The first time I ever played Need for Speed: Underground 2 was on a demo PS2 in a branch of Comet in Swindon, around Christmas 2004. I recall making a fully murdered-out Escalade, only to be crushed when the lads waiting in line behind me said that I'd ruined it. Perhaps out of a need to repair the hurt feelings of my younger self, or, more likely, due to a summer games drought, I've been replaying Need for Speed: Underground 2 recently.

First impressions were, if I'm honest, mixed. The slang the game throws at you had me cackling, and there's Burger King product placement all over the place, including billboards extolling the deliciousness of a Whopper. It's almost as offensive as Fight Night Round 3 including the King himself as a trainer.

Look past that, and the dated graphics though, and you're in for an absolutely stellar time. Whether you're gamely cruising around in a Peugeot 106 or heave-hoing on the wheel of a Cadillac Escalade, it's an absolute treat to go back to Bayview. Once you get into the game, you'll find a treasure trove of variety in the races. There's circuit races, drag races, sprints, and drifting contests to keep you occupied, all of which could and indeed, have, had games made about them.

Sacrificing cars to the tuner gods

The environments, too, are fabulously varied. There's an entire section of the map that's made up of twisting, switchback-bedecked mountain roads. Customization options are as rich as you remember, too, though you will have to be enamored of 00s tuner culture to actually think that your car looks good afterwards. You can always just sacrifice an Escalade or a Lincoln Navigator to the Gods of Max Power magazine, as you'll need to reach certain visual ratings to progress. Then it's just a matter of getting your car featured on magazine and DVD covers, often accompanied by an extremely low-res pic of some buxom lady superimposed in front of it.

After digging into Underground 2, I decided to try out a game that I'd never owned back in the day, and one of its closest competitors: Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix. In comparison to Need for Speed, the game looks crisper from the start. It, like Underground 2, is a little too in love with lens flare, but the two extra years between Dub Edition Remix and Underground 2 shine through, and what's more, it actually has a kind of day/night cycle, which Underground 2 does not. The race types aren't as varied, though – the races are all just that, standard street races with some limited mutators applied.

However, the car customization is deeper, and there are vastly more cars to choose from. There are 94 vehicles in Dub Edition Remix, compared to just over 30 cars in Underground 2. And yes, I said vehicles, as Midnight Club is about that motorbike life, too. The total map size in Midnight Club 3 is also huge, as it's made up of four different locations: San Diego, Detroit, Atlanta, and Tokyo (in the Remix).

Take me down, six Underground

The truth is, both of these games still have a lot to offer. Playing games from 20 years ago (19, in the case of Dub Edition Remix) is an odd experience in 2025. Growing up, playing games from the 1980s felt like stepping into a time warp. With games from the mid-00s, it's more like looking at a modern phone game, unflatteringly blown up to fit a TV or monitor. They're not good-looking, but they're not too bad. Graphical technology has obviously advanced, but the gains are smaller with each leap, like a technological Zeno's paradox. They're so refreshingly free of distractions, too – the game has a focus on racing and that's what you're going to do.

You don't really get racing games like these anymore, certainly not big budget ones. The bigger franchises lost traction sometime around 2010, leaving comparatively smaller titles like the excellent Tokyo Xtreme Racer to fill the gap. This style of game died with 00s tuner culture. Today, racing games tend to be more strait-laced, even the Forza Horizon games aren't as focused on giving you an instant burst of silliness.

I'd recommend you go back and give these games a good honest try. They're not like anything else that you'll find today, for better and for worse. I'm glad that I'll never pretend to enjoy Pimp My Ride again, but to say that there's nothing somewhat hypnotic about turning a scraper Honda Civic into a street racing machine (with neon underglow) would be a barefaced lie. Take a trip back in time with me, but leave your sense of good taste at home.

Forza Horizon 5 landing on PS5 means I'm replaying one of the greatest racing games of all time, and this is the best it's been in 4 years

There are currently no developers at Criterion working on my favorite racing game series, Need For Speed. Instead, the studio is one of four under EA lending support to Battlefield 6.

In a statement given to Eurogamer, EA's Battlefield boss Vince Zampella says: "The Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield. As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound."

Although I loved the Need For Speed series as a kid, I fell off for a while until Heat and Unbound came out and returned the car-tuning games to their former glory. Unbound has been the perfect mix of new and old, showing a great appreciation for the game's hip-hop aesthetics and offering a tense and challenging story mode. It's been supported by Criterion since release, with new updates being added consistently.

"With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways," says Zampella. I'd be happy with more of the same, or a direct sequel to Heat that had a more focused and fleshed out story. 

But for now, Criterion is joining DICE, Ripple Effect, and Motive to work on the next Battlefield game. I like Battlefield as much as the next person (I spent an absurd number of hours on the 24/7 Metro server on Battlefield 3), but it's sad to see so many great studios all working on one cash cow instead of making cool new games.

While we wait for more Battlefield and cry over the lack of Need For Speed, check out all the upcoming video game release dates so you know what to look forward to this year.

If you're looking for the Need for Speed Unbound release time then you're in luck, as it arrived on December 2 at 07:00 UTC so the game is now available worldwide. The Early Access and Palace Edition came out three days earlier on November 29, but now the release time for the Standard Edition has passed the racing action is open to everyone, regardless of location or platform.

PS5 and Xbox Series X|S owners can download Need for Speed Unbound from their respective digital stores, while PC users can access it via the EA app, Origin, Steam, or Epic Games, and everyone can race together thanks to Need for Speed Unbound crossplay – though you can also turn that off if you prefer. The wait for a new NFS game is now over, but if you have any questions about the Need for Speed Unbound release time around the globe then we've got all of the answers below.

What time does Need for Speed Unbound release

The good news if you're reading this now is that the Need for Speed Unbound release time has officially passed on December 2, so the game is available to play in all territories. If you were wondering exactly when that happened, these are the times it officially launched at:

• West Coast US: 23:00 PST (December 1)
• East Coast US: 02:00 EST
• United Kingdom: 07:00 GMT
• Europe: 08:00 CET
• Australia: 18:00 AEDT

The above information applies to the Standard Edition of Need for Speed Unbound, while the Palace Edition / Early Access launch took place at the same times three days earlier on November 29. If you subscribe to EA Play then you could play the Standard Edition from this earlier date for up to 10 hours (and carry over progress if you buy it), while EA Play Pro members received the full Palace Edition of the game on that date. If you want to know what we thought of it, then have a read of our Need for Speed Unbound review where we described it as "a breathtakingly fast open-world street racer."

While Need for Speed Unbound crossplay is available, to connect players between Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC platforms, it is limited to an extent as it can only be used in the Lakeshore Online mode and not during the main Story. However, this still means that you can team up with your racing buddies and go head to head in an anime style regardless of what system you're all playing on, so long as you're connected to each other as EA Friends so you can make contact and meet on the mean streets.

There's plenty of fast and furious racing to be had, full of drifting and nitrous boosts, so Need for Speed Unbound crossplay gives you the biggest pool of players to go head to head with and prove your skills behind the wheel. However, some players prefer to only go up against those on the same platform to ensure they're racing on a level playing field, so as well as explaining how it all works, we've also got details for how to disable Need for Speed Unbound crossplay if you'd prefer not to use it.

How to use Need for Speed Unbound crossplay

Need for Speed Unbound crossplay is available and enabled as standard, which means you'll automatically be matched up with players from Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC platforms. It should be noted that this only applies to the Lakeshore Online part of the game, as the main Story element is a single-player experience, and if crossplay is enabled then you'll see the above notification screen before you join a Lakeshore Online session. Once you're in, you can send invites to your contacts on any supported platform, as long as you're EA Friends.

If you want to disable Need for Speed Unbound crossplay so you're just matched up with players from the same platform, then this can be done by accessing the Settings and Accessibility menu then opening the Game section and moving the slider next to Enable Cross-Play to off. You can only change this setting while in the main menu, so you'll need to back out completely if you're in a current session before adjusting your matchmaking pool.

Want to know what we thought of the latest NFS? Then take a read of our Need for Speed Unbound review, where we described it as "A breathtakingly fast open-world street racer."

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Need For Speed Unbound employs one of rap's all-time great artists in a slightly unusual way.

EA and Criterion's latest racing game features A$AP Rocky, players have only just discovered. However, as the tweet below illustrates, rather than just feature the artist on Need For Speed Unbound's soundtrack, the game actually has a car horn with the prolific artist saying "beep beep."

What an inspired design direction. If you've ever wanted to go full comedic horn for your car rather than having a horn as intimidating as possible to warn off opponents, you might well want to unlock the A$AP horn for your Need For Speed Unbound ride.

Another incredibly appealing alternative would be having Charli XCX saying "beep beep" from her absolute banger of a track, 'Vroom Vroom.' Considering we've already got A$AP Rocky simply saying "beep beep" for a car horn, we can't exactly complain at the offerings. 

Need For Speed Unbound launched just yesterday on November 29, but that's only for the premium Palace Edition of the racing game. For everyone else, EA's latest release in the prolific racing series is slated to launch later this week on Friday, November 2 on all platforms.

Unbound was only just announced last month in October, complete with a full anime-inspired debut trailer. There's over 140 vehicles in the full Need For Speed Unbound car list, including the likes of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Fords, and more.

Check out our full guide to the best Need For Speed games if you're looking to revisit the best the racing series has to offer. 

Over an hour of Need for Speed Unbound gameplay has leaked online.

Whilst the footage has been teased out in short, sometimes mere seconds-long snippets, there are also some chunkier videos in the mix too, including two fifteen-minute clips and one that lasts over half an hour.

It looks as though much of the gameplay has been released via Twitch livestreams from two streamers - Chocolove95 and gerrykurlsucks, according to ResetEra - and disseminated further by YouTubers who have captured the streams and re-uploaded them to their own channels. 

One is entitled "Totally NOT need for speed unbound. DO NOT LOOK EA…" whilst another reads: "NOT NFS Unbound Leaked gameplay!!! 30 mins". 

The original streams on Chocolove95, however, have been removed in the last few hours, with Twitch citing that the "content from this channel has been removed at the request of the copyright holder", suggesting the streamer did not have permission to share the game just yet.

The footage comes ahead of the game's early access period, which is scheduled to go live on November 29, just three days before its formal release date on December 2. 

EA officially launched the first Need for Speed: Unbound trailer back in October, confirming the game's hybrid, anime-inspired art style. It was revealed that Unbound will feature realistic car models and city streets, overlaid with cartoonish smoke and particle effects. Human characters also have a cel-shaded anime aesthetic.

It also boasts layered, toggleable driving effects that let players make the game look exactly as anime as they want - or not, as the case may be.

Need for Speed Unbound will be available on Xbox Series X and S, PS5, and PC via Steam, Epic, and the EA app for $69.99 USD. No old-gen versions have been announced but if you pre-order the racer, you'll be able to play the game up to three days in advance of its official street date of December 2.

For more ways to take the wheel ahead of the new Need for Speed's launch, check out our guide to the best racing games out there.

Need for Speed Unbound has layered, toggleable driving effects that let players make the game look exactly as anime as they want. 

The game's official Twitter account released a new snippet of gameplay showing off a range of these effects, from heavily inked smoke trails to pop-ups best described as augmented reality graffiti.

"Yes, you can turn the effects off," the account clarified in a reply. "In fact, you can choose to never put them on in the first place. Just like any other part of a car."

That being said, a follow-up tweet confirmed that while almost everything is up to each player, "basic tail smoke and trail lights can't be disabled," but "everything else can." This seems to be a compromise for establishing the game's basic visual style while putting everything possible in the hands of players. 

The end result of all this customization is basically an unseen slider labeled "Must be this anime to drive". If you crank everything to max and really pile on the effects, this will be the flashiest, most cartoonish Need for Speed ever made by a wide margin. But if that's not your bag and you'd rather tone everything down, it looks like you can still squeeze a fairly typical, more subdued aesthetic out of things. 

The first official trailer for Need for Speed Unbound was loudly, proudly anime as all get-out, with the game's cel-shaded filter affecting everything from cars to drivers. The game's due on December 2, but with pre-orders granting three-day early access, it's technically out on November 29. 

The Need for Speed Unbound car list is over 140 vehicles strong. 

Update, October 6: EA has officially launched the first Need for Speed: Unbound trailer, confirming the game's hybrid, anime-inspired art style.

Unbound will feature realistic car models and city streets, overlaid with cartoonish smoke and particle effects. Human characters also have a cel-shaded anime aesthetic.

As leaked store pages suggested, Need for Speed: Unbound officially launches on December 2, 2022, though pre-orders will get you three days of early access - effectively meaning that the game launches on November 29.

The game will be available on Xbox Series X and S, PS5, and PC via Steam, Epic, and the EA app for $69.99 USD. No old-gen versions have been announced.

According to the official description, the game is set in a place called Lakeshore City, when a "robbery at a family auto-shop tears two friends apart and marks the rise from rookie to top racer on a journey to win the ultimate street race and reclaim the priceless car that was stolen."

You'll be betting on races, outdriving cops, and, of course, drifting throughout the game. A$AP Rocky will apparently be an in-game character you can race against in a special series of events. You'll be able to customize your car and your character with cosmetic items. Unbound will also include multiplayer, including a free roam option.

Original story, October 5: A bunch of Need for Speed: Unbound screenshots have leaked through a retail listing ahead of the game's official reveal, confirming rumors that the upcoming racer would feature an anime-inspired aesthetic.

A listing for the PS5 version of Need for Speed: Unbound appeared (appropriately) on a Japanese retailer called Neowing earlier today, brought to the English-speaking public's attention by Gematsu. The listing features four screenshots, depicting the shiny cars on rain-slicked streets you'd expect from the series, as well as several images of human characters rendered in a cel-shaded, cartoonish aesthetic.

Rumors earlier this year suggested that the new Need for Speed would combine photorealistic cars with anime-inspired overlays, and these screenshots certainly seem to back that idea up. Plus there's a weeb-friendly waifu paintjob, the likes of which usually aren't seen outside of Forza livery editors.

A machine translation of that store page suggests that the game will be heavily focused on tuning your own custom cars. But Unbound's style gets more space in the copy than its gameplay, with the page breaking down its visuals as well as a soundtrack featuring the likes of A$AP Rocky.

The listing suggests the game will launch on December 2, 2022. EA's financial reports have listed a new Need for Speed game for launch this year, though the official reveal of the game is not due to happen until tomorrow, October 6. Early reports have suggested that it's going to be a next-gen exclusive.

For more ways to take the wheel ahead of the new Need for Speed's launch, check out our guide to the best racing games out there.

Need for Speed: Unbound is the title of the next entry in EA's venerable racing series, according to art leaked from the publisher's own website.

Today, EA announced that the new Need for Speed will be officially revealed on October 6 at 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 4pm BST on YouTube. (That's less than 48 hours away, as this story goes live.) "Be amongst the first to see the evolution of Need for Speed," the video description suggests. "Go fast and get noticed in the latest installment from veteran developer Criterion Games."

Fans quickly dug through the official Need for Speed website to discover a piece of key art for Need for Speed: Unbound, revealing the title for the new game several days early. The image shows a car burning rubber through city streets - as you'd expect from the series - kicking up smoke that's filled with anarchy symbols and dollar signs.

In a recent financial report, EA listed the next Need for Speed title for launch in its third financial quarter for 2022, meaning the game is expected to launch between October 1 and December 31 of this year. We've also learned that Dirt and Grid studio Codemasters will be assisting Criterion on the new NFS.

Unofficially, rumors have suggested that this new game will be a new-gen exclusive. Either way, it looks like we can say one thing for sure: in terms of racing game names, Ridge Racer Unbounded was a decade ahead of its time.

Take the wheel in our list of the best racing games.

Having a set of Need For Speed Heat tips safely tucked in your glove box can give you a competitive edge on the streets of Palm City, while you try to balance outpacing your opponents in races with keeping one step ahead of the police. You'll find that Need For Speed Heat is somewhat of a departure from previous entries in the series, as in a similar vein to the classic Burnout Paradise you'll be executing wild jumps and smashing through billboards as you explore the city.

Of course, there's still a significant focus on the racing side of things, whether you're taking part in the sanctioned circuits available by Day or delving onto the illegal street races at Night. They both have their own distinctive style and unique challenges to overcome, so you'll need to tailor your approach accordingly if you want to emerge victorious. Through all of this you'll have to earn a solid reputation by proving your driving credentials and staying one step ahead of the cops, so follow these Need For Speed Heat tips and show us what you've got behind the wheel.

1. Practice your drifting

If you're used to tapping the brakes to throw your car into a slide, you may need to spend some time practicing how to drift in Need For Speed Heat, as the method is slightly different. Steer into a turn followed by a tap then hold of the accelerator and you'll start drifting, which is a great way to corner while still maintaining speed. It looks cool, though remember that if you can steer through the corner at full tilt without drifting then that will maintain more speed. For tighter turns, especially in some of the drifting races and challenges, a tap of the handbrake will be necessary to get enough slide to turn through narrow spaces.

2. Don't worry about hitting obstacles

A lot of racing games will punish you for clipping or full-blown crashing into obstacles, but helpfully in Palm City the lamp posts, telegraph poles, and palm trees all snap like twigs if you hit them. This will cause no damage to your vehicle and only marginally reduce your speed, so as long as you're passing through the checkpoints don't stress about cutting corners during races. Only more solid objects such as sign gantries and bridge supports will stop you in your tracks, and they will reduce your car's health so be wary of them.

3. Unlock fast travel points

The world of Palm City is pretty large, and although there are some fast travel points available early in the game such as your garage and the dealership, there are plenty of other safe houses marked on the map that are tagged with a padlock until you visit them. Take some time to drive around the city to unlock these safe houses, as you'll save a lot more time in the long run by being able to fast travel across Palm City to reach other races and stories.

4. Don't ignore the collectibles

As you explore the city you'll automatically add markers to your map for billboards, street art, and flamingos as you pass near them, but these shouldn't only be of interest to completionists. Street art just gives you new decals for your cars when you collect them, but every billboard and flamingo you smash rewards you with Bank and Rep, meaning it's definitely worth your time hitting any you discover even if you don't plan to complete the sets. Under Progression in the pause menu you can track your Collections to see how you're getting on, as well as seeing clues for where billboards and street art is located.

5. Pick your Racer Challenges

As well Daily Challenges to work on for Bank and Rep rewards, you can also have an active set of Racer Challenges to complete. Unusually, you have to choose between Day or Night Racer Challenges as you can only have one set active at a time, and you can only select or switch them at your garage. Converse to regular progress, Day Racer Challenges earn you Rep while Night Racer Challenges provide Bank, with an extra bonus amount for beating all three challenges. Remember to switch them before you change the time of day to keep the rewards flowing, and at any point you can press left on the d-pad to bring up your current challenges, including Racer Challenges and Daily Challenges.

6. Earn extra Rep by completing Activities at Night

Each time you complete an activity to at least one star rating, such as Speed Traps, Long Jumps, and Drift Zones, you'll receive a bonus of Bank or Rep depending on the time of day you're in. You can use this at Night to earn extra Rep quickly by hitting Speed Traps and Long Jumps as you pass them, so make sure you take full advantage. There's a particularly useful location for this inside the race track just south of your garage, where you can continually loop back and forth between the Speed Trap and Long Jump to accrue Rep without being hassled by cops. Once you've racked up the Rep, you can just hop to your garage to bank it or track down some police to increase your Heat further and boost the multiplier for an even greater reward.

7. Plan your escape route

While taking part in events at Night, take a moment to check your map first for a rough idea of where the nearby garages and safe houses are, as once you're in the heat of a cop chase you don't really have time to start browsing the map. Look out for the markers in the sky above safe houses to help you navigate towards them, though remember that due to road layouts you might not be able to drive directly to them.

8. Know when to call it quits

Earning Heat by confronting the police while driving at Night increases your multiplier for all Rep earned during that Night, as long as you bank it by reaching a safe house. The higher your Heat, the tougher the police response will be, so you need to weigh up how long you stay out for against getting busted and losing all your multiplier as well as some Bank. You can visit gas stations to repair your vehicle if you're getting bashed up by the cops, but you can only do this three times per Night session before they get shut down. Lose the cops then reach a safe house to collect your Rep – you don't have to unlock the safe house before you can use it to end a Night run.

9. Escape from the cops

When the heat is on, you'll need to put distance between yourself and the cops to break their line of sight and start your escape. The police are fast and aggressive, so you'll struggle to evade them on a straight run, and instead you should make lots of turns and double-backs to try and throw them off you. Once you reach the 'Escaping' phase, keep an eye on your minimap for cops and their cones of vision, then either get away from the area or hide out of sight until the chase ends. A great way of losing police that are on your tail is to hit one of the many jump ramps around the city, as these will usually shortcut you to another section of road and the cops won't take the leap, immediately putting distance between you and your pursuers.

10. Invest in Auxiliary Upgrades ASAP

As you level up your reputation, you'll unlock access to new parts that can be applied in your garage to improve your car. As well as the usual engine, chassis, and drivetrain modifications, your vehicle has both active and passive Auxiliary Upgrade slots. Keep an eye on these and invest in upgrades as soon as you can, as they offer all sorts of benefits to combat the cops' abilities, refill your nitrous, or partially repair your car, which can be invaluable when the police have rammed your car down to critical damage.

Discovering the Need For Speed Heat best car is what this racer is all about, and as you'll be spending many hours behind the wheel while you fully explore Palm City you want to be sure you're in the most suitable ride. This can actually feel like an intimidating prospect as there's a massive 120 vehicles to choose from in Need For Speed Heat, and it would take a long time to assess them all individually. Furthermore, as there are various event types to enter and different racing styles to follow, there may not be a single best car that would be most suited to every player and race.

As well as your regular road races, there are off-road races where traction and suspension play a much bigger part in making your drive a success. You can also choose between driving in a race style with better grip and handling, or a drift style where you have a greater ability to slide around turns without dropping so much speed. For that reason, we've taken a trip to the dealership – your main source of new vehicles in the game – and picked out what we consider to be the Need For Speed Heat best car to match various situations and styles, so you can decide which investments will work best for you.

Need For Speed Heat Best Car Balanced - Porsche Panamera Turbo '17 (218)

If you're looking for a decent all-round vehicle for all occasions, then the Porsche Panamera Turbo '17 will do the job for you. With punchy acceleration plus decent power and top speed, it will stand you in good stead across a variety of events if you don't want to specialise.

Need For Speed Heat Best Car Road Race - Koenigsegg Regera '16 (400+)

There's no denying that the Koenigsegg Regera '16 is an absolute road race beast, with stats that are completely off the charts! The crazy acceleration and top speed may make cornering a delicate art that requires plenty of practice, but in a straight race there's nothing else that comes close.

Need For Speed Heat Best Car Off-Road Race - BMW X6 M '16 (188)

As an off-road race contender, the BMW X6 M '16 strikes the right balance between power and handling to help you achieve victory away from the streets. The top speed isn't the highest but the power and acceleration combined contribute to this being a great off-road car.

Need For Speed Heat Best Car Road Drift - SRT Viper GTS '14 (283)

If sliding around corners at high speed is your jam, then the SRT Viper GTS '14 makes a sensible choice. High power and acceleration combined with a looser vehicle set up to encourage drifting means you shouldn't have any problems throwing out the back end to make those tight turns with effortless precision.

Need For Speed Heat Best Car Off-Road Drift - Ford F-150 Raptor '17 (123)

This truck may look like a bit of a chonker, but the Ford F-150 Raptor '17 can drift surprisingly well when put through its paces off-road. What it lacks in acceleration it makes up for in power, and thanks to the traction set up you should still be able to slide it around the bends without sliding out on the rougher surfaces.

EA has pulled in Codemasters Cheshire to support development of the next Need for Speed game.

Codemasters confirmed the partnership in a tweet. "Criterion Games and the development team at Codemasters Cheshire are officially coming together to create the future of [Need for Speed], forming one Criterion studio with two location hubs," an announcement reads. This confirms that this partnership is more than a temporary arrangement and that Criterion will fully absorb Codemasters Cheshire.  

Codemasters adds that "this integration builds off the close partnership the two studios have developed over the past few months." 

As ever, the relationships between EA's internal studios are a little complicated. Cheshire is just one of the studios under the Codemasters umbrella, which also covers the Formula 1 and Dirt games as well as Grid Legends. EA acquired Codemasters in its entirety for $1.2 billion last year, and it's been steadily splicing up studios ever since. 

Codemasters Cheshire's most recent game was Onrush, a more arcade-style racer released in 2018. Its development team includes former designers on the likes of Driveclub and Motorstorm, and it will now be assisting Criterion with work on Need for Speed, which is said to be a new-gen console exclusive.

Criterion was previously pulled off of Need for Speed to assist DICE with work on Battlefield 2042 (known as Battlefield 6 at the time), resulting in a delay which pushed the next installment in the racing franchise back a full year. It seems Need for Speed could now use some help of its own, hence EA's decision to loop in one of Codemasters' development arms.

EA says it has an unannounced remake and a major IP coming in early 2023.

Need for Speed Most Wanted jack spots are special locations all across the game where players can grab cars by driving up to them, a useful little feature that'll allow you to get around Need For Speed: Most Wanted with a lot more flexibility and freedom. Using these cars is a vital mechanic to make use of (before you crash them up and actually have to send them a real mechanic), so we've laid out all the Need for Speed Most Wanted jack spot locations and what cars you can find there below. 

Need For Speed: Most Wanted Speed Camera locations guide | Need For Speed: Most Wanted Billboard locations guide

There are 33 different cars that can be found in 3 different locations, as well as the 10 Most Wanted cars that you will automatically unlock once you have defeated them in a race. The Most Wanted cars will automatically unlock their jack spots on the map, but the rest you’ll need to track down on your own. Below is the location of each and every car once you have unlocked all 10 of the Most Wanted vehicles.

Click to enlarge the map above. There are 33 different cars that can be found in 3 different locations, and the map above shows all of the Jack Spot locations – the additional 10 Most Wanted cars and their Jack Spot locations unlock once you defeat them in a race.

Jack Spot Cars

1 Ariel Atom 500
2 Aston Martin V12 Vantage
3 Audi A1 Clubsport quattro
4 Audi R8 GT Spyder
5 BAC Mono
6 Bentley Supersports ISR
7 BMW M3 Coupé
8 Caterham Superlight R500
9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
10 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
11 Dodge Challenger SRT8
12 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
13 Ford Focus RS500
14 Ford Focus ST
15 Ford GT
16 Ford Mustang Boss 302
17 Hummer H1 Alpha
18 Jaguar XKR
19 Lamborghini Countach
20 Lamborghini Gallardo
21 Lancia Delta HF Integrale
22 Marussia B2
23 Maserati GT MC Stradale
24 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
25 Mitsubishi Evolution X
26 Nissan GT-R Egoist
27 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.0
28 Porsche 911 Carrera S
29 Porsche Panamera Turbo
30 Range Rover Evoque
31 SRT Viper GTS
32 Subaru Cosworth Impreza
33 Tesla Roadster Sport

Car received through Most Wanted Races

34 Alfa Romeo 4C Concept
35 Shelby Cobra 427
36 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG
37 Lexus LFA
38 McLaren MP4-12C
39 Porsche 918 Spyder Concept
40 Lamborghini Aventador
41 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport
42 Pagani Huayra
43 Koenigsegg Agera R

The next Need for Speed game could be next-gen exclusive according to a recent claim from industry insider Jeff Grubb. 

In the latest episode of the Grubbsnax podcast, Grubb says that the untitled new Need for Speed title - which is currently being developed by Criterion Games - is "still coming this year." In fact, Grubb even went as far as saying that the racing game is expected to release in November 2022, however, without official confirmation from EA or Criterion this could very well be subject to change. 

Perhaps most interesting though is that Grubb has also claimed that "[Criterion] are shifting to next-gen only for that." Meaning it’s possible that the next Need for Speed game could be an Xbox Series X and PS5 exclusive. But again, it’s best to take this claim with a grain of salt until we get the official word on this. So there is no need to start panic buying a next-gen console just yet. 

The last Need for Speed game to release was Need for Speed: Heat back in 2019. That project was developed by Ghost Games for EA before the series was returned to main developer Criterion in 2020 - who also worked on the recently released Battlefield 2042. Speaking of Battlefield, it appears Battlefield 6 is actually responsible for delaying the new Need for Speed as revealed by EA chief studios officer Laura Miele last year. 

Wondering what you should play in the meantime? Take a look at our list of best Need for Speed games for inspiration. 

A former TV producer has revealed a Need For Speed TV show was very nearly made in the mid-2000s.

In a new video over on his YouTube channel, former TV producer and consultant Craig Lieberman reveals that he pitched a Need For Speed TV show to EA. 

In the video, Lieberman tells of how he was originally employed as a consultant on Need For Speed Underground at EA, and he would use this position to pitch EA leadership a show to tie in with the new game, which they apparently loved.

Simply called "Need For Speed," the TV show would be based around teams assembling their own vehicles, and would actually feature challenges originating from the video game series. First, Lieberman explains, the contestants in the TV show would be timed on a lap challenge, before undertaking a "best in show" award with a panel of judging experts. 

Need For Speed Underground would actually feature in the TV show, as teams would have to select one driver to represent them in an in-game race. Lieberman reveals the project would have had a budged of $6.4 million, making it one of the most expensive shows of its type, back in the day. 

Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be. Lieberman explains that, in the mid-2000s, the space for car-based TV shows was just too crowded, and even MTV couldn't get its foot in the door. This is chiefly the reason, along with perhaps the budget, that the Need For Speed TV series was ultimately canned. 

It's an incredibly detailed video from Lieberman, someone who's been around in the TV production space for over two decades at this point. If you're at all interested about how the car culture from the early 2000s in America fell away with the rise of services like YouTube, it's a really interesting watch.

Last we heard of a new Need For Speed game, EA delayed the next game in the racing franchise by a year, as developer Criterion was recruited to help out EA DICE launch Battlefield 2042.

A collection of Need for Speed games have been pulled from digital storefronts by EA.

In a post on Reddit, community manager Max Myrus told fans that the "sun is setting on some older NFS titles." As of yesterday, May 31, Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed, and Need for Speed: The Run have been removed from sale, meaning players will no longer be able to purchase them, and their in-game stores have closed.

Myrus says the decision has been made in preparation for the retirement of the games' online services, which are due to go offline on August 31. Until then, players will be able to continue to race online, but from September they'll be limited to offline features. Myrus also claims that EA is "shifting gears to focus on the future of Need for Speed," meaning "it's no longer feasible to continue the work behind the scenes" to keep the titles running for their smaller audiences. More recent games, starting from 2012's Need for Speed Most Wanted, will remain available.

EA hasn't quite committed all hands to the next Need for Speed game. Back in March, it confirmed that it had moved developer Criterion into a supporting role on Battlefield 6, to ensure that the first-person shooter will release in time for its 'Holiday 2021' release window. Criterion will eventually move back to working on the racing franchise, but the switch has delayed the next Need for Speed game by around 12 months - EA previously stated the next game would arrive by March 2022, but that's now changed to March 2023. EA's racing fans won't be entirely stuck at the starting grid, however, as the company's recent purchase of Dirt and F1 developer Codemasters should ensure some extra high-octane output.

Delistings are far from unheard of, but they do tend to come with a little more warning than this. In the case of the Forza Horizon games - which have been subject to delistings over expiring music rights - Microsoft has announced the upcoming change (and some generous discounts to boot) with plenty of warning, allowing interested players to experience the game before it disappears forever.

Start your engines for our list of the best racing games.

If you're looking for some Need for Speed Payback tips, then you've most likely thrown yourself headlong into the Fast and Furious-esque racing world and found things are not quite as simple as you were expecting. Indeed, while there's plenty of police car pile-driving, nitrous boosting, plane jumping fun to be had in Need for Speed Payback, to get the most of out of your racing experience there are definitely some things that it's better to know about in advance so you can advance your career faster. If you're ready to hit the road, then buckle up with our Need for Speed Payback tips and start reaping your revenge.

1. Different characters focus on different driving styles

Need for Speed Payback works a little bit like GTA 5 to in that you’ve got a choice of three characters to race with. Each one has their own specialisms, their own vehicles and you’ll need to work with them in order to get the most out of the game. 

Tyler Morgan is your main guy. He’s the one who’ll be behind the wheel for your basic speed races, going from point A to point B as fast as possible. But you know how races work. Later on he’ll also be the one taking part in some drag races in a car with max nitrous from the off. 

Then there’s Sean McAlister - better know as Mac - who’s an offroad specialist, also taking particular joy in drift races, gliding round corners as if your car moves on butter. 

Rounding out your playable crew members is Jess. She’s not a racer, per se, but rather a professional driver of sorts. After you’ve moved through Chapter two, she’ll be back in the crew and ready to take part in illicit courier deliveries and getaway driving working against the clock... and the cops. 

Making sure the rides for each of your drivers is up to level and mastering the control system for each race style is key part of the joy of Need for Speed Payback.

2. The UI isn’t your best friend

The UI for Payback is a little obtuse at times, hiding stuff away when all you want to do is tweak, fiddle, and - more importantly - race. Flick through the map screens and it’ll filter all the stuff that’s cluttering up your map, from races to collectibles. But forget to switch back to “show all” and all that good stuff will also disappear from your mini-map too. 

You’ll be driving around thinking that you’ve got nothing to do and it’s all there really, just hidden away. 

3. Derelicts are a lot harder to find than you imagine

Another irritation comes in the form of the Derelict clues. It’s another UI issue, in that once you’ve obtained the clues you can pin them to your map to remind you what their hiding place looks like. But, unlike on the main Derelicts section of the menu, you can’t blow up the image or look at the little snapshot of the actual location and the map at the same time. 

This might not be frustrating to begin with, as the actual chassis isn’t that hard to find, lying about on lower ground. But attempt to discover the other four sections of your rusty ride and you’ll soon want to get as much information as you possibly can in one place. Each of these parts is hidden away on higher ground, and most of the time seemingly where your four wheels can’t reach. Most of the time you’ll need to scout around for hidden roads or entrances that you can sneak through to access the rusted gold. But, trust me, they’re worth finding.

• How to find all the Need for Speed Payback derelict locations

4. The map opens up a lot after you’ve finished the second chapter

If you’re thinking it’s all feeling a bit ‘samey’ after a few hours with Payback, fear not. You may initially only have access to two types of race - speed and offroad - but once you’ve finished the questline for both of those sections and raced straight into chapter three, the map will be peppered with plenty of other new types for you to trial. It’s a bigger game than you first expect, and it’s rather impressive.

5. Speed cards are crucial to progression

You might have noticed that races and cars each have a level indicator attached to them. You’ll need to make sure that your car is equal to or above the level suggested by the race itself. Any less and you risk making things a lot harder for yourself. In order to boost your car’s level, you’ll need to feed it Speed Cards, which boost stats for six different areas of your car, from nitrous to gearbox, and your overall level too. 

But there’s a catch. You can only get Speed Cards by completing races or buying them using in-game currency from the Tune-Up shops dotted across the map. That might sound easy enough, but the issue is that the cards you win are locked to the car you won the race with - unless you send them to your garage. Once they’ve been sent to your lock-up, it’s incredibly hard to access them. Instead, consider exchanging them for cold hard cash or for trade cards. Three of the latter can be used to buy another Speed Card, which are usually of better rank and higher quality. 

6. There’s a way to fiddle with Speed cards

If you want to look at all the Speed Cards on your car, head back to the garage and go to Performance Customisation. In here, you’ll see all your equipped Speed Cards and if you select an individual Card you can see any others that have been hidden away by better ones. In here, you can fiddle with your layout and trade in any cards that you don’t need anymore. 

Don’t forget, if you match three of the same brand of Speed Card - or even better, six - you’ll get even better stats and perks from your deck. 

7. You can only change your car at a specific race or in the garage

It’s worth your while unlocking the four garages that are dotted across Payback’s map, and not just so that you can store more cars. They actually act as a free fast-travel option, halving the time it takes to whizz across the map for that one specific race you want to replay. But also, it’s one of the only ways you can switch between characters and cars. Travel to one of your garages and you’ll be able to get out of that VW Golf GTI you’ve been using since hour one, and get behind one of your other wheels for a little something different. 

You can also change your car by going to an alternative race quest line - such as runner instead of drifter - to open up your garage and look at the goodies inside.

8. You have to unlock the customisation options for your cars

One of my favourite things about a Need for Speed game is making my car look utterly ridiculous with decals everywhere, utterly lurid paint jobs and other such adornments. I want the kind of car that would make your gran spit out her tea as it drove past the window. But unfortunately, to do that in Need for Speed Payback, you’ll need to do a bit of grinding first. Every single element of your body kit customisation options (found within the Visual Customisations tab in the garage) is locked behind gameplay achievements. 

Want to change your rear fenders? Buy a second garage first. How about some new headlights? Build a car from Derelict parts first - not an easy task. Want to swap out your wing mirrors? Better complete three Speed Trap activities with two-star ratings first. 

No-one puts a barrier between me and my granny dazzlers. 

9. There’s a definite grind

That’s just one part of the grind when it comes to Need for Speed Payback. Money is incredibly slow and difficult to earn, especially when a race earns you around $7,000 (if you don’t do all the side bets and stuff) but Speed Cards cost upwards of $11,000. Levelling up your cars for the late stage races eventually becomes a chore, as you’ll have to retread your steps through earlier races in order to save up enough dosh to level up your car. 

10. It’s easier to upgrade your existing car than buy a new one

Because of all that grind, it’s actually easier to simply level up the cars you buy at the start of each story questline than buying a new car. Although it’s super tempting to splash all your hard ground cash on a new ride, it’ll always be at a lower level than the one you’re already using, essentially putting you back to square one in the levelling game. You might not think your starter car is the coolest ride, but it is the best equipped for winning. 

The Need for Speed Payback derelicts are basically the collectibles of the racing world, and tracking them down is not only enjoyable but also adds five wrecks to your garage, which can then be fixed up into much better rides than the standard vehicles you'll encounter in the game. Naturally there's plenty of driving to be done in Need For Speed Payback, but you don't want to be wasting lots of time searching up and down the highways to find these secret cars.

Helpfully, each of these derelicts is unlocked by completing certain missions, after which you’re awarded with postcards showing vague locations as to where the vehicles and their parts are located. If you don’t have the time to comb the whole map for each and every clue, then we’ve got you covered with every Need for Speed Payback derelict location and every part, all discovered for you.

• Don't forget to check out our more general Need for Speed Payback tips

Some basics to note: all cars require you find the chassis first, then any of the four parts in the order of your choosing. Your scanner will highlight when you’re near parts, beeping faster as you get closer and slower as you get further away – you’ll know when you’re in the rough area.

Almost all of the parts are located in off-road areas, so you might want to use an off-road vehicle on your hunt. It’s not a prerequisite – any type of car can be used, it just makes it a bit easier to use the vehicle type for the terrain. Oh, and almost all the parts require a jump to be hit before you can get to them – there’s no cheesing your way through rocky outcrops as a shortcut.

And, above all, it’s fair to point out: it’s hard to miss the derelicts when you’re looking. Hopefully we can make it a bit easier for you with our Need for Speed Derelicts guide.

1. Ford Mustang 1965

Your first derelict is revealed after completing Tyler’s first five story missions – you’ll find the derelict at a disused garage, look for the water tower:

Once the chassis is in your possession, the four parts are ready for the taking. 

Starting with the Engine, you’ll want to head far west:

Look for a jump just off the road – a fire next to the part is the big hint here.

Next up, the body parts, for which you’ll be heading to a central northern region:

Look for the abandoned mine, or mill, or whatever it is – drive through the middle and over the ramp, and you’ll land at the next part.

Third up is your Mustang accessories, which can be found out east:

Look for this jump, after you climb a nearby hill just off the main road and you’ll hit the part you’re after.

Lastly for this derelict, you’ll be heading to the northwest:

This one’s easy – a jump just off the following nearby corner and you’ll land right at the part.

Turn to the next page to find out where the Need for Speed Payback Nissan 240Z derelict parts are...

2. Nissan 240Z

Next up is this classic little rusty Nissan number, the first clue for which is revealed when you complete Mac’s fourth story mission. It’s just by the side of the road, near a mobile home.

With the parts revealed you’ll want to head for the engine, which is next to the solar plant – you’ve just been there as Mac, so it should be easy to find.

A straightforward jump, and there you go – one engine.

Next up, your body parts – you’ll be heading to northern outskirts for this one:

To get to the actual part, it’s another jump – as said, they’re mostly jumps – approaching from the northwest.

Third, we go for the accessories, and we’ll be heading to the centre, south of your main airfield garage.

It is, as you might expect, a jump to the part from another unpaved road – look for the very obvious ramp.

Your final Nissan part is located in the north east, where there’s a lovely giant bridge. You don’t want to aim for the actual bridge, mind.

Approaching the target area you’ll see a jump off the side of the road – you do of course want to take this jump, and you’ll land at your final 240Z part.

Turn to the next page to find out where the Need for Speed Payback Chevrolet Bel Air derelict parts are...

3. Chevrolet Bel Air

The next derelict unfortunately isn’t referencing the Fresh Prince, but is still a lovely little number – and you’ll get your first postcard clue on finishing Jess‘s set of runner missions. The chassis itself is in the southeast, right in the city.

Head to the northeast again, where you’ll be able to find your Bel Air engine.

After heading off-road, look for a jump across to where the part is located – it’s worth mentioning doing this in an Audi makes it a little bit harder than it has to be...

For your body parts you’ll want to head to the southwest:

Keep an eye out for the following jump, just off the main road, and you’ll land at your part.

Back to the east and that lovely massive bridge for the Bel Air’s accessories:

Once again you’re looking out for a jump, which handily stands out in the orange-brown dirt roads. There’s some winding canyon roads to drive down before you get here, so again – Audi was a bad choice.

Head back to the central region for your final Bel Air part, the wheels – just to the southwest of the airfield.

And, once again, you’ll be keeping your eyes peeled for the ramp that stands out a mile off – or one point six kilometres, if you’ve got the game set to metric. And that’s your Bel Air.

Turn to the next page to find out where the Need for Speed Payback Chevrolet C10 derelict parts are...

4. Chevrolet C10

The final two derelicts come from the other two driving disciplines – you’ll get the clue for a Chevrolet C10 on finishing Big Sister’s drag missions. Head east and find the shell on the side of the road.

Going for the engine you’ll want to head north, to the outer edge of the game map.

As you may be able to guess by now, it’s a case of heading off on a dirt track away from the marked roads and taking a jump to where the part is located.

You’ll want to look for a side dirt road and a jump – who knew? – near to a speed challenge. Hit the jump, pick up the part.

Go way out west and you’ll be able to find yourself your accessories for the C10. There’s a surprise with this one, though...

Said surprise is you don’t have to jump to reach this part – shock! No, instead you’ll just barge through the fence at the side of the road and find your part nearby.

Fourth and finally for the C10, you’ll be heading right to the middle again for your wheels.

This one should be very simple – there’s little else around in the area, so just look out for the smoke, find the nearby ramp and the last part is yours.

Turn to the next page to find out where the Need for Speed Payback VW Beetle derelict parts are...

5. VW Beetle

The last of the derelicts is sure to be the favourite of many – the classic VW Beetle. Your chassis clue comes on completing the Underground Soldier’s drift missions. Naturally. Head to the western region and you’ll find your chassis just off from an intersection – look for the fire, it’s hard to miss.

Now onto the parts – engine first, you’ll want to go... well, up the road a tiny bit, as it’s really close to the chassis.

As almost-always, it involves going off-road and hitting a jump – this time the jump is a bit bigger than usual, so pick up as much speed as you can before hitting it.

The Beetle’s body parts mean a journey to the east once more, for yet another look at the lovely bridge.

You’ll want to generally head downhill until you find your jump, which is rather cunningly followed by a second jump – something unexpected! Land the second one and you’ll get the part.

Your Beetle is almost finished, but you’ll need to go back to the central region one last time in order to pick up the accessories part.

Look for this particular abandoned barn with a ramp right next to it, line yourself up, take the jump and bag the part.

Last of all you’ll want to get the wheels for your Beetle, which means one final trip to the north of the game world and its lovely red dirt.

It’s a straightforward one – this time the road you need to use to hit the ramp is marked on the map, so look for the road that ends about a jump’s distance away from the marker. Drive, jump, pick up the part, the Love Bug is yours.

And that’s all of the Need For Speed Payback derelicts in the garage – enjoy upgrading them and making them the absolute best vehicles in the game. Especially the Beetle, because Beetles are cool.

EA has revealed Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, and it's launching later this year on current-gen consoles.

Below, you can check out the reveal trailer for the EA's remastered racing game, after numerous leaks outed the remaster over the last few months. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered launches for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 6, and a week later for the Nintendo Switch on November 13. There's no word yet on whether the remaster will be available on next-gen consoles.

The remaster is being handled by Stellar Entertainment, the studio that was recently behind Burnout Paradise Remastered. When Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered launches in November, it'll support cross-play across PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, so you can go head-to-head in races against players from all four platforms.

The remaster will bundle in all original post-launch content for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, like the Armed and Dangerous update. Additionally, there'll be new content in the remaster, including achievements, car colors, an updated photo mode, and other changes that will bring the remaster more in-line with modern racers.

The Need for Speed series will continue with an entry from original developer Criterion at some point in the near future. Earlier this year, EA revealed it had handed development duties for the franchise back to Criterion, restructuring EA Gothenburg (formerly Ghost Games) in the process.

For a complete look at all the other games that EA's remaster is going head-to-head with later this year in November, head over to our new games 2020 guide.

It looks like EA is finally lifting the lid on the still unannounced Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered.

Rumours have been swirling for months now, most recently via Amazon UK, which reportedly put up a listing for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered. Though at the time we urged caution until we received solid confirmation either way, the page was yanked pretty promptly from Amazon's digital storefront, which was certainly suspicious if not quite completely damning.

Now, however, it's EA itself that's setting tongues wagging with a cheeky couple of tweets. Take a look:

That's not all, though. A countdown clock has also popped up on the official website, which looks set to hit zero on Monday, October 5, 2020.  The clock is accompanied by sign-up information and the following mysterious statement: "5:10. How did he go so fast? Five ten. 'Call Big Joe's Pizzeria on 0800-510-510-510.' There's got to be a way to fix this".

Right now there's no confirmation on when the remaster might hit our consoles, but the Amazon leak listed the game as releasing for £35 on November 13, 2020. 

As for what formats the remaster might be available on? The original rumour via "a source familiar with the publisher's release slate" intimated that racer will be available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. 

Burnout studio Criterion is now working on a new Need for Speed for next-gen consoles, which it describes as having "unparalleled game feel." 

It looks like a remaster of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is on the horizon. A listing for the game has shown up on Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee website, suggesting an official announcement for PS4 may not be that far away.

The listing (translated via Google) describes a “PlayStation 4 racing game with the content of racing on the road.” It also describes “slight violence,” expressed primarily through “speeding or reckless driving and attacking police vehicles.” That sounds about right for Hot Pursuit, which is defined by its high-speed police chases.

Presumably, a remaster refers to the 2010 version of Hot Pursuit, rather than the originals. The third Need for Speed game, released in 1998, was also titled Hot Pursuit and was followed up by a sequel in 2002. A two-decade gap, however, would probably require a little more than a remaster before it could be brought to current-gen consoles.

Leaks pertaining to the remaster have popped up a couple of times already this year. A report in June cited an EA source that pointed to PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch versions of the game. A few weeks later, a listing for Xbox One and Switch versions showed up on Amazon UK, pointing to a November 13 release, but was swiftly pulled back down. Elsewhere, former Burnout studio Criterion is said to be working on a next-gen Need for Speed, but that’s more likely to be a separate project from this one.

A listing at a game rating site suggests that not only were those two previous leaks pretty accurate, but that an official announcement might not be that far away. 

In lieu of an announcement, check out our list of the best racing games.

Another day, another leak, only this one isn't new – looks like a retail outlet has potentially leaked the release date for the unannounced Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit remaster.

A report from VentureBeat a few weeks back cited "a source familiar with the publisher's release slate" and outlined EA's alleged plans for the year ahead. The report focused on EA's Switch offerings, but the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit remaster is said to be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in addition to Switch. 

This time, though, the leak doesn't come from an industry insider but Amazon UK, which reportedly put up a listing for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered. Although release dates or artwork are never set in stone – we often see placeholder details – Amazon lists the game as releasing for £35 on November 13, 2020 (thanks, Pure Xbox).

As Austin reported at the time of the original leak, as always, it's worth remembering that this remains unannounced and unofficial, and if EA is indeed planning to release this remaster by the end of the year, we should hear about it fairly soon. The page was yanked pretty promptly from Amazon's digital storefront, though, so make of that what you will.

In other EA news, Electronic Arts recently announced it is merging EA Access and Origin Access into a single service called EA Play.

If that sounds familiar to you already, no, you're not getting confused – EA does indeed already have an event called EA Play. That too is going to be rebranded, though, so from here on in, the event formally known as EA Play will now be known as EA Play Live. 

Origin Access Premier, on the other hand, will change to EA Play Pro. 

Burnout studio Criterion is now working on a new Need for Speed for next-gen consoles, which it describes as having "unparalleled game feel." 

With the Burnout Paradise remaster still in our rear-view mirrors, EA is reportedly working on a remaster for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. 

A report from VentureBeat citing "a source familiar with the publisher's release slate" outlined EA's alleged plans for the year ahead. The report focuses on EA's Switch offerings, but the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit remaster is said to be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in addition to Switch. 

Burnout Paradise gives us some idea of what to expect from the rumoured remaster of Hot Pursuit. Burnout Paradise came out in 2008, while the modern Hot Pursuit - not Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit or Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 - was released in 2010 and on the same platforms, so it will likely receive much the same treatment. 

For those wondering, the other EA games supposedly coming to Switch are Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and the new EA Originals game from Velan Studios. Both releases make sense on paper. Plants vs. Zombies is exactly the kind of family-friendly fun I'd expect EA to bring to Switch, and the game at Velan Studios - formed by ex-Guitar Hero and Metroid Prime devs - has been (vaguely) described as a competitive online game with innovative mechanics, which could make it a good frontrunner for the EA Originals label. 

Anyway, that's all we have to go on regarding the Hot Pursuit remaster. As always, it's worth remembering that this remains unannounced and unofficial. If EA is indeed planning to release this remaster by the end of the year, we should hear about it fairly soon. 

Burnout studio Criterion is now working on a new Need for Speed for next-gen consoles, which it describes as having "unparalleled game feel." 

Need for Speed: Heat is set to become the first EA crossplay title.

Taking to the Need for Speed blog today, Matt Webster, general manager of Criterion Games, confirmed that PS4, Xbox One, and PC players will all be able to play together from tomorrow, Tuesday June 9. 

He wrote about the move: "At Criterion, we've always believed that games are better with friends. We don’t want your platform of choice to be a barrier for that experience."

To get racing with your pals on different platforms, you'll need to download a new update that will give live tomorrow, and then you'll be able to join up with all your mates in Palm City. There'll be a few extra bug fixes coming with that update, which you can check out in the official patch notes. 

There's no word yet on crossplay coming to more EA titles, but fingers crossed this is the start of EA bringing it to games such as Apex Legends, FIFA 20, and more, especially if it can be patched in. 

Webster also revealed that this will be Need for Speed: Heat's final update, while also confirming that Criterion is now moving onto developing a new Need for Speed game. He wrote: "Since the launch of Need for Speed Heat and as players continue to tear it up in Palm City, we’re listening to what you love about this experience, and what you all believe could be even better. With these insights, we have a terrific foundation to create the most expressive, most socially connected, action-packed game yet for Need for Speed fans and beyond."

We weren't too bowled over in our Need for Speed: Heat review, saying: "It all feels stretched out to justify its existence. It takes ages to get your wheels and your gear sorted out, then suddenly the story’s all done in a couple more hours. Of course, playing with your own friends elevates any game’s fun factor, and even solo there’s still loads of other stuff left to do." Hopefully, this final update means that you'll have more friends to play with.

Here's what you can expect from this week's Future Games Show.

Update: An update from Criterion Games confirms the studio is hard at work on the next Need for Speed title.

Criterion is taking over as the primary developer for the Need for Speed series as EA scales back previous flagship studio EA Gothenburg, formerly Ghost Games. Criterion previously led work on both Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted, and general manager Matt Webster addressed fans' expectation for both the series and the studio on the official website for NFS.

"First, I wanted to let you all know how excited our team here in Guildford is to be back in the driver’s seat of development for Need for Speed," Webster road. "As you'll know we have real history with racing and with Need for Speed. We're focused on bringing Criterion's unique point of view, unparalleled game feel, and high quality innovations that will chart a new future for this wonderful series of games."

Webster also confirmed that Need for Speed: Heat, the latest title in the franchise which was released late last year, will be the first EA game with full support for cross-play. The new multiplayer feature will arrive via an automatic update on June 9.

Original story follows

The studio behind Burnout is taking back over for the Need for Speed series after several years of behind-the-scenes support, while previous developer Ghost Games is scaling down.

The Need for Speed series has been led by a number of different development studios across its 25 years of history. It briefly went to Criterion for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted, then was the flagship franchise for Ghost Games. EA confirmed in a statement given to GamesIndustry that it's changing up the arrangement, citing difficulties with attracting enough game development talent to Gothenburg. Ghost Games is set to revert to its original name of EA Gothenburg and change its focus to engineering support - which sadly leaves 30 current jobs at risk.

"Ghost Games have helped to bring some great Need for Speed experiences to our players," EA's statement explains. "Consistently delivering that at AAA levels means we need teams with diverse skills in locations where we can continually support them and bring in new team members to join.

"Despite our best efforts to establish an independent development group in Gothenburg over several years, it's become clear that the breadth of talent we need to maintain a full AAA studio is just not available to us there. Criterion can also provide the consistent leadership that we need to continue creating and delivering new Need for Speed experiences for a long time to come."

Criterion is based in Guildford, which is also home to studios like Media Molecule, Supermassive, and Hello Games, among many others. The unspoken part of EA's statement is that the Need for Speed series has not flourished under the stewardship of Ghost Games - our Need for Speed Heat review found it still fell short of the Underground 2 heyday. Before that, Need for Speed Payback's aggressive monetization made it a low point for the series.

To be clear, the Criterion that exists today is quite different from the heady Burnout days: co-founders Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry left the studio in 2014 to form Three Fields Entertainment, while Criterion has continued as a support studio with prominent credits on the Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield series. 

While we wait to find out where Need for Speed is headed next, check out some picks from our guide to the best racing games. 

It’s fair to say Need For Speed Underground 2 remains the peak of the street racing side of the series. We’ve had better graphics, bigger environments, online integration and pretty much every other modern mechanism available, but still it’s the one game that fans have longed to see rebooted the most. Well, Need for Speed Heat is here to have another stab at the formula, this time adding laid-back daytime driving to emphasise the action of the streets at night. It’s a great idea, especially when you add the ‘Heat’ reputation multiplier to literally raise the stakes, but this game still feels like a modestly tuned engine starting from cold instead of a snarling beast revving at the limiter.

Story-wise, it’s yet another ‘rookie racer looks to make a name for themselves’ narrative that’s so well-trodden it’s down to bedrock. You can choose any of the preset avatars be the lead role, even if what appears to be a spunky protagonist turns out to look like a complete idiot and hilariously out of their depth. Cut scenes like the ‘hiding behind stuff in the same room to eavesdrop’ bit are completely unbelievable, and only the middle of the main story has any emotional clout. It’s at least decently voiced and there’s always radio chatter to keep you company, but you never feel like you’re racing against an actual awe-inspiring league of ace drivers.

Nights into screams

Ah yes, the street racing scene here is an odd one. By day, it’s very civilised as you enter race events to earn ‘bank’ (why can’t they just call it ‘money’?) and visit dealerships to buy new cars. It’s a decent racket, earning $25,000 for a five minute race, but you can’t buy decent upgrades unless the dealers respect you enough. You earn respect at night but - aha! - by night, the cops are out in force to take you down. Police intervention can happen at any time, whether it’s mid race, during a drift challenge, or even while you’re sat looking at the map screen if you’re online, as the game carries on in the background since it can’t actually pause the action. At least you now have the choice between online and offline play, and it closes the map automatically when you’re spotted so you at least have a chance to get away. 

• Need For Speed Heat best car: How to pick the top car to suit your events and driving style
• Need For Speed Heat tips 

The biggest question posed by the gameplay is on how confident you are in being able to do just that. There’s a clear gambling element to progressing in Need For Speed Heat, but it’s only after a long time that you realise what you’re gambling with: your time. You can speed up your progress by increasing your eponymous Heat gauge to a maximum 5x multiplier each night. Lose the cops and make it to a safehouse and you bank your rep and reset the counter for the next day’s business. Get caught, however, and you lose all your multiplier (though fortunately not your base score, that would be too much). So essentially you’re climbing ladders and sliding down snakes, with the currency of success and failure being real life hours of precious time. You may as well go slow and steady, banking everything as soon as you hit the doubler; you’ll finish the game just as fast as always going for higher and failing, say, every other time.

Of course, that’s a cynical approach and doesn’t consider the increased danger of higher heat levels that undoubtedly make the game more exciting. It takes a while before you realise you need to upgrade certain perks in the garage to be able to withstand protracted chases. All of this stretches out the game’s run-time, while never really offering anything different in the process. You get drift events later on, as well as an optional off-road branch in the story, but the basic gameplay is very, very repetitive, and wholly unoriginal.

Slip-slidin’ away

The car handling is admirably crafted, managing to feel like your ride has actual weight, while also visibly moving like a vintage Need For Speed game. Drifting is now mapped to a single pump of the accelerator while turning, and if you need a tighter turn then hitting the handbrake works, which also kicks in the drift mechanic albeit at a much lower speed. The result is comfortable, assured driving even at 150mph. The movement is solid and smooth, though of course the city’s layout is simplified to accommodate traversal at these unrealistically high speeds. 

There’s also another concession to allow all this zooming about; generally, nothing smaller than a house is an obstacle. Fences, bushes, fully-grown palm trees, bus stops, trash cans, street lights and solar farms are all smashable and completely disintegrate even when nudged at 3mph. So instead of looking ahead and carefully plotting a path between all of these things, instead it’s akin to piloting a superfast rocket out in space. As long as you avoid the planets, everything else is just pretty space dust, provided as eye candy and barely slowing you down. Sure, if you plough through successive fence sections, you’ll lose enough speed to get overtaken, but that’s the worst you’ll see. There’s more than a hint of Forza Horizon about the way you smash through thick stone walls without the car damage indicator even flashing, and it makes for an inconsequential racing experience. 

The realistic filter of 2015’s Need For Speed’s visuals has been dropped, making for a slightly sharper but less urban look. The draw distance is definitely the most impressive feature of the engine, though the city can look barren and dull in the hard light of day. Palm City is supposed to be a vibrant place, yet the streets have no pedestrians (for obvious reasons - one wrong move and you’d be responsible for a massacre), and traffic is unrealistically light.

Taking the scenic route

It makes much more sense at night when the good residents are tucked up in bed, but even so the city is simply duller than it should be to drive around. It just doesn’t have enough character or classic EA flair. It hits all the right beats with an observatory, a mine, laser-spouting performance arena and even a rocket launch pad, but they feel empty somehow, like they’re movie sets. There’s never the sense of personality or confidence that the games had in the PS2 era, leaving a ‘by numbers’ feel to the whole game, which is disappointing considering the inarguable quality of everything that’s actually happening on the screen. 

It all feels stretched out to justify its existence. It takes ages to get your wheels and your gear sorted out, then suddenly the story’s all done in a couple more hours. Of course, playing with your own friends elevates any game’s fun factor, and even solo there’s still loads of other stuff left to do. There are the usual speed traps, jumps, billboards and flamingoes (yes, flamingoes, I wasn’t just checking you were still listening), which will likely take you weeks to check off completely. But unless you really love modding cars, there’s nothing here that’s ever more than mildly entertaining. It’s not a disaster by any means, and it does feel slightly more enjoyable after the first 15 hours (yikes), but the Heat level is somewhere just above lukewarm in this one. 

Reviewed on PS4.

Need for Speed is at its best under a neon glow, and the latest entry is taking the series back to its fluorescent roots. In a new launch trailer, Need for Speed Heat dazzles in its urban aesthetic; pink smoke spewing from tailpipes, LED screens throwing out blinding shades of pink and blue, and twisting streets glinting wet. Heat is being hailed a potential return to form for a franchise many feared had steered far from its identity with recent entries like 2017's Need for Speed Payback, which is set in a fictional version of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Need for Speed Heat quite aptly takes place in a fictional take on Miami, Florida called Palm City, where a busy city entrenched in city mod culture make Heat at the very least look more like a Need for Speed game than recent entries. And according to our own Justin Towell's preview, Heat is shaping up to be more than a pretty makeover for the Need for Speed franchise, finding plenty of joy in Heat's new day-to-night cycle, deep modding system, and of course gorgeous cityscapes.

EA recently shared some of their inspirations behind the world-building process for Need for Speed, arguing that Palm City is their best world yet. They know fans want a vibe closer to what we experienced in series-defining classics like Underground 2 and Most Wanted, and they're betting on Palm City to deliver. 

"We started looking for a setting that would feel both familiar to players and unique to Need for Speed. Miami gave us all the right ingredients - a vibrant city with a multicultural blend of music, cool street art and stunning night neons. It felt pretty fresh for a Need for Speed game, and we also knew immediately that it could deliver that classic NFS look," EA wrote about Heat.

From turtle shells to formula one cars, here are the best racing games to play in 2019. Or get properly into the game with our Need For Speed Heat tips!

After the slight disappointment of Need For Speed Payback, EA’s taking its perennial racing franchise back where it belongs: under the neon lights and deep into the city mod culture that defined its most revered entries – namely Need For Speed Underground 2. But what sets this game apart from many similar open world racers is the new day and night feature. By day, Palm City (which is based on Miami) is a relatively safe zone, where you can explore at your leisure, compete in officially-sanctioned race events and tune up your ride, enjoying the game world at your leisure. But when the sun goes down (and you decide when it does), that’s when the shadier characters come out to play – and the cops are out in force to stop them, and you. Or at least attempt to. 

This night-time festival of illicit racing brings with it a prominent risk vs reward mechanism. The more races you complete in one night, the more respect you’ll earn, which gets multiplied by your Heat rating. This notoriety is great, but it’s almost worthless if you get caught. So at some point you have to cash in your newfound respect, mainly by visiting a safe house, although there are a few other cash-in points too, and trigger the next day. It’s a very cool idea, and one that means the cockiest, most reckless-yet-skilled racers will make the fastest progress through the game.

While the event types like point to point races and drift events are pretty standard fare, the game appreciates that too many collectibles, Ubisoft-style, can be daunting. So it splits its map up into districts, so every time you find something, the something-out-of-a-number found isn’t a dishearteningly small fraction. 1/4 flamingoes collected (why would we make that up?), feels much more doable than 1/100 flamingoes. Complete the set in any one district and you win the clearly-stated prize, which is usually a new modification or decal design. In Need For Speed Heat, the next objective is always clear. Whether you decide to follow it or do something else is entirely up to you. 

Even the windscreen is a canvas

There’s a real sense of car ownership, and the modding system is incredibly deep. Everything from brake calipers to different rims for front and back wheels are editable, and there’s a multi-layered decal editor too, which means you really can make your car look as mean or ridiculous as you like. And of course, you get to show it to the world online. 

The game can be played offline, or online in a persistent online game world, racing with up to 15 other players. While you can openly invite players around you to join your next race, they do need to be at the same time of day as you in order to see the invitation. Any vacant spots on the grid are then filled with AI drivers, who take realistically human lines through the destructible environments (by which I mean ‘straight’) and the police are always a danger, waiting to get involved. 

When they do, it’s entirely possible to smash them into submission – or each other – but you do need to pay attention to the condition of your own vehicle in the bottom-right. Pick up one too many knocks and you’ll end up wrecked, and hauled into the back of a panda car, losing your precious Heat multiplier.

The actual driving is predictably easy to get to grips with, but it’s worth noting that drifting is now triggered – literally – by letting go of the accelerator while turning, before applying it again. This ‘clutch kick’ can catch out players who like to jab the throttle to control their cornering speed, Ayrton Senna-style, but it does allow for easily-controlled drifts once you get the hang of it. 

It doesn’t usually matter if you do slide wide, though; large buildings and pillars are impervious to impacts, but everything else, from phone boxes to lamp posts and even entire trees disintegrate as soon as you touch them. Sometimes unrealistically so. The lack of any real obstacles then, while racing, feels a little odd, and there’s a distinct feeling of Forza Horizon as you smash through hedges and walls. That said, lamp posts do at least knock a few mph off your speed, so you will need to avoid them if you’re in a drag race with a rival to the finish line. 

Damage is more scrapes than ‘splosions

Graphically, the game looks very nice indeed, especially given the size of its game world, and seeing it in 4K on an 80-inch TV will make you want to buy one. Even so, it does only run at 30fps on consoles and only really looks cutting edge in busy city streets at night when the rain is making everything glisten and reflecting the lights. Crash damage is disappointingly understated (sadly that seems true of every modern racer bar Wreckfest), and it takes a lot of pretty severe abuse before your car looks like Father Ted’s attempt to bang out a dent. The characterisation and animation are decent too, with some rather impressive eyebrow raising going on as well as plenty of nattering over the radio as you drive around.

The only downside to all this is that the open-world street racing template is so well-worn the tread’s pretty much gone by this point, and surely there are only so many times you can play the rookie racer in a city controlled by rival car gangs (with corrupt cops in the mix too) story before it just isn’t exciting any more. But if you’re yet to enjoy an open world Need For Speed mod-tastic racer, or just long for a current-gen port of NFS Carbon, this will undoubtedly keep you playing well into the night. Or day, if you prefer. Just click L3.

Need for Speed Heat is squealing onto PS4, Xbox One and PC on November 8. Prepare for the game properly with our Need For Speed Heat tips!

The team behind Need for Speed Heat says it's built the series' best world yet, and they've got receipts.. Palm City pulls inspiration from the vibrant city of Miami, with a dash of Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains thrown in there to add some elevation into the mix. Palm City will be a big change from Need for Speed Payback's arid deserts, offering players a chance to race around a neon city with mercurial weather and an unparalleled nightlife.

The official EA post outlining the new world (aptly titled 'Under the Hood') goes into detail about how Miami's volatile weather served as inspiration when building Palm City: "While we were location-scouting Miami, we saw crazy weather - blazing sunshine then torrential rain then bright sunshine - all in the space of a few minutes. We loved the idea of bringing this to the game, so we built a full dynamic weather system. You get a range of changing conditions as you play, and it was a great excuse to wash the streets down and go big on night neons, wet cars and reflective roads."

But Miami (and all of Florida) is notoriously flat, which offers little in terms of sweeping vistas overlooking an entire city. So the team pulled in some inspo from Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains, centering Palm City amongst sprawling countryside. The developers "wanted a big city location that could deliver dense urban action and open world cop chases" in a similar vein to fan favorites Need for Speed Most Wanted '05 and Need for Speed Underground. Need for Speed Heat will be chock full of environmental ways to shake the 5-0: ramps and billboards, back-alleys, gas stations, and backcountry routes. All of this, plus 62 more miles of road than Need for Speed Payback, crammed into a smaller footprint. 

Need for Speed Heat is also giving you more incentive to explore, including smashing through billboards and neon signs and collecting graffiti tags and street art that you can then turn into custom car wraps. Finding all of the collectibles in one of 18 districts will give you a package of customization items, and if you find all of the global collectibles, you get a car.

The latest iteration in the Need for Speed franchise means to pull from the best parts of its predecessors, like the aforementioned cop chases and the addition of multiple play areas in the same vein as Need for Speed Payback's airfield. High speed circuits, industrial time trials, off-roading in a quarry - you'll get it all. 

Need for Speed Heat drops on November 8 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. 

Be your own Dominic Toretto with our list of the best racing games. Or prepare for the game itself with our Need For Speed Heat tips!

EA is continuing their trend away from loot boxes and has committed to leaving them out of Need for Speed: Heat, permanently. Considering the widespread uproar caused by the prevalence of loot boxes in EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2, it's a big relief the mega-publisher is taking this step to ensure history doesn't repeat itself.

If there's one name synonymous with the loot box controversy in gaming, it is Electronic Arts. 2017's Star Wars Battlefront 2 may be the most infamous example, but the publisher has been monetizing their games using loot boxes and microtransactions for some time - Need for Speed: Payback springs to mind. Although it certainly has its own flaws, 2019's Anthem finally showed a step in the right direction for EA by leaving out loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions entirely.

Need for Speed: Heat will also be completely free of loot boxes, confirmed EA Community Manager Ben Walke. Responding in a Reddit thread for the official Need for Speed: Heat trailer, Walke stated simply, "There are no Lootboxes in NFS Heat and there won't be."

One skeptical user replied to Walke's statement and asked how EA plans to monetize Need for Speed: Heat post-launch, to which Walke responded, "We plan to have post launch paid-DLC in the form of car packs. Later this year we'll introduce a time-save pack, which will show all collectables on the map. That's it."

The announcement comes in the heat of a shift in the industry away from random loot boxes and toward a more orderly, predictable system for microtransactions.

Are you needing for speed? Check out our list of the best racing games to play right now.

Update: The Need for Speed Heat trailer is officially here, and the game itself is coming out on November 8. EA announced that Need for Speed Heat will focus on the racers-versus-cops fantasy, with players participating in legal races during the day to earn cash then facing off in underground competitions by night to build their street cred.

Original story: The official reveal of the next Need for Speed game is coming on Wednesday, and a few leaked images have already revealed both the title - Need for Speed Heat - and what appears to be one of the game's characters. EA is hosting a countdown for the debut on YouTube, with a trailer set to go live on Wednesday at 6 am PDT / 9 pm EDT / 2 pm BST. You can watch the full trailer via the embedded player above as soon as it arrives.

It looks like the carefully coordinated YouTube rollout has had a few glitches. As spotted by AllGamers, YouTube's publicly accessible backend is already hosting several pictures that will serve as thumbnail images for the trailer once it goes live. One of the images is a big picture of the logo, which has NFS: Heat written in stylized lettering over a blue and purple gradient.

The hot pink "Heat" on top of the neon background gives the whole thing a Miami Vice feel, but any speculation that the game might be an '80s throwback will probably be undone by the next picture.

This image shows a woman in a modern-looking car, glaring out of a halfway-rolled-down and heavily tilted window. She has a tattooed arm and what looks like buzzed hair on the sides. This seems to confirm that Need for Speed: Heat will continue to emphasize a story mode that follows a dedicated cast of characters, as did Need for Speed Payback. You can't tell much else from the screenshots, but at least you can be pretty sure that it won't have the slot-machine style car upgrade system from Payback, because everybody hated it.

EA confirmed back in May that a new Need for Speed game will arrive in 2019, so barring any unexpected delays, we won't have to wait too long to take Need for Speed Heat for a spin.

Find more to play in our list of new games 2019. Or check out our Need For Speed Heat tips  for how to rule the road!

A new Need for Speed game is coming in 2019, but we won't see anything about it at E3 or EA Play. 

In a blog post on EA's official site, community manager Ben Walke confirmed that a new game that is "a truly memorable high-speed entry into the 25 years of Need for Speed" would be coming later this year. The post was light on specific details on what the game would look like.

"Are you going to hear more about the next NFS title? Yes. Is it being released this year? Yes. Will we be doing anything in June? No," Walke wrote. "It’s as simple as that, but we wanted to give you a heads up before you started asking “where are you?”"

Walke mentioned that the essence of Need for Speed included cars and customization, but that each entry also has "the culmination of many different aspects" and that they would inject that mentality into their next game. It's a lot of phrases that don't mean much outside trying to hype up the next game. Details about what the game would include or what new features it would bring were not mentioned.

"With that, know that we’re here, we’re building an amazing game that we can’t wait to show off, and the next time we talk, we’ll be packing our bags and heading south for the full unveiling," Walke said. "We’ll see you then."

Walke has said in the past that a new Need for Speed game would be similar to the 2015 entry in the series, although it's not clear what that means. You can check out our review of the 2015 game right here.

Looking for something to tide you over until the next Need for Speed? Check out our talk with the creators of Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.

Racing fans can get a little more bang for their buck (or is it more torque for their horsepower?) on December 19, when Need for Speed Payback gets its first big content patch. The "Speedcross" update will add a new mode, new cars, new customization parts, and support for Logitech racing wheels. The good news? It's free*. The bad news? *Only some of it.

The titular Speedcross mode is arguably the most substantial addition, giving players two brand new cars (the Mini John Cooper Works Countryman and the Infiniti Q60 S) and three cross-class asphalt burners (the Nissan 350Z, the Ford Focus RS, and the Dodge Charger) to race across 16 new events. Speedcross is a score challenge, with special areas like Drift Zones, Jumps, and Speedtraps added to the track so you can get a leg up on your competition. There are even "Smackables" - small, breakable objects to trash with your car in order to pick up some extra points.

Speedcross and its two new cars are free for those who bought the Need for Speed Payback Deluxe edition. It will be made available as a separate purchase for everyone else. EA hasn’t specified a price just yet.

Don't be too bummed out though, because even if your wallet's feeling a bit tight this holiday season, NFS Payback will still be getting an influx of new, free content. The biggest is the ability to access (and potentially earn) Abandoned Cars. These aren't quite like the Derelicts you can find already - instead, you'll find these ready-to-race roadsters hidden throughout the map and, if you can successfully evade the police with one, you'll unlock it permanently.

The first Abandoned Car coming to the game is the Mazda RX-7 Spirit R, and you can find it starting December 19. In the coming weeks, you'll also be able to add the Volvo 242DL, Volvo Amazon P130, Plymouth Barracuda, Nissan Skyline 2000 GTR and the BMW M3 Evolution II E30 to your garage.

In addition, the BMW M4 GTS, M5, X6M, and M2 are all getting new customization parts, the single-player's Drift Trial events are coming to multiplayer as Drift Runs, and the Logitech G29 and G920 steering wheels are getting official support.

Usually outfits relating to your favorite games revolve around tshirts, novelty socks or your beloved murloc slippers. Online fashion store ASOS wants to change that, offering a curated wardrobe of actually wearable items inspired by Need for Speed Payback.

I mean, yes, it does involve a special Need for Speed Payback tshirt, but also Vans sneakers, parka coats, ASOS own brand skinny jeans and a positively cosy looking "Fluffy Check Jumper In Navy And Mustard." I know that whenever I go to illegal street racing events I cannot move for guys in fluffy mustard jumpers. 

ASOS acted as the game's "official style partner," advising the development team on style choices for each of the game's characters. "This creative collaboration blending the real world with the virtual was a new way for us to impart our fashion to a whole new audience," says ASOS creative director, John Mooney. 

This isn't the first time a real fashion brand has strayed into virtual territory. Final Fantasy 13's heroine Lightning became a model for prestigious fashion brand Louis Vuitton last year. Lightning modeled the Louis Vuitton Series 4 Spring-Summer 2016 line in videos and photos, and looked pretty amazing doing it too.

Even earlier than that, brands were experimenting with selling virtual fashion. Remember PlayStation Home? Way back in 2008 you could snap up Diesel clothing for your avatar. 

Need for Speed Payback will be released on November 10 on PS4, Xbox One and PC but you can read our review now. 

When I first showed off Need for Speed Payback to the GamesRadar+ crew, oh how they laughed. They took one look at my car - Geoffrey - and fell about. They laughed at his little Brum eyes, his silly wing mirrors, his retro design and said “that’s not Need for Speed”. But in fact, it’s Geoffrey, who happens to be rather brilliant VW Golf GTI Mk1, who absolutely symbolises Need for Speed. It’s not a rags to riches story, no, it’s about sheer determination to win every race despite the odds and a bit of silliness thrown in for good measure.  

Need for Speed Payback, as the title suggests, is about vengeance. You play as various members of a crew - all, handily, with different driving styles - who get double crossed during a heist in the opening scenes. You’re left without any flashy rides, not much cash in your pocket and a whole lot of rage. Thus a plan to exact revenge on the ones that betrayed them is put in place, but that plan also brings them up against a major criminal syndicate known as the House.

A huge world with plenty to do

In order to get anywhere near the House and your nemesis, you’re going to have to race, taking into account that you’re going to have switch drivers and vehicles for each quest strand. The rage-filled Tyler is your go-to guy for all things speed, including your standard speed-based races and later drag, while Mac is your London geezer ready for more trick-based affairs, including drift races and offroading. Then there’s Jess, who just happens to be an excellent driver with a penchant for European compact and breaking the law. Switching between them as you work your way through the game’s storyline feels like Need for Speed Payback is trying to cross Fast and the Furious with GTA 5, and that’s a good thing.

The activities you’ll discover in Payback’s story are fairly diverse, moving through different quest lines from traditional A-B races with Tyler to drift challenges as Mac. Jess will be involved in timed courier missions and getaways later on, providing quite the rounded offering in terms of driving styles. And that’s just the story. Move away from there and there are various collectibles and world challenges to discover, from clocking speed cameras, achieving high average speeds along particular stretches, smashing through billboards or pulling off sick jumps on strategically positioned ramps - seeing a Land Rover Defender 110 flying over the wing of a 737 will never get old. 

Interspersed between your frissons with rival car gangs are high-octane story missions that channel the Need for Speed series’ Fast and Furious roots. Each one is glorious not just to watch but play, whether it’s pelting along the freeway in a souped-up Koenigsegg, getting alongside an 18-wheeler so your partner can climb aboard to free said Koenigsegg, fighting off scores of cops and House goons in a chase, there’s something inherently awesome about Payback’s storyline. I’m the action hero here and the game makes that very clear. 

But although there’s plenty to get your teeth into, you’ll quickly find that Need for Speed Payback’s pick up and play ethos comes with a drawback - the grind. And that’s where Geoffrey comes in. It was far easier - and more ridiculous - to stick with my starter car in Need for Speed Payback than it was to upgrade to something more expensive, because money is hard to come by in Payback. You’ll need to buy a new car for each of the racing questlines, despite the fact that it’ll be the same selection of vehicles on offer but with different tuning, and they’re not cheap. Couple that in with the fact that success in the game’s storyline is linked to your car’s level and money becomes as vital as it does in real life. 

Fast and... no, just furious

Each race you tackle has a level, and if your car’s not of equal or greater level to that indicator, you’re going to struggle. The only way to level up your ride without having to buy a new one is to use Speed Cards. Every car has six slots, each one representing elements under the hood, including your gearbox and the Need for Speed essential, nitrous. They come with perks that boost stats and the overall level of your car. These can be won at the end of every race and applied straight to your car, or bought from tune-up shops. But with every race earning you around £7,000, and every Speed Card costing upwards of £11,000, levelling up your car for the later stage story quests becomes a serious grind. Simply repeating races isn’t enough, as you won’t have enough cash to splash on a set of Speed Cards to boost your level. Instead, you’ll find yourself repeatedly going back to old races over and over again just so you can get enough cash to progress. 

That’s especially true of the drag questline. It’s like I suddenly hit a progression wall at about 120mph and it hurt. Failing the same races over and over despite having equal car level is a literal drag, and so is having to go back and earn more cash to get more Speed Cards in order to have any chance of succeeding. It sucked the fun right out of this otherwise incredibly enjoyable experience - and that was only the beginning of the grind. If you want nice cars - sorry Geoffrey - you’re going to have to put a lot of hours into Need for Speed. 

It doesn’t help that while Need for Speed Payback’s world is big, beautiful and enjoys the luxury of constant framerates and a brilliant photo mode, it’s just a bit… lifeless. The fictional Las Vegas-inspired world of Fortune Valley feels very stale and empty. Cops only appear inside story missions, the challengeable roaming racers are equally a little too boisterous and oddly absent, and despite the fact it moves from mountain, to desert, to city, none of it is that memorable. It hasn’t got a patch on the maps of a Forza Horizon game for example. It’s fully functional and great to look at, you just won’t be going for a casual drive around the vast map just to take in the sights. 

And that’s a shame because Need for Speed Payback is a game with a brilliant story at its core. Silly, over the top and a little bit self-indulgent, but in a fantastic action movie way. It works and you’ll enjoy every car chase, nitrous boost and quippy millennial line. It just misses the mark by adding RPG elements into an arcade racer and making the best cars always just out of reach. 

Reviewed on PS4 Pro.

Don't forget to check out our Need for Speed Payback tips for becoming a better racer.

Need for Speed Payback is focusing pretty heavily on letting you customize your ride, from the hubcaps to the transmission and everything between. Of course, you won't be able to just cover your sweet supercar in flame decals and custom paint from the start, so a new trailer shows how you'll journey from being simply fast to being fast and furious.

There are performance-enhancing customization items and vanity items in Payback. Performance Parts are broken into six categories: Block, Head, Turbo, Exhaust, Engine Control Unit (ECU), and Transmission. Vanity items include Underglow, Tire Smoke, Nitrous Flames and Air Suspension.

But again, you won't be able to just slap some flames on a scrap heap and go to town - you'll need to upgrade the abandoned cruisers (called Derelicts) by winning events and sinking some cash into repairing them. The good news is that once these cars are fully upgraded, they're some of the most beastly in the game.

So keep an eye out for that rusted POS on the side of the road - one day it might be your pride and joy.

Need For Speed made its grand return at the E3 2017 EA Play press conference today, with an explosive gameplay reveal that brought to mind the like of Burnout: Paradise and the Driver franchise, not to mention the Fast and Furious movies. 

Marcus Nilsson, an executive producer on the game, hopped on stage to pitch Need for Speed: Payback as primarily a revenge story, with a fully-fledged campaign boasting three playable characters known as Tyler, Jess and Mac. The brief gameplay demo, in which one of the protagonists attempted to hijack a moving truck along a desert highway while pursued by dozens of cops and muscle cars – almost felt the return of Burnout in all but name, though it looks like Payback also takes a lot of inspiration from one of its franchise predecessors - Need For Speed: The Run.

Nilson also promised “the most diverse open-world ever made for a Need For Speed game”, and Payback will feature a rich amount of customization options, including the ability to take in old stock cars and turn them into super-powered motors. 

Need For Speed Payback is set to release on November 10th, 2017.

Don't forget, you can check out all the E3 2017 trailers here.

The Need for Speed series is pulling out of its pit stop and revving its engines. After the simply-titled "Need for Speed" debuted on PS4 and Xbox One in 2015, the franchise went fairly quiet. But now, the Need for Speed Twitter has posted a bit of a teaser for the next entry in the long-running series.

It's hard to make out, but that looks like the Space Needle in the bottom right corner to me, suggesting this next game will take place in Seattle. Others think it could be Las Vegas, and that what appears to be the Space Needle is actually the Stratosphere Tower.

There's also a second picture that shows a car burning out, and the license plate seems to be from California. Yes, Las Vegas is in Nevada, but it's pretty close to the state line and certainly within driving distance of many major CA cities.

I could see it going either way. But what do you think? Seattle or Vegas?

Need for Speed the series is about car racing, but Need for Speed the new game is mostly about screening phone calls. The borderline-harassing call system, which compelled your crew of urban-ish virtual friends to ring you up with the frequency of a worried parent checking in on their child's first sleepover, was significantly revised in the new Legends update. The update, which went live on Wednesday, even enables a GTA-style mute function so you can put the ceaseless calls to action on hold while you drift around Ventura Bay without fear of exposition.

Do-not-call functionality aside, the update also introduces two familiar characters from Need for Speed series history into the Ventura Bay night life: Eddie and Melissa from Need for Speed Underground. Eddie's brought along a tricked-out Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec and you can naturally win it off him by completing his new "progression thread." Thus robbing him of the one thing he's managed to do with his life in the decade since he was systematically undone by that other player character.

You'll also find 113 new customization items across six cars (the Dodge Challenger SRT8, Ford Mustang 1965, Honda Civic Type-R, Lotus Exige S, Volkswagen Golf GTI, and Volvo 242) and new music and car wraps pulled from across Need for Speed series history. And, again, fewer phone calls. Here are the full patch notes:

- Brand new progression thread unlocked at Rep Level 25. Eddie and Melissa are back and ready for a new challenge in Ventura Bay. 15 new events with a great reward at the end
- Unlock Eddie’s Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec (1999)
- 12 new Donor car collectables hidden around Ventura Bay
- 10 Urbex spots – Collect interesting spots around Ventura Bay
- 113 New customisation items for a selection of cars
- New screens in My NFS to track new collectables and progression
- Rep Level has now been increased to 70, each level unlocking new decals for the Wrap editor
- 3 New Achievements & Trophies
- New Daily Challenges and new rewards
- Hundreds of new decals so you can make your favourite Need for Speed cars
- 20+ Pre-set Wraps from Most Wanted, Underground and Pro Street
- A selection of new music tracks to remind you of the old days
- Ability to mute new phone calls
- Phone call improvements
- You can now customize brake discs and calipers!
- Improvements to AI
- Various bug fixes and stability improvements

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If you’ve been following the Need for Speed series' history, you realize that calling the latest one a ‘reboot’ is more of a formality. The series has so far dabbled in underground street racing, cinematic cross-country sprints, metal-mangling police chases and persistent online worlds (unfortunate note: Need for Speed World stopped persisting a few months ago). There’s usually no guessing where it goes next, and EA’s latest spin just seems to use ‘reboot’ as an evocative lure for players, as if going back to your roots is a guaranteed, unimpeachable path to success. It works in some ways, but this open-world Need for Speed never justifies its back-to-basics pitch, never mind any of its annoying 'features'.

We should start with the painful live-action story sequences, because the game is so obnoxiously front-loaded with them that you’d rather just drive your cute lil’ Mazda MX-5 off a bridge. I know, that sounds grim, but your watery plunge would probably get you some style points from Manu, one of your generi-pals in the game’s fiction. Manu, just like Spike, Amy and a whole gang of white-washed street racers looking for infamy, deliver your mission objectives throughout the game, alongside phrases like “hashtag underground drift riot.” Hashtag who wrote this?

Each member of the gang represents an aspect of Need for Speed racing, split between style, speed, police evasion, car building and driving with teammates - yes, the breakdown is very ‘here is what the survey said people like about Need for Speed’. So, if you feel like racking up points in a skillful drift through rain-slick hairpins, do the mission for Manu. If you feel like doing a regular point-to-point sprint around downtown, hit up Spike.

You’re not bound to story activities - they’re all pulled from events lying in wait all over Ventura Bay - but that doesn’t stop every single person in the gang from pestering you about them on the phone. Relentlessly. The joys of swiftly hanging up on them is countered by the game’s ominous response: “so-and-so will call you back,” like it’s a threat. A better option would be to stop at the garage and beat your phone to death with a tire iron.

Just about any activity will help raise your reputation level, which unlocks car parts and the events scattered across Ventura Bay, a city of spaghetti highways looped through a rainy, nighttime limbo. Need for Speed is absolutely beautiful in this place, its hazy lighting and reflective tarmac rivers evoking a city lived-in, rained upon and always on the brink of midnight. The hushed roads hide the typical imperfections of a graphics engine well, the dark obscuring pop-in for a grimy, inviting atmosphere.

As beautiful as the geography is, though, it’s hardly memorable, and Ventura Bay’s reliance on freeways to connect distinct neighborhoods turns it into a commute. There’s also the frustrating turnoff of having a frantic race ruined because you’ve just missed, well, a turnoff. Most of the circuits in the game do nothing to create frantic clashes and scrapes among racers, and most fail to exhibit craftsmanship above that of a GPS. Los Angeles may also be a poor model for suggesting vibrancy and life in a city, lending its sprawl to the Ventura Bay but not its infamous traffic.

OK, but how’s the driving? Well, the answer is 'good' - especially if you like sliding around an insidious bend. Mousy cars like the MX-5 feel nippy in the back of the racing pack, while a Porsche Carrera punches though but can’t be so easily cajoled through a harsh turn. Even if you don’t tweak their handling, certain cars just feel like they’ll swing into a drift without fuss, while others, like some of the modern BMWs, make it even easier to straighten out.

The majority of the game’s challenges are built around drifting - a sensible investment, given how well executed it is, and how satisfying it is to master that in-and-out drift metronome. Even so, you spend maybe 3/4 of the time doing drift-for-points kind of challenges rather than racing, so if drifting isn't your bag, this probably isn't the game for you. Similarly, this isn't a game for crash fetishists. A sudden jolt, maybe a roll followed by neon light quickly flooding the screen… it's over quickly and nowhere near the wreckage spectacle of Most Wanted or Criterion’s best Burnouts.

Since garage space is limited and new rides cost a fortune, you’ll eventually have a concise set of cars suited to both traditional races and events that require masterful drifting. The garage forms the basis of a rewarding rhythm in Need for Speed - take your favorite Beemer out, disturb the nighttime peace with its growling exhaust, return with some money, feed it all to a bigger beast and head out again.

Performance upgrades, which don’t allow for major creativity, are paired with wild and upside-down visual customization. Between unique bumpers, bonnets, decals, paint jobs, spoilers and side skirts, you have every chance of putting your earnings into something that looks personalized. You can also, of course, turn a beautiful Nissan GT-R into a purple, turbo-charged crime that has a big cartoon dog-face on its passenger door and a Plants vs. Zombies logo on the hood. Hashtag... personal branding.

Need for Speed is a little too reserved, sometimes, and its emptiness undermines the potential set forth by its online play. Much like Need for Speed Rivals, your Ventura Bay is populated by a handful of other players, also going about their business. The idea is that your paths may intersect, leading to spontaneous races at the press of a button, with perhaps the police in hot pursuit as well. Everyone’s too spread out and marooned between freeways for this to happen with regularity, though, and the police are easily foiled and feel like an afterthought.

The question, then, is why this Need for Speed is online-only at all. With no clear payoff in view, the other technical problems only feel worse. I experienced a frequent visual and audio stutter in racing, to the detriment of controls, throughout my time with the game. Sometimes I’d load a race and begin facing the wrong way. The game’s opinion on whether a high-speed bump counts as a total car wreck seems to change with the phases of the moon. And if the Need for Speed server goes down, you’re out of the game, even if all you’re doing at the time is watching a cutscene.

Its problems, ironically, are what make this reboot seem especially, painfully modern. Need for Speed takes racing into an open-world with mixed results, tacks on an irritating story and doesn’t justify the fact that it won’t work without an EA server. The driving itself is a strong point, yes, and the meditative pace with which you build cars is a wonderful retreat from how other racers do it, but it’s not enough. A modern Need for Speed shouldn’t be characterized by failing in the same areas as its peers.

This game was reviewed on Xbox One.

Need for Speed is what I like to call EA’s most well known “hot-potato” franchise. Every few years it jumps to a new developer--from EA’s own Black Box, to former Burnout developer Criterion Games, to a short stint with Slightly Mad Studios. Ghost Games, the latest inheritors of the NFS series, may not have reinvented the wheel while making this year’s white-knuckle racer, but it has equipped Need for Speed: Rivals with all the right parts to make it a serviceable--and enjoyable--game.

You won’t find ample engine customizations screens here, but you will get to enjoy some slick, easy-to-pick-up controls and one of the most populated environments you’ll ever see in a racing game--a good thing, considering it features an expansive open world. Taking place in the California Coast-inspired county of Redview, Rivals has dozens of events, races, and rivals (Need for Speed’s name for other lawless racers) scattered across its stunning landscape. This all works to its advantage; I enjoyed always having something different to see and do each time I got behind the wheel.

The simple act of driving around is a blast. You’ll drift around bends with a pull of the e-brake, careen off half-hidden jumps, fly through speed traps, and ultimately enjoy every minutia of the overloaded landscape. Need for Speed fans: Redview could potentially be your Skyrim. It’s a world stuck in a constant state of change with events popping up where you least expect them, and the returning Autolog feature making it hard to call it quits when there's just one more challenge to attempt. Just don’t hit pause. A world this full of interwoven events slows down for no one--even those who need a bathroom break.

Thanks to EA’s powerful Frostbite 3 engine, ever-changing weather and lighting patterns help make each race feel different, even ones that reside in areas of the world you've already explored. But don’t think weather will always work in your favor. A rainstorm may mean the difference between first and last in a race, and a harsh bit of sunlight may make you wreck where you otherwise wouldn’t. This touch of real-life racing may irritate some, but I found it to be one of Rivals more endearing surprises.

When it comes to stellar collision detection, however, Rivals doesn't deliver. Where Burnout made the rush of speed and crunching impacts between cars feel like cartoonish fun, Rivals’ inconsistent crashes will undoubtedly infuriate you, especially during pursuits. What I thought to be a debilitating blow to an opposing car, the game considered nothing more than a paint scratch. It’s wonderful when it occurs in reverse and you send a racer reeling into the guardrail with a small tap, but it quickly becomes irritating when it doesn't work in your favor.

Like its predecessors Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted, Rivals is divided into two equally lengthy campaigns: cops and racers. Becoming one of Redview’s most wanted is pretty standard fare and feels mostly like an open-world version of Hot Pursuit. You’re given assignments that range from winning gold in a race to taking down other racers in a chase, and while these are a great way to familiarize players with everything in Rivals' spacious world, they do little to keep the game feeling fresh after a few hours.

As it turns out, speeding after criminals through Redview's streets as a cop hardly feels any different. Sure, there are plenty of paths for taking down countless unnamed racers, and busting bad guys is a blast for a while, but it all starts to feel a bit stale as the hours roll by. Win a gold medal in a pursuit, place second or better in a Rapid Response mission--the objectives of Redview's RCPD hardly differ from that of the city's illegal racers (save for the whole arresting thing), which feels like a missed opportunity for something more interesting.

Regardless of which faction you choose to play, completing the various assignments nets you massive amounts of Speed Points, a form of spendable currency that can be put towards cars and upgrades. The tension created by the risk of missing out on or losing that currency adds excitement to each assignment, even when the various options become overly familiar.

As a racer, your points are always on the line--if you get busted by the cops before you cash-in at one of the many safe houses scattered across Redview, you’ll lose everything you’ve (illegally) earned. And remember: Pursuits can happen anytime, anywhere. If you’re not ready, Redview’s RCPD will get the best of you. While playing as the police, you won't have to worry about losing points you've already gained--but miss that big bust, and your income will take a hit. It's just a shame speed points aren't quite as valuable as they initially seem, though, as I rarely felt the need to upgrade to a new car when I could just as easily achieve gold ratings by using an upgraded version of the introductory auto.

Still, that disappointment won't sully your experience for long. With an impressive open world that's a blast to explore, and some enjoyable--if not repetitive--missions, Need for Speed Rivals sets the bar for what next-gen racing games. It's fast, it's fun, and while its paintjob is marred by a few scuff marks, it's a worthwhile offering for would-be street racers. Let’s just hope developer Ghost Games decides to keep the potato for a little while.

This game was reviewed on PS4.

Burnout and Need for Speed studio Criterion is down to just 15 employees, but that's just the way its creative director likes it. Alex Ward clarified the studio's status in a series of tweets over the weekend, revealing that more than 60 employees split off earlier this year to continue work on the Need for Speed franchise as Criterion pursues a non-racing project.

Most of Criterion was working with Ghost Games on Need for Speed Rivals, Ward said. That portion of the studio has became Ghost UK, counterpart to its Gothenburg, Sweden headquarters. This explains how the new studio was able to take over the flagship racing series so quickly.

When Criterion began moving toward its new project, it made more sense to change up the studios rather than reintegrate teams just to keep the band together.

"We would rather work a small team all focused on gameplay rather than a huge team split by discipline," Ward said. "We didn't want to take on 50 people when they are not needed. Too many folks too soon dilutes solving gameplay problems."

The remaining 15 at Criterion will continue their work at a new location. The change was "completely our choice and by design," Ward said, defending EA's involvement with the wholly owned studio.

"We're fortunate to be part of a big organisation that curates and invests in new intellectual properties. It really isn't the evil empire."

Ghost Games is taking over the Need for Speed franchise just a year after Criterion took stewardship of EA's flagship racer. The new Swedish developer told VideoGamer that the franchise needs the consistency of a single, dedicated team to stay ahead of the competition.

"It cannot go from black to white between Black Box and Criterion, and that's why we're now thinking about the brand as Ghost owns it," Ghost studio head Marcus Nilsson said. "We're going to build it, we're going to build it on Frostbite 3, [and] people will see something they are familiar with every time we release the game. And I think that is the core basis of building a brand; that people know what to expect."

Criterion contributed significantly to the development of Need for Speed Rivals, but it looks like the studio will have more resources to devote to its mysterious non-racer from here on out; Nilsson confirmed development will not shift back and forth between the two on the typical two-year schedule.

"When you go from a Shift experience to The Run experience to a Hot Pursuit experience, then it loses credibility," Nilsson continued. "I think we now have the work of re-establishing that credibility with building the brand. You know, it's still a really strong brand, absolutely. We just need to make sure people know what to expect when they get it, and Rivals is absolutely the first step toward that."

Now were certainly not saying that EAs next-gen Need for Speed debut has turned the series into a demolition derby. Nor has it gone the way of Twisted Metal. Indeed, it would be borderline sacrilegious to turn the series trademark gleaming car-porn into scuffed, metallic roadkill like that. But theres an undeniable vibe of arena battle gaming--particularly that of shooters--to the open-world cops n robbers sim. After repeatedly hammering the current hands-on demo at Gamescom, we couldnt help but feel the twin spirits of Quake and Halo drifting gently on the hot breeze generated by those roaring engines.

With a tight 2v2 set-up playing out on a large but well-connected system of looping roads, the games mini-map and constantly present set of updating combat challenges eschewed any hint of casual exploration or meandering objectives, instead enforcing a strict and obsessive hunt-and-kill instinct in all players.

It sounds like a mad conceit, but the shooter parallels really are there. Although the gameplay mechanics are superficially different, the kind of moment-to-moment decisions and interplays are very similar indeed. Pursuits are all about surveying the terrain and the shape of the road in order to make the right tactical weapon choice. EMP shots are your sniper rifles; risky but powerful long-range weapons which are slow to ready but devastating if they hit, and highly susceptible to failure if aimed at an agile target. Spike strips are bullying area-of-effect attacks which require careful manoeuvring and accurate prediction of enemy movements to use correctly. Slam takedowns take the place of melee attacks, often scoring an instant kill but demanding careful close-range movement and timing in order to avoid becoming the victim of one yourself.

Intersections become choke-points. Handbrake turns stand in or circle-strafes. A cheeky directional fake-out at a junction can send a pursuer off on entirely the wrong path, just as a sudden change in altitude can in Halo. Dont think you cant enjoy Need for Speed if youre not a fan of racers. The in-game hardware may be different, but the essence of its highs and lows is something very familiar to anyone whos ever enjoyed a good deathmatch.

Click through the slides for additional images and information.

Electronic Arts has shown off new features of Need For Speed Rivals at Gamescom in Cologne. The game will feature the return of car customisation (back by popular demand), with millions of decal combinations available.

Also making a return to the series is the Ferrari 458 Spider, back after a seven-year absence from the series. The game will feature three Police modes: Patrol, Enforcer and 'undercover cop'. There will also be EMP weapons, plus the ability to bank points earned or risk losing them by continuing to earn while the risk of losing them increases.

The other big feature shown off during the presentation was 'Speedlist'. This shows tiered objectives that will progress your career, in a dynamic checklist that acts as your progression system through the game. Persistent online play in 'All Drive' allows you to race in single-player, co-op or competitive multiplayer versus whenever you like. And you can still race with your friends even if your Speedlist is completely different, and any races that attract the attention of the police will require you to lose your tail once the race has concluded and you return seamlessly to open-world driving.

Need For Speed Rivals will be released Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on November 21 and on Xbox One and PS4 (confirmed for launch day on Xbox One) at an unannounced date in 2013. The presentation is still live here so skip to 39:25 to watch the Need For Speed segment for yourself. It looks mighty purty.

You could think of Need for Speed: Rivals as a ceaseless game of vehicular cat-and-mouse. There will always be Racers, who get their thrills from boosting high-end sports cars, and Cops, whose job it is to take these delinquents out of commission. But with Rivals' open world and seamless transition into races, you need never let the chase end until your adrenal glands finally run out of gas.

Once you've chosen a side, either with or against the law, you're free to roam the scenic streets of an absolutely massive city. One feature that feels entirely unique to Rivals is the AllDrive mechanic built into online play, which can shift you from solo racing to multiplayer madness with nary a single load screen or lobby invite. With AllDrive, there's never a dull moment--because whether you're a Cop or a Racer, there's always someone else to outrun.

Racers roam between Hideouts, hubs that act as a getaway spot and a warp to any other Hideouts you've discovered. Besides flooring it to avoid getting busted by the five-o, Racers are constantly taking a high-stakes gamble with their points, which stack up quick when speeding through traffic but disappear completely if you wipe out or get caught by the Cops. Should Racers want to make a statement, they can ram into a Cop car or challenge another Racer to start a chase immediately.

What's awesome is that there's always action nearby, no matter where you decide to speed off to. If you see a checkpoint or an opposing car, a simple tap of the L1 button will instantly start a race--no load screens, cutscenes, or corny dialogue to deal with. As soon as you finish a race, you'll spot another one nearby, letting you leapfrog from one intense event to the next without pause. We could easily see ourselves losing hours to this continuous structure of play; all that's left to do is pick a side before Rivals' release on current and next gen later this year.

Check out the following images for more info on Need for Speed: Rivals!

During EA's press conference this morning, Need for Speed: Rivals got quite a bit of screen time. Amongst more footage of beautifully rendered sports cars, a major feature was shown off: All-Drive. Though Rivals will be playable offline, the online world of All-Drive will bring together racers in a completely organic way.

To demonstrate this concept, EA showed off two player perspectives: one driver doing a little street racing, the other a cop on a chase. These players initially started playing alone, but the end result was multiplayer. How? By making the two racing experiences literally collide into each other. During the demo, the two racers overlapped, starting a cops-and-drivers chase that brought the two players together.

The idea of All-Drive is that players are racing in one unified world, and you may crash into another gamer's race without even realizing it. The concept is intriguing, and the potential for a seamless transition between lone wolf racing and multiplayer sounds amazing. Check back for more impressions on All-Drive and Need for Speed: Rivals as they develop.

Need for Speed Rivals is the next racer in Electronic Art's longrunning franchise. The conflict between cops and racers--not just to outrun each other but to win the hearts of minds of the population--is at the core of Ghost Games' first unveiled project.

Confirmed: irresponsibly fast driving, Ferrari F12berlinettas, Koenigsegg Ageras, "in-engine footage," and it isn't PSP exclusive Need for Speed Underground Rivals. Not confirmed: more than two cars.

Fortunately, Need for Speed Rivals' website offers a bit more holistic look at the game. Of particularly note are the opposing cops and racers, whom players can switch between at any time. Both sides have their own upgrades for speed and maneuverability, on top of side-specific capture or evasion tools. It's all running on Battlefield 4's engine, Frostbite 3.

"All-Drive" blends single-player with multiplayer by seamlessly combining you and other friends' worlds mid-pursuit without lobbies or discrete matchmaking. No mention of how it interacts with the faction system, but if you happen to be a cop and your friend happens to be a racer at the time, well, that would certainly make both your lives more interesting.

Need for Speed Rivals is coming to PS4 and Xbox One "later this year," as well as PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 19. A full reveal is planned at E3 in June.

So, we're going to be honest here for a second--super, duper honest. We (we being the people who did this specific RadarPlays) didn't play Need for Speed: Most Wanted when it came out last year. We wanted to, but we didn't. So when we played the Wii U version we were... a little confused. Not by the controls or anything, but by FLYING CARS AND GIANT TORNADOES OF POLICE CARS. Yeah, those happened. Take a look, and join in on the insanity with us.

Want to hang out with GamesRadar's editors while taking a look at retro games, new releases, and totally random experiences? RadarPlays is for you. Mondays we'll be checking out blasts from the past on RadarPlays Retro, Wednesdays we change things up to whatever we feel like playing with RadarPlays Shuffle, and Friday is packed with the strangest titles you’ve never (hopefully) heard of in RadarPlays Freaky. We'll also release RadarPlays for all the new releases, so be sure to check back!

Editor's Note: The below review pertains only to the Wii U version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Check out our complete Need for Speed: Most Wanted review for more on the game as a whole.

When Need for Speed Most Wanted burst onto the scene last fall, it combined many of the best features of the franchise--intense high-speed police chases and loads of real-world vehicles--with the strongest traits that the developer Criterion had cultivated in the Burnout series over the years; namely, over-the-top vehicular destruction. When it was announced that Most Wanted would be coming to the Wii U, some were worried that something would get lost in translation.

The Wii U version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which released on March 19, 2013, is no afterthought. It sports a terrific look and sound to go along with its meaty campaign. A clear hierarchy of controllers exists for Most Wanted’s notoriously demanding mechanics; the Wii U Pro Controller offers the best experience, followed by the GamePad then the Wii Remote.

The Co-Driver mode, unique to the platform, is an interesting feature allowing a second person to lightly influence the main player’s game. While most core gamers won’t give it a second thought, it can certainly be fun for parents to let their youngsters distract cops during a police chase, choose different vehicles and paint jobs, or change it from day to night.

The Wii U’s off-screen play on the GamePad is beloved by many system owners, and Most Wanted offers it as well. While it looks superb and is welcome in situations when your significant other wins the rights to the TV, the split-second reactions needed in the packed-to-the-gills streets on the small screen will have you pining to get the action back on the big one.

As a standalone Wii U title, Most Wanted U offers a tremendous amount of fun to lots of gamers. If you’ve already spent a decent amount of time tearing up the streets of Fairhaven, it may not be worth your while to revisit. However, since any progress you’ve made in the game on any platform will automatically be brought forward, that could actually turn out to be a bonus. Need for Speed is a powerful, compelling game with some creativity to go along with its deep gameplay, and Wii U owners should be happy it’s around.