Need for Speed: The Run - Trailer directed by Michael Bay

And then it EXPLODES AGAIN!

Oh, Michael Bay. Honestly, there weren't as many explosions as I was expecting. Usually he has a ratio of 2 explosions every 30 seconds, and this trailer was well below the quota. But in all seriousness, using Michael Bay to direct a trailer (I'm not even really sure what that entails for a video game trailer) was an interesting, and not necessarily good, decision. First of all, did they create scenes that Bay had in his mind for the trailer? Did they show him every cutscene and other scenes and he could pick and choose what he wanted? I guess I'm confused as to how this makes the trailer any different from the others, except with the addition of a lot more slow motion. We know the story from the others, not much more new content (or any) has been revealed soon.

The game drops in a week, and I feel like I don't know as much as I should about the actual gameplay, or how the story is executed. This prompted me to take a look at an actual gameplay preview, and it looks like the game will be extremely linear. There are ten stages, and you have a goal of getting to a certain position (you start in 150th and work from there) before you reach your destination. Passing people and doing other generally awesome things will net you driver experience and upgrades, but that's pretty much it. And much like the trailers, there will be a couple on foot instances.

I'm very interested in this game, don't get me wrong. But people who are only going to see this trailer on TV or something and not research the game might be a little put off by it. It's an epic, awesome trailer, but it suffers from Dead Island syndrome. Awesome trailer, but the game is not going to be exactly like it. Even Michael Bay can't fix that.

Need for Speed: The Run "Lonely Boy" Trailer

A trailer a game that reveals a song? You lost me. 

I want this game. It's been forever since there's been a Need for Speed game that's been worthy of anyone's attention, and I think this is the one to break that trend. However, I do have my concerns from watching this trailer. The cutscenes are cool and the driver is finally making it out of his car, but the story makes me think that this is going to be a very linear game. It's essentially a huge race from San Francisco to New York City. 

If they had "open world" elements to it, they would either have to create the entirety of the United States or put the race on hold every time you wanted to explore somewhere. Neither of these options would work for this game. So I'm interested, yet apprehensive about how this Need for Speed is going to go. I'm also not going to touch it unless the single player itself promises at LEAST ten hours of gameplay. Yes, my demands are high, but so are my expectations. Watch this trailer and tell me you don't feel the same. 

Oh yeah, and the trailer "debuted" the song "Lonely Boy" by the Black Keys. Cool I guess?

Need for Speed: The Run "Race of your Life" Trailer

Spoiler: People actually drive these cars

Oh look it's another Need for Speed game, a bunch of the same old... what't that you say? There's actually some semblance of narrative to this game? You actually get to put a face with the character who will be driving the car? THERE ARE SEQUENCES WHERE YOU'RE NOT DRIVING!?

Everything that I ever knew about Need for Speed just got thrown out the window after watching this trailer. And trust me, that is a good thing. The formula was busted. Sure, they gave us open world driving, awesome cop chases and a whole lot of throttle, but I never played a NFS game and felt truly satisfied with the story. Or felt as if there was one at all. So I'm really excited about where this game is going to go because it's doing things that no other game in the series has ever done.

Would you like to see the driver actually step out of the car in The Run? Or is a narrative something that NFS fans tend to run scream from? Leave it here!