14 DAY TRIAL // 
Story: Who really cares about the story? The cars are all we actually want to see. Give us Porsche, BMW, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Lexus and Renault. Well maybe not Renault? I feel like it's Christmas. All these beauties just for me. Unfortunately all the cops in the city want you. You're like their Christmas gift. The new hot-shot in town trying to beat the best and at the same time look cool and have a gorgeous car.
Gameplay: We are talking about an arcade game. An improved one, but still an arcade. Need for Speed stands for speed and not realism. If you want a life-like simulator, this is not for you. Need for Speed is at this moment the undisputed king of all arcade racing games.
The series has improved over the years, adding more and more features from simple racing on closed circuits to city speeding and winding up with car customization, underground racing syndicates and struggles for power.
There are several improvements to the gameplay from the last game, Need for Speed Underground 2. One brand new added feature is a slow-motion effect similar to bullet time, only it's for cars. If that sounds strange, and I had my doubts about its actual implementation, you have to know it's perfectly placed.
It works very easily. You push "THE BUTTON" and the world slows down entirely, the camera moves a little bit lower and closer to the car thus giving you the advantage of seeing further. Although everything moves slower you maintain certain maneuverability which will help you to avoid high speed collisions with objects or cars. You will absolutely love it!
Another entirely new feature which begged to be implemented was the destruction on some world objects like hotdog stands, small trees, gas stations, pillars who happen to be on your way and even some interactive trucks. I pinched one carrying wood logs. They scattered all over behind me destroying a lot of police cars and causing havoc.
You now have some pursuit break points. They are scripted locations like gas stations or high voltage towers. If you get followed by the police or you are in a race, you can go through these points and trigger some reactions like falling rooftops or huge pillars. It's a nice touch.
This edition of Need for Speed is much faster. The actual sensation of speed is well done, one of the main reasons that you will need the bullet-time effect. Some obstacles are impossible to pass without slowing down time.
The only two things that still bother me are the obvious scripting of incoming "friendly vehicles" that happen to pass through there just at the right time for you to smash into them. The second one is the small collisions with walls and other side objects. If you scratch an object, you tend to get stuck and your speed drops more than it should.
The last thing of the gameplay I would like to brag about is the obvious improvement of the AI. Now it's much more aggressive. They will slam into you and won't let you pass by them. Police cars will form moving road blocks in front of you and use any means necessary to stop you. The entire game seems harder on the medium settings in comparison with the last one.
Graphics: We all have seen the screenshots. Usually the games look worse that the publicity captures we are fed with. This game actually looks better than the screenshots. A still photo doesn't say much. The only way to describe this game it's "eye candy".
The producers have reduced the number of colors from the previous game so they could put a more serious note to it. It's no longer an MTV like game, with rap music and wheelers. It has a more definite serious atmosphere. The entire game is rapped up in a coat of alpha blending that will send your computer on its knees.
There are of course a lot of options for you to tweak and the game can even be run, or so they say, on a Geforce 2 graphic card, therefore Geforce 4 MX is supported. Still, if you want performance you will need at least a 6600 GT or X700 Pro. A powerful processor is recommended because it has a lot of real time lighting and a lot of shadows and they all require a lot of processing.
And now the bad part. The physics seem to be a step back from the last NFS, more similar to the first Underground. Even if it's not exactly the same, I was expecting a lot more, not a lot less. This is probably the most annoying part of the game. There isn't a real sensation. I didn't want realism, just a little more weight for the cars.
Audio: What can you say about the music in Most Wanted? All are terrific pieces from famous bands with more emphasis on rock than rap.
The cars sound ok, although I needed them to be more aggressive and to be more easily to differentiate just by the sound like in Underground 2.
We now have real actors, playing against a green screen (which is removed later in the game development process), which offers a lot more realism to and compels actors to live the scene, not just read a script in a studio. This is a major improvement.
General impression: I thought it was going to be hard to beat Underground 2, but EA has done it again. They have managed to add more to the original content and improve the game without destroying the whole franchise. I expect it to spawn a shopping spree and end up on everyone's computers, even those that don't like racing games. Ok, got to go, the cops are coming!
