PC & XBOX Gameplay+

this mod edits the surprisingly open game files to:
- make the handling WAY better, more responsive and slidey made to be as similar to the ps2 version as i could get it to be
- make the police more present and aggresive
- makes the ai racers be an actual challange (WIP)
- make the close camera more modern
all adding up to make the game feel way better and more comparable to the ps2 version when it comes to core gameplay

OUTDATED showcase video
new showcase video

ALSO WORKS ON XBOX!

let me know of any issues, especially car specific ones since i could have missed some
PLEASE COMMENT MORE ON THINGS I SHOULD IMPROVE!!!!

discord: fish.nugget

REQUEST!!!!!
IS ANYONE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT NFS MODDING AND COULD SOMEHOW EXTRACT THE CAR STAT VALUES FROM THE PS2 VERSION
ME AND PROBABLY EVERYONE ELSE TRYING TO PLAY THE OTHER VERSIONS WOULD BE INSANELY GRATEFUL!!

UPDATE!
ALL CARS SHOULD NOW WORK FINE! YIPEE, the thing that broke them was extremely long numbers( eg 1.99999998), they were all rounded up so everything should be fine, still let me know if any issues arise from this

another update! (i should really start numbering these)
more handling tweaks... cars are lighter and should now be more responsive and generally more similar to the ps2 version
tweaked racer ai, now should be easier but still harder than vanilla (original hardcore ai is still available in the mod if you want it)
tweaked cop ai a bit, i dont think it ended up doing anything but might aswell mention it
edited camera, i halved the dampening on it so the sense of speed is WAY better now, everything feels way faster with it and its generally more dynamic

ADDED PS2 STYLE HANDLING (previous handling is still included)
my pc game install broke so i had to test it on xbox
pretty much the same as the previous version except with almost no dampening on the steering, making it way more like the ps2 version

XBOX UPDATE! (sorry for not updating much recently!)
renamed ps2 handling to xbox handling since its meant to be used on xbox and honestly still isnt very similar to ps2 handling (game broke on my pc so i can only test on xbox for now, ill try to get it working again soon though)
added experimental xbox handling, way more responsive and bigger turning radius, made from scratch,
its still similar to something between forza horizon and NFS 3
these xbox versions should work on pc but they werent tested there and if on a pc i recommend using a controller since no dampening makes you always understeer!!!
big thanks to IsaacElite for telling me about the pc, keyboard specific issues, ill try to have them fixed sometime soon but for now ill make some xbox versions

simplification update
simplified some things.... the edits now edit much fewer values while having a bigger effect in handling also making it more like the ps2 version (i think) its much driftier, more responsive and front wheels practically never lose grip, let me know if this is better, i personally love it (elise, vx220 and speedster might need some tweaking tho, theyre kinda meh).
removed all other options, the handling is just as is and nothing else, much less confusing

stiff update!
this ones very VERY experimental, but very needed. one of the biggest things that i found that caused the "floatiness" of the handling in this game was the "Damper", its purpose is to literally do that, to dampen the car's body and make it floaty. but disabling it completely caused the car to jump and the suspension to oscillate like crazy. so to fix this i had to make the suspension MUCH stiffer (around 4 - 5 times more than vanilla) which might make the handling feel a bit diffrent, but with the big advantage of the car body moving more naturally and more similarly to the ps2 version, it vibrates more instead of the floating in the vanilla version.
i definetly need some feedback on this one, but having less dampening is definetly something i wanna have in this mod.
all that + i disabled rear abs for all cars, should make every car drift more, which is always good

some tweaks for the stiff update... applied the lesser dampening on ai and other stuffs
added newer showcase video
cars weight was reduced massively for better and more ps2 like handling. this could also make them unrealistically faster

ai update, should be a good bit harder now, built off of the old hardcore ai edited to be even harder, i think its fine enough for now, ill be looking into having good ai now since handling is done now i think
and on the topic of handling, i did some tiny edits to it, just a little bit driftier now since the version before felt too much like ps2's classic handling, now its closer to extreme

Comments

fishnyugget2018 (February 12, 2026 @ 00:37)

cars are fixed now, done quickly but its kind of a big thing to have broken, will look into ai now

fishnyugget2018 (February 12, 2026 @ 00:22)

thanks for letting me know, some cars just seem to break for no reason but its easy enough to get them working again, ill also edit the ai a bit more

IsaacElite10 (February 11, 2026 @ 22:48)

Ah, the Ferrari F50 feels unmanageable, as if it were uncontrollable; by the way, I control it with a keyboard.

IsaacElite10 (February 11, 2026 @ 22:47)

It's pretty good, except the difficulty of the racers goes beyond unfair to impossible. I feel you should balance it a bit more. It's fine that it's difficult, but this is even worse than the PS2 version. I'd like you to adjust it more.