Your Patch and DLC Questions Answered

MoTo Gallery
Any new (free) cars? Where are all the convertibles?
I think it’s pretty safe to say that you will be seeing additional cars available for NFS Undercover in the near future. It’s even likely that some of them will be available for free. Mind you, you may have to earn them in the game somehow…
Lot of us missed traditional cars as Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX '99 or even Volkswagen Golf GTI which appeared in NFS underground and NFSU 2. Why have you guys decided to do not put these old versions of new models? I mean, you do put old and new versions of cars like Skyline or Camaro or Mustang... Are you going to include more cars in this patch like the last year in NFS Pro Street?
The car list each year is always one of the hottest topics of conversation both inside and outside the studio. We constantly strive to deliver a list of iconic cars that pleases the majority of our fans. Typically we try to have a good cross-section of cars from Europe, North America and Japan. There is so much passion around specific car manufacturers and models that it almost always makes for heated conversation on the forums and at also at our desks. Supporting NFS titles post-launch going forward allows us to interact with the community and determine what types of cars that people are missing in the shipped game. Hopefully we can have a more open dialogue with you guys going forward and try to deliver some of the cars that you’ve been missing from the latest titles.

Are there going to be any new game modes in the next update because loads of people I'm speaking to are saying it would be cool to have new game modes, like Outrun with 8 players allowed, or the one where you have to crash the enemy car to total it; :) something like that would make online so good PLEASE CONSIDER :)
A big part of our future on Need for Speed is supporting our titles post-launch for an extended period of time. In fact, we have a team of people (including myself) dedicated to this initiative and are committed to delivering quality, additive content after launching the game. We used to “launch and forget” and now we’re going to “launch and manage” our games. You’re going to see a very cool mix of free content and purchasable content available over the next few months for NFS Undercover. We have some ambitious plans in terms of cars, modes and gameplay that I’ll be able to share with you in the near future.

I have a HUGE question....i spent nearly 600 Microsoft points to purchase a GTR which I then jacked up a little, now I have two strikes....is this true that i can lose this car permanently???
Good question! Of course we’re not going to stiff you if you happen to get 3 strikes against a car that you have purchased with MS Points. The car should always be available in the car shop once you’ve downloaded it and its purchase price should be $0. The reason there is no cost associated with the car is twofold…the first reason is to avoid the exact situation you described in your question above; the second is to avoid people exploiting the economy in the game by repeatedly selling cars they have purchased with MS Points. You will, however, lose any upgrades (both visual and performance) that you may have purchased for the car. This is the element of “risk vs. reward” that you have to manage when you have 2 strikes against any of your Career cars. Hope that eases your mind bit.

MoTo Gallery
Are the team going to add events to the free-roam world so we can actually drive to the event rather than activating the event from the GPS map?

MoTo Gallery
I love this question because, next to the car list, this is probably one of the most hotly debated topics in the studio and on the forums. We have people firmly entrenched in two camps when it comes to how you select events in the game. You’ve likely noticed that we’ve moved back and forth on this ever since shipping our 1st “open world” in Need for Speed Underground 2. We’ve forced players to drive to events in the open world (NFS Underground 2), we’ve allowed players to drive to events in the open world and select them via the Pause Menu/ Map Screen (NFS Most Wanted & NFS Carbon) and we’ve allowed people to only select events through the “race now” feature or the Map Screen (NFS Undercover). I think what I’ve learned over the years is that it’s probably best to give people both options unless the overall meta-design for the game strongly supports one method over the other. For example, if exploration and discovery is a major component or theme in the game, it makes sense to have players physically drive to an event location in the open world as opposed to making a menu selection to start a race. This is also something under consideration for DLC on NFS Undercover in the future.
Are they going to be more levels available for multiplayer sprint + circuit races ? Me and my friends are always wishing we could have more multiplayer levels to race on?
We are actually planning some pretty interesting things with regards to multiplayer going forward on Undercover…both online as well as offline. I can’t give away too many details just yet but you can expect to hear lots more about this over the coming months.

I was curious as to when this patch will be coming out as well as what issues are supposed to be addressed. Also, while I have this opportunity, would you be able to tell me if there will be any upcoming DLC, and if so, any details?
The 1st patch for NFS Undercover features a series of performance optimizations to address frame rate inconsistencies and enhancements to the adaptive difficulty logic to accelerate the difficulty curve for the expert players. The patch should be available for download during the second week of February. Keep watching www.needforspeed.com for updates on the exact time and dates. I can tell you that we are definitely going to be supporting Undercover with additional content over the coming months. As I mentioned before, this is the start of a new way that we’re going to be predictably and consistently supporting our titles post-launch going forward. It’s about NFS Undercover today and future titles going forward. You guys in the community are going to play a huge part in determining what is working, what needs improving and what you feel is missing from the game. We are going to do our best to listen to you, share our thoughts with you, frequently interact with you and then consistently deliver great content back to you.

Many questions about frame rate and micro-pauses during gameplay.& Too many to list…
As I mentioned above, the February patch will definitely address most, hopefully all, of the frame rate issues that some of you have been experiencing. Going forward, we want to engage the community for your feedback on the game and try to address any and all comments that you have. Thanks for all the great questions relating to the 1st patch…I apologize if I wasn’t able to answer your question directly but we tried to group the questions into themes and I think the answers above addressed the majority of the questions and/or concerns that you had. I look forward to speaking with everyone again really soon. Download the patch, play the game some more, encourage your friends to get online (or back online) and let me know what you think. On that topic, I’d love to hear your recommendations for future title updates and DLC. What would you guys like to see the most in the coming months?

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