Need for Speed: Japan

Need for Speed: Japan is an upcoming open-world racing game developed by Ghost Games. It will be released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and XBOX ONE platforms. The game may also be released on Mac and Linux, as well as possibly being ported to the Nintendo Switch in the future. As the title states, the game will be the first in the series to take place in Japan.

Gameplay
To address numerous complaints of Need for Speed (2015), Need for Speed: Japan will be playable offline, have an option for manual transmission, actually be able to pause the game (since it's available offline) and the physics model will be closer to that seen in Need for Speed Carbon. The frame rate also has been unlocked to 60 FPS (and is actually stable, *cough* NFS Rivals). Heat level also is based on how much of a threat the player is to the police rather than by how much fines have been accumulated in said car. Speedbreaker also returns, but with the additional feature to adjust vehicle positioning in mid-air, allowing for better landings.

The game has four different area types: City, Highway, Touge, and Raceway. The main city overworld will be based on the Tokyo-Yokohama Metropolis and Shuto Expressway. The mountain passes in the North Kanto area are also interconnected with the numerous lesser highways. Raceways, on the other hand, cannot be accessed whilst Free Roaming and are closed off.

Police do play a role in the game, albeit in varying degrees. They primarily appear in city races and only sometimes on the highways. This is namely due to the lack of hiding spots in the highway and mountain passes, as well as the latter of the two being typically too narrow for police pursuits.

Each kind of area has their own race modes.

City
City races are probably the most faithful races to the Need for Speed formula. There are also Outlaw events which involve confrontations with police. Races earn you more cash, and outlaw missions earn you more EXP, allowing you to access better parts, more customization options, and faster cars quicker.
 * Circuit: A multi-lap race around a not-so closed area. Almost like the real raceways, but with traffic and police as well.
 * Sprint: A point to point race.
 * Lap Knockout: A circuit race where the last person to cross the line is eliminated.
 * Checkpoint: Just you versus the clock. Get through all checkpoints before the time runs out.
 * Cost to City: Wreak havoc and escape.
 * Pursuit Duration: Keep the cops on your tail for a certain period of time before escaping.
 * Escape: Evade the cops as quickly as you can.
 * Takedown: Destroy a certain number of police cruisers (or a particular kind of one) and escape.

Highway
The famed Shuto Expressway is easily the area which will allow you to achieve high speeds. Just be careful as traffic is harder to avoid with all that speed, plus there's quite a lot of big trucks that may end your day should you crash into one. Unlike city races, you will always begin the race with a rolling start (excluding Drag).
 * Sprint: Same as the City races.
 * Speedtrap: Pass through checkpoints at a certain speed. Highest total speed is the winner.
 * Highway Duel: A combination of Undercover's Highway Duels, Carbon's Canyon Duels, and the race format in the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series. Each racer starts with 100K points, and the further they are behind (as well as from hitting traffic and walls; police don't count at least) the faster those points go down. First to hit zero before the time limit ends (or the lower score when the time does run out) is the loser.
 * Drag: These will primarily be held in the Wangan and Yokohane routes. Reflexes are key, as you'll need to have good shift work and be able to maneuver around traffic easily (as you'll almost certainly total your car).
 * Tollbooth: Same as Checkpoint Races, but you also have to deal with avoiding hitting tollbooths, as they'll slow you down should you run into them (they break like in Most Wanted), and you'll definitely need that speed for these races.

Touge
These are Japan's famed mountain passes. Pursuits cannot occur here as the roads are typically too narrow. Traffic is also pretty scarce here. The narrow roads and tight corners have made these roads great for drifting. The confirmed tracks at the moment: Hakone, Toyo Tires Turnpike, Nagao, Hakone Nanamagari, Haruna (Akina), Myogi, Usui, Akagi, both Irohazaka routes, Happogahara, Tsukuba, and Tsubaki routes.
 * Sprint: You get the idea.
 * Time Attack: Basically the same as Checkpoint.
 * Drift: Drift (no fishtailing) to earn points. The amount of points is based on speed and angle, as well as other factors - such as consecutive drifts. Just don't hit the wall too hard, or you'll lose half of what you would have gotten.
 * Duel: Similar to sprint races, but with only one opponent.
 * Cat and Mouse: One racer starts in front of the other. They race from one point to another, and then the front racer is at the back. Should the front racer get passed or outruns the back racer, the race is over.

Raceway
Tracks (almost) completely closed off from the rest of the map, so you do not have to worry about traffic. Confirmed tracks include: Suzuka Circuit, Fuji Speedway, Autopolis, Ebisu Circuit, Okayama Circuit, Sportsland SUGO, Tsukuba Circuit, and Twin Ring Motegi.
 * Circuit: A truly closed off multi-lap race.
 * Lap Knockout: Same as the city, but in a raceway.
 * Class Race: Vehicles are divided into two pools based on performance capabilities. You will only race against drivers in the same pool.
 * Time Attack: Similar to NFS Prostreet's Time Attack races. You have to set the fastest lap time, but you'll be doing so at the same time as the other racers.
 * Solo Drift: Same as mountain drifting, but the roads are wider and you have bonus zones placed riskier areas. You also don't earn points if you drive off the road surface.
 * Tandem Drift: Same as Solo Drift, but with the added challenge of having to share the road surface with another rival.

Customization
Customization will be comparable to that of NFS Carbon's (plentiful, but not to the extent of being overly ricey). Much like NFS 2015, aftermarket parts will be primarily based on real life manufacturers, although fictional Autosculpt parts will be available as well. Specific visual modifications include custom paint, window tint, aftermarket bumpers and skirts, spoilers, body kits, hoods, roof scoops, muffler tips, headlight design and colour, rims, wheel paint, neons, vanity plates. A vinyl editor will also be present, but vehicle templates can be downloaded should the player want to create a custom livery.

Performance upgrades include the following: Engine, ECU, Transmission, Suspension, Brakes, Tires, and Forced Induction kits. Unlike previous installments, some vehicles are capable of using either turbines or superchargers, but others are locked into one or the other. Quick and Advanced tuning is also present, allowing the player to adjust vehicle configurations, from gear ratios to spring rate.

Challenge Series
The Challenge Series mode consists of sets of certain event types with a specific vehicle. You will start out with only the Bronze events. Beating the Bronze event of a set will unlock the Silver event, and beating the Silver event will unlock the Gold event. Beating a Gold event will reward you with unique visual customization options, such as unique spoilers, hoods, and vinyls. Beating a certain cluster of Gold events based on their area type (Outlaw events are separate here) will unlock vehicles that can be customized and used in Career Mode. Beating any event will unlock the pre-tuned vehicle for use in Quick Race and Multiplayer.

Plot
TBA

Cars
Need For Speed: Japan/Cars

Police
When racing in the metropolis and Shutoko, you have a chance of running into the law enforcement. They will not appear in the mountain passes, and only seldom appear on the expressways, they'll appear in city races more often, and will have faster vehicles patrolling the highways. The more aggressively you engage the police, the higher your Heat level will rise - to a default maximum of 5. The specific pursuit vehicles include the following.
 * Standard Civic Unit: Nissan Crew LS-F
 * Highway Patrol/Unmarked Unit: Toyota Crown (GRS210)
 * Light SUV Unit: Mazda CX-7
 * Highway Sport/Sport Unmarked Unit: Nissan 370Z/Fairlady Z Version ST (Z34)
 * Sport Tactical/Sport Tactical Unmarked Unit: Nissan Skyline GT-R VSpec-II (BNR34)
 * Heavy SUV Unit: Toyota Land Cruiser 5.7 L (URJ200)
 * High Performance/High Performance Unmarked Unit: Nissan GT-R 2017 (R35)
 * Air Support Unit: Bell 412 Helicopter

The vehicles appearance in certain Heat levels is as follows:
 * Heat Level 1: Standard Civic Unit (Common), Highway Patrol Unit (Semi-Rare, Highway only)
 * Heat Level 2: Highway Patrol Unit (Common), Highway Unmarked Unit (Rare)
 * Heat Level 3: Highway Unmarked Unit (Common), Highway Sport Unit (Uncommon), Light SUV Unit (Semi-Rare), Sport Tactical Unit (Rare)
 * Heat Level 4: Highway Sport Unmarked Unit (Common), Sport Tactical Unit (Uncommon), Light SUV Unit (Uncommon), Heavy SUV Unit (Roadblocks only)
 * Heat Level 5: Sport Tactical Unit (Common), Sport Tactical Unmarked Unit (Uncommon), Heavy SUV Unit (Semi-Rare), High Performance Unit (Semi-Rare), Air Support Unit (Rare)
 * Heat Level 6 (Challenge Series only): Heavy SUV (Common), High Performance Unit (Common), High Performance Unmarked Unit (Uncommon), Air Support Unit (Semi-Rare)
 * Heat Level 7 (Challenge Series only): Supercharged Heavy SUV (Common), Air Support Unit (Semi-Rare)

The vehicles sorted from lightest to heaviest: Standard Civic Unit, Highway Sport Unit, Highway Patrol Unit, Highway Sport Unmarked Unit, Sport Tactical Unit, Highway Unmarked Unit, Sport Tactical Unmarked Unit, Light SUV Unit, High Performance Unit, High Performance Unmarked Unit, Heavy SUV Unit. They can be driven and unlocked for usage in Quick Race and Multiplayer after beating the game at least once (excluding the helicopter).

In Free Roam, police will not go after you unless you commit an infraction in their vicinity (speeding right past them, hitting them or a traffic vehicle, destruction of property etc). They will attempt to pull you over immediately on sight should they find you in a race or if your vehicle was reported driving recklessly.

If you get busted during a pursuit, you will be fined based on the infractions you have committed (such as destroying property, hit and run, and overall resisting arrest), receive an impoundment strike for the vehicle in question, and your Heat level will be reset. Each vehicle has 3 impoundment strike slots, and if you get busted 3 times with the same vehicle, you lose it for good. You can add slots just to be safe (max. 5 total slots per car) with strike markers that can be obtained as semi-rare random race drops. Should you lose all your vehicles and be unable to purchase a new one, or if you are unable to pay fines 3 times over the course of career mode, you will have to start over (On the bright side, you can skip the tutorial races. Same goes for if you beat the game and start a new career).

It is possible to just simply pull over for police and avoid the pursuit entirely (although if you do so in a race event, you'll automatically lose), resulting in a lower fine and avoiding an impoundment strike on your vehicle. Note that this is only possible if your Heat level is at 1 and this cannot be done in Outlaw events. Heat levels on a car will get lower should it avoid being noticed by the cops for a while, and this process can be sped up by using a different car and winning events. If you're impatient, altering the appearance of the car can speed up this process to varying degrees based on what you change.

When you have gotten far enough from the police, you will enter Cooldown mode. From here, you have to avoid visual contact with the police to successfully escape. Hiding Spots can speed up the cooldown process (especially on higher Heat levels, as the Cooldown bar fills up slower), and cannot be detected by most police units (Sport Tactical and High Performance Units, as well as their unmarked variants, can detect Hiding Spots if they can hear engine sounds, so remain still and/or turn off the ignition in higher Heat levels). Entering Safehouses as well as taking expressway routes which involve exiting the city can end the pursuit immediately. (If you're wondering, these roads are blocked off temporarily when the police are chasing you.)

(more to come)

Soundtrack
TBA

Trivia/Other Stuff

 * This is the first installment to have dual audio. (The region's language and Japanese. Selecting Japanese voices will turn on subtitles by default, but these can be disabled - or conversely enabled in said region's language. The Japanese version of this game itself does not have this feature.)
 * If a police car is used in Quick Race or Multiplayer events with cops turned on, the police radio will use a unique message reporting about a "stolen police car", as well as what specific unit type was used.
 * There are a total of 14 helicopters in service within the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department in real life, and thus there can only be a maximum of 14 Air Support Units per pursuit in-game as well.