By The XBox 360 Mania continues to grow for those of us who haven't gotten one. Best Buy has been hoarding all their 360 shipments and will sell them this Sunday, December 18th. I predict long lines in the morning for that as everyone knows already. The Daily Show had this sketch about the 360 as the hottest toy of the year. I've got an outside chance to snag one myself, from a friend who will get the 2nd-3rd wave pre-order from Gamestop. He wants to wait until the bugs are worked out and Halo 3 is available. Being the early adopter that I am, I can't wait.
Video Games: December 2005 Archives
If you're an Electronic Arts racing fan, Need for Speed Most Wanted is a bit like a leftover meal. Mind you, leftovers can be quite tasty-pizza, Thanksgiving turkey, and pasta dishes come to mind. My first reaction in playing NFSMW is that it's a tweaked-out version of Need For Speed Underground 2. Open city with multiple pathways and neighborhoods that open up as you progress? Check. Stock cars that you can upgrade, paint, and decal to your hearts desire? Check. Cute babe in cutscenes? Check. Check. Check.
It may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. I'm a big fan of the Need For Speed series, and EA has improved on Underground 2 in a number of ways. The races take place in daytime, usually around sunset, in an environment that resembles Seattle or
Vancouver in the fall. EA's graphics gurus worked hard to produce a sun-flared washed-out environment that looks remarkable on the first generation Xbox. In addition to the gameplay, there are cut-scenes that were produced with full motion video. That means you get to see a real life model (Josie Moran) in all her flat-belly glory as she accompanies you through the storyline. The cut scenes work much better than NFSU2's cheesy comic-book montages, due to some slick imaging enhancements that give all the actors a washed-out visage. The storyline starts out when you lose your souped-up BMW to the leader of this city's racing gang. He actually cheated by sabotaging your car and he wants Josie Moran too! All this is standard stuff, but it's complicated by the police, who have taken notice of your arrival and want to bust you at the first opportunity. It's an OK storyline, but I think it could have been improved by bringing Brooke Burke back and telling us that she would strip down to a thong when we beat the final boss. Moran's cute, but she doesn't have that Ms. Nasty quality that Burke exudes.
You progress through the game by working your way through the Blacklist, about fifteen supposedly bad-ass racers who look like American Idol rejects. I laugh every time I see a one of these creampuffs, because they spend more time on hair gel than engine parts. To race each Blacklist member, you have to win a half dozen races, which can be composed of circuit races, sprints, drag races, toll-booth challenges, etc. You don't have to drive all over the city to find these events-they are now more easily accessed from the menu in your Safehouse, which is a good improvement. However, the game designers actually gave players an incentive to free roam the city: you will encounter more cops that way. I was stunned during my drive to explore the world when a cop saw me and started giving chase. There's a few ways to end the chase: evade them on back roads, outrace them, or cause havoc by destroying various things (signs, gas stations, logging trucks, water towers) marked on the map. The more havoc you cause (including ramming police cars from behind) adds more points to your rap sheet, which you have to do to race the Blacklist members. I'm still in the early stages of NFSMW, but I am pretty impressed. I've read that in the later stages, the AI gets more difficult and the police start sending out helicopters. Police are also show up during and after race events.
The cars in NFSMW are the best of both classic NFS games and the Underground series. I haven't been that obsessed with decorating my car in this game. Part of the reason is that the Replay mode is gone in this game-when the game is done, you can't see a movie of the race from multiple points of view. That's my biggest disappointment so far. But all in all, Most Wanted is a perfect complement to Underground 2. I am keeping both titles in my game library so that I can alternate between night-time driving on slicked out streets and the Seattle fall foliage. Wouldn't it be cool if EA could produce a game that alternates both environments? Nuff said.
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