NFS Unbound Bugs, Crashing & Workarounds

The release of Need for Speed Unbound brought more value to racing games as people are loving the gameplay and in-game animations. The 25^th installment in NFS Collection has been a success but every newly released game is followed by bugs and glitches.

Today, we will be discussing major bugs and issues in NFS Unbound that require attention and should be fixed in the following updates. Read till the end if you haven’t played the game yet and are looking to make a decision.

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Notes:

• Need for Speed Unbound is currently full of bugs and glitches that should be removed by future updates.
• Some common issues in the community include the game crashing or getting stuck at a black screen.
• Some other bugs like Infinite Money Bug provide extra resources to players without them putting in any effort.

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After several checks, we have shortlisted some bugs that are making the game unplayable and therefore, ruining the user experience. They are mentioned below along with their temporary fixes that might work for you.

Crashing And Freezing

One of many common issues in the early phases of the game is related to the game getting stuck during run time and the player is unable to perform any action after it. The issue persists on both Consoles and PCs.

There are multiple scenarios for PC and Console users where you will face the discussed problem. If you are on PC and when you click Play in-game, it will pause for a couple of seconds and then automatically crash.

For PlayStation users, you might have witnessed that your game crashes when you launch the game for the first time and get into the tutorial phase. Not only the game, but your whole Console also will not respond to any movement from the controller.

For PC Players, there are multiple fixes that you can try to resolve the issue.

Update Windows

Keeping your windows updated to the latest version should be your priority as older versions of windows mess up with the game, hence freezing the game.

1. To update windows on your Windows 10, press the Start button on your taskbar and open Settings.

   

2. When inside Settings, head over to the Update & Security section where you will see a window just like this.

   

Click on the Check for Updates option and it will automatically search for any new updates that your computer has. Make sure you also Download and Install all the optional updates as well just to be on the safe side.

Update Drivers

After updating your windows, you may also want to update your graphic drivers. This is because sometimes older versions of your drivers are not supported by newly released games which causes the issue.

To update your drivers, you need information about which graphic card is installed on your machine (Intel, NVidia, or AMD). To learn about this information, click on the search icon on your Taskbar that will look like a magnifying glass.

1. Search for Device Manager and click on the first search that appears. Expand the information under Display Adapters, revealing what graphic card is on your PC.

   

2. Then, open their respective website and from there you can update the drivers to the latest version to get rid of the problem.

Deleting Cache

Another temporary fix that you can try is deleting the cache files for Unbound to make your game load faster. This will just delete the temporary files related to the game freeing up memory so the game loads faster and does not get stuck in between.

We will be removing Cache from 2 different places.

First Method

1. Open your game folder where the game is installed.
2. Look for game files in a folder by following this: Documents > Need for Speed Unbound > Cache.
3. Delete the cache files in there.

Second Method

Another place to delete the cache is,

1. By going inside the main game folder and following another path: Origin Games > Need for Speed Unbound > shadercache.
2. Delete the files that contain DX12.

This will not harm your game and will solve the not loading issue.

Compatibility Settings

Sometimes, running the game as an administrator solves the issue as this allows some of the window features that were previously restricted. To do this, you will need to open the NFS: Unbound folder on your windows.

1. An easy path to follow is This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files > EA Games/Steam > Need for Speed Unbound. Right-click on the application folder and select Properties. Go to the Compatibility tab.

   

2. Check the box that says Run this program as an administrator. Press Apply and then ok to save the changes. Try running the game to see if the problem continues or not.

Data Corrupted

Even if you buy the game from trusted apps like EA and Steam, your game data gets corrupted. This may be the case for you so there is a way for you to confirm it. Firstly, let’s discuss the scenario if you got the game from Steam.

1. You may want to open the Steam application for this. Go into your library and look for NFS: Unbound. Right-click on it and select Properties. In the Local Files tab, Click Verify Integrity of Game Files… to see if the game data is corrupted or not.

   

2. For users who bought the game from EA, open the EA app and search for NFS: Unbound in My Collection. On the game icon, click on the 3 dots that appear at the top-right of the icon. You will see the Third option listed as Repair. Checking corrupted data from the EA app
3. Click on it to search for corrupted data.

Restarting Console

If you have been unlucky and the game freezing issue appears on your PlayStation console, then you will have to shut it down and restart from the scratch. This will, however, delete any saved progress inside the game which is a major drawback.

As it is not responding to any movement from the controller, try taking the power cable out and plugging it back in.  This will un-freeze the console and your game will also launch again but there is currently no proper fix for this. We hope to resolve the issue in the upcoming updates.

Infinite Money Glitch

The money bug is a major glitch trigger where you will receive $100,000 without completing any task or a mission. This money does not disappear when you spend it so you can buy any spare parts for your car if you like. For this glitch to work, start the qualifier races by finishing the week.

This situation occurs after you win the race and receive $100,000. After getting rewarded, an in-game cut scene starts with Yaz having a conversation with Rydell about a custom kit for your starter car. When it starts, exit the game quickly and close it. Restart it from the beginning. After getting in the game, you will notice the $100,000 in your inventory and you can start the qualifier again as well.

This is not a one-time thing as you can keep winning the same qualifier race over and over again to collect infinite money by using this glitch. This has been tested for PC and PS5 so it should work on other machines as well.

Try using the money for your car upgrades. One drawback to this bug is that you will be starting with no money after you get through the prologue.

Car Not Accelerating

A very annoying issue in Need for Speed: Unbound is your car not speeding up even if you are hitting the gas after a certain speed limit. In some cases, this might not even happen in the initial phases of the game, but you will face it when you are deep inside the story.

Changing your keyboards or controllers might look promising but it does not solve the issue. Moreover, reinstalling the game will also not do it. As the game is still very new, there haven’t been too many updates to solve all the issues.

Our best bet is to be patient and wait for a big update to come out that might fix all the bugs.

Peripherals Not Detected

Another very common bug going on is when your game successfully launches but you can’t drive the car nor move your mouse as the game does not detect any inputs connected to the computer.

This also might have happened if you own a steering wheel for racing games. Some wheels like Thrustmaster TX are supported by NFS but they are unresponsive upon testing.

An understanding explanation of the problem can be that your computer and the game are getting confused with multiple input devices connected to it at once. Try disconnecting all other peripherals and keep 1 or maybe 2 of them connected to see if the issue persists.

The same problem is also seen for Controller players as the Xbox controller disconnects after the game launch and none of the key-binds work.

Stuck On Loading Screen

The issue persists on Xbox mostly, but you can also experience it on other platforms as well. The situation arises when you launch the game, and the loading bar reaches full but won’t let you go any further. In a scenario similar to this, you might want to try out the following solutions:

Update Game On Xbox

As the game is still pretty new, screen freezing might still not be patched so always keep an eye for any incoming updates. In order to update NFS Unbound:

1. Press the button on your controller that makes up the X shape.
2. Click on My Games & Apps.
3. Scroll down and click Manage.
4. Choose the option Updates in the Second Column and First Row.

If any new updates are available, you will see them in there. Otherwise, keep checking.

Update Your Console

If you have successfully updated the game but the problem is there, you might have missed updating your Xbox Console because the older Xbox updates do not support some features of newly released games so this might be it.

To update newer Xbox consoles, you can head over to the Settings option and open Updates tab. Click on the option Update Console if you see any available updates. Doing this will update your Xbox to latest possible patch and now you can check if the problem is gone.

Reinstall NFS Unbound

Deleting and installing the game again is always an open option if you have tried everything and you didn’t find any luck. Sometimes this works because the game is not properly installed on your system due to multiple reasons during downloading as the data files get corrupted.

What you can do is press the X button again on the controller and head over to My Games & Apps. Find Unbound and hit uninstall. Download the game again from your in-game library and wait until the downloading finishes. Make sure your internet connection is active throughout the downloading to avoid any minor issues.

By applying these techniques, other issues like Black screen or Car Assets not loading might be removed simultaneously as the root of the problem is more or less the same. We hope that this worked, and you are enjoying Unbound on Xbox.

Conclusion

There is a very rare chance for any game to be 100% without bugs on its initial release. NFS Unbound also follows the same analogy as bugs and issues in-game are creating chaos in the gaming community.

The most common bugs are discussed above along with their temporary fixes. Stating the obvious, bugs with no current fix will be removed in future coming updates.

That is all for this guide! We hope you found our article in your best interest. Also

Don’t forget to leave feedback for us in the comments down below. Download Need for Speed Unbound now on your PC from Steam or the official EA store.