Need For Speed: Most Wanted

[TCrouch]

Handbrake looks like it's the X Button by default, but I flipped it to B. But that seems to be it. There's no precision driving in the game. You can't slow down to "just the right speed" and hook the car around a corner. You have to stab the brake, pitch it, and drift. That's so NOT my style of driving. And what's worse, if you find yourself drifting into oncoming traffic, there seems to be no quick way to avoid it--with the sloppy controls you either overcorrect and go flying off into a building, or you just let it drift and go head-on into the car, getting a wrecked cutscene. You certainly won't magically hook the car up enough to duck it under while still maintaining speed.

I think that's what has me so upset--it feels like control is taken AWAY from the player. Most arcade racers give you too much control. This one seems to want to force you to drive it their way or not at all, and their way seems to be sliding everywhere and almost always out of control.

It also COULD be the disconnect of being forced to go 3rd person or bumper cam...I haven't used a chase view in years, and bumper cams are way too low to the ground. So it's my 2 most hated views to race in. Why no hood cam, at least? Baffling design decisions.

[10spro]

I only played it for an hour and change and while the crashes are great to experience or NOT, my initial reaction was hey 'I expected more from this series'. Funny because I was really looking forward to this game and not Horizon and right now it feels the opposite for me. Again, I only run a few races and drove it around the highways looking for better handling cars but it definitely didn't floor me. Alluded all police chases so far as they seem to easily give up half way.

Was looking forward to a cockpit view which is disappointingly missing but the feel of speed is very exciting. The controls as Terry mentioned seems to be a bit on the loose side.

[sportdan30]

I'm luke warm on the game. After playing for an hour, I don't necessarily have that desire to want to go back to it, unlike Forza Horizon.

The city design while cool, just doesn't have that wow factor to it. While it's an open world, you don't feel the wide openess to the driving because you have buildings and other structures all around.

I'm also not a fan of the of the graphics. They're a bit grainy and washed out, although "your car" is quite detailed.

I agree that it's a bit hard to control the car, even on straight aways. Part of that has to do with the insane sense of speed. It's very easy at least for me to lose control by barely nudging the stick right or left.

Cop chases are fun, but as someone said, they do give up all too quickly.

Crashes are very eye popping, but not when you crash a dozen times over the course of a game or two.

Online play is quite fun. I ran with a group for a half a dozen races and they were all different. One of the guys I raced with said he had been playing the game for five hours and had not had the same even twice. However, some of the events are kinda meh and I guess that's to be expected with how many there are. One in particular was on a roof top and the goal was to rack up near misses. There wasn't much space and I was happy when it was over.

Overall, it's a great rental, but I'd be shelving it within a week or two. Online play is the saving grace.

p.s. With my 10 year old son now in to gaming, my gaming time has become more limited. I will say though I was more impressed with WWE '13 than NFS Most Wanted.

[Teal]

This game is doing everything for me that I wanted it to. It's scratching that Paradise itch, it's doing the Hot Pursuit thing (I don't seem to have too many instances of the cops giving up; if anything, they just get more and more intense!), I love the car swaps, the nature of the races...all of it. Online is a hoot, too. I never figured this one would be everyone's cup du jour, but it's great for what I desired out of it. Fast, crazy fun. I never expected it to replace or even compete with Horizon, and it doesn't...mostly because it's just a drastically different game. To me, it feels like a bit of a throwback to the old NFS Hot Pursuit cop chase games on the original Xbox, and that's not a bad thing at all in my book.

And on 'diving back into the game', I'm completely opposite. I just spent the better part of 3 hours driving around, racing, running from cops, looking for billboards that didn't already have my mug on them, finding cars, souping up cars...

[Spooky]

So, my initial reaction to this game was a bit of a 'blah' feeling. After about 45 minutes I was thinking "is this all there is to it?"...

But after getting a bit more time with it I started to really enjoy it. The hectic and intense races and a$$ puckering moments are super fun. The sense of speed is crazy. The environments are just amazing (although the graphics - while overall pretty awesome - have moments where it looks really grainy and it's hard to see what's going on).

At this point I am glad I have both this and Forza Horizon. They seem to compliment each other extremely well. I haven't touched the online portion of the game yet either. I'm thinking there will be a good amount fo fun there as well.

[10spro]

Online is definitely fun. Oddly there's a small stuttering lag here and there after each crash which was annoying but overall the overwhelming feel of speed is well mantained in MP mode.

[Danimal]

I haven't even opened this yet as I spent most of the night in WWE 13 reliving the attitude era. Color me surprised with that game.

[Fshguy]

And on 'diving back into the game', I'm completely opposite. I just spent the better part of 3 hours driving around, racing, running from cops, looking for billboards that didn't already have my mug on them, finding cars, souping up cars...

Should get the game today, seeing your mug on my billboards will definitely make me want to smash them.

[dbdynsty25]

I'm in the middle on this game. The driving is terrible but I do like how the game is setup with the objectives and races and just all around arcade madness. So yeah...the driving is just so twitchy and bad it may end up ruining the game completely but as of now I'm having a good time with my rental. I'm sure once the newness wears off, I'll shelve it because it's just not fun slightly correcting your car and going into the median.

[Teal]

See, I just don't understand that. The driving isn't terrible; it isn't FORZA, but for an arcade title, its good. I actually like it. Now, I won't play it B2B with Horizon, but that's not a knock against the game at all.

[Slumberland]

I'm playing the Vita version and it is swell. Since it's portable I'll probably get farther along in this than any other previous title of its ilk.

[TCrouch]

See, I just don't understand that. The driving isn't terrible; it isn't FORZA, but for an arcade title, its good. I actually like it. Now, I won't play it B2B with Horizon, but that's not a knock against the game at all.

This is where we differ. It's beyond terrible, IMO. Just sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. Exactly what DB was describing--you start a drift, and need to avoid an oncoming car, and countersteering launches you in the opposite direction. I don't recall playing an arcade racer that had this shoddy of controls. Everything from older Midnight Clubs to PGR to Burnout and FlatOut had tight controls that you could easily pick up and play. That's the objective of an arcade racer.

This one feels like driving around on an ice lake with 1 skate blade in each tire. You don't know when it's going to bite, but when it does, you sail off in that direction. The rest of the time, you're slipping around on the skate-less rubber, sliding to and fro. Then another blade hits, and you hook and fly off in that direction. Completely unpredictable, and utter rubbish.

To be perfectly honest, 99.99999% of the time, I can see the good in a game and understand why people like it. With this one, I literally cannot wrap my head around the fact that people think this one is good unless they just completely dig crashes and flying around with their hair on fire, barely under control.

[Spooky]

I'm playing the Vita version and it is swell. Since it's portable I'll probably get farther along in this than any other previous title of its ilk.

Interesting...did not know there was a Vita version. Is it identical to the console ones as far as you can tell?

[dbdynsty25]

To be perfectly honest, 99.99999% of the time, I can see the good in a game and understand why people like it. With this one, I literally cannot wrap my head around the fact that people think this one is good unless they just completely dig crashes and flying around with their hair on fire, barely under control.

There is a market for that.

I popped back in Midnight Club LA last night just for giggles...THAT is how an arcade racer should control. It's bizarre how bad the controls are in MW.

I'll still play it for a bit until I get bored of the game itself...it won't have legs with the horrible controls. At least not in my house. Maybe on the Vita it's better??? Maybe they tuned both games controls for the less sensitive Vita sticks? That's all I can think of that would explain it.

[sportdan30]

My biggest issue with the game is that the open world simply isn't open enough to be able to speed through the city without wrecking every minute or so. For me at least, it's literally impossible to get any kind of consistency going. The insane speed is just that, and the controls simply don't seem to be able to handle the speed all that well. I think if the roads were wider and there was less things to ram in to by accident, I'd enjoy the game much more. All that said, going from the beautiful scenery and openess of "Colorado" to the streets of MW, I'm just less engaged. I feel like I've already driven these same city streets in other racing and action games.

[10spro]

My biggest issue with the game is that the open world simply isn't open enough to be able to speed . All that said, going from the beautiful scenery and openess of "Colorado" to the streets of MW, I'm just less engaged. I feel like I've already driven these same city streets in other racing and action games.

Funny enough I was telling Boom the same thing when we had a small party last night playing Forza along PK. If you set up the street races with R1, R2 or R3 cars in Horizon you get a small taste of this game minus the crashes and loose controls.

[Teal]

Just a difference in tints on the glasses, I guess. I'm playing MW at the moment, and I'm not having any issues weaving in and out of traffic at speed, most of the time. That's one thing, there seems to be more traffic in NFS than Horizon. But I'm having alot of fun tooling around, entering races, and even the races aren't frustrating for me. Dunno. Seems to be a wild pendulum swing in terms of what we're seeing.

[Spooky]

I can definitely see both side of this discussion. I personally and really enjoying it (so far) but I understand the comments about the control and the constant obstacles. So far that hasn't had any impact on the fun factor for me.

[TCrouch]

That's what's so weird for me--normally I can see both sides of a discussion, especially when it comes to racing games. I've enjoyed games that generally are considered to be crap, I've disliked games considered to be fantastic by most people, and I've agreed with the consensus in some.

This is the first one I can recall where I absolutely cannot see the other side of the fence. There HAS to be some huge thing I'm missing here, because I just cannot fathom enjoying it, when a lot of people actually do. It's like I'm going to have to force myself to play it just to push through my hatred and see whatever the hell it is people are seeing.

[Spooky]

This is the first one I can recall where I absolutely cannot see the other side of the fence. There HAS to be some huge thing I'm missing here, because I just cannot fathom enjoying it, when a lot of people actually do. It's like I'm going to have to force myself to play it just to push through my hatred and see whatever the hell it is people are seeing.

I don't think you're missing anything. I read one review snippet where it called it "the racing game for people that don't like racing games...".

I think that because I have no true understanding of driving models, I can find the fun in this one simply because of the sense of speed and the open world. I also really like the way the interface and integration of all the options and car finding was done. After about an hour with it I had much less of a problem with running into traffic and other obstacles. The races I started doing after I got more used to the control also became SUPER intense and edge of your seat type gaming. But I don't think that anything really "clicked" in me about the riving model, I just got used to it and somehow have been able to find more control and avoid an annoying amount of crashes.

[Slumberland]

I'm playing the Vita version and it is swell. Since it's portable I'll probably get farther along in this than any other previous title of its ilk.

Interesting...did not know there was a Vita version. Is it identical to the console ones as far as you can tell?

They claim the only differences are traffic density and number of players in an online race. Asynchronous online play is included however.

[Teal]

There are some real differences between the cars and some handling aspects in this game, too. And though the car upgrade system is simple, the new tires and what not make a difference. Beat a Shelby Cobra in a MW race, and I love driving that car.

[Spooky]

Just played for about 2 hours. This game is f*cking GREAT. That is all.

[Teal]

Spook, our similar taste in games is truly...spooky...I wholeheartedly agree.

[dbdynsty25]

Spook, our similar taste in games is truly...spooky...I wholeheartedly agree.

Get a room.