Welcome to Fortune Valley

✔Gorgeous world design

Silver Rock design caught the characteristics of Las Vegas.The wild environment is just spectacular.

✔Day/night cycle

Provide a better sense of immersion.Whether in the city or in the wild, day and night can provide a completely different gaming experience.

I saw some people‘s anger about police in free roam.I think we should calm down.Many people worry that the cancellation of free roam police will affect the traditional NFS gaming experience.Neither of us have play Bait Crate mode before.I also suggest that Ghost give a more detailed description on this matter later.

Sorry, that's not an excuse. This is something that won't feel right at all if you can get into a pursuit but only because you decided you wanted to be. The police don't chase you in real life because you deliberately tell them to and the fact that something like that can happen in a video game with no real consequences is why it's fun. If the only interaction with cops that you're going to have in NFS Payback is when you pull up to a trigger and otherwise they never show their faces, that is going to make the open world horribly dull at some point as there is nothing that will threaten you when you're driving out in the open. It's just going to be you driving casually from place to place without anything going on (even in NFS Underground 2 there were other racers you could challenge while driving in the open, which at least covered up the fact that there wasn't any law enforcement that was on the prowl for street racers).

Every open-world NFS game since Underground 2 (the FIRST one) bar Hot Pursuit (whose open-world mode wasn't progression-related) has had police interaction in free roam. Most Wanted 2005, Carbon, Undercover, Most Wanted 2012, Rivals, and 2015 all had open-world police chases (and even back in games like the first two Underground games the lack of police presence was noticeable due to the fact games like NFS3 and HP2 existed prior). We THOUGHT they were making police pursuits more exciting in this game after 2015 underwhelmed everyone on that front but apparently that also meant they were only making them something you have to volunteer for.

They may as well have made the bait crates something else entirely (like...House dead drops that you steal) and just had The House chase you around instead of the police because having the police do it makes the whole thing feel woefully hollow (since the police only exist then and only then). The general lack of police presence would be noticeable, sure, but it wouldn't be quite as jarring as a guy who speeds up and down every road in the region, crashing into other cars and objects, yet the police won't even show up unless you touch this very specific box they have lying around. At least having The House be the opposition when you interact with a crate would reinforce an existing theme in the game instead of suddenly introducing an element that is otherwise nonexistent.

You really botched this, Ghost. I can't remember the last time my hype for a game sank this fast. It's rare one feature makes or breaks a game but this is a strong candidate.

@SolidSonicTH Especially if the cops are supposed to be working for the House. You would figure there would be a lot more going on cops wise. This is a major flaw that I hope they can fix with an update or an expansion.

Recently, the topic of free roam police is very hot on game forum.I'm also wondering why game designers make such a decision.Is the program performance optimization causing this feature to be canceled?After all, the police have always been a key feature in Need for Speed, and people will naturally feel surprised.

The choice is actually reasonable in some aspects.

For example, in Need for Speed Rivals, if I choose to play as racer, then when roaming around the world, will inevitably be interrupted by police pursuit.When heat level is high, the basic option is to get back to the garage.Because Need for Speed Rivals has a risk and reward mechanism, so it is necessary to raise the difficulty of police.

In Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012 and Need for Speed 2015,the difficulty of police is relatively simple.As long as players do not deliberate challenge the police, it is very easy to escape the pursuit.But it also makes people complain that the police are too weak.

Some people will also mention earlier works like Most Wanted 2005 and Carbon.Because in these works, the player will not be wrecked, and the police will be more skillful.

Because times have changed, games in the past focus more on single player and offline experiences.The map is not big, and there are not too many explorations elements.And now games put more emphasis on the online multiplayer experience.And the game map is much larger than before. More and more players want to explore in the open world, race with friends,take pictures, enjoy the scenery, rather than being suddenly joined a police chase.Even if players wants to play the police chase, the moment of starting pursuit is decided by the player himself.

For this group of the players, the presence of free roam police will affect the game experience.

Then developers face a dilemma. Bait Crate is a solution offered by Ghost Games.

For those who do not like police pursuit, just ignore Bait Crate.

For those who like police pursuit, through Bait Crate can also experience the pleasure of chasing.

But some people think this is not natural, and feel the police appear too deliberately.Bait Crate is similar to Hot Pursuit, which is a pre-set script that may become tedious.

Because Bait Crate has only one gameplay video, I am not sure if it's well designed.But its patterns are similar to Hot Pursuit, Ghost games should have a lot of experience in this area.So I'm still looking forward to police chase experience in Payback.

No game meets all the needs of everyone.The process of making a game is the process of making a choice.At this point, I support Ghost Games.Even assuming that Bait Crate is not very  successful in the future, people can also provide feedback rather than simple criticism. It's only about one months away from the game release, and it's impossible to make any big changes.Even if the future update will add the elements of free roam police, that is another story.

During E3 show, many people feedback the wreck animation will affect the game experience.The game developers listened to people's advice and provided the option.

Because the people's needs are often wavering.Developers need to find the real needs from the actual game feedback.For example,people used to think that through the gas station can repair the car is unnatural.In early version of Need for Speed 2015, gas station removed this feature.But people began to complain that car can not be repaired. Driving a broken car in the street is ugly.Ghost games listened to player's feedback. In the follow-up update, the feature of repairing cars has come back.

Ghost games are not lacking clever minds, and I believe they can balance this feature well.

@CM_dnegative I can see where you are coming from. You are also right, Ghost listens to players, which is the awesome thing about Ghost Games. I just hope they will include free roam cops in a future update/expansion.