Electronic Arts has announced Need for Speed Rivals, coming from Criterion Games and EA's newest studio Ghost Games. The popular racing franchise is set to come to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 19, as well as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year. EA had hinted mentioned a new game in the series was coming earlier this month.
Criterion Games has become synonymous with excellent racing games. However, the studio behind Burnout appears to be moving onto something completely different.
Speaking on Twitter, the studio's creative director Alex Ward talked about how "after over a decade of making racing games it's time to make something new." That means no remakes, no reboots, and no sequels. Guess that means we can scratch off that long-rumored Road Rash reboot, huh?
Read more: 'Proud' of Burnout, but not the 'right time' to make new one »
The three pieces of Need for Speed: Most Wanted downloadable content outed yesterday by Trophies have been confirmed. Appropriate for a racing game, they will all be arriving sooner than you might think: today.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted appears to be getting another round of downloadable content. Sets of Trophies for the game have given the names of three previously unheard-of DLC packs.
One pleasant surprise of this morning's Wii U date dump was the revelation that Need for Speed: Most Wanted is coming to Nintendo's system on March 19. EA and Criterion have detailed a few of the special features that take advantage of the system's unique capabilities.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted had Jeff buzzing in his review. And predictably, developer Criterion Games is expanding the game with new DLC. Come December 18, the first DLC for the game will add five super-fast cars to your garage so you can continue to mock the cops in Fairhaven.
Nyooooom! That's not the sound of a Need for Speed: Most Wanted demo hitting Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, because downloads don't make noises beyond the very faint buzzing of electrons inaudible. Press your ear close to your console and you may just hear it, as EA released a single-player slice today.
Developer Criterion Games is no stranger to making solid arcade racers. Its latest, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, delivers much of what fans expect from their games: white-knuckle races at breakneck speeds, gorgeous presentation, and solid (albeit familiar) driving mechanics. As in Burnout Paradise, Most Wanted has players racing around an open world: Fairhaven. And once again, the sandbox nature of the setting provide a fertile foundation for some outstanding multiplayer, even if it's at the expense of the single-player experience.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is coming to PS Vita. And surprisingly, the open world racer is left largely intact in its transition to the handhelds. Instead of giving porting duties to an external studio, developer Criterion Games is actually working on the Vita version in-house--ensuring that even the Vita version lives up to the team's standards.
"It looked like the machine was going to be capable of delivering what we wanted to do. And the way that we work is very iterative--build, play, change, build, play, change--that's how we work. When you go external it generally only works when you’ve got a finished game, otherwise there are too many moving parts," producer Matt Webster said.
As a committed pedestrian, I've often suspected that the only real reason to drive a car is that other passengers don't gawp at you when you yell at the vehicle. Delightfully, Need for Speed Most Wanted will recreate this sensation in the Xbox 360 edition with Kinect voice support, Electronic Arts announced today.
It's been four years since we've seen a proper Burnout game from Criterion. Lately, the studio has been assigned on the annualized Need for Speed series, having worked on Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted. Fans who fear that the team has abandoned its beloved series can rest their minds a bit as creative director Craig Sullivan has promised that Criterion will work on a new Burnout in the future.
"There's still a lot of stuff we want to do with driving," he said. "We will make another Burnout game at some point. Obviously, as we're working on NFS we're thinking of really good ideas that aren't right for this series; there are ideas that we're going to explore with Burnout."
Read more: But Criterion may work on a different game first »
Criterion's Need for Speed Most Wanted does seem to basically be a Burnout game slapped with a more popular brand. EA today released a new trailer showing how NFS's Autolog social doodads will still give a sense of the free-form multiplayer competition even in the single-player campaign.
Like any big-budget fall release, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is getting its own set of pre-order goodies. But what to offer in this car game about cars racing against other cars? If you answered "cars," you're a clever one.
Hyperviolence was all the rage at this year's E3. However, only one hyperviolent game could take the crown. The Game Critics Awards have finally been determined, and Naughty Dog has come on top with The Last of Us. Its strong performance pushed PS3 to the top of the heap, with PS3 as the most-winning platform. Sony Computer Entertainment is the most-winning publisher as well, with 7 awards.
EA's Need for Speed racing series has bounced around from developer to developer over the past few years, having previously been made chiefly by EA Black Box, but things are now stabilizing with Criterion leading the franchise. The creator of Burnout and maker of the upcoming Need for Speed Most Wanted won't specify exactly what its role is, but vice president Alex Ward has said the series is "definitely a Criterion gig now."
Read more: "Our stamp's going to be in everything you see" »
"I THINK the difference is an updated engine and NO free roam, which makes this a real racer in ..."
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