Topic: NFS Underground 2 DS

[Gamefreak]

Over at http://ds.ign.com they have a new developer interview on the near complete NFSU2DS. Pretty interesting. By the looks of it this could be the DS's best game so far apart from Mario.
The graphics look nice (no videos available though), the dev. says they are proud to have it at a constant 60 fps, and they say that the vehicle physics and gameplay is very close to the console version. Also he says that you can do "anything" with the decal drawing tool, and the touch pad nitrous controls actually look useful, unlike that other crap on the second screen in current DS racers.

All that's old news though, the cool new thing he mentioned, is that the DS version will have an exclusive new game mode (i forget what it's called). He says they worked hard to make this game mode take full advantage of the DS's second screen. He won't say much about it, other than it employs an important GPS tool on the bottom screen and that the gameplay has something to do with managing turf wars and simultaneously getting the best times, or something like that.

Also he says it supports 4 player multiplayer in all game modes, and features stat tracking. (i'm guessing every player needs their own cart, although it's not mentioned).

Looks cool...  

[Mario]

It does sound decent actually, for an NFSU game. Nice to see EA putting effort into the DS, but there's no way i'm going anywhere near this.

[darknight06]

Pocketeers made the game, that's exactly why it seems to be coming out this good.

[TMW]

Quote
He says they worked hard to make this game mode take full advantage of the DS's second screen. He won't say much about it, other than it employs an important GPS tool on the bottom screen and that the gameplay has something to do with managing turf wars and simultaneously getting the best times, or something like that.

In other words, it's a fancy map screen.

[vudu]

Quote
they are proud to have it at a constant 60 fps

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't the DS require all games to play at a constant 60 FPS?  If so, that'a great quote.  Can someone grab the exact quote from IGN for me so I can replace my signature?  (I refuse to give IGN a hit.)

[BlackNMild2k1]

From IGN:

Quote
IGN: What aspect of the Nintendo DS version of Need for Speed Underground 2 are you most proud of?

Ferguson: There are plenty of things we are proud of in this title. If I had to pick one as a standout, it would be the frame rate. We set a goal of 60fps early in development, and despite the visual detail that has been packed into the title, and the complex physics simulation running under the hood, we've managed to achieve that benchmark. For us, it's the icing on the cake.

[kirby_killer_dedede]

woahoahoho.

<3 nfs.

haven't followed this game, oddly enough.

DECAL DRAWING w00t.

[Gamefreak]

Quote
Originally posted by: kingvudu

Quote
they are proud to have it at a constant 60 fps

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't the DS require all games to play at a constant 60 FPS?  If so, that'a great quote.  Can someone grab the exact quote from IGN for me so I can replace my signature?  (I refuse to give IGN a hit.)

Well that's what I though too.
But then again we all just believe a little website by a newb designer who probably had no idea what he was talking about. Also that site (the blue/black one) was info from a long time ago.

I highly doubt Pocketeers could develop an entire high profile game on DS and fail to notice that the hardware forced 60 fps or crashed trying.

So we can believe some dude who supposedly worked on Sprung, or someone with an actual name and a finished game.

Or the other solution, is that the DS locks 60 fps for all games but slowdowns still occur normally just like any console/PC game unless the developer attends to the problem. From the blue/black site I figured the DS would just crash or something if 60 fps wasn't maintained, but it could be something really minor like developers have no choice as to what fps to lock a game at, it has to be 60, not 30 or whatever. But slowdowns can still occur without the DS doing weird stuff.

[KDR_11k]

That "newb designer" was apparently a demoscene coder (I think the Factor 5 guys have a similar backstory). These people are experts at lowlevel coding and used to knowing the hardware in and out. Besides, he's not the only source I heard about the DS's no-framebuffer (therefore you either draw the frame when the screen redraws or you're drawing black, you can't display a frame more than once because the system forgets about it after it is drawn) approach from.

Considering this is EA I wouldn't be surprised if they had hacked in a framebuffer to make the development more like that for other systems and ports easier...