Need for Speed: Most Wanted

[ratsoalbion]

Watching the Quick Look on Giant Bomb put me off quite a bit. Doesn't look like the Hot Pursuit + Burnout mashup I had hoped for.

Same here. I made a late decision to not buy MW as I figured I still had a ton of stuff to do in Paradise and (my favourite Criterion game) Hot Pursuit. My trade-in credit went on Sleeping Dogs & Darksiders II instead and I'm happy with that. I might rent Most Wanted at some point.

[Xantiriad]

The cops really don't add much but grief. It's easier just to let yourself get busted as soon as the race is over. Pointless.

They had a lot more fun with the car designs in Paradise. I'm not convinced having licensed vehicles in this type of game is a benefit.

[delb2k]

This definitely takes some getting used to. It took me around 2 hours to get the handling down to the point that it has clicked and enjoyable and now that it has the driving feeling is a lot more fun than it was before.

The actual races can be pure funfair moments, taking in big jumps and bounces alongside the more traditional routes, which is a nice juxtaposition from horizon. The environment is a little too moody for me as well, darker and more muted
than paradise or hot pursuit but i guess criterion want to change things up a little and not just repeat exactly what they did before.

Entirely agree with Xan about the cops, in the races they create a new dynamic but in free drive it is far more of a pain than required.

[Xantiriad]

Agreed. Why are all the roads so shiny and wet? I've also had slideshow framerates when there is lots of spray during races. (PS3 version)

[dezm0nd]

Haha the roads are constantly wet but it rarely rains Reached Most Waned #1 today and whilst its not as fun as Burnout Paradise in single player, I still really enjoyed it.

The cops in free roam mode are a pan in the arose and the AI cheats (teleporting across map, rubber banding) but it still feels really good to skulk around an open world in a car looking for new cars and other collectibles.

Going to resub to Gold for a month so if you see me knlne, jump in. Loving the auto log features, too!

[NokkonWud]

From what you said there Darren, it sounds like what you really want is Forza Horizon. Less banding/no teleporting, no police in free roam and you can drive around the open world looking for cars and collectibles.

Hoping to get some game time on Most Wanted over the weekend.

[dezm0nd]

Played some MP last night and this morning before work. Its an improved Burnout Paradise in terms if chellebges etc. Really enjoying it, feels like a completely different.game, really

[catbhoy]

The more I play this the more I like it, the MP is great with friends but a little manic with randoms. I was looking for a similar game to Burnout Paradise and this comes close, although I believe some NFS fans are disappointed.

Love the lack of garages and swapping cars instantly, altering car mods is also very quick, for a arcade racer it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

[dezm0nd]

They can't be more dissapointed by this than The Run, surely?

[Xantiriad]

Tried really hard this evening to enjoy this game but I really don't.

This has to go down as my biggest disappointment of the year.

Overly flashy, overly aggressive, and unsatisfying. It has all the charisma of a verruca.

'Quid Pro Quo' as Halo 4 was a lot better than I was expecting.


[Warning: Posted from mobile device. Expect fat-finger auto-corrects & typos]

[delb2k]

Happily I have come round on this game, mainly due to picking up the vita version as my on the go racer and really come round to how the single player works. I have yet to try thye MP but that will happen sometime this week.

It can definately be an adrenaline rush when racing, and so far not really that difficult either. I think it will all be done pretty quickly but then that is fine considering I have spent just under 24 hours on Horizon so far!

[TomFum]

To be honest i had high hopes for this, but its terrible. Its burnout paradise with licensed cars and cops. Burnout was good but short lived but they went to over board with this game.

The police are a pain as well. I haven't managed to outrun them yet. i end up just pulling over and letting them arrest me, to which i can see no consequence.

Sorry but this game is proper dull.

Looks nice though.

[AndyKurosaki]

I'm selling this at CEX tomorrow to be honest. I've barely played it, hardly anyone on my list is bothering with it online. And now I've bought Sarah a Furby for Xmas I could use the money.

[Xantiriad]

@Tom ditto.

[countstex]

They still make Furbys??

I'm still enjoying the game, outrunning the cops is all about using the jumps to switch about. There's a clever balance to be done of getting the chase to last as long as possible without being busted as the longer it goes on the more SP you earn, but of course the more advanced gear they throw at you.

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah they're a big Xmas toy this year again, so I grabbed one before they start selling for twice the price, which they already are on Amazon.

Don't know why, but I didn't really connect with this game much, and with others on my backlist, it was going to struggle to get attention.

[dezm0nd]

Been enjoying roaming around the city and collecting bits and bobs but to be honest, once the Wii U hits i'll be trading it in for a Wii U game or something. Pretty good but no way near the standards of prior Criterion efforts.

[registradus]

Is anyone playing this on PC??? I went the PC option over 360 (was half the price) but I have zero friends on "Origin".

I was really looking forward to this game (loved Burnout and NFS: Hot Pursuit), but so far it hasn't lived up to either.

The city is like Burnout Paradise, but less interesting. The cops are like Hot Pursuit, but more invasive.

I hate having to drive across town for a mission. and I thought the cops would leave me alone after I finished a race (like GTA) but they don't. and every car I clip = a crash.

[NokkonWud]

Started it last night and, for the most part, I enjoy it, but I have real issues with the police in it. Either make it a pursuit game or a racing game, if you're doing both then it never feels right. They've been all over Autolog for this, all for times, yet those become completely irrelevant the second you add police into the equation, what's even worse is that after the race you still have the tiresome pursuit to escape from. Going to this after playing Forza Horizon is tough, they had the right idea by doing away with pursuits completely. Rarely are they ever done right in racing games.
That said, from what I've drive, I really like the environment, it looks great and, whilst there are frame issues (it clearly has one big dump for a fraction of a second and goes back to normal every few minutes), they're relatively minor and not as consistently ongoing as I was led to believe.

[countstex]

I've swapped to the 360 version from PS3 following EA screwing up my autolog connection. The game felt smoother on PS3, but it's not massively different. For some reason though the voice over girl and the cop chatter are really really quiet on my 360. Not sure if that's a setting or not. Also noticed it seems to be pumping out only Stereo channels??
As I posted on the CR article on the game, I don't find the cops much of an annoyance. If you can't be arsed with escaping after the race just stop and get busted and clean the slate. Personally I prefer to get away and grab some extra speed points each time also I often do my biggest bill board jumps whilst being chased anyway! lol