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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.

NFS most disappointing AI

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game can be quite enjoyable to play, but extremely aggravating when 20 second lead times are erased because you're not allowed to win by that big of a margin. If you outsmart or out drive the computers cars you will see them granted acceleration speeds that can only be measured in Mach, and the cornering ability of a cheetah.

The recovery times of the AI's cars when tricked or pushed into obstacles seems like a huge hand follows them and quickly corrects any mishaps. When you find yourself losing because you nick some corner within 100 feet of the finish, but had been in the lead until then, you want to chuck the cd's out the window. I used to be a fan of NFS series, but this installment has me doubting I'll every purchase it again.

All show & no go

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 11
Date: December 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game stalled at the starting line!

All show and no go:

Lets cut to the chase, This game was a huge disappointment from the start. Game pad could not configure proper and there are no dead zone adjustments. I spent top dollar on this mediocre game(if that). Its all dazzle with no meat on its bones. Sure the graphics are nice, but the whole game is spoon feed to you with gay track arrow barriers, un challenging 4 lane highway racing, and poor car physics.
NFS:Porche unleashed is the benchmark so far(Motor city also). It had car physics, insane damage that would stay all through the career. If you wanted to keep your 944 crumpled up or couldn't afford it, then that's the way it stayed.
NFS:MW has a car customize thing and a nice story mood, other then that I just didn't find it fun. The police chases weren't enough to bring this game to a positive review. People said you had to get into it. 5min I uninstalled it only to reinstall it again to see what I was missing, It was a struggle of will to get to the free range mode where it added no enjoyment.
For the love of Pete EA, please go back to your roots on making a solid customizable game that isn't just for show. Bring back damage!
As for the score, I don't understand how it gets such good reviews, maybe I demand to much out of my race games, the more realistic the better. This is obviously an arcade game, an arcade game that has console style(Rad Racer for NES comparable??) written all over it. I feel this has lost the NFS credibility.

Bottom line: Rental for console. Pc, avoid 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.

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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.
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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! :)

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.

Not as good as previous versions

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 19
Date: January 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been buying and playing Need for Speed since the first version. I will have to say that I was excited when this game was released, but let down once I started playing the game. As with all NFS games, the graphics are great; but with this one it seems that the options are limited relating to the types of games you can play. One thing I loved from the NFSUG2 was the free roam in the streets, which this one does not have. It is almost impossible to win any races due to the PC catching up with you no matter which car you are racing. These are just a few of the dissapointments I have and this will probably be the last NFS I buy.

Catch-Up Codes and Cheesey Acting Be-DAMNED!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For another review, with a bit of vulgar language, go to SobaKai.com.

Ok, I'm not really sure where to begin. first, I'll say that I'm not a fan of Electronic Arts. They are, however, buying up all of my other options and leaving me with just their games to pick from. That being said,

N4S:MW has turned out to be a pretty good game. As far as graphics go, and filler movies too, it's leaps and bounds above Underground 2. UG2 only had sliding pictures for filler movies, and the character graphics were rather bland for my standards. Of course, to be fair, I never got to play the game on full graphics.

In N4S:MW the object is to race your way to the top of the "Blacklist." That being the 10/15 (damn me for forgetting) racers that are most wanted by the police. Playing this game starts off like every other N4S game. Slow. It does, heowever, pick up pretty quickly.

The racing in this game has a "pucker factor" like no other. Many thanks go out to the catch up code on that one. Eventually, the computer doesn't need to use it because the tracks actually become challenging making you do hair pin turns and 180s to 360s and the type of stuff you expect from a good racer. My only problem with the catch up code is that there is no logical explanation for a car to be right behind/beside me when three seconds ago I was 15 feet from lapping him. If the driver is really that good, I never should've gotten that far ahead in the first place.

The police chases start out really slow, too, but once you get a good amount of wanted status, they pick up... and they go on for a while! Eventually, they become redundant, because lots of times you're not doing anything wrong and BAM!.. police chase. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but, don't play this game if you have to be anywhere in 20 minutes. The odds are, you'll have to do a hard shut down on your PC/X-Box in order to get out of the chase early... esspecially if your wanted status is 2x or above. The cops are a lot like Grand Theft Auto's cops... the PD is a bunch of donut sucking retards and the FBI is precise, in lots of numbers, have cars that can out-run a Ferrari (riiiiight), and still suck down donuts.

Electronic Arts has a very bad habit of making games that envelope a story on something as fictitious as giant ticks from the moon. The cheesey acting in the title comes from, well, everybody doing any acting in the game. I never expect more than cheesey acting, but this game takes the cake and then some. Your "arch-enemy's" crew is full of crack-pots that a five-year-old could wallop. Your arch-enemy himself is one of those "I'm so bad, my too loud for a whisper but too soft to be talking, evilish tone is proof of it" types. He steals your car and your "non-existant until it comes time for her to get stolen" girlfriend. Then, he just shows up every now and then AND calls your cell phone. Did you ever give him your number? NO. I think he's stalking you... scary guy.

The actress that does the "please don't kill yourself driving and then sue us" introduction is pretty hot though. She's kind of believable, but that doesn't say much when compared to everyone else's acting.

All in all though, I enjoyed the game. You have to get past the crappy acting and the rap abundant soundtrack(though they did throw in some rock... like three songs =P), but once you can do that, this game is pretty damned fun. No lie.

Like I said, the catch-up code isn't really needed later on in the game because the courses become challenging. The graphics are stunning, esspecially once I threw a body kit on to the Lamborghini Merciellago(sp?). I was impressed even though it stunk like Electronic Arts. I recommend this game, but only if you have a strong stomach for people who aren't anything more than desk junkies pretending to be harcore gangter G things.

It's a good game for it's purpose. If you play it, you'll like it. Just please, don't act like the people in the game!

--------- --------- --------- (nothing to do with my review)

Oh, and one more thing EA, I'm a suburban white-boy. I know how to drive and I race every now and then. I hate rap. I don't act like I'm part of the Westside Connection or the Wu-Tang Clan. Not every racer out there looks like they were ripped out of a "Poser Mobile" commercial.

FEES SHAWTY!

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.

good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

the game is a 8.5/10 to 9/10 very nice but kinda of hard to drive using key board nice graphics but not so good story line. i would buy this game again if i had too but for ps2

racing heaven

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: March 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

its a good game, cars in it are so cool and fast. get this game

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