Need for Speed: Most Wanted . www.covermix.com

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (NFS:MW) is a multiplatform racing video game, developed by EA Black Box and first released by Electronic Arts for the United States on 15 November 2005. It is part of the Need for Speed series of games. The game reintroduces police chases into a large body of the game's street racing-oriented gameplay, with certain (but not all) customization options from the Need for Speed: Underground series. It is possible that this game's plot is somehow linked to Need For Speed: Underground 2 due to the fact that the word "Bayview" was mentioned in the game, and that Rog mentions the player has come from "the underground" when he races him at the beginning of the game. The game is also succeded by Need for Speed: Carbon, which serves as a sequel to Most Wanted.

Most Wanted has been released for Windows-based personal computers, the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360 (as a launch title), Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and mobile phones. Another version of Most Wanted, titled Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0 has been released for the PlayStation Portable.

'Black Edition', a collector's edition of Most Wanted, was released in celebration of the Need for Speed series' tenth anniversary and in conjunction with the release of Most Wanted. The Black Edition features additional races, bonus cars and other additional content. The Black Edition also comes with a special feature DVD that contains interviews and videos about the game. The Black Edition was released for both the PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox in the United States and Australia; only the PlayStation 2 version of Black Edition was released additionally for Europe.

Plot

The player arrives at Rockport City, fresh out of the underground racing world, with a heavily-tuned BMW M3 GTR. Following Mia Townsend (played by Josie Maran), the player proves his driving prowess as he is pursued by a veteran police officer named Cross, who vows to take down the player.

Races seems to be in the player's favor until a particular group of racers, led by the game's antagonist Christian "Razor" Callahan, sabotage the player's car and seize the coveted BMW. Without a car to escape in, the player is arrested by Cross, but is later released due to lack of evidence. Mia picks up the player and then informs the player about Razor's new status on the Blacklist (a group of drivers most wanted by the Rockport Police Department). She then helps the player by assisting the player in acquiring a new car and working his way up the aforementioned Blacklist. Rivals are defeated one by one, warranting a sizable reputation and comparable rides with every Blacklist member taken down. She also sets up safehouses for the player to lie low in throughout Rockport as new boroughs are accessed, in exchange for placement of "side bets" on the player's races.

The final challenge for the #1 spot on the Blacklist pits the player in a race against Razor, with the player emerging as the victor, thus reclaiming the BMW. When Razor refuses to relinquish ownership of the car and attacks Mia, who took the keys from him, she subdues him and in doing so she is revealed to be an undercover police officer. Mia throws the keys to the player, and orders him to escape the incoming police force. Razor is taken into custody and the player is pursued by the entire Rockport Police Department under the command of Cross. The player manages to slip away from Cross and abandons Rockport City by launching the BMW over an old incomplete bridge that Mia points out to the player in a last phone call.

After the player's escape, Cross brings up the player's rap sheet and adds him to the National Most Wanted List. In addition to Razor, the entire Blacklist is arrested with the "help" of the player.

Need for Speed: Carbon's storyline acts as a sequel, set just after Most Wanted.

Cut scenes

The cut scenes in the game are presented in a significantly different style from the Underground series, with CGI effects (encompassing car exteriors and environments) mixed with live action. This presentation of cut scenes is used again in Carbon.

Gameplay

Most Wanted, like other Need for Speed games, is essentially a driving and racing game, where the player selects one car to reach a destination or race. Police chases have once again been integrated into certain racing sessions, in which the police employ vehicles and tactics to either slow down or halt the player's car. As players take control of faster cars and increasingly rely on nitrous oxide speed boosts (the oxide meter now reloads automatically, for the first time since its introduction in Underground), driving sequences become fast-pace and intense, similar to the Burnout series.

Three distinct regions are offered in the city of Rockport, along with cycling weather. There is no racing in the night, all the action is done between sunrise and sunset. A Grand Theft Auto-like free roam mode is still provided like Need for Speed: Underground 2, but is still limited to Career mode, as well as pursuit-based events in other modes. Most Wanted continues to avoid the use of major vehicle damages on all racing models, as it has been with the Underground series, with only scratched paint and heavily cracked (but not shattered) windscreens comprising the whole of the racers' damage modeling. Police cars, however, are subjectable to extreme physical body damages, and immobilization if they flip over or have been heavily damaged by "pursuit breakers" (see pursuit system) or the player's car.

Modes

The game provides players with a selection of game modes, which include a combination of races and police chases. In Career mode, achieving goals by winning races and performing a number of actions, dubbed "Milestones", during police pursuits, as well as a minimum Bounty (see Pursuit system for details on Milestones and Bounties) are needed to advance in the storyline and race against any of the mode's 15 Blacklist racers. In the Xbox 360 version, the player is awarded with Achievement Points each time a Blacklist opponent is defeated. Career mode introduces a new feature - the ability to win a Blacklist opponent's car ("pink slip"), bonus functions (e.g. the ability to "Get Out of Jail Free"), extra cash or car parts and decors ("backroom parts"), after defeating the opponent in question. These come in the form of six markers - the rival's pink slip (which is concealed as a bonus marker), two bonus function markers, and three custom backroom parts markers of which there is a body part, visual upgrade, and performance marker (called a "Junkman Marker") that the player can select - of which the player can choose only two. New cars and parts are also unlocked as the player progresses through Career mode by beating Blacklist racers.

In addition to the Quick Race and Career modes, there is also a "Challenge" mode comprised of 68 progressively difficult challenges (69 in the Black Edition) where players are required to successfully complete Tollbooth races and pursuit challenges, such as tagging a number of police cars. The pre-tuned cars used in each Challenge is fixed, ranging from mostly Career cars with poor handling to traffic vehicles such as a cement truck or police cars. Additional bonus cars may be unlocked as the player progresses through Challenge mode.

In terms of actual variations of races, Most Wanted inherits several racing modes prevalent in its Underground predecessors. The game's four existing modes: Circuit races, point-to-point Sprint races, Lap Knockout races and Drag races, remain largely unchanged since the first iteration of Underground, while Drifting, Street X, Underground Racing League tournaments and Outrun racing are foregone. Meanwhile, Most Wanted see the introduction of two new racing variations, which places emphasis on speed. The first mode is known as "Tollbooth," where a player races alone to designated checkpoints (toll booths) along a point-to-point route before time runs out (similar to Time Attack modes in arcade-style racing games); the more time a player has as they reach a toll booth, the more time they have to arrive at the next one. The second mode, dubbed "Speedtrap," sees racers competing with each other to get the highest accumulated speed record at multiple traffic cameras. At a speed trap/traffic camera, players accelerate their car to aim for the highest possible speed. Accumulated speed is reduced over a period of time after an opponent crosses the finish line first.

Pursuit system

The player's car (identified from a dial at the left as having achieved a fourth "Heat" level) is in pursuit by several undercover state police cars and a police helicopter in Free Roam mode. This screenshot also depicts the use of simulated (not actual) HDRR on the sunny sky and surface lighting.

Most Wanted features police pursuits in the game for the first time since Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. In Career mode, police pursuits may occur during a race or during free roaming through the city, depending on the frequency of the police units in the area and the offenses players have committed. The player can initiate a pursuit immediately from the game's Safe House or menu by choosing an unfinished Milestone or a Bounty challenge. Pursuits can also be initiated by selecting an appropriate Challenge in Challenge mode. Traffic offenses committed by the player are known in game as Infractions.

The police pursuit system is significantly more complex than its previous Hot Pursuit incarnations. The manner in which the police handle a player is now determined by the "heat level" of the player's current car (although this has been similarly utilized in Hot Pursuit 2). Heat levels, which increase with the length of a police pursuit and the amount of damage caused by the player during the pursuit, add a twist to the pursuit. The higher the car's heat level, the more likely the player will be pursued by state or even federal authorities, and the more aggressive the police units are against the player, employing additional tactics and tools, such as roadblocks, spike strips, police helicopters and heavier and faster police cars. Over twenty police cars may be observed pursuing a single car under higher Heat levels. There are five heat levels in the game (with a hidden sixth and seventh heat level at the end of Career mode and in the Black Edition respectively), three authoritative levels (Civic/Local, State, and Federal), and ten police vehicles.

Players will have to be careful in pursuits as attention-grabbing driving may prompt Cross to join the pursuit in a Chevrolet Corvette C6(.R) with customized paintwork.

In Career mode, pursuits are integrated into the game in such a way that it is necessary to challenge Blacklist racers. Completing "Milestones," which involves committing at least a specified amount of traffic offenses or pursuit lengths during a chase, and collecting an amount of "Bounty", a form of credit accumulated as players continue to evade the police or damage police units, are requirements. A car's Heat level may be reduced by changing the physical appearance of a car by changing body parts or paint color, or using another purchased car to race in the streets. Rap Sheets, with records such as the player's infractions, cost to state, deployed tactics and pursuit lengths, are also available for viewing by "hacking" into police records, and also includes the player's standing in each individual record against those of other Blacklist racers.

Players are provided with several additional features which are useful during pursuits. The Speedbreaker, provided within the driving interface, slows down time (similar to bullet time), momentarily adds weight to the player's car allowing it to become more difficult for other vehicles (especially police vehicles) to push around, and induces a drift. This allows the player a limited amount of time to quickly maneuver the car out of difficult situations, or assess an escape route through a road block or spike strip blockade. Another feature in Most Wanted are Pursuit Breakers, road-side objects which are designed to collapse when a player uses their car to knock down its support, either damaging or disabling following police cars (which can be visually seen in many cases). In one example, if a player smashes through a gas station, the roof of the station falls crushing unlucky police units following them. In addition, players are also required to ensure that they are not spotted again by the police shortly after evading all police units; a "Cooldown" period is required to be met before police units give up and cancel a perimeter search of the player's car. Cooldown spots, hiding spots where players may park in, are also scattered around the city in places like underground carparks, helping to shorten the Cooldown period and end pursuits quickly. However, certain hiding spots may still be exposed and may be discovered by searching police units.

While the game features police cars, including those in the form of Pontiac GTOs and Chevrolet Corvette C6s, Most Wanted does not allow players to play as a pursuing police in chases. However, players may drive several police cars in Challenge mode, but are solely used in checkpoint races and police pursuits, where the police are still pursuing the player.

^ Sergeant Cross's Chevrolet Corvette C6.R The car used when he appears in an in-game pursuit has the same body model as other Corvette police cars but sports the unique paint work of his car in cut scenes. This is more likely to be a technical limitation of the game.
^ ^ In addition to applications in police pursuits, both the Speedbreaker and Pursuit Breakers are also available for use in standard races, including Drag races.

Car customization

As in the preceding Underground installments, the performance and physical appearance of the player's car could be extensively modified, but options for exterior modifications have been simplified to only the essentials, with specific parts (i.e. individual bumpers, side skirts, lights and exhaust pipes) foregone, and are primarily used as methods of decreasing the car's wanted level, compared to increasing a car's "reputation rating" in the Underground games. Additionally, players are allowed to assume a sleeper appearance for cars without penalty in Most Wanted.

Online play

A decision was made not to include online play for the PlayStation 2 version (including the Black Edition, despite fan requests). This is due entirely to the tight schedule and lack of time to thoroughly test the online component. However, the PlayStation Portable version of the game would support this feature. Both the PlayStation 2 versions of Underground and Underground 2 had previously included online play.

EA has quit support to the PC version of the game very early from its release, even with the community asking for another patch to fix lasting bugs, the latest patch for the PC version (1.3) was released on December 6, 2005.

Gamers

EA has been organizing various Tournaments and Championships globally. In which many big associates, mostly computer hardware manufacturers and video game console manufacturers like Microsoft ,AMD ,Intel ,Asus ,HP and Sony took part. These were done to sort out good gamers. EA has succesfuly found 150 gamers which are known as L1 or Volt class gamers

As currently Siddharth Agarwal of India is holding Global Champion for All Need For Speed Versions and Sports Games From 2007 and ranks #2 Worldwide after Jake Orland of Canada who is currently the over all World Champion, and the first in battle mode Games. The world Ranker #3 Ivon Suviziki of Tokyo is specialist for Strategy Games.

Cars

Promotional screenshot of Rockport's fall foliage of Most Wanted for the Xbox 360. Depicted here is a Porsche 911 Turbo S.

Cars included in Most Wanted can be categorized into 3 distinct types, including "Euro imports" (mostly European) exotic cars and Asian import tuners cars (mostly Japanese), and American muscle cars. The Black Edition of Most Wanted also includes a standard BMW E46 (M3 GTR V8) (although in the Career mode of the standard game, the awarded BMW may be customized) and a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, along with an array of specially tuned and customized versions of stock models from the standard edition of Most Wanted, such as the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, the Porsche 911 GT2 and the Chevrolet Corvette C6.R .

Soundtrack

As in other EA Black Box Need for Speed games, Most Wanted's soundtrack comprises a licensed selection of hip hop, rock, metalcore and electronica/techno music. Additionally, Paul Linford provided interactive scores for police pursuit sessions. The soundtrack listing is as followed:

Songs
Track number	Artist	Song	Duration	Appearance	Originality
1	Styles of Beyond	Nine Thou (Superstars Remix)	3:48	album Megadef
2	T.I. Presents the P$C	Do Ya Thang	4:05	CD T.I. Presents the P$C: 25 to Life
3	Rock	I Am Rock	3:23		Need for Speed: Most Wanted
4	Suni Clay	In A Hood Near You	3:59	album Suni Clay
5	The Perceptionists	Let's Move	2:55	album Black Dialogue
6	Juvenile	Sets Go Up	3:37	album Reality Check
7	Hush	Fired Up	3:18	album Bulletproof
8	DJ Spooky and Dave Lombardo feat. Chuck D	B-Side Wins Again	4:31	album Drums of Death
9	Celldweller feat. Styles of Beyond	Shapeshifter (EP)	3:17	digital-single Shapeshifter
10	Lupe Fiasco	Tilted	3:25	single Kick, Push
11	Ils	Feed The Addiction	3:54	album Bohemia
12	Celldweller	One Good Reason	3:24	album Celldweller
13	Hyper	We Control	2:54	vinyl single We Control
14	Static-X	Skinnyman	3:23	album Start a War
15	Dieselboy + Kaos	Barrier Break	6:27	album Barrier Break/Submission
16	Disturbed	Decadence	3:18	album Ten Thousand Fists
17	The Prodigy	You'll Be Under My Wheels	3:53	album Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned
18	The Roots and BT	Tao Of The Machine (Scott Humphrey's Remix)	3:06	also appears on Blade II Soundtrack
19	Stratus	You Must Follow (Evol Intent VIP)	3:55	album projectHUMAN
20	Mastodon	Blood And Thunder	3:41	album Leviathan
21	Evol Intent, Mayhem & Thinktank	Broken Sword	5:59	album Us Against The World
22	Bullet for My Valentine	Hand Of Blood	3:17	album Hand of Blood
23	Paul Linford and Chris Vrenna	The Mann	3:28
24	Avenged Sevenfold	Blinded In Chains	5:55	album City of Evil
25	Jamiroquai	Feels Just Like It Should (Timo Maas Remix)	3:00
26	Paul Linford and Chris Vrenna	Most Wanted Mash Up	3:34

Some of the police pursuit songs have been featured in recent commercials for Nissan and in ESPN's March Madness coverage.

Reception

Reviews
Publication	Score
IGN	8.5 out of 10
Game Informer	8.5 out of 10
GameSpy	4 out of 5
GameSpot	8.4 out of 10
Game Revolution	B+
1UP	8.6 out of 10
PC Gamer	86 out of 100
PC Zone	88 out of 100
Compilations of multiple reviews
Game Rankings	82 of 100 (based on 23 reviews)
Metacritic	82 out of 100 (based on 19 reviews)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0

Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0 is a PlayStation Portable port of Most Wanted, released on the same day as its console and personal computer counterparts. Similar to Most Wanted, Most Wanted: 5-1-0 features a similar Blacklist 15 listing and Career Mode, with the addition of "Tuner Takedown", a "Be The Cop" mode not featured on Most Wanted. Most Wanted: 5-1-0 lacks many elements of its other console and PC counterparts, like cut scenes, a storyline and a free roam mode, and contains minor differences (including listing the real name of a Blacklist racer rather than his/her nickname). The title of the game is based on the numerals "5-1-0", which is the police code for street racing.

References

^ ^a ^b Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Black Edition) release information at MobyGames. Retrieved on September 22, 2006.
^ Need for Speed: Most Wanted release information (PlayStation 2 version) at GameSpot. Retrieved on September 23, 2006.
^ FMV titled "6 days ago."
^ FMV titled "Present day."
^ FMV titled "Some time later..." Mia: Razor set you up. He messed with your car.
^ FMV titled "Some time later..." Mia: I heard they didn't have enough on you. Guess it's hard to nail you for street racing when you don't have a ride.
^ Final FMV played after defeating Razor in the game. Razor: And if you want these...you're gonna have to take 'em.
^ Final FMV played after defeating Razor in the game. Razor: It ain't over until I say it's over.
^ Final FMV played after defeating Razor in the game. Cross: I want every single unit after the guy.
^ 5 minutes into the final pursuit, Mia calls revealing the bridge.
^ About 12 seconds into the final pursuit, Cross calls the player. Cross: Hey Hotshot! Hey thanks for helping us out! We've been able to pickup every blacklist racer thanks to you!
^ Appears to be a misconception. Most Wanted's graphics system does not utilize SM3.0 HDRR, but an SM2.0 effect known as "Overbright" used by EA Games to simulate HDRR. It increases the brightness of bright areas and decreases the brightness of dark areas, appearing similar to "bloom" effects. The graphics also hacks in the eye-adjustment effect of HDRR when the player car comes out of tunnels; game visuals becomes momentarily blinding before normalizing.
^ No OL for PS2 Most Wanted, PSP OL confirmed. Tor Thorsen, GameSpot. Retrieved on September 22, 2006.
^ Need for Speed: Most Wanted patch 1.3 at The Software Patch. Retrieved on September 22, 2006.
^ Perry, Douglass. Need for Speed: Most Wanted review at IGN. IGN. Retrieved on 12 February 2007.
^ Mason, Lisa. Need for Speed: Most Wanted review at Game Informer. Game Informer. Retrieved on 12 February 2007.
^ Osborne, Scott. Need for Speed: Most Wanted review at GameSpy. GameSpy. Retrieved on 12 February 2007.
^ Gerstmann, Jeff. Need for Speed: Most Wanted review at GameSpot. GameSpot. Retrieved on 12 February 2007.
^ Ferris, Duke. Need for Speed: Most Wanted review at Game Revolution. Game Revolution. Retrieved on 12 February 2007.
^ Anonymous. Need for Speed: Most Wanted review at 1UP. 1UP. Retrieved on 12 February, ].
^ Need for Speed: Most Wanted for PC. PC Reviews. Game Rankings. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
^ Need for Speed: Most Wanted for PC. PC Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.

External links

Officiālā Most Wanted mājaslapa
Official Black Edition website
Need for Speed: Most Wanted guide at StrategyWiki

French

Need For Speed Belgique

v • d • e Need for Speed video games

The Need for Speed · Need for Speed II · V-Rally · Hot Pursuit · High Stakes · V-Rally 2 · Porsche Unleashed · Motor City Online · Hot Pursuit 2 · Underground · Underground 2 · Most Wanted · Carbon · ProStreet

Need For Speed: Most Wanted