It’s time to keep the buzz going!  Thanks for the response to my first blog entry regarding World. It seems there’s a few of you eagerly anticipating this game and it’s that kind of energy that the development team feeds off of and gets inspired by. It’s also great to hear what’s on the top of your minds and what features you care about most.

Let's start with a quick before/after shot to get you through my babble.

Now the cops have a classier place to eat at.

Right now, we’re all busy preparing our next build of the game and it’s looking very tight. Some awesome progress has been made and we’re riding a great wave of momentum. Have no fear though, before you know it, we’ll be announcing a Closed Beta for North America and Europe very, very soon. Oh and before you ask about specific dates..I’m just the art guy. 

Here are just a few of the highlights I’ve witnessed over the past few weeks.

Visual customization is looking very solid. Some great work has been made on making a user interface that is intuitive and PC-friendly. I can’t wait to see what can be done when certain limitations of past NFS’s have been lifted.

The new Cop Charger looks awesome. It’s a sign of things to come for our new cop fleet. Looking forward to see more of the new cop design translated over the various cop vehicles.

NOS is sexy!! There's still some work to do but it's on the right track. Hope you guys agree when you finally see it for yourselves.

Which leads me to a question for all of you. We’re VERY interested in taking a more active role in supporting the community’s creativity. I’ve seen what sites like NFSCars.net and NFSUnlimited.net can do with some structure and support. So the question is, how can WE help YOU expand your NFS experience? For instance, what would you need to know to create full liveries for your cars? What tools would you like to see to help you build kits or parts that you can share with the greater community? We know visual customization is a huge feature and one that NFS is known for. We’re looking to blow it out bigger than ever before and would love to hear how we can empower the community.

Now since I asked a question of you, I suppose I should answer a few of yours.

Yes, there will be a day/night cycle in World. We don’t have too much to show on that front yet as there’s still plenty of work to do, but the goal is to show strong variety in our skies and lighting. It’s a delicate balance of maintaining high quality and variety while catering to a wide range of PC specs.

The World map. I saw the latest map designs on the needforspeed.com forums. Some nice configurations, but I don’t want you guys to get your hopes up. There are no plans to change the way Rosewood and Palmont are joined. We are currently revamping Downtown Rockport and it’s safe to say it’s the one area that will receive the biggest face lift. I always felt it could be so much more and this time around, it will be. That being said the connecting roads you may have seen linking Downtown Rockport to Palmont will not look like that when we’re done. I hope when you see some of the changes, you’ll appreciate all the effort that’s gone into our redesign. I know people are still upset about the missing bridge jump or the lack of space between the two cities, but instead of focusing on what you remember or expect, we’re trying to give you the unexpected.  Oh and one other thing when designing your maps…Tri-Cities was based on Florida. It should be in the south.

Here are a few more before/after shots to whet your appetite. Again, these are from a build in February. Some things were broken, but the 3D geometry and textures are straight from Carbon and Most Wanted and hadn’t been upgraded yet. For any doubters though, feel free to take some screenshots from Carbon or Most Wanted on the highest settings you can and send them in. Be sure to feature the environment and I will gladly match the shots as best I can.

 Diamond Hills has a new landmark out of thin air.

I wonder who will be performing at The Mirror when we return to Silverton.

Till next time!

Eduardo