[E3 2012] Need For Speed: Most Wanted

[Psykoboy2]

Between this and Hawken, I don’t think I’ve ever had an article that was easier to write. By now, most of you should know my bias towards Criterion. If not, let me fill in the gaps. I love them. I’ve been playing Burnout since “Point Of Impact” on the original Xbox. I own Burnout Paradise on the 360, PS3, and the PC. Hell, I was even invited out to their studios for a community day for Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. That was a dream come true for me as I’d never thought I’d ever get to do something like that, but it happened. And while I was there, wouldn’t you know it, I had the entire team sign my copy of Burnout Paradise. I was elated to be there among the makers of a game I loved so dearly.

Then I played more of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. It wasn’t a bad game. By Need For Speed standards, it was golden. A jumpstart for the franchise to put it back on the map for gamers instead of being just another year with just another NFS. But it wasn’t Burnout. It was showing some signs of Burnout with a few great crashes and the speed was as intense as ever, but it wasn’t Burnout. I had to accept that. I didn’t want to, obviously. I wanted more Burnout, I wanted more wrecks, more arcade racing, more jumps and billboards and takedowns. But it just wasn’t there.

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Just before E3 we get word that EA will be showing off a new entry in the Need For Speed series. It would be another Criterion developed game going back into the past of NFS and rebooting it again with Most Wanted. Well here we go again, I thought to myself. Another year without the announcement of a Burnout game. I wasn’t giving up, however. I could wait and see what they had to show and make my judgment then, but I wasn’t holding out too much hope.

If I wasn’t going to get Burnout Paradise 2, I was going to get the next best thing in Need For Speed: Most Wanted. I imagine they wouldn’t like me calling the game Paradise 2, but it’s the best way to describe that to someone who hasn’t played the game. Everything you know is there (even “picture paradise” returns). Wrecks aren’t as spectacular as they are in Burnout Paradise, but I think that’s something that only Burnout can really get away with since the cars used in that game aren’t licensed, but the wrecks we get in NFS:MW are so much better than what we got in Hot Pursuit. Takedown’s are back during races and you’re awarded boost for doing all the crazy driving just as before. Hell, even the roads aren’t blocked off during race events. Just as in Paradise, there’s a start and an end, how you get there is up to you. Hmm...I suddenly feel a great disturbance...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror. Don’t worry, it isn’t as bad as you might be thinking. I never once had a problem with it during my time with the game on the show floor. You’re helped out by a map in the corner of the screen giving you a bit of direction on where to go, plus, there’s really big checkpoint signs in the air that help to aid you on your race to the finish. Seriously, just calm down...it’s not that bad. I promise.

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Need For Speed: Most Wanted is an open world racing game, just as Paradise was. You’ll stop at certain points on the map to trigger a race or fly by a speed camera to get the police on your tail. It’s all there and it’s all for you to have fun with. No more of these back roads that wind and twist and turn, this time the landscape is an urban one with massive jumps and breakable billboards, gates to smash through, challenges to unlock, hidden cars to find where you can switch to them on the fly, mods to upgrade your cars, and much more. Doing all of these things award you speed points and having the most speed points on your friend’s list will make you the most wanted. You’ll have a target on your back as big as the city you’re driving in.

It’s also all there for Autolog to keep track of. Everything you do in NFS:MW is tracked from jumps, speed, oncoming distance, the monetary amount of city damage you’ve done...it’s all tracked and recorded and tallied using Autolog. This is done in the same way it was used in the previous NFS game and, in some ways, how it was used in Burnout Paradise (even though it wasn’t called Autolog). It’s keeping track of all these stats so you can have competition any time you play the game. When you log in, you’ll know who’s got the top speed on what street or who’s made the biggest jump or whatever the case may be - it’s all there for you to either defend your title or claim it back.

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I spent quite a bit of time with the game on the show floor. Multiplayer challenges, be they races, jump distance, speed traps, etc. all start with a “meet up” location. Once everyone gathers there, the event will begin. It won’t set you on a grid or wait for you to ready-up. The clock will simply countdown from three and the event starts. I believe they had about 16 kiosks set up for play. The inner 8 were there for competition while the outer 8 had single player racing going on. It was a bit hard to tell since I was just too excited getting to play a new game from Criterion, and one that seemed, to me, to be more Burnout than NFS. Still, there’s touches of NFS in the game. Licensed cars, for one thing, are a sure sign you aren’t playing Burnout, which is fine. Don’t have a single problem with that since companies now seem to be okay with you doing an immense amount of damage to their vehicles. The second touch of NFS is the handling. It seems tweaked a bit from Hot Pursuit, but it isn’t the full arcade feel of Burnout. Again, I’m not pointing this out as a critique of the game, I’m just trying to convey that for all of the “it’s Paradise 2” that I’m yelling, it still isn’t a Burnout game, so don’t get confused. The thing is, judging from the responses I was getting on twitter, a lot of people want more Burnout and to those people I say that right now, this is as close as you’re going to get, and it’s good enough for me. I had a huge blast playing it on the show floor and I’m looking forward to really getting into it when it hits the PC, 360, and PS3 on October 30th.

[Spigot]

Soo... is it like Burnout: Paradise at all? I couldn't quite get what you were hinting at in the write-up?

[muddi900]

I liked Burnout Paradise, Burnout 3 was so much better!

[Psykoboy2]

Burnout 3 Takedown was awesome. The crash mode, the takedowns...all of it was great and honestly, I loved it even more in Burnout Revenge, especially the traffic checking where you could hit traffic from behind and launch that shit. While I loved what Paradise did (opening up the world, multiplayer, jumps, stunts, etc.), I missed the traffic checking and of course, the crash mode. Ooooo...also missed the ability to explode your car after a takedown using aftertouch.

[CES]

You can still traffic check in Paradise, you just need one of the heavy cars to do it which is fine since the Hunter Reliable is a beast.

[Gorvi]

I'm really interested to see what the Vita version is like, this would be great portable.

[Vandabo]

I should load up Paradise again. Thems was some good times there.

I'm sure I'll be trying this out as well.

[Psykoboy2]

They got their Need For Speed in my Burnout:

[Psykoboy2]

Boner