Need For Speed Most Wanted - Preview (Xbox 360)

Know your roots. That seems to be the mantra for EA’s upcoming next-gen racer, Need for Speed Most Wanted as it feels much more like older titles in the series, such as Hot Pursuit; a slightly different animal than the Underground games of the past two years. That’s not a bad thing, especially because the number of import tuner racing games on the market has reached almost sickening levels, so it’s time for a change. After all, change is good.

The Xbox 360 demo of Need for Speed Most Wanted was available for press and consumers to play through on the TGS show floor which showcased a few new modes and gave a better overall understanding of how things will feel in the launch title.

Aside from the career mode and the other race types that you’d expect (drag, sprint, etc.), the TGS demo focused on the Circuit mode and a few different races that are found in the new Challenge Series. Think of the Challenge Series as cop pursuit chases, but each with varying objectives. For example, one challenge may specify that you need to avoid the fuzz for 1 minute, while another sill designate that you need to take a certain number of cop cars during the pursuit. Being that the environments are fully destructible, there is even a challenge that in which you’ll need to wreak as much havoc as possible, tallying up the “Cost to State” of busting through gas stations, wrecking into other cars, and so on. Circuit mode is exactly that; a series of traditional lap-style races against a number of competitors. Finish first or go home.

The controls of Most Wanted are very similar to that of the Underground series, with the left stick obviously used to steer, and the right and left triggers used for gas and brake/reverse respectively. The E-brake is mapped to the A button, while nitrous is on the B button. New to Most Wanted is the use of a Speedbreaker mode, which works very much like any other “breaker” in an EA game; it provides a limited advantage over the competition. In the case of the Speedbreaker, pressing the X button will put you into slow motion, allowing you to maneuver around obstacles, cops, or opponents with ease. The Speedbreaker meter drains while it is in use, but you can quickly exit out by pressing the X button once again. Performing fancy moves and completing objectives will help to refill the Speedbreaker meter. Rather than having to fumble around with the soon to be defunct White and Black buttons, the new Right and Left Bumper buttons are used to change views.

Even though Need for Speed Most Wanted plays like Hot Pursuit, the Underground tuner aspects are still very much a part of the game. EA has taken feedback regarding the modification system in Underground 2 and has streamlined things to make it easy-to-use and just as effective. There are still a host of mods available; everything from body kits to engine upgrades. The paint and vinyl selections have been expanded as well, something that was already pretty solid in the Underground series. The kits will be tailor-made for each car, so each gamer’s experience should be a bit different depending on the ride they choose to hit the streets with. At this point, we aren’t sure what the final total will be on the car roster, but we’ve been told to expect at least 30 or more.

I did find Need for Speed Most Wanted more to my liking than last year’s Underground 2, right off the bat. The action is what I want from a racing game: fast-paced and no holds barred. The AI is already a bitch on wheels, as the cops will go to great lengths to ram you off the road. There is a heat meter which shows the cop’s current awareness of your exploits, but I didn’t do too well in evading the fuzz. The chases seem like they can go on forever, and in what appears to be a massive world, that means there’s a lot of fun to be had.


The destructible environments add a little panache to the standard racing genre, making the game feel almost like a never-ending scene from Smokey and the Bandit.. For example, smashing through a donut shop will cause the giant donut sign to roll into oncoming traffic. Guess I’ll have to rip Jerry Reed’s East Bound and Down to my Xbox 360 hard drive to get the real experience.

On the graphic front, the game does have several next-gen specific goodies that will impress, such as real-time reflections and lighting, shadow casting, and totally pimped out rides - inside and out. The intricacies of the road (cracks, etc.) not only look realistic, but also affect handling performance which is something that isn’t possible with current-gen tech. Unlike Underground the setting in Most Wanted is all daytime, from sunrise to sunset, which changes in real-time on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Currently running in 720p at 30fps, Most Wanted holds its own with the other next-gen racers.

The Outlook

If you are just as tired of the night time, check your cell phone, tuner racing style of the Underground series as I am, then Need for Speed Most Wanted is right up your alley. We still have let to see much on the Career mode or the online play (yes, it is promised), so be on the lookout for updates real soon.

The controls have the arcade-like feel of previous NFS installments, but the Xbox 360 version will be superior to the current-gen version, not only with visuals, but with many more cops entering the fray. This means your on-road strategy will be altered big time, which equals more intensity. Need for Speed Most Wanted is slated as a day one launch title, so fans of the racing genre looking to get their fix early on will want to spec out EA’s latest.