Need for Speed Unbound

To say it in advance: it's bad again.

Whoever thought it would be better just because Criterion got to do it again this time, should be reminded that it was Criterion who started this open world nonsense in racing games with the PS3 and Burnout Paradise back in the day.

I've played almost every game in this series since the first Need for Speed in the 90s... and have only been disappointed since Underground.

And this time it really tops everything. In the negative sense.

And I don't even mean those weird scratched effects, some of them I even find quite good.

No, the game is a half-baked mixture of Underground, Heat and Burnout Paradise.

As they always say in a restaurant: better a small menu with really good dishes than a book with dirt. This is a book.

The graphics are ok, but there are graphic errors everywhere, like weird floating shadows that are supposed to be puddles.

The sound is good, but... you are ALWAYS annoyed with some stupid babble for almost EVERY SECOND of the game. The (again) pseudo-cool kiddie gang is just babbling the whole time... it's such a pain in the ass!!!!

And then it's the same stupid story as always. Why do I need a story in a game like this?!!! And especially not such a flat, stupid, meaningless, copied one.

So I'm supposed to go to an event.

While I'm driving there, I'm constantly being talked to and pestered with new events, which I then have to bring forward. When I go to the garage to deliver the money, the events are no longer available because the next day has dawned.

I'm supposed to pimp my car in 7 days, but I always have to go back to the garage to drop off the money, and then the day is gone.

The cops are more active at night than during the day. Why?

The cops in the race are a joke.

The controls are bad.

The music is a disaster.

No quick travel to the races.

Eternal paths to the events.

Always the same disaster.

This is not a serious arcade game, but yet another bling-bling hip-hop epilepsy children's game.

EA: (expletive) You!