Need for Speed: Heat Goes Crossplay & More
Need for Speed is one of the ultimate online racing games with a massive community. It offers everything from exploring together with friends to competitive racing across the globe. However, until recently Need for Speed: Heat players were stuck with players on the same gaming system as them.
No more, though! Cross-play is officially available as of June 9, 2020. EA dropped the announcement in patch notes and through a letter on June 8. It's the first time in the Need for Speed series where players can come together across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC to experience the fast and furious world of racing!
You're automatically prompted to set up crossplay settings after you install the latest update. It's a secure system. Lookup anyone on any system in the Party Menu through EA Friends. Send an invite and party up together. A neat addition is that, while in the party, you'll see a small icon indicating what system everyone is on.
Plenty of tweaks tagged along in the latest June 9 update as well. Let's take a glance at the entire set of patch notes for Need for Speed: Heat.
General Fixes
Need for Speed: Heat | Credit: ea.com
- Certain rewards weren't triggering correctly when getting 100% of collectibles. Vanity items Rainbow Nitrous, Black Tire Smoke, and the "if you're happy and you know it" horn are all fixed. Cop cars, in particular, got some much-needed adjustments.
- There was an issue where cop cars were far too powerful and massively damaged player cars in a single hit.
- Additionally, the cops in certain areas were far too passive. The AI has not been made more challenging or aggressive, simply corrected so that they actively chase and engage rather than only pursue.
Events
Need for Speed: Heat | Credit: ea.com
- A few races had AI that went off-route. They should stay on the track now.
- Fixed an issue with the Time Trial Ghost glitching out the first time you beat it. It would display the wrong Ghost, making it seem like you'd beaten the time when you hadn't. It was also corrected.
- 'Picknick' Time Trial should provide the right amount of Bank when you come in second now.
- You can restart the mission 'Upload' now as designed.
- Addressed specific instances of the game crashing and hang.
Audio & Visual
Need for Speed: Heat | Credit: ea.com
- Cops reference the McLaren P1 GTR correctly in chatter now.
- Rushing the Mendoza Keys tunnel should no longer randomly produce solid walls.
- Fixed the issue with random vegetation spawning on the road when selecting low or medium graphics with specific graphics cards.
- 'Racer Challenges' are no longer displayed in the garage after reaching Rep 50.
- The 'Rival Crews' menu doesn't display in the main menu when you're playing offline.
- Fixed an issue where time trials would occasionally show no Ghost to race.
- Arriving at a time trial point will now show a complete leaderboard rather than an empty one.
- Fixed the issue where a particular beanie wasn't visible from far away.
Car Updates
Need for Speed: Heat | Credit: ea.com
- All colors display correctly on the side of the Camaro Z28 now.
- Decal interactions for the Lamborghini Aventador S '18 and Roadster variants work right now.
- Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8's aftermarket taillight will display adequately now on the wide Porsche rear fender.
- Added missing sound system interaction points to the following vehicles: Volkswagen Beetle '63, Volkswagen Golf GTI '76, Land Rover Defender 110 '15, and Aston Martin Vulcan '16
Signing Off with TBD
The patch notes over at EA's website offer some great insight from the team manager of Need for Speed: Heat. Matt Webster announced the most significant chunk of the update, crossplay, in a memo on June 8, the day before the update.
Fans of Need for Speed: Heat will love the addition of long-awaited crossplay. Start by checking out Need for Speed on Steam! Who knows what the next update will bring? The patch notes for June 9 signed off with an elusive "TBD FROM HERE"!