Need For Speed Unbound Gets Massive Vol. 3 Update, Patch Notes Revealed

Electronic Arts has today pushed out its massive “Vol. 3” update for Need For Speed Unbound, which is the latest installment in the long-running racing series. At the end of 2022, EA released Unbound across current-generation platforms and the game ended up being met with generally positive feedback from players. Now, perhaps the largest post-launch patch we’ve seen so far for the racing title has come about and brings major overhauls to virtually every aspect.

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Available to download now across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, the Vol. 3 update for Need For Speed Unbound went live in the early hours of this morning. Per usual with patches like this, developer Criterion Games has fixed a number of lingering bugs and other problems that have been throughout Unbound. Outside of this, Criterion has also added a variety of new features, most of which don’t overhaul the game completely but instead are quality-of-life upgrades.

You can find the full patch notes for this Vol. 3 update for Need for Speed Unbound attached below.

Quality of Life Improvements

Vehicles awarded via EA Play Membership, Purchased from the in-game Store, or awarded as part of Speed Pass, will be available to use in your Single Player garage after completing the prologue. Previously these were only available in Lakeshore Online
Reduced the chances of getting into another chase immediately after a successful escape
Screen Space Reflections are now enabled for cars on Ultra graphics quality on PC
Intel XeSS 1.1 added as an Upsampler option on PC
Improved road reflection quality by including distant buildings
Improved CPU performance on PC
Reduced VRAM usage on NVIDIA 40 series GPUs on PC
Nvidia DLSS updated to version 3.1.11 on PC
AMD FSR 2 updated to latest 2.2 on PC
Increased the rewards for escaping and assisting in a cop chase.
Different cop vehicles are now worth different amounts of cash when taken down in cop chases, instead of a single value that applied to all cop cars.
Players who purchased the Deluxe Edition will be awarded $250,000 per volume update as a thank you cash boost!
Subtitles text size can now be changed from three presets. The backing opacity and colour can also be adjusted
Players can now change their default time of day in Lakeshore Online. This setting only affects Free Roam – events in playlists have their own defined time of day
Players can now teleport to Safehouses and Meetups when not in a cop chase. Perfect for quickly getting around map, or swapping cars before the next Linkup
Players will receive $5000 in bonus cash for every rank they reached prior to the release of Volume 3 with the new Speed Pass ranking system
Players can now view their whole character before purchasing clothing to see how it looks with their whole outfit

Campaign

Fixed an issue that allowed the player to hide the UI in the campaign calendar, leading to a broken camera
Fixed an issue that caused the player to lose campaign progress when the PS5 is forced shut
Fixed a number of clipping issues with Vehicles
Fixed an issue that caused the player to spawn inside the garage after the prologue
Fixed an issue that caused the initial campaign car select vehicles to have coloured windows
Fixed an issue that occasionally spawned the player in freedrive instead of the tutorial after selecting a car
Fixed an issue that caused the safehouse description to not update after purchase
Fixed an issue that allowed players to sell their first vehicle in campaign, leaving them with no cars
Fixed an issue that caused the Milestone 1 meetup icon to appear during the qualifier races
Fixed an issue that allowed the player to receive two starter vehicles if they close down the game immediately after car select sequence
Fixed an issue that showed rivals as available to beat in the UI even if they have already been beaten
Fixed an issue that caused police helicopters to run out of fuel whilst the game is paused
Fixed a campaign exploit that allowed the player to replay the Week 3 qualifier
Fixed an issue that occasionally caused no Audio SFX to be triggered when accepting a phone call mission
Fixed an issue that caused AI rivals name cards to sometimes obscure the players view
Fixed an issue that caused all collectable bears to reappear in the world when progressing to the next day
Fixed an issue that caused Cop roadblock items to persistently show up on the map even when progressing to the next day

Client & Performance

Added multiple stability improvements across both Campaign and Lakeshore Online
Fixed an issue that caused the screen to freeze whilst recording with Nvidia Shadowplay on PC
Fixed an issue that could cause the controller to not send any inputs if it was disconnected and reconnected
Fixed an issue that caused vehicles using the brushed metal material to appear visibly dirty when they spawn
Fixed an issue that caused certain HUD UI elements to be blown out by bright lighting courses when the game is run in HDR
Fixed an issue that could cause vehicle input to become stuck whilst driving

Cops

Fixed an issue that caused the player vehicle to float during the busted transition screen
Fixed an issue that caused cash rewarded from challenges to be treated as volatile cash if completed during a cop chase
Fixed a number of issues that caused Burst Nitrous to work inconsistently with cop cars
Fixed an issue that caused the button callout to route to patrolling cops to be invisible
Fixed an issue that caused both “COP CHASE JOINED” and “COP CHASE STARTED” to appear one after another when assisting other players in a chase
Fixed an issue that caused other cops to appear to be spotting the player at the start of a cop chase if 2 cops are near each other

General Fixes & Improvements

Fixed an issue that rarely caused the character model to disappear whilst previewing hair customization
Fixed an issue that rarely caused the camera to unfocus whilst previewing hair customization
Fixed an issue that occasionally caused vehicle or character modifications to not save
Fixed an issue that caused some players to be unable to boot the 10-Hour Trial via the EA app
Fixed an issue that caused text to speech words to overlap the text box when enabled
Fixed an issue that caused a broken camera once the user resets it in snapshot mode
Fixed an issue that disallowed a child Xbox profile access to Lakeshore Online even when given access to multiplayer features by a parent
Fixed an issue that caused the Banner Snapshot contrast to behave inconsistently
Fixed an issue that caused car skid marks to flicker on pavement

Map & World

Fixed an issue that caused checkpoints to be missing on the mini-map when the player is in an event
Fixed an issue that caused some breakable assets to remain stuck under the car resulting in the car spinning uncontrollably
Fixed an issue that caused Street Art and Bears to disappear from the main map when collected
Fixed multiple issues that caused “i” icons to sometimes appear in lieu of safehouses, players, and cops
Fixed an issue that caused a straight line to be drawn if routing from the player to a cops location in Lakeshore Online

Multiplayer

Fixed an issue that caused the wreck reset transition to not display the fade animation
Fixed an issue that caused volatile cash to be lost when accepting a playlist invite during a cop chase
Fixed an issue that could block the player from opening the banner of other players in Lakeshore Online
Fixed an issue that caused the banner sticker to disappear when in the “edit snapshot” menu
Fixed an issue that caused 2 cars to be present in the Banner Snapshot after completing a playlist with a different car
Fixed an issue that caused the currently equipped car to unequip after quitting the game and rebooting if the player doesn’t leave the garage
Fixed a number of issues that caused daily challenges to refresh inconsistently
Fixed an issue that caused the user to see both the enter garage and busted cinematics when entering the garage whilst almost busted
Fixed an issue that caused the in-world AR pin of a routed player to only appear at short distances
Fixed an issue that caused the player to clip through the garage wall if exiting a safehouse at the same time as multiple other people
Fixed an issue that caused the player to appear as leaving a game when attempting to join a full multiplayer server

Playlist & Racing

Fixed an issue that caused players to be respawned unexpectedly in certain areas of the City Viper race
Fixed an issue that caused players to be respawned unexpectedly in certain areas of the Downtown Chaos race
Fixed an issue that caused players to be respawned unexpectedly in certain areas of the Don’t Sweat The Technique race
Fixed an issue that caused misleading UI prompts and directional arrows in the All Eyes On Me race
Fixed an issue that caused players to be spawned unexpectedly in certain areas of the Meridional Mist race
Fixed an issue that caused misleading UI prompts and directional arrows in the Industrial Action race
Fixed an issue that caused the perfect start boost to carry over if the player left the race during the race start countdown
Fixed an issue that caused the tier icon to be missing or incorrect in playlist cards
Fixed an issue that prevented the player from spawning next to the nearest garage at the end of a playlist
Fixed an issue that caused the player to be stuck in a Rumble event when it finished
Fixed an issue that caused some car windscreens to open during playlist into cinematics as if it was a side window
Fixed an issue that caused the timer to overlap the 8th player in the post-race results screen
Fixed an issue that caused traffic in certain events to behave unexpectedly

User Interface

Fixed an issue that caused sub-menus in the hair selection screen to be difficult to navigate
Fixed an issue that caused players to lose input when navigating through the banner menu
Fixed an issue that caused a number of inconsistencies with displaying breadcrumbs for newly unlocked content
Fixed an issue that caused the playlist invite UI element to overlap in the car customisation, character customisation, and banner snapshot menus
Fixed an issue that caused the platform icon for crossplay players to show as the players own icon in the player cop assist popup
Fixed an issue that caused sorting by “most recent” in the community wrap screen to not function

Vehicle Customisation

Fixed an issue that caused the old tag effect to play when equipping a new tag in the garage
Fixed an issue that caused the Aston Martin DB5 wing mirrors to stick to the side of the car when damaged
Fixed an issue that caused wrap corruption around the headlights of the Mercedes Benz AMG GT (2015)
Fixed an issue that rarely prevented players from applying decals to their cars
Fixed an issue that caused decals to overlap on the front window of the Honda Civic Type-R (2015)
Fixed an issue that caused decals to display incorrectly on the rear fenders of the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 (1988)
Fixed an issue that caused decals to overlap on certain side skirts of the BMW M3 (1988)
Fixed an issue that caused the garage idle camera to show the undercarriage of the Mercedes 190E
Fixed an issue that caused the default wrap on the Mercedes Maybach to be positioned incorrectly
Fixed an issue that caused the wheels to clip through the bodywork on the Mercedes Maybach with air suspension applied
Fixed an issue that caused the wheels to clip through the bodywork on the epic build Nissan Fairlady
Fixed an issue that caused placeholder text to show when selecting certain side skirt sets for the Volkswagen Golf GTI (1976)
Fixed an issue that caused the Toyo Tires Proxes R888R thumbnail to display the incorrect ‘Need for Speed’ picture
Fixed an issue that caused the front canards to be selectable for the NISSAN Skyline GTR V-Spec (1993) when the front bumper is removed, causing them to float
Fixed an issue that caused a section at the rear of the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster (2019) to not display decals
Fixed an issue that caused some sections of the Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV Roads to not display decals
Fixed an issue that caused some sections of the Ferrari F40 to not display decals
Fixed an issue that caused decals that were applied with 100% opacity to appear as having less opacity in the garage
Fixed an issue that caused the Volvo 242 DL to have no trunk modifications available