Need for Speed Most Wanted - PlayStation 3

Criterion Unleashes A Tour De Force

2012-10-30T13:43:00Z

Forget that another studio already made a game called Need for Speed: Most Wanted this console generation. Police aside, this game isn’t about any one franchise in particular. It’s about developer Criterion’s ruthless pursuit of its racing vision. With spectacular Burnout-style crashes, the police from 2011’s Hot Pursuit, and the ease of getting new races via Autolog, Most Wanted is a well-sculpted, honed racing machine that delivers an exhilarating experience.

The open world of Fairhaven is a fertile ground for the Criterion racing concepts of accessibility, freedom, and motor mayhem. Freedom and structure delicately intersect in a loose career mode based around beating a list of 10 Most Wanted cars. Unlike most games out there, these races unfurl in a subtle way. Jump in a car and do whatever you want, and the game tracks it and suggests objectives via Autolog (including the feats of your online friends). You’re always free to hop to the next ride.

The career-building race events are actually tied to each car. You can race any of the 100-plus cars you find in the world, but to upgrade each one you have to complete an event that’s tied to a specific car upgrade. Once your car is stacked and you earn enough Speed Points (which you accrue by doing things like near misses, drifts, etc.), you can take out the next Most Wanted car. I enjoyed the freedom this setup provides, since there was more than one way to pursue the same goal.

Cars are simultaneously coveted and disposable. It’s great to find them in the world and pride yourself on beating/earning the high-prestige cars on the Most Wanted list, and yet tearing them up in high-speed wrecks and launching them off jumps (safe landing or not) brought a smile to my face. This dichotomy can lead to doubt, since you’re free to upgrade and use any car in the Most Wanted races, and not all upgrades are clearly advantageous in all situations. Sometimes it’s better to have higher top speed than acceleration, so you want to make sure you have the right car to compete. The ubiquity of cars also cuts down on their eminence and your drive to upgrade all of them.

The cops rear their heads appropriately throughout the game, and are neither too powerful or pushovers. My favorite use of them is when they show up during a scripted moment in an upgrade or Most Wanted race and you have to continue to evade them after the event is over as the action spills out into the open world. For reasons I can’t fathom, however, there are no police chases in multiplayer.

Regardless, Most Wanted has a hearty multiplayer spread, offering normal races and special challenges based around specific locations on the map (such as everyone getting a certain amount of air off a jump). Like other aspects of the game, the online mode blends freedom with structure. Cooperation and competition can be intertwined. For instance, you gain Speed Points for crashing other cars – even during a team race – and some races let you negate competitors’ scores by taking them out.

Sometimes while playing Most Wanted I was confused what to do next due to the sheer volume of opportunities. I was even frustrated at times when seemingly out of nowhere, a civilian car clogged up the last turn of a particularly high-tension race, causing me to eat metal instead of grabbing victory. But part of the beauty of this game is that there is no such thing as an unfair ending. Whether you’re dominating your opponents or barrel rolling your way through a race, you’re getting what you wanted – a game, that win or lose, goes all out getting there.

Check out our Test Chamber for the game

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Catch Up On Need For Speed In Single-Player Trailer

2012-09-21T17:33:04Z

Criterion's Need for Speed: Most Wanted is filled with improvements over past installments, such as the ability to access every car from the start, and fluid open-world gameplay that Burnout: Paradise City veterans will find familiar. EA's latest look at the game shows some of those features and more in action.

The video below shows off a tantalizing sample of cars, as well as glimpses of some of Fairhaven City's varied locations. The Most Wanted tag isn't just there out of tradition, either. There are 10 most-wanted drivers out there, and you can take them out one by one -- provided you're skilled enough.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

The game is racing to shelves October 30 for the Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3, iOS, Vita, and Android.

Click here to get a better look at the game's updated Autolog system.

NFS Most Wanted's New Autolog In Action

2012-08-14T16:08:00Z

Criterion Games' Burnout Paradise eliminated the distinction between single- and multiplayer, and the studio's upcoming title Need for Speed Most Wanted does the same. Check out the game's latest multiplayer trailer.

As players race through the world, they will see their friends' accomplishments pop up in real-time. Pass by a speed camera that your friend has posted a top score on, and it will list that speed as you race by. You can even see billboards your friends have found because they'll have their ugly mugs on them.

Today at Gamescom, the development team also mentioned that almost all the cars in the game will be unlocked from the get-go, and that rides will become more powerful via upgrades.

Finally, via a feature called CloudCompete you can earn points in the console versions of the game and transfer them onto your iOS and Vita, and vice versa.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Need for Speed Most Wanted comes out for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Vita, iOS, and Android on October 30.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Trailer Shows Off New Vehicles

2012-08-02T18:32:00Z

Need for Speed: Most Wanted has been turning heads since E3, and a new trailer reveals a few more of the games' hot rides. Entitled "Built to be Driven," the clip shows us our first look at the Corvette ZR1, Hummer H1 Alpha, and Koenigsegg Agera R. I'll be honest: I had no idea what that last one was until this trailer. Also, gas prices being what they are, this is the last place you'll be able to afford to drive a Hummer!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Need For Speed Most Wanted Gameplay Video

2012-07-30T23:12:05Z

Developer Criterion Games released a new gameplay walkthrough of Need for Speed Most Wanted. The video gives you a sense of the size of Fairhaven City and a look at some spectacular car crashes.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Hands-On With Need For Speed Most Wanted

2012-06-06T23:10:00Z

Update: Trailer added. Criterion is back with Need for Speed Most Wanted, and the game's open world structure contains endless ways for you to find your fun.

I instantly noticed a number of similarities to Criterion's Burnout Paradise in Most Wanted. It's an open world where races, cops, and numerous objectives are all there to discover just by driving around. You're never at a loss for something to do. Go find new roads, smash through billboards, race through speed camera zones, and of course, escape the police.

All these activities are tabulated (including a variety of metrics such as your longest jump, drift, high speed, etc.) and instantly comparable among your friends via the game's Autolog feature. If you view the game's map, you can see your friends' accomplishments pop up where they executed them, as well as a feed of challenges, and more.

I jumped into a multiplayer demo of the game (it supports up to 12 players), and you can set up your own playlists of race events for you and your friends, or they can be generated for you automatically. Once the racing starts, everyone is dumped into the world and must race to a meeting point where the events will begin. This structure is repeated every time you end an event and transition to the next one. It's a very cool way to let you play multiplayer without having to be dumped back into a boring menu lobby at the conclusion of a race. It also gives you a few minutes to tool around and just explore.

After racing to the spawned meeting point, we went through a normal race, a challenge to see who could get the most air over a freeway, a speed test (where you try to go the fastest along a particular road), and a team race.

After each event rewards popped up onscreen instead of a loading menu (like the supercharge upgrade, a new license plate, or car), we met up at a new meeting point, and then we were off again. It was a very fun and fluid way to hang out with friends and race. Unfortunately there are no cops in the game's multiplayer mode.

Of course, Most Wanted feels like a Criterion game when you're behind the wheel. The racing is fast, the damage is spectacular, and the car's handle well without being neither overly twitchy nor too arcadey.

I also played a short single-player portion that blended different racing events with spontaneous cop chases. To aid your escape from the law, you can find jackspots (hidden areas that contain supercars you can get into) and pass through gas stations that change your car's paint scheme on the fly.

Addressing an issue some gamers had with Burnout Paradise, Criterion says that it's still deciding if it wants racers to be able to teleport to races on the map or require them to driver there in the world.

Criterion is a developer that has a storied racing pedigree, and Most Wanted seems to be a nice marriage between some of things its done in the past with Burnout Paradise with one of EA's most beloved racing franchises.

Need for Speed Most Wanted comes out for PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Vita on October 30.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Need for Speed Most Wanted - PlayStation 3

Criterion Unleashes A﻿ Tour De Force

Catch Up On Need For Speed In Single-Player Trailer

NFS Most Wanted's New Autolog In Action

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Trailer Shows Off New Vehicles

Need For Speed Most Wanted Gameplay Video

Hands-On With Need For Speed Most Wanted

Criterion Unleashes A Tour De Force