An excellent summary of Need For Speed Rivals' pretentious narrative is seen in YouTube personality Total Biscuit's look at the title, when he remarks "Are these the lyrics to a Linkin Park track? What is this?!" It is a profoundly simple thing to structure a sports game: you're this team, in this league, doing this thing. Where sure there will be at least one dry eye in the house after that riveting delivery, but there will also be a distinct lack of stunned disbelief. That last bit, particularly the lacking part, is an area where racers continue to struggle. It should be an equally simple thing to give a basic premise - a written excuse to progress, really - to racing, but by way of angst-filled leads and juvenile dialogue, many games have missed that point. It doesn't matter how unrealistically gravelly the main character's voice, how vindictive opponents behave, or how oh-so-totally-cool your crew is - that's not why racing fans are here. Racers are at their best when actual people are all but removed from the equation; the cars should be the main characters of the game. Let them do the talking, and spare us the monologue.