User Reviews (1 - 11 of 36)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Theres a Bounty Out!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: November 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Black Edition contains some commentary by the performers, some trailers they used for actual promotion of the game, screen shots of all the Cars Body Kits and some other stuff. The Black Edition also has 2 extra Cars and some extra tracks. They did a good job with this game. One word I can use to describe it is RAW just like racing should be! The physics of the game is great. It reminds kind of how Gran Turismo 1 was. The Physics is excellent and simple flat out racing without being padded. Good sounds and feel of the game with the control especially with vibration on. A ton of great features. EA keep up the Good Work! Peace.

Awesome graphics and cars

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: November 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is the ultimate 10th anniversary Need For Speed. For people who liked the Hot Pursuit and its exotic cars, or those who love the tuner cars of Underground, this is a combination of both. Open roads racing with rivals and trying to stay away from the police. Takes some time to play. Its worth it: If you want a good racing game this is it!

Amazing detail

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: November 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I played all of the NFS games but have never played one like Most Wanted. The chase with the cops is unlike the previous versions of NSF, now the police do not let up and you can be chased until you get caught for me the chase lasted 30mins which is fun,funny and challenging. The physics, graphics and sound is right on the money.
there are other modes of racing like blacklist and others It's worth every penny, just get it!

White knucle thrill ride!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: November 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Currently playing the PC Demo: Every once and awhile a game comes along that just blows the doors of anything else out there. Today that game is NFS: Most Wanted. The graphics and AI are surpurb. The fictional world in which your racer inhabits is painstakingly real & enormous (event though you can't see most of it due to blistering speeds)

The physics & the game-play give a feeling of REAL speed!

Game of the year HANDS DOWN!! A must have.

only one thing troubles me; No instant replay option in the Demo, I would love to see the Havoc I'm reeking from the cops' point of view. Does the full version have this feature?

The box looks nice, but the game won't run due to copy protection...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 26 / 27
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Just a heads up to anyone planning to pick up this game. Due to the copy protection, this game won't run on some computers.

If you have any type of CD/DVD burning software installed that's more advanced than the basic stuff that comes with the computer / drive, the game wants you to uninstall it.

If you have any type of virutal CD software installed, yup, you guessed it... The game wants you to uninstall it.

As far as I'm concerned, when a game company expects their customers to remove software from their computer just to play a game, I'll look elsewhere. I use my computer for games and work, therefore burning software and vitrual CD software is a lot more important than a game that's broken out of the box.

Excellent Addition to the Series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: December 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off, I have Nero Burning ROM installed and had no issues with installing Need for Speed.

If you like the series, this edition won't disappoint you. The gameplay keeps getting better, the graphics (on a good card) are mind-blowing. Having played NFSU and NFSU2 this one builds on what was good about previous versions. Good game that just keeps getting better, espicially with the edition of the most wanted list, the police pursuits, and the new race modes.

Great, great game

A nice improvement to an already great game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 56 / 61
Date: December 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Many reviews focus on the copy protection, if you have concerns about that be sure to read them. I want to focus more on what this game brings to the table for newcomers and from the point of view of someone that has played a previous version of NFS and wants to know if this game has enough new features to merit a purchase.

If you have never played any version of Need for Speed and you are looking for a racing game for the PC then you have come to the right place. This is a very good racing game that allows you to customize your vehicle to help break up the monotony of only completing one race right after the other. This is definitely the best racing game to buy if you want to get a good start in the NFS series. If you are still unsure and want to break into the series on a cheaper title then NFS Underground 2 will give you a good look on the cheap.

If you are a veteran and are wondering what the new features are I'll try to outline them here. Need For Speed Underground 2 is the only other NFS title I have played. All of the comparisons I am making are based on the differences between NFSU2 and this title.

1) Graphics. The graphics have improved considerably over NFSU2. The car models look much better and the game ran much more smoothly for me despite the better quality in graphics. In NFSU2 I would get moments where the game would stutter, I have had no such experience in Most Wanted.

I have heard some people have problems with ATI cards; mainly that ATI is a bit behind with optimizing their drivers for this game. I believe these problems are mainly resolved as I have no problems with my Radeon 9800. You will however need a higher end graphics card to run the game. You do not have to have the latest and greatest card because the game does a decent job of offering options where you can play with lower detail.

2) Races. I will say that it seems like the races were more varied in NFSU2 than they are in Most Wanted. In NFSU2 you had several different race types that added to the variety of the game namely drag, drift, street, and a few different forms of circuit (URL and circuit) and sprint (races to photo ops and sprint). In Most Wanted all the races are variations of either circuit or sprint. There is a new circuit racing mode called knock out where the person that comes in last on each lap is dropped from the race.

Police chases have been added for variety and as a replacement to the drift and street modes of NFS2U. This is welcome. I often wondered where all the police were while you were racing on the street in NFSU2.

In this version you compete against people on the black list (a list of the most infamous racers around). You have to qualify to compete against the blacklist racers by winning races and building a wanted level with the police. After you beat someone on the blacklist you are given the opportunity to pick 2 of 5 rewards. The rewards are cash, performance parts, visual parts, and one of the rewards is the title (pink slip) to the car you just beat. You do not know what the reward will be before you pick it. If you get lucky you'll walk away with your opponents vehicle.

Another welcome change over NFSU2 is the ability to instantly jump to race locations. In the old version you had to spend hours (cummatively) driving from one race location to the next. Gone are the days of driving from the Airport to the top of that mountain (Beacon Hill?) to complete one race just to find out that the next grouping of races that appears are at the bottom of the map.

One last improvement that I'll mention is that it seems as though focus has shifted away from visual customization. In NFSU2 you had certain goals where you had to build a car that had a certain level of visual appeal. Often all that meant was that you had to make your car tacky and disgusting by taking it much further than you would have just so you can get that 9 star rating. More did not equal better in my book. I would have been happier if they let me keep the car the way I wanted instead of forcing me to add roof scoops just so I could progress in the game.

The con:
I wanted to mention why I docked the game by one star. The game uses what is refered to as "rubberband" AI. That pretty much means that the AI will make sure all the races are close. Imagine you and an opponent are connected by a rubberband. If the opponent gets too far behind the rubberband is pulled tightly and the opponent will be sprung forward as a result. In other words the farther away the computer is the faster they will drive, irreguardless of what the top speeds of the cars you and the computer are driving are supposed to be.

This can become very frustrating. For example, once I pinned an opponent between an 18 wheeler and the road. It resulted in a quick 8 second lead. Making no mistakes on my part, the computer was able to pass me like I was standing still about 10 or 15 seconds after I had built that 8 second lead... as if I was stopped at a standstill. There really is no excuse for this kind of AI, and it was not present in NFSU2. If you outsmarted/drove the competition you outsmarted/drove the competition. Not so in Most Wanted. Every race will come down to the wire no matter how far you get in front of the opponent. I'll be looking for a patch that fixes or balances this issue.

A good combination off past and present.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: December 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

For me, this game combines the very best element's of previus NFS games. From Hot Pursuit, they take the police chases, and for Underground, they took the best cars, and the free drive.
Forget all the night racing, in this game all is in the day, which improves the driving, because you can see everything in front of you. Also there are some change in the weather conditions, which dosen't afect the handling of the car.
Unfortunatly, the damage you make in your car dosen't afect you, because in the moment you finish the race, the car is repair automaticaly, and doesen't cost you a cent. You can see the car is damage, because some times, the glass on the car is broken, but, as i said before, dosen't afect you, you can race at the max velocity even if you crash against a building.
The enviroment is very good and realistic, in one time i saw how a trailer crash a car, and i had to evade them. In the races you can find more cars in the streets tahn in NFS Underground 2, and that put more presure in wining the race, because you have to evade them, if you don't want to lose precius seconds in the las race.
This time your goal is to going up in the black list, whic is the list of the best racers in the game. At the start you hace to win races and evade police chases to challenge the number 15 in the list. After you beat him, you hace to win more races, evade more police cars, to climb up in the list.
The races are almost the same as NFS Underground, there are sprint, drag, and race from point a to point b. The AI at the start of the game is not very good. In some races you can crash against a wall, and be able to win the race. But at the end of the game, the AI is much better and poses a much beter challenge.
Some times, when you beat an oponent they gave you his car.
There are a total of 32 cars in the game. Now, they all are visible, and they tell you how to unlock each and every one car, and his price. This is very good, because you noe knew how much money you have to won to buy the car you want. Also, you can sell yous car's to earn more money (obviusly you nedd to have a car to compete).
To change part's of your car yo ned to beat some oponets to unlock parts. The game tell you what you hace to do to unlock each and every part you want.
Te police chases are very good, to earn points, which is necesary to progres in the game, you have to evade the police cars, and even crash your car against the police cars. You won a lot of points evaiding police oficers, which is a requisite to challenge some in the black list. Evaiding cops, breaking law's, destroying objects, smashing other's cars, elevate the posibility that the cops can saw you and start a persecution. This is some bad thing because, in one time i was in my way to challenge some one and encounter a police car, start the chase, which took like 10 real minutes, and after that drive all the way back to the challenge point (i like to do that, even if you have the oportunity to jump to the point). To dow a litle you heat level, you can change your car o modifing the car.
The sound of the car's are very good, the siren of the police are very clear, and you can hear what the police are planing to stop you. The music is good ( I don't like that kind of music).
In all, this is a very good game, ENJOY.

Fun, but not the best from the NFS series

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been a fan of NFS ever since NFS 2 and despite some miserable failures (namely NFSHP2)all the games have been a lot of fun. But I'm afraid the game is starting to lose it's magic touch. First of all, having a complete city is great and I'm sure it takes a lot of work but it also makes the game environment a bit monotonous. Sure, you have the residential sector, and the industrial sector and downtown but, at the end of the day all you have is the city and it's surroundings. I remember that one of the things I enjoyed the most from my favorite installment (High stakes)was that you could be racing through snowy mountains, deserts, racetracks, highways.....

I also dislike the fact that you have to drive to every race. Sometimes it will take you a lot of time to get from one point to the other and, that is if you don't get busted by the police where you'll have to go into chase mode and probably end up going even further than what you expected. Sure, it can be fun at times but sometimes I just want to race and not have to spend 10 minutes driving there.

The music selection isn't as sharp as NFSU1 but somewhat better than NFSU2. Also, we finally get some real super cars. To be perfectly honest I'd rather drive a stock Lamborghini Murcielago than a "pimped" Honda Civic although, no Ferraris? Sacrilege!

Finally the bugs. I'm sure that there will be a patch but so far the game is plagued with bugs. Setting up my MS Sidewinder FFW was a nightmare and whenever I crash the wheel keeps on vibrating. I know this has a lot to do with Microsoft's lack of support but this is the firs game that has given me any problems. The shadows don't work and you can't see any cars from the rear view mirror.

So, in conclusion. Is it worth playing? Sure. Fun? Sure. Could EA have done better? No question about it.

Need for Speed in a nutshell!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: December 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'd like to mention that for me, this game was a love & hate relationship. Because of this, I'm going to break things down into the good, the bad and the other, and let you make up your own mind.

Side note 1: Currently, I am 80% complete, #1 on the blacklist and have beat the storyline.

Side note 2: This review contains no spoiler details (i.e. what exactly happens or the ending itself), but does dance around it in the "The Ending" section. IMO, it's not something you'd need to avoid if you've never played, but if you're VERY specific in this department, you may want to skip it.

The other: Prior to playing NFS:MW I played both NFS:Underground 2 and Midnight Club (Not dub, the one that was on shelves side by side with Underground 2). My biggest beef with Underground was the lack of tracks to race on, how linear each track was and the way you had 5 races from different angles on the tracks. What I liked about Midnight club was the NON-Linearness. You had check points (much like a GTA race) but how you arrived at each check point was YOUR choice. With this came an array of short cuts, including going through buildings, parks, over and under passes and so on. Midnight club also let you free roam (as MW now does). What I'm basically getting at, is NFS:MW is a combination of NFS & Midnight club aspects, ultimately making it a winner, with the clear advantage of name brand cars.

The Good:
1) Free roam - drive around like a maniac and TEST your ride! Additionally, you can check out whats where, find the short cuts, play around... It's good stuff.

2) Hot cars & Upgrades - Who wouldn't want a Lamborghini? Well, now you can have TWO. Not only that, you can slap nice visuals (as you've come to expect) onto the vehicle, as well as ground effects (body kits) and all that other jazz you'd expect.

3) Multiple Vehicles - Don't look past this, as in my opinion it's KEY! One beef I had with Underground 2 was that cash was meaningless. WOOHOO HIGH COMMISSION OPPORTUNITY BABY! So you won the race in Underground 2 and got 5G instead of 2G, great job! Now what? Doing the races on the lowest setting always allowed for the best upgrades and so on... So there wasn't much incentive to improve your flow. Quite the opposite in MW though. Here you have multiple vehicles in your garage, and in fact, need them because an over used car will attract a higher level of police attention. Additionally, when your caught, you will incur an impound strike and after 3 of those, you lose the car! So clearly, more money HELPS!

4) Mind Blowing Speed - Shocker? The only way I can explain the speed is like this: Imagine your driving so fast you can barely see the road ahead of you... then you shift up a gear. :)

5) Handling - Great handling accompanies that mind blowing speed. Just when you feel you're about to fly off the road... You don't! Well you might, but once you get a feel for the car, you're swaying back in forth in traffic, flying along the highways and ducking down side streets. The handling is what makes this game truly fun to play, as just when you thought you couldn't go any faster... You do!

6) N2O - Great improvement! Still using the squeeze method of Nitrous (opposed to Midnight clubs 1-3 shot charge), your nitrous regenerates during high speed driving. Thus enabling you to make ample use of a very nice tool.

7) Environment - Still not quite Midnight club quality, they've added in persuit breakers (i.e. hit the posts of a donut shop to send a 2 story donut rolling into the street and down on chasing cops or unsuspecting racers), as well as Midnight clubish short cuts. The short cuts generally are minor (though much better than Underground2), such as cutting straight thru a winding road, but do get as nice as traveling thru a bus station or football statium. All in all, the environment is good stuff and a most definate improvement over previous versions.

8) Police Persuits - This is where the line between good and bad starts to blur. For this section, I'll focus on the earlier chases. Early on, persuits are a LOT of fun and come in two flavors. The first of the two is high-way driving, which due to it's predictable path, will help hold and increase the force the police deloy against you. Street driving on the other hand, is more designed to LOSE the cops, with persuit breakers, underground tunnels and plenty of side streets to duck down. Definately a nice change of pace from standard races.

----------

The bad:

All in all this game has little to cry about, it's just about EVERYTHING you'd want out of a game... just about.

Being a Vice City veteran of 10 minute long runs with a 6 star warning level, I was eager to take on the police with nothing but brutal force and speed as my weapons. Early on, the police had not a chance. Commonly, they were ditched in less than 2 minutes if it was my desired outcome. More so, the chases were a bit more manageable, in that there was room for flaw, such as crashing to a dead stop, or more importantly, being able to take their vehicle OUT. To date I've immobilized over 300 vehicles, and growing. But it shouldn't it be higher? I think so too.

So whats the deal with the high end persuits? Allow me to bullet..

1) Suicide SUVs - This is probably my biggest problem with NFS. When the heat gets pumping, you'll find packs of 2-3 SUVs barrelling down the highway and streets with ONE goal... To crash HEAD ON with you. While I realize this isn't a simulation, nor by any means a true depiction of a real live persuit, having 2-3 cops playing a game of chicken with you.. just doesn't seem right.

2) Being Busted - There are 2 meters with regard to persuits, one for evading (which then leads to a cool down timer) and one that lands you in jail. To be "busted" you don't need to be at a complete stop, you just need to be surrounded by police. Infact, your busted meter can reach HALF way simply from a cop being along side of you during a persuit. 90% of the time the way I got busted was from hitting a pole or a cop and coming to a complete stop. At which point, every unit following you, surrounds you in one swift fluid motion and are capable of working in unicen to keep you held there. Unfortunately, hearing and experiencing this are two very different animals. While at first this may sound like mere bickering, you might also consider that I've been "busted" while driving away at 30MPH+, simply because the timer filled up before I had even come to a stop. My main beef with this is not the penalties of being busted, but rather the inability to regularly have a heart pumping, white knuckle, no time for blinking police persuit!

3) The Ending: Part 1 - While beating Razor makes you #1 on the black list, there's still a hump in the road to get over before you officially "win." While I'm not going to go in too much detail about that "hump" I will say this... A) It took one guy 2 days to pass, B) It damn near ruined this game for me I was so pissed.

4) The Ending: Part 2 - Some games like to wrap everything up for you, you find out you were really an Area51 alien test tube baby, designed for world domination and the complete destruction of all undesireable smelling cheeses with a knack for sewing sweaters blind folded... This isn't one of those games. But thats all I'll say about that.
---------

Over all: All things considered NFS:MW is a definate success and will keep you entertained till the end. It is most certainly the best of the NFS series, and well worth the money they charge. I hope that my negative points haven't discouraged you from trying an otherwise excellent game, I did however, feel obligated to mention them, as I believe that when spending money, you should have a good idea of the product your receiving.

Happy Racing! :)

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions