Need For Speed Underground 2 Remaster

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Kody Baril

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Aug 3, 2024, 11:08:22 AM8/3/24

to terdabergue

Why would anyone want to play the 2015 Need for Speed game? ... yeah, customization is ok, but the gameplay is like a poor copy of asphalt 8 from gameloft ... handling wasn't perfect in the old need for speed games ... but it was miles ahead of this current garbage

Today all Windows 10 users cannot play any from listed games, because Microsoft deleted secdrv.dll from the newest OS due to security reasons. On older systems like Windows Vista, 7 and 8 blocked anti-piracy security systems (Safedisk, SecuROM). Other developers uploaded patches for older games in 2016 e.g -gta-iv-patch-1080eflc-patch-1130/ Rockstar Games deployed patches for GTA IV and EFLC. Many remastered games we can find in Steam platform.

Back in May, we reported on 2Unreal4Underground, a fan-made Unreal Engine-powered remaster of the legendary 2004 Need for Speed: Underground 2. Recently the team shared a brand-new demo, showcasing the development process and demonstrating the new features and improvements they implemented over the past six months.

The most notable enhancement the game has received is its shift to Unreal Engine 5. According to the team, the entire project has been overhauled for the newest version of the engine, allowing the team to have more stable in-game physics and a more predictable simulation.

We are currently shifting the project to UE5 and refactoring some stuff so that will take some time, also we need to wait for FMOD support for the newest update," commented the developer. "I can already say, the performance increases with Unreal Engine 5, and tests gave us more stable physics and a more predictable simulation."

The new demo also showcased the remaster's performance upgrades, car customization menus, an improved friction system, completely new steering, and a "fully-fledged MacPherson Strut with adjustable camber, toe, and caster angles".

You can check out the YouTube channel with more demos here. Also, don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

I agree. But it has to have buying cars, buying performance parts with game cash and has to have drag racing. I'm worried I'll be stuck being bored as I am with NFS PRO STREET, undercover, NFS CARBON, NFS SHIFT 2 with speedhunters dlc , most wanted remake with all DLC, ....since noone replies to my posts and doesn't seem to want to play online with me. So when I beat NFS Underground 2 for Xbox 360, what then? Will I get online races or will it be like the other titles I have?

Yes I Agree with you we do need to be able to buy and sell cars but dragracing is all ready in the game the game will need updates of course but still be the same theme and style of racing basically the same game but with new updates and add ons

Yeah I agree Need For Speed back then brought to you classic stereotypical street racing and brought that 2 Fast 2 Furious vibes with the smoke coming from the cars bumpers, trunks, and side skirts. And trunk customization, hydraulics, and spinning hubcaps. But now everyone is grabbing the ps4 and ps5 so we need something that brings nostalgic and also something fun and something you can't finish in a day.

Totally agree with it. However, I do believe that will near impossible to do due to licensing. Even though the game can be considered abandonware, it is still gonna be hard to bring it back to live "officially". I know it is been 10+ years since its release. Perhaps in the near future. If they decide to make a remaster, I'd glady buy from a range between 20 - 30 bucks (depending on the plataform).

Though it's indisputable that Need for Speed has been a leader of the racing genre since its inception, most fans would agree that Need for Speed Underground and its sequel were true standout stars for the series and are in dire need of a remaster. Among the dozens of Need for Speed titles, only a few have succeeded in becoming fan favorites, including the likes of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and its sequel or Need for Speed Most Wanted. But with its upcoming Need for Speed Unbound seemingly hearkening back to the series' older games, it seems EA is returning to the series' roots.

This means there has never been a better time for a remake collection of both Underground games. The original games' success is believed by fans to have been caused by "right time, right place" circumstances, and in hindsight they both are perfect representations of the cultural background they were influenced by. But beyond this, building on the success of the series, including its predecessor Hot Pursuit 2, the Underground games brought fresh ideas that reinvigorated Need for Speed. It would therefore be a missed opportunity to not tap into the remake scene after Unbound by starting with these fan favorites.

Compared to other Need for Speed games, the Underground games have a distinctive aesthetic and tone that sets them apart from the series. Between burgeoning movie series like The Fast and Furious to the mainstream embrace of musical genres like rap and hip-hop, both Underground games can be seen as emblematic of the cultural backdrop they were released to. With a strong emphasis on street racing, vehicle customization akin to the likes of MTV's Pimp My Ride, and a soundtrack brimming with prominent rap, hip-hop, EDM, and more, Underground and its sequel are snapshots of the turn of the century.

Much of this is what fans argue makes these games so memorable and beloved across Need for Speed players. Though many celebrate the likes of Most Wanted as the series' greatest game, most if not all fans can agree that the Underground games were breaths of fresh air, capitalizing on the cultural trends and delivering new gameplay experiences beyond traditional racing, such as game modes focused on drifting or drag races. As a result, these games are among the most well-known for the series and would be the perfect choice for a remake collection that tapped into fans' nostalgia.

Though there have been various remasters and reboots in the series' history, Need for Speed hasn't seemed interested in keeping pace with the rest of the gaming industry and releasing remakes of its most successful games. So while Final Fantasy and Resident Evil ride the momentum of the remake trend, it seems as good a time as any for Need for Speed to finally do the same. Conveniently, as such a long-standing series, Need for Speed has a wealth of games to choose as the recipient of an overhaul for modern gaming systems.

Given that the likes of Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted have already seen multiple interpretations across Need for Speed's history, the Underground games serve as ideal candidates for a remake in terms of popularity and value. Not only are the games among the series' oldest and most demanded by fans for a remake, but EA could kill two birds with one stone by combining both games into one release either as separate games to play or merging the two together to form an updated, all-encompassing Need for Speed Underground game with new vehicles, music artists and songs, all with expanded gameplay modes and stories.

Remix consists of two components: an application for creating lights and adding remastered assets into a game scene, and a runtime for capturing classic game scenes and injecting the remastered assets back into the game at playback. With the release of the RTX Remix application in Open Beta, the full power of RTX Remix is now in the hands of experienced modders to make next level RTX mods.

NVIDIA RTX Remix enables experienced modders to remaster classic games by upgrading textures with AI, allowing easy replacement of game assets with high fidelity assets built with physically accurate materials, and injecting full ray tracing, DLSS and Reflex technologies.

With PBR, glass reflects the world with clear detail, while laminate wood flooring has rough, coarse reflections. And stone, though without visible reflections, is still capable of bouncing light and having an effect on the scene.

AI-enhanced textures from RTX Remix are a huge upgrade over the simple color textures found in classic games, giving artists more time to turn their attention towards manually rebuilding hero assets that excite the imagination and define the visuals of a game.

RTX Remix is built on NVIDIA Omniverse, a development platform to connect complex 3D workflows, allowing modders the ability to move assets quickly between RTX Remix and popular 3D tools like Blender and Adobe Substance via Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) framework.

This is a game changer for modders, who are accustomed to juggling unique file formats and proprietary tools for each game they are trying to mod, due to the unique nature of each game engine. A modder who made an impressive asset they want to use across five different games would need to convert that asset into five unique file formats, each with their own drawbacks, and use five proprietary tools to plug the asset into each game engine.

With RTX Remix and OpenUSD, modders have a single unified workflow that allows them to carry their favorite OpenUSD assets forward to a variety of titles, making it easy to remaster a diverse set of games with the same process.

Bring up the Remix runtime overlay in-game and you can make live changes to customize your experience. For example, add real-time fog to allow for beautiful volumetric lighting, or enable a mode where legacy assets are highlighted, allowing you to appreciate every asset that was replaced in a mod.