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Need For Speed Heat Finally Adds Cosmetic Car Repair & Steering Wheel Support
Need for Speed Heat is finally allowing players to repair cosmetic damage to their vehicles and plug in their own steering wheel accessories. After creating a film and over twenty entries in the Need for Speed series, many would think the franchise would have everything their fans want figured out. Need for Speed: Heat released to mixed reviews, however, and there were several features players felt the game was missing, including the ability to repair paint damage and scratches.
Need for Speed Heat is set in a fictionalized version of Miami called Palm City. Players are capable of exploring the entirety of this open world where they can take part in street races, complete Crew Trials, and attempt long jumps. A new feature for this entry is the ability to switch between night and day in order to complete different kinds of races. Day races are officially sanctioned and earn players money to buy new cars or upgrades. Night time races are illegal, and instead earn players reputation points.
In a new blog post, EA has announced that one of the many improvements it has made to the game involves allowing players to fix cosmetic damage on vehicles. Doing so will be as easy as just driving through a gas station, which will automatically fix damage for players. While this did previously help restore a car's mechanical stability, it did nothing for the cosmetic damage the car had endured. The other major quality of life improvement (inside the game itself) is the reworking of the manual shifting button. Players have noticed it is very easy to enter the garage or start an event while attempting to shift. Need for Speed Heat has now made it to where doing these actions now requires holding down the button, rather than just tapping it.
There is a large amount of other fixes and features which came to Need for Speed Heat with this new update. One of the most exciting new features will allow players to use a steering wheel controller for the game, rather than a standard controller or keyboard. EA stated that it has already tested several steering wheels, but others may also work just as well. Along with this, players will now have access to a chat wheel for communicating with other players in-game. The final feature is that players can now make an in-game Need for Speed Heat purchase to unlock the locations of secrets, collectibles, activities, and gas stations on the map.
For the most part, these updates will likely drastically improve the in-game experience for players. Looking at it objectively, though, it is hard not to wonder why the game did not have these features to begin with. Steering wheel functionality should almost be a requirement at this point for any AAA racing video game. Furthermore, the added in-game purchase feature is slightly troubling as well, and fans are sure to be unappreciative of this addition. At the very least Need for Speed Heat seems to be responding to fan criticism and is an improvement over former games in the Need for Speed franchise.
Need for Speed Heat can be played on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
