Need for Speed Most Wanted

The audio in this Most Wanted is pretty good.  The cars sound “off the charts” awesome, when revving up my own RX-8 in real life then doing it in the video game I could tell little, if any, difference between the two.  As you are chased by the police you can hear them talking over their police radio’s and some of the things they say are classic; I’ll never forget the phrase: “The suspect is driving a Silver Mazda” as long as I live.  This kind of attention to detail is what really makes me want to tell the developers “thanks for putting this kind of time into such a great sounding game”.  Unfortunately not all on the audio side is good however, the voiceovers are lame to say the least and the music is easily and quickly replaced with your own favorites via the Xbox 360 hard drive or network.  Given, the soundtrack isn’t bad, it just can’t stand up to smoking cops at 150 MPH while listing to a grab bag of Eminem, Tupac, and Garth Brooks. 

Let’s move onto something I know is important to you next-generation Xbox 360 owners, the graphics.  I can sum it up in a few words: this game looks freaking amazing.  To expand on this sentence let’s start off with the environments. 

Everything looks good, the game runs at a smooth 30 FPS and never waivers.  I would have liked to see 60 FPS, but this is still early in the system life so I’m sure EA’s next installment will make my eyes bleed.  The draw distance as you drive around the city is fairly good compared to the other games I have played on the Xbox 360, some things (trees, certain buildings) seem to come out of nowhere but never once did it bother my focus on the road.  Other things in the city such as gas stations, large donuts, phone booths, and the occasional Burger King sign look gorgeous and almost everything in the world is destroyable by you, this feature alone gave me an hour or so of free-roaming fun.  The road that you drive on looks awesome as well and has a great texture to it.

Weather effects in this game are done better graphically than in many of the other 360 titles out there, rain slams down on you from above and your car’s tires shoot up water from the wet slick-ridden pavement.  Lastly the cars, they shine and glimmer with everything we have come to expect from something next generation.  When put side by side with Need for Speed Most Wanted’s Playstation 2 counterpart the difference is uncanny, has it only been a few years and now this?  I didn’t really touch on the full motion video that pops up throughout the game but I’ll leave that one to the gamers – like it or not its there.  Anyhow to put it simple the cars look amazing, the specifics put into these cars and upgrades are really what puts this game over the top, second to none in this department. 

Final Word

After putting in a good amount of time with EA’s Need for Speed Most Wanted on the Xbox 360, any doubt for the system or regrets on the money I spent are put to rest with a quick boost of nitrous.  This game is long, if you have the stamina to complete the career mode you still have Live as a reason to put this one back into your console.  The car list, physics engine, story mode, and Live play are my major reasons for recommending this game to any readers out there that either A) like the previous versions of EA’s underground series or B) miss games like Burnout and don’t like games like Project Gotham; if you fit into either one of these two categories this game is a must own for you, no questions asked.  The graphics, sound effects, and controls are only a bonus to everything else that makes up a quality racing title.  For a first attempt on new hardware I have to commend EA for a job well done.