Need for Speed: Most Wanted (For every system imaginable)

[Romier S]

IGN has the story:

 

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

 

In an announcement made early this morning, Electronic Arts confirmed that its gigantic Canadian development team is currently working on a brand new racer for just about every system imaginable. Dubbed Need for Speed Most Wanted, the new speester is the follow-up to last year's Need for Speed Underground 2 and will combine the tuner customization of the previous title with an expanded take on the police chases of 2002's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.

 

"Outrace your opponents, evade cops, and exploit the open world in Need for Speed Most Wanted; street racing doesn't get any better than this," said Larry LaPierre, senior producer, EA Canada. "Players instantly will feel the thrill of the ride as they hit the streets in an open world environment where drivers can tune their cars to compete against any class of vehicles or use their wits to out-fox the law to satisfy their need for speed."

 

Here's EA's next two million seller racer. Basically take the customization options from Need for Speed: Underground and it's sequel and combine it with the type of gameplay featured in Hot Pursuit and Hot Pursuit 2. The article details some more "strategic" cop chases than before. No word on online play at all.

 

The game is set to release for the PS2, Xbox, GC, PC, Nintendo DS, GBA, PSP, and a "next gen" system which will more than likely be the Xbox Next (no, I refuse to call it that extraordinarily stupid Xbox 360 name :eh ).

 

[Graeme]

Every since NFS 3: Hot Pursuit, I've drempt of playing 8+ player Hot Pursuit mode online. I haven't been all that big on the Underground games, but this could change it.

[iainl]

they hit the streets in an open world environment

 

This sounds the best news for me. If they can only fix the stupid handling of Underground 2, which was somehow both twitchy and sloppy at the same time, then this could be Midtown Madness with decent cop AI, which would be great. I've not been a fan of the Underground games generally (I'd rather play proper Shotoku Battle on my DC), but this might be better.

[Tranquility]

Cool that's a BMW in the picture. Hopefully they'll reduce the number of import cars and put more of the other cars that used to be in the game like the Aston Martin, Camaro, etc.

[Camp]

Cool that's a BMW in the picture. Hopefully they'll reduce the number of import cars and put more of the other cars that used to be in the game like the Aston Martin, Camaro, etc.

 

er...Aston Martins and BMWs (most) are imports.

I assume by "imports" you're refering to Japanese cars?

 

My hopes are that this series puts less emphesis on how "cool" it is and instead fixes the boring driving found in the Underground games. EA should take a hard look at the arcade style driving found in the Midnight Club series or Project Gotham series to use as a guide. Spend less on the box art and menu design and more on making a good racing game.

[Tranquility]

er...Aston Martins and BMWs (most) are imports.

I assume by "imports" you're refering to Japanese cars?

 

Yes sorry. Just used to give that sweeping label.

[CaptainRon]

I liked the underground series, I'll certainly give this a look :tu

[Graeme]

So this turned into a bit more than I meant... but here it is in all it's non error checked glory.

 

I've been playing the XBox version of this game a lot the last few days and I'm REALLY liking it. I never really got into the first two underground games for various reasons, but this one has grabbed me for whatever reason... first thing being that it stars Josie Maran who is sooo damn hot, and the intro to get things going is pretty cool.

 

Graphics and sound are amazing. I like the fact that this one isn't taking place at night, the city that you race in is large and quite varied between town/city areas, more rural settings and freeways and highways (I've just not opened up the last area which appears to be more of a city), with tons of different routes through areas and lots of poles, signs, tollbooths and various other objects to run into. It all looks very pretty and detailed, especially since you're wizzing by at what feels like incredibly fast speeds to notice if anything did look particularily ugly.

 

And that's my favorite thing in the game, the sense of speed is incredible once you get going really fast, but you never feel out of control and the way the city is laid out, you usually know where you've got to go. So the moments where you get going really fast and then run into a fast approaching wall are few and far between. Even the corners that look like a sharp 90+ degree turn are usually easily made if you're paying attention as there's almost always a grassy area or slightly different route through a gast station or something to make that turn just a bit easier to make. Through in the usual big flashing yellow arrow walls that have been in the Underground games to guide you in the right direction and prevent you from going into the wrong areas, and you can keep that 140MPH car going. I can only imagine what this game is like on the 360.

 

Sound in 5.1 is incredible. The cars, to me at least, sound really good, and the engine will be placed quite differently in the speakers depending on the view you're using. Crash sounds, sirens, honking, and police radio chatter are all great. The chatter is especially good actually. There's enough different that the cops say that it doesn't get too repetitive and it can actually help you in avoiding the cops. But my favorite sound is the swooshing sound that you hear in the rears when you get going really fast. It's usually accompanied by trails streaming of the back of your wing (and a nice subtle blur effect when you hit the nitro) and again, it feels like you're really moving.

 

The big addition to this year's game is the return of police chases, which is both it's greatest asset and one of it's biggest disappointments. NFS 3 was my favorite in this series and it was mainly because of the police chases. In the middle of a race the cops spot you and take chase, trying to ram you off the road, stop you with a roadblock or spikestrip. It could seriously affect the outcome of the race, but it was great fun at the same time.

 

Unfortuantly the police chasing is almost a seperate entity from the races. While the cops can catch you racing, and they will give chase, they rarely affect the outcome because they either get in on the race right at the end, or there's only 1 or two cars that aren't terribly aggressive... and they never seem to set up roadblocks in a race. I was hoping that this would change as I got further in the game, but the police pressence in the actual races seems to have actually decreased as I've played. The big police chases are used to progress through the career mode, along with the racing.

 

The career mode is set up as a progression of challenges to the most wanted racers in the city known as the Blacklist. At the start of the game you meet the number 15 guy on this list and race him for $10,000 and the pinkslips to your cars. This is all shown through a series of CG rendered car scenes and FMV sequences which are extremely stylized, and overly hammy, yet quite entertaining and very polished.... not to mention Josie Maran again, who is hot, and not afraid to flaunt it a bit when she walks.

 

Anyway, the game throws you into a very quick gameplay sequence where you're wiping the floor with this guy in the race, and then Mia (Josie) calls you to let you know that your car is leaking oil something fierce.... and then you break down, lose your car, get arrested, and then learn that rat bastard is using your super tricked out racing machine to make his way to #1 on the Blacklist. Son of a!

 

So that means you gotta work your way up the blacklist so you can cream this guy and get your rad car back. But you can't just race each guy on the Blacklist... no, that would be far to easy. You first have to earn from cred before theyll let you have a shot. That means winning races and getting the cops mad at you. Each stage requires you to win 4 or 5 races, complete a number of "milestones" which are set challenges in the pursuit mode (like hitting 5 different cop cars, or running 4 roadblocks etc) and hitting a certain amount of bounty, which is accumulated throughout your career, also through pursuit mode.

 

The races are their usually circuit, sprint and lag knockout races. New is the tollbooth races which is essentially checkpoint races all by yourself with tollbooth locations being the checkpoints, but since the tollbooths are pretty much on the larger highways and freeways, you can get some good speed going. Also is a speed trap race, where the goal isn't necessarily to cross the finish line first, but to have the fastest combined speed through different speedtraps set on the track. You'll lose points for not finishing first, but you can still easily win the race if you're fastest.

 

Gone are the stupid Kudos style races from Underground, but of course the rubber band AI is annoyingly apparent. It keeps things close and exciting, but it's so obvious it's not even funny.

 

So that brings us back to the police chases. These can be started in free roam mode, through the menu system, or the ones started in races can actually carry over after the race is over. The object of these chases though, is not just to shake the cops. It's to cause as much damage as possible, the break as many laws as possible, to complete goals, and in some cases to actually keep the chase going for as long as possible. The more damage you cause, and the more milestones you complete and infractions you accumulate, the more Bounty you'll receive. One chase I completed just under a minute and received under 1000 Bounty points, another lasted almost 10 minutes and I got almot 200,000.

 

Once you've done what you need to do, or you tire of running around causing damage, then you can try and shake the coppers. Which can be either really difficult, or really easy, depending on where you are in the town.

 

They're fun at first, but I really enjoy the racing more than just running around, so they've actually become a chore. I just really wish the affected the races more than they do.

 

What I like most about this game, and I've mentioned this before for other games, is just the little details. The polish in this game is incredible. Things like the little cutscenes before a race, the black and white swoosh mode it goes into when you're caught by a cop during a race (it goes black and whitish, and zooms in on the cop that spotted you with this cool swooshing sound), the entertaining but over the top intro, the way the signs and posts come flying back at you when a car ahead of you has run into one like something out of Twister, the fact that you can drive under the logging trucks and if you hit one the logs will fall off and roll all over the road, and of course it's sense of speed... especially on the boardwalk.

 

And that's just single player. I'm a little afraid to take it online because I'm afraid I'll be wholly disapointed in various ways, but I'm probably give it a shot tomorrow.

 

I really really want to see this on 360 now.

[iainl]

How is the handling? As I said all the way back in April, that's the one consistent thing I've had against the Underground series.

[Ryan FB]

I can only speak for the PC version, but the handling seems to be pretty good. Then again I haven't played the Underground games to compare either.

 

One major complaint is the absolutely idiotic "marker" system in the career mode. Basically when you beat a blacklist racer, you get two upgrade choices from about 6 options. The first 3 options are random, but one of them could be the racer's pink slip, meaning you can win their car. In practice what it means is you have to disable autosave and play a small version of roulette after beating each racer, then usually quit and come back in and do their races all over again if you want to win all their cars. Usually I'll wind up with an free impound or get out of jail free instead, which are pretty worthless to me.

 

As it stands I've been mostly doing the challenge mode instead, where I can plow through cops using awesome cars without as much hassle. Which brings up another thing - why are there no replays? When half the game is fucking things up as much as possible and flying into oncoming police SUV's and launching them to ridiculous heights, you'd really think they'd include a replay mode so you can watch all the crazy things you've pulled off over the course of a challenge or race.

[iainl]

Thanks Ryan - I'll try a demo, then.

[Eldorado]

I mentioned this in a PC racing thread, but the PC demo is already available.

 

Sean

[Chris The Rock]

This is my favorite part of this thread:

and a "next gen" system which will more than likely be the Xbox Next (no, I refuse to call it that extraordinarily stupid Xbox 360 name).

[Graeme]

I liked the handling. It's not GT4 or even PGR by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not supposed to be. I feel like I have complete control of my car, but it is possible for me to lose it.

 

One major complaint is the absolutely idiotic "marker" system in the career mode.

 

I've only not picked the Pink slip once so far. I just go for that as the other rewards are kinda useless. You've got 2 chances to pick from 3 different markers so the odds are pretty good.

 

Which brings up another thing - why are there no replays?

 

I agree. A replay mode would have been nice.

[Dan B.]

There's a free Xbox 360 demo for this now in the Xbox Live Marketplace. It's a huge 965 MB or something like that, and it took me about 45 minutes to download it.

 

It's a bit better than the PC or Xbox versions, based on their demos, with a better framerate & nicer graphics. I didn't quite like it enough to make me want to purchase it though.

[Dave C]

Thanks for the heads up Dan. I'm downloading now.

 

I think it would be a good idea if we had a "Cool New Item in the Live Marketplace" Thread.

[Anthony G]

Just curious, anybody else enjoying the hell out of this game? It's my first time playing the series and I love it. As I move up the blacklist, the cop chases are getting better and better. I have a hard time putting it down to play more of the other games in my inventory.

[Angel P]

and a "next gen" system which will more than likely be the Xbox Next (no, I refuse to call it that extraordinarily stupid Xbox 360 name :eh ).

How's this working for you Romier?

[Ricky G]

Just curious, anybody else enjoying the hell out of this game?

 

Yes, me. I was given this game as a gift, and was surprised at how much fun it can be. I'm up to #6 on the blacklist, and the milestones and bounty chases are getting challenging.

 

Since I have had this game in my possession, it has easily been my most played game.

[Romier S]

How's this working for you Romier?

I've acclimated to it. Moreso because the system is out and I'm just used to hearing it now. I still find the name to be somewhat goofy, and it exists because Microsoft can't afford to let the Playstation have a higher number behind it. Still, 360 is what it is so I'll just have to eat crow on that one.

[Anthony G]

I've acclimated to it. Moreso because the system is out and I'm just used to hearing it now. I still find the name to be somewhat goofy, and it exists because Microsoft can't afford to let the Playstation have a higher number behind it. Still, 360 is what it is so I'll just have to eat crow on that one.

 

So what will be next? Xbox 720, 1080?

[Buck]

Just curious, anybody else enjoying the hell out of this game? It's my first time playing the series and I love it. As I move up the blacklist, the cop chases are getting better and better. I have a hard time putting it down to play more of the other games in my inventory.

 

I'm enjoying it quite a bit myself. Granted I'm only on number 11 (I think) of the blacklist, but so far it's a lot better than I thought it would be. I enjoyed the demo quite a bit, but the full version is definitely a surprise. It's not perfect mind you, but the good is far outweighing the bad at this point.

 

Is it just me or are the opening cut-scenes supposed to be extremely funny I just wish there were more of them as I haven't seen one in quite sometime

[Anthony G]

I'm enjoying it quite a bit myself. Granted I'm only on number 11 (I think) of the blacklist' date=' but so far it's a lot better than I thought it would be. I enjoyed the demo quite a bit, but the full version is definitely a surprise. It's not perfect mind you, but the good is far outweighing the bad at this point.

 

Is it just me or are the opening cut-scenes supposed to be extremely funny I just wish there were more of them as I haven't seen one in quite sometime [/quote']

 

More Mia would be nice.

[Graeme]

I had it rented for a couple weeks and played the hell out of it. I've been humming and hawing about buying it, just cause it's still a full priced game. I'll get it eventually... maybe for 360 if I get a system.

 

But the time I had with it, I loved it. It did get me to go back and play NFSU 2 which I had on PC but only played for about 10 minutes. Despite the simularity, Most Wanted is quite a bit more fun than the Underground games. Again, as I said before in this thread, just the details make it pop, and the city in MW is much more fun to play in IMO.

 

Is it just me or are the opening cut-scenes supposed to be extremely funny I just wish there were more of them as I haven't seen one in quite sometime

 

Check out the Video Review of the game on Gamespot where they lovingly mock the cutscenes. One of their negative points was the lack of the cutscenes, and I agree, I wish there was more of them.... especially with the cops. They're a riot.

[davedbc]

I just finished the game (on the 360) as of tonight and I have to say the game is just damn fun from beginning to end. Overall after having played through the game I'd probably give it around the neighborhood of an 8.5. The game definately has it's "shout at the TV" moments - but when you finally complete an event or milestone you've been after, it makes that victory that much sweeter.

 

It's also a fairly strong statement that I think I had an equal amount of fun with this game as I did with Burnout Revenge - so if you've finished up Revenge, I highly recommend it.