Criterion may have control of the future of Need For Speed, but that doesn't mean Ghost Games and EA are abandoning Need For Speed Heat any time soon.
EA have revealed the details of NFS Heat's March patch and there are some big announcements in this one.
It is arguably the biggest so far and will fix some of the issues that players have been highlighting the most. The patch adds in a new feature that has big potential.
Here's everything you need to know.
Black market
NEW FEATURE: NFS's black market is the largest part to this latest Heat update
The new feature included in this update is the addition of a black market into the game. New character Raziel is an underground car dealer and makes two cars available to the player.
The first is a brand new make and model, which is available via an in-game microtransaction. The second is a variant of a current car and is available free of charge.
You'll need to be at REP level 20 to unlock the free car and level 30 for the paid car. Once you reach these milestones though, all you have to do is go to Port Murphy and talk to Raziel.
READ MORE: What NFS Needs to do to win over longtime fans
Raziel will then ask for some "favours" which are made up of a few challenges to complete. Passing these challenges will unlock visual customisation parts for the new cars, character outfits and changes to the car's theme.
In addition, there are some new events related to the Black Market that will become available as you progress through the story.
This also has potential to grow with further updates, as more cars and their related missions become available.
Black Market Car Pack #1
The free car for every player will be the Aston Martin DB11 Volante (2018). With that car will come:
- Narrative setting with VO
- 6x Challenge Sets for the player to complete (3-5 hours of gameplay) featuring both recycled (activities) and new content (exclusive new events)
- Character outfits
- Customization items
- Vanity items
The paid car, which will cost $4.99 is the beloved McLaren F1 (1993), get that car can you'll have:
- Narrative setting with VO
- 6x Challenge Sets for the player to complete (3-5 hours of gameplay) featuring both recycled (activities) and new content (exclusive new events)
- Character outfits
- Customization items
- Vanity items
Gameplay improvements
GARAGE: Some of the bug fixes relate to customising your rides in the garage
The Under the Hood notes label these are "quality of life improvements". To the rest of us, these are fixes for bugs and glitches found in Heat. Here's the full list we have so far:
- When you’re receiving a new part in the garage, it’s now easier to spot. We removed the feed that showed your new items on the right side of the screen. Instead, there’s now a yellow banner saying “new” next to the category and the item.
- We added more variation to race intros during both day and night races, as well as more victory celebration animations to enjoy when crossing the finish line.
- Additional vanity items are introduced. You will be able to customize the color of the Backfire, and through the Black Market, you can also unlock Beat Sync underglows that will sync up with the in-game music.
- You will now be able to adjust the camera shake in the settings.
Is it what the players want?
We wrote a few months ago after the previous update was announced about what we wanted to see implemented in the next update.
While the Black Market is a feature that we didn't consider, it is one that is welcome. Although having to pay actual money for a brand new car won't excite many players.
More events and bug fixes are what we wanted though, so it's great to see these both implemented. Hopefully, they all work as intended as Heat will likely be the latest NFS game until Autumn 2021. We'll need plenty more updates where this has come from to make it over a year and a half into the future.
Need for Speed Heat's March update is available across all consoles on 3rd March.