Need for Speed dev: Frostbite 2 a “class-leading” engine, “really easy to work with”

One of the goals set with Battlefield 3’s impressive Frostbite 2 engine was to create an in-house engine that could be shared with other EA developers across different genres. The first non-BF3 game to use the engine is this week’s Need for Speed: The Run, and the game’s developers were pleased with what they had to work with.

“We’ve been working on it for two and a half years with DICE, and we love it,” Grimbley told Official Xbox Magazine in an interview. “It’s really easy to work with, it allows us to iterate really fast, so when the creative group have an idea, we can throw it in there really quickly and see if it works. The more iteration we can do, the faster and quicker you get to quality, and have more time at the end, so that’s really useful for us.”

When asked if the engine would be ready for next-gen consoles, Grimbley said, “I don’t really know what the plans are for next gen, but I think as an engine now it’s fantastic, definitely leading its class.”

The engine’s penchant for destruction isn’t lost on the racer, however. “There are cool things we got with the engine, where it’s how do we manipulate the design to take advantage of that, like the destruction of the environment – the avalanche level is an idea of how we can go down that route, play to the strengths of the engine. And obviously it looks amazing, we really like the look of it.”

Source: Official Xbox Magazine