Heads Up: Need for Speed Undercover

Posted on November 13th, 2008. Written by Arron.

Get ready to race, as Electronic Arts are about the rock the App Store sideways, again – or so they say. This time, bringing with them one of the biggest gaming franchises ever. Need for Speed.

If you remember way back in September, we gave you a brief heads up it was coming – but it’s been a long time since then. When will it hit? Will it be better than Asphalt [App Store], Raging Thunder [App Store] and the recently released Speed Burst [App Store]? I certainly hope so …

I have to admit, when Phil Schiller showed us debut footage of Need for Speed back at WWDC08, it did look incredible, to the point where it looked like EA had just taken the console version, and squashed it into 480 x 320:

Actual video footage of the game in play, is available here, and the official trailer is available here.

Since then, the game has received a huge amount of attention. Three screen shots of the game were allegedly released by EA themselves shortly after the event:

Although they don’t show a lot, we can see from these shots released that car customization is still going to be an option, and they haven’t lost the great visuals found on various console versions of the game either.

The game is expected to be released on the dates below, for the specific regions stated. No further dates have been announced as of yet:

North America: 18th November
Europe: 24th November

Available for Preorder!
Although the touch version of the game is no-where to be seen, you can now pre-order the console version of the game at all major online stores, including; The EA Store, Amazon, HMV, Play, Tesco and Woolworths.

Price
Now looking at this in perspective, What is a realistic price point for this title? £5.99?, £15.99?, £34.99? Recently, the gaming capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch were compared to that of the Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable), and Nintendos DS. Currently, NFS:UC is set to sell for £24.99 (~$37 USD) on both the PSP and DS. On Xbox360 and PS3 your looking at nearer £34.99 (~$50) …

So far, I don’t think we’ve seen an App Store racing title which has broke through the £9.99 barrier. However, I think NFS: Undercover might just do that, and why not? – As far as it looks, it’s a miniature version of the console game. Enough of this “EH!? Why is this £5.99?” – I think we should be prepared to pay for quality games, whether on the iPhone or not, and lets face it – I’d take £5.99 over £34.99 any day.

We’ll just have wait and see if it is as good as they are claiming, but from the released material so far it looks pretty damn hot. For one, it appears to have much improved visuals over Asphalt 4: Elite Racing.

I can’t wait for this, and I’ll be sure to let you know when it eventually hits the App Store. I’m expecting it to hit fairly soon, Maybe slightly before the console releases (14th-19th)? We could even see it tomorrow (14th Nov) yet.