Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9052 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2005-11-25
• Platform: Windows XP

Amazon.co.uk Preview
If there’s one thing to be said of the Need for Speed series, it’s that it never stays the same for long. After only one sequel EA have decided to give the underground night racing theme a rest and let you drive in the sunlight for a change. You’re still a super-illegal street racer though and indeed much of the game revolves around you being pursued by the police in some very Blues Brothers-esque chases.

Appearing to take a leaf out of Burnout’s book, the game encourages you to make the most of traffic and roadside objects, in order to put off the long arm of the law or simply one of your fellow racers. The demo race so far seen features a lot of weaving in and out of traffic and some very cinematic touches such as zipping underneath a giant lorry carrying tree logs, which then spill out on the road behind you further aiding your escape.

The graphics in the game have definitely received a boost from the last one and appear far more detailed and ambitious in scope than Underground. Unsurprisingly the ability to customise your car is still a large part of the appeal, although again there’s a big distinction between extras that are just for show and performance tuning that actually has an effect on the way your car performs.

It probably still won’t please hardened petrolheads but if you just want a simple, accessible racing game it looks like Need for Speed is set to deliver once more. --Harrison Dent

This preview is based on an incomplete version of the game; features or problems mentioned above may not appear in the finished game.

Manufacturer's Description
Wake up to the smell of burnt asphalt as the thrill of illicit street racing permeates the air. From the makers of the hit Need for Speed Underground series, Need for Speed Most Wanted challenges players to become the most notorious and elusive street racer.

Combining illicit street racing and tuner customization with the intensity of strategic police pursuit that surpasses any Hollywood-style chase scene, Need for Speed Most Wanted will be on every gamer's 'must-have' list this holiday season. Out-race rivals, evade cops and exploit hundreds of miles of open road as gamers make their way up the Blacklist.

To become the most wanted racer, players must build up their street cred and Rap Sheet with gripping, white knuckle, head-to-head races with the top drivers on the streets, as well as pull daring, evasive moves to out-run and out-fox the cops that patrol the open road. Players can manage their heat or utilize a number of strategic tactics to keep the cops off their tails as they leave their rivals behind to suck their exhaust fumes.

Need for Speed Most Wanted also features a variety of the hottest cars that range from tuners to super cars. You can customize your ride to race against any class of vehicles. The streets will be your playground this Fall.

Key features

Customer Reviews

The best NFS game ever
This is a truly astounding achievement by EA, on this version of Need For Speed. The hot exotic cars are back, coupled with a few favourite tuner cars from the previous Underground series. The graphics are amazing, considering I have a high-spec PC myself I was able to tune the graphics all the way to max, and still manage a solid 60 FPS, well enough to make any console tremble in their CD drive. The game sees you as an outsider, who's just made their way into the city, and you find yourself being squared off against the leader of the Blacklist, Razor. The story spans off from there. It is not the most enthralling story in the world, but the cutscenes are fantastic. At first glance you may think these are poorly acted scenes, but you get a feeling that they've done it so on purpose. The handling of the cars are becoming less and less arcadey, which is a good thing, if it wants to take on PGR 3. The pursuits make a wholehearted return, and they are hard. The AI are now brilliantly clever, you sometimes wonder how they know your location over the Police chatter than you can hear (Awesome, by the way). The sense of speed is becoming closer to something of Burnout, and the sound overall is excellent. If there are any flaws stopping it getting 5 stars, it would be that the game is a bit too unforgiving, especially once you get into the further parts of the game. This should be the most wanted game for Christmas.

(almost ) a complete let down
I'd been waiting for this game, hoping it would be better ( or at least as good ) as NFSU2. Sadly it's a bit of a let down.

First the good points :
- The cop chases are pretty exiting, and adds a decent twist to an otherwise annoying / mundane race game.
- Jump straight to races, no need to drive from one end of the map to the next race and then back again for the race after that.

The bad points :
- Always catch up - why ??!! You can drive almost perfectly and still lose a race. I've been 15+ seconds in front of the other cars, not made a mistake and been caught in about 5 seconds.
- Modding options are pretty poor. NFSU2 had plenty of options to get your ride just right. They've been taken out in favour of a hand full of slide bars which appear to do very little to the car dynamics.
- Car stats : the speed, acceleration & handling of the different cars you can buy are way off from real life. In the game the cars lack the different personalities they had in NFSU2.
- Where is the Skyline and 350Z ? I don't know of many street racers who use Italian supercars.

EA have really missed the point with this game. It could've been great - NFSU2 + cops would've done it for me. This just appears to be a bodge job to cash in on the success of NFSU2.

It only just scrapped 2* - the cop pursuits were enough to save it from total embarrassment.

Great racing game
Having not played any Need for Speed games before I wasn't sure how this one would fair, but I'm not disapointed so far. I've not got that far yet but so far so good.

The basic plot is you have to get more famous amoungst other street racers to move up the "blacklist" untill you race the #1 who stole your car from you at the very beginning. To do this you take on each of the 15 racers on the list, defeating them by completing races, challenges (escaping police, causing damage while chased) etc. You get money for winning these with which you can upgrade you car(s) buy engine, transmission, NO2, tires, body work, etc etc, and therefor improve your car. You get the idea.

The graphics are pretty good. Although it is annoying that widescreen isn't supported out of the box - so be warned you'll have to tinker (go to www.widescreengamingforum.com for help).

The gameplay/driving is pretty good - noticable difference between cars. Although is abit annoying at times if you crash into a wall - can be hard to get off. Plus you dont really damage you car - just cosmetic. Maybe it'll get damaged nearer end of game?
There are several different race modes - laps, speedcamera - average speed through cameras over race, dragrace - hard at first - manual gears!, check point - like in arcades....etc

All in all a pretty good racing game. Although I still think GTA is better gameover all as has good racing/driving (bigger maps) as well as lots of other things, depends what you fancy.

Overall - good racing game. Well worth the £10!