The new Need for Speed’s aesthetic will reportedly have ‘anime elements’

This year’s reported Need for Speed title will adopt a “photo-realistic” art style mixed with anime elements, it has been claimed.

Speaking on his premium Giantbomb show Grubbsnax (transcribed by VGC), VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb said that the newest entry in the racing franchise will adopt a striking new art style.

“It’s going to be photo-realistic, but it’s going to have on top of that, anime elements,” Grubb said.

He added: “You know when you see a car commercial or something like that and the car’s driving around, but then cartoons flames and stuff are flying off it? That’s the kind of the aesthetic that they seem to be going for.”

Grubb also explained that some of the franchise’s popular multiplayer suite would return.

“Autolog is back for multiplayer, you can customise all the pieces of your car, that’s back,” he said. Autolog was the in-game social network in previous Need for Speed titles that would allow players to access multiplayer content.

Finally, Grubb claimed that the game would be set in a fictionalised version of Chicago called Lake Shore City.

“Criterion wants to make it feel like a real city, even though it’s a fictionalised version of a city,” he explained.

Further reading

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This year’s new Need for Speed game is reportedly now current-gen only

It's suggested Criterion has dropped the PS4 and Xbox One versions

Last week it was reported that a new Need for Speed game will be released this November for current-gen consoles only.

EA announced in February 2020 that it had handed Need for Speed development duties back to Criterion Games as it planned to restructure Ghost Games, which made the last four entries in the racing series

The UK-based Criterion is best known for the Burnout series and has also developed two previous Need for Speed titles: 2010’s Hot Pursuit and 2012’s Most Wanted. It also contributed to 2013’s Need for Speed Rivals.