velocity for the long run.