How To Play Nfs Most Wanted 2005 With Controller

[Josette Werst]

Irealize this might be a long shot because who the hell still cares. But I was late to the Wii U party and I'm playing through one of the last games in my backlog: Need for Speed Most Wanted U. Now I'm finding myself with the strangest issue I've ever seen with this console.

I'm loving this game, which comes as no surprise as I grew up on this franchise and this is basically the last truly great entry it ever had. Most of my playtime has been on the TV, while I occasionally use off-TV play with the GamePad.

First off, my GamePad's connection has always been great: for some reason I can use it throughout my entire house with no problems. Even in the bedroom, which is multiple rooms away from the living room where the Wii U console itself resides. And thus is also separated by multiple walls. Always applauded this connection.

But recently I started getting trouble: during NFS MWU sessions in bed, the GamePad feed started having hiccups and freezes all the time. Sometimes showing the 'unstable connection' error. Obviously, this renders any racing game unplayable.

It has to be said that this only started occuring later on. I must've played tens of hours off-TV in bed without trouble. However, now that this problem has arrived, I thought something new in or around the house must be messing with the connection or the hardware itself is just aging and deteriorating.

But those things are not the case. And I know this because I noticed something very peculiar: while playing a different game in bed I was suddenly having no connection problems at all. Just to be sure there's no new signals interfering in the living room, I moved my console to the bedroom right next to me. To my surprise this did not help. The GamePad feed is still showing hiccups and connection problems all the time, even though the GamePad is now right next to the console.

Strangest thing of all is that these problems vanish as soon as I press the home button. I can use the browser or any other app, or play any other game without any problems, even if the console is multiple rooms away from the GamePad. But as soon as I try NFS in off-TV mode, the connection will become unstable and eventually lost.

Has anyone ever had such an issue before? GamePad connection issues that are only present in one specific game? I mean, how weird is that? I cannot for the life of me find anything about this through Google.

@Sculptor I've noticed controller sync'ing problems with specific Switch games, granted not as severe as your NFS MWU issue. So, I don't think your scenario sounds that crazy. Do you ever get an error code? You can plug error codes into Nintendo's support search bar, and many codes have a support page explaining the code, and potentially solutions.

Even though your issue seems game specific, and this is really basic, for troubleshootings sake, it can't hurt to look through the list of possible sources of connection problems. What caught my eye was removing smartphones, wireless phones from the area. Disregard if you already knew this stuff. I just know, every once in a while, something dumb can be the problem I could have sworn there have been a few occasions where my smartphone may have been the root of some controller connection issues with the Switch, and the problem stopped when I took the phone out of the immediate area. I know you have a Wii U, but the Wii U connection troubleshooting looks virtually identical to the Switch.

-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a...

I haven't had any error codes yet. It's just giving me the "Connection with the Wii U console has become unstable -> connection lost" message. Funny thing is the max range should be 8 meters while I am using it at around 12 meters distance + two walls in between, no problem. And here comes Most Wanted with connection issues even if the GamePad is literally on top of the console. Issues that disappear as soon as you're not in-game anymore. So I suppose it's game specific. Maybe it's extra sensitive during this game for whatever reason. Removing any interfering devices should still help in that case.

Weather was nice so I moved the console outside to my backyard, where I supposed signal interference would be at a minimum. Didn't take any smartphone with me or anything else. But the problem still persisted. Sigh.

I tried some stuff from the article you linked, like resetting/resyncing the GamePad and still no dice. I gave up and put the console back to its usual spot inside. Same spot where all the trouble started in the first place. Gave it another go and still got Most Wanted exclusive connection problems. And then it happened: after a few minutes I noticed I was able to drive without stutter slightly longer than usual. This kept on improving and improving and after ten minutes or so the issue simply disappeared into thin air! I tried taking the GamePad with me to the bedroom and yep, like any other piece of software it still works fine even that far from the console.

I'll never know what the hell this problem was and why it just resolved itself, but I'm glad nonetheless. I do know that this wasn't a normal unstable connection; the GamePad usually cuts the connection and shows the error message immediately after the signal becomes unstable. It normally doesn't do all the lagging and stuttering first, like it did with this game. But whatever.

So I got the game on PC today but it WILL NOT recognize my wireless 360 controller. Is anyone else out there successfully playing on PC with a 360 controller? I tried asking EA for help but just wound up spending a whole lotta time chatting with someone who knew nothing about anything. Their first suggestion was to reset my modem. Seriously. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1) Check in the options menu and make sure there's not a "Yo, wanna controller bro?" option. Skyrim and Doom 3 BFG both have that and absolutely will not recognize a controller unless you enable that option.

I've done all of the above, including resetting my modem, but that's for a different issue. Anyway, I'm familiar with how to generally get it working since my pc is hooked up to my TV I use my xbox controller alot. There is a control method selection in the options but the controller doesn't show as an option. My other game work with it, such as borderlands 2 and *shocker* NFS Hot Pursuit. Also works in steam big picture mode. I have a very bad feeling that Criterion fucked up and omitted support for the wireless adapter. I've seen that before in a couple of cases. I think Dead Rising 2 had that issue. I'm just trying to see if anyone else has the same issue to verify that I'm not crazy.

I'm on Windows 8 and wireless controller support is working perfectly for me. The only other suggestion I have that hasn't been given is to try and repair the install. I'm not at my home PC right now so I can't confirm if it's there for Most Wanted, but a few games (like Battlefield 3) have the option when you right click the game in Origin. If it isn't there then you might have to try a redownload. It's stupid how Origin doesn't have it for every game like Steam does.

Driver issues, and known issues with the wireless hub for the controller were most likely the real issue there. A big reason why I use a WIRED controller instead, solves so much of these headaches if you really appreciate using a controller with a decent amount of PC titles. The Wireless hub itself is known to be a piece of junk, hence why it's discontinued and they haven't sold it in years. Something to do with it burning through more power than it should, and burning itself out within short work (and I guess they never bothered to just fix it and keep selling it... low demand? at the time definitely)

There IS actually some 'new' drivers for the 360pad on windows... they aren't super new BUT they actually are newer than any drivers windows finds itself through windows update sometimes, and definitely newer than drivers that were provided by a disc or whatever. With the newest drivers when you hit the home button it actually pulls up a dialog, where as drivers I had before (and actually worked perfectly) did nothing with that button. I assume this can possibly help in funky situations like the OP where drivers of your other devices may conflict. I'll check my history and see if I can dig up the drivers, so in case you wanna try them out you can.

A few things: I am fully aware of the driver situation that you refer to. I've been running on those drivers for months, possibly years now. They haven't been updated for quite some time. That wasn't the issue.

Second, I've been using the same wireless adapter for years(I've only ever purchased one). Yes, they require a bit more power, but the lesson there is to not use shitty motherboards, as was an issue for me when I first got the thing and it didn't work with the system I had at the time. That also, wasn't the issue.

The Issue, as I already said, was that the game saw my saitek eclipse keyboard(drivers make it appear as a USB Gaming Keyboard Pro) as an unsupported gamepad. Hence once unplugging that, everything works swimmingly. I didn't take a screen cap as I'm typing this on my laptop, but in the menus of the game, when the keyboard IS connected, I get two options for control method. "Keyboard" and "USB Gaming Keyboard Pro" the latter of which cannot be configured. I suspect that if I hook up my logitech G27 at the same time I'd get a similar issue. As I mentioned, my controller works perfectly in every other game that supports it. There are those random games that flat out do not support the wireless controller specifically, but that is not the focus of this discussion.

So, let it be known, that I know what I'm doing. I don't generally come to forums like this asking for help lightly, without attempting to do research and solve the problem on my own. The issue here is a poor job on Criterion's part with the QA of this game. The way it performs on high end machines and something as mundane as the game not working as long as a certain keyboard is plugged in I think is testament to that.

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