Been playing this for a few hours now and I like the vast majority of the game thus far. The graphics are very nice and the cars look perfect. Most Wanted 2.0 also has many more cars and a more interesting variety, which is awesome. The take-down system from the Burnout games is well implemented and makes racing much more interesting. The streamlined menus are easily accessed from the D-Pad for swapping cars, parts, and managing events. However, Criterion's makeover falls short in a few disappointing ways for me, in no particular order: 1) No manual transmission!?!?! That was one of the few pieces of enjoyment I got from racing games, being able to downshift in anticipation of turns and having the added challenge keeps every race fresh; not in this game though. 2) No customization. Basically a cornerstone of NFS was the customization. You can't even pick the color you want it in this one... (aside from zipping through a drivethrough to repair and recolor it randomly). You unlock part upgrades by getting 2nd or 1st in a race and there's basically 2 options per part and allow you to tweak the stats slightly and get a pro-version of that part for completing certain challenges. That's it. No performance dymo, no tuning, just plug and play. 3) No car progression. What I mean by this is you don't save up for that special car you've had your eye on and then make it your own in this game. (In fact there's no currency at all.) You get 5 events to do with each car and then its essentially done, and you move onto the next car and rinse and repeat. That was something I (and I think a lot of people) really enjoyed doing in NFS games was building your baby from the beginning. Sure you might go through 3 or 4 cars on a play-through but you always had that goal to go for. Without being able to progress a car like in NFS Underground 1 and 2 and Most Wanted 1.0 it really takes away from the game by making it too much like the Burnout's. 4) There is no consequence for getting Busted. As you may remember from NFS Most Wanted 1.0, if you go busted you had some options. Using the tokens you got from Blacklist members to get out of jail free or add impound strikes could save you from paying those hefty fines which increased the more mayhem you caused. In this, you go back to the police station. That's it. No money in the game for them to take away, no way to lose your car. Just go back three spaces. Really makes pursuits completely pointless by doing it this way. Just finish a race with cops on you? Just stop and save yourself 5 minutes of trying to evade, it doesn't make a difference if you evade or get caught; sad but true. 5) In NFS: MW 1.0 they had a plot for us for why we were trying to go back up the Blacklist and had some little plot twists and deception going on which was a nice touch. Here in 2.0, the nice lady voice tells you about the list and that you should be #1 and to have fun. I'm not sure what I would ask from Criterion in this department...but it just feels like they should have done...something. *** IN SUMMARY, this doesn't feel like a NFS game as much it feels like a Burnout game and while the game does a lot of things right and it would play fine for a game on its own merits, this just doesn't live up to the original. If anything I just want to play the first one more now, but give it a go and try it for yourself. It's not a bad game by any means just not as good as it could have been by keeping the core and building around it, instead of trying to smash two franchises together in a somewhat disappointing way to both NFS and Burnout fans.… Expand

do not listen to the press and web site, who are too king with EA ^^ this NFs is a big deception , mainly because criterion didn't make it out well , all their previous games was great, this one is really far from that . pick Forza Horizon wich is 10 times bigger , and looks great. the only good point of this game is multiplayer , but as there is no story mode, nor real solo play ( so short

Nice graphics, but this is a super cheesy game. I played it for 30 minutes or so before I was so sick of playing it, I turned it off, put it back in the case, and promptly traded it in for Forza Horizon. There are numerous problems with this game, but it starts with the driving mechanics. Never have I driven a game where when you let off the stick in a turn, and the car keeps turning in that direction, even though you're not in a slide. It actually has some sort of mega-over steer. At the very least the car should let up in the turn, but it doesn't. Coming out of most turns you are required to counter-steer just to get the car to straighten out, which results in over-correction. I understand the idea of having to counter steer when the back end of the car is sliding out, but that's not what's happening in this case. It's completely unrealistic, and absolutely no fun. You can get used to it, but it's a terrible way to start out a game. The next thing that drove me NUTS is that every time you smashed into a wall or a car or anything else, the whole screen changes to a 3rd person view and says "CRASHED", all slow motion, but then just drops you back into the car right where you were. What's the point in that? Even if it's a minor enough crash that in most games you could just continue driving, in this game it must make a BIG deal that you crashed, even though you didn't really "crash". Stupid. Next, is how stupid police chases are. There's no reason to get away from the cops, as you don't lose anything by getting caught. There's zero incentive to get away. Next is the lack of manual shifting. This reminds me of Burnout where every car had 847364923 gears, and it just kept shifting and shifting and shifting. Stupid. You can't choose car colors, or make the car special, which is what was so great about the original NFS Most Wanted. The map is the size of a rural crap-hole town with 500 people living in it. I know millionaires with bigger garages than this city (maybe a bit of an embellishment, but you get my point) This is just a barely upgraded version of Burnout, which was another game I played for a few hours, got bored with, and traded in. I play a LOT of driving games, and I'm disappointed I wasted my time with this, and even more disappointed that I didn't just buy Forza Horizon instead. Good riddance, and NEVER again will I purchase a Criterion pile-o-crap driving game.… Expand

WHAT???????? No manual transmission,serious is racing now been down by Automatic cars.Bought it,played 10 mins and extremely disappointing. Graphics is very well done, and that's about it.

I have never written a review in my life, but after seeing some of the reviews here I HAD to write one. It's plain to see that all the positive reviews are written by EA employees or promoters trying to keep the balance in the game. This game is complete garbage and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I can't believe that EA continues to release bad games and steal peoples money with good trailers. You should have called it Need for Speed: We finally ruined the franchise. You can't switch to manual at all and there's no leveling system in the game. There's no story line that drives you to an ending. I played this game for 30 minutes and you would think that the game would at least be fun at the beginning to draw you in. The controls are horrible and each car feels exactly the same with horrible turning. After purchasing this game I went back to the store and exchanged it. I lost money and I am completely disappointed. I was really looking forward to a sequel to the first Most Wanted, which I enjoyed very much. This game gets a 0 from me, because every game has good graphics these days and that's not an exception for a 1.… Expand

A 1 on graphics, they're pretty good. Otherwise the game is just not worth buying. No change in auto or manual and the cars feel ultra clunky. I'm not sure why they even release this, the 1st NFS Most Wanted was way better.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The overall driving mechanics and game physics are not too shabby. Although the game can often be very blurry and hard to see even on a 50 inch HD screen. My biggest problem is that I loved Most Wanted for ps2. In fact it is still my favourite need for speed game ever made. If that is what you were hoping for in this game you will be VERY disapointed. There is virtually nothing for customization options. Besides winning new tires or having nos or not. That is the extent of customization, which previous need for speed titles were known for. The fact that you dont start from scratch but actually start the game in a porsche is also a dissapointment. Half the fun of the game was having a worthless car and competing and EARNING your way to better cars and better races. Speaking of earning better races, the autolog racing system is stupid. There are only 5 races for each car. After that you have to abandon your favourite car and drive some peice of crap. There is virtually no structure of progression in place to take you further. You just wander aimlessly untill you earn enough points to race the guy above you. After that, back to wandering aimlessly. Overall as a remake this is a total failure. A piss-poor attempt at customization. No sense of how people like to enjoy video games and progression, or earning something. A measly 10 people on the most wanted list ahead of you compared to 25 from the original. I hope this helps anyone who was considering buying this game because its CALLED "Most Wanted" The name is selling this game, and nothing else. Avoid this game or be disapointed.… Expand

A good solid racing game that you don't need to spend 25 hours on just to unlock a half-decent car. Take it for what it is, a pick-up-and-play racer with little to no need for massive time investment. If you want to tune your car, or spend 40 hours unlocking a twin turbo hatchback, then buy GT5 or Forza. If you are married or have kids and just want to spin the wheels for half an hour, buy this game.… Expand

Waste of money. I don't understand how EA could allow Criterion to develop such a steaming pile of dung like this. Reading the 10 rated reviews, I'm asking myself if most of them have even played the game, or are they just posting 10s cause of the name. Here's a quick breakdown: Pros: -Graphics are incredible, this is a very pretty game. -Large selection of cars. -Allows you to compare races, events, etc. with friends.

Cons:
-Incessant flashing of the speed cameras and transitions gave me a headache.
-Glaring lack of customization options, and what few are there, don't amount to much.
-Play camera options are either a bumper position with a slightly upward angle, or your standard close rear overhead.
-Crash camera is annoying simply because I have no choice but to watch a slow motion video of my car crashing, it was cool the first few times, but now I just want to turn it off.

Overall this game feels like it's still in beta. EA should have waited another couple of months development before releasing this.… Expand

This game is one of the worst driving games in the series of NFS racing with super cheesy adverts. To start with the adverts, all the billboards you smash through are labelled with EA bought companies like DICE, BIOWARE etc... and this is far from a NFS title, its a Burnout title and I want my money back this game is just horrid. First while your driving your constantly blinded by the super whiteout sun 25% of the time and even using the calibration, its subpar after calibration is still used for brightness and contrast, this is unacceptable. Second is the lag with controllers. Your usually hitting a lot of things because the car continues to turn even after you've readjusted your stick on your controller, it just seems to still steer for a second after a lot, not always but a lot which makes driving unpredictable. Having no customization options just sucks, whatever happened to need for speed underground where you could soop up your ride the way you wanted, with the parts you wanted and even the style. This joke of a game you just drive through a gas station and your ride is instantly fixed and colour changed, COME ON can you get any more mickey mouse job of making a game than this? The graphics are decent, nothing spectacular but this game is a MAJOR rush job and just quickly put together with social features nobody uses. The cop chases usually last for an hour because they constantly are on your tail and so many keep respawning, its a joke. I've been parked by the side of the road my first time in the game, no heat on me, while I was setting up the settings and got back to game and BOOM a cop just busted me, this was f**ked! The other annoying thing about this game is while your driving and hitting objects its like a cop's cherries are flashing behind you each time you hit an object, its very distracting and not sure why they are flashing white and blue when you hit any object like a light pole.

SERIOUS GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK! After these few hours I seriously can't take it no more, this game is in the trash. This game isn't even better than the RUN (the last NFS game) when it first game out and that is VERY BAD. I really miss the games last the old most wanted where it had a story, if this game even had a story it would be something to play for, in its current state I don't ever want to play this game again.

This game only gets a HURTING 2/10, I gave it 1 extra point cuz I didn't crash to desktop once at least.… Expand

OK. I wasn't signed up for this site and I only went on it for the first time today. I only signed up because i was angry at some of these scores and feel I should write my honest review. Some of these reviews are ridiculous, the amount of 1/10s and 0/10s given to this game are beyond stupid. This game, after playing several hours, is a new concept from the starting from scratch type of storyline given with most racers. For me, that is a relief. I love driving around in the best of the best cars, and searching for them all over the map is sooo rewarding. The scenery of the city is amazing, a massive improvement to previous need for speeds, with graphics being just as impressive. The car handling starts off difficult, however unlocking new parts help to eventually turn your favourite car into drift king, being able to do maneuvers which leaves you in awe. The most wanted list brings back memories from the old most wanted, which was my favourite racer of all time, being able to wipe out the most wanted list members and take their car to eventually become the number 1. However, I would understand why people may dislike this game due to not being able to customise the car as much as in the previous games. But not for me, the slick glossy colours of the cars look so sweet I coudn't care less if I don't have some kind of dragon on it. Actually, it probably would ruin it. An issue I did have with the game was the amount of cop cars. They are everywhere. Starting a pursuit by hitting a cop is easy, and could come annoying. But that's not a problem for me, because I love cop chases. Unfortunately, they took away the crashing objects to take out the cops, which i did enjoy. It does however make the pursuits more challenging.

Overall, I am really happy with this game and am enjoying it, however it doesn't quite live up to the name of the 2005 version. Oh, and the soundtrack is awesome, much better than previous NFS soundtracks.… Expand

The graphics are what they should be, the sound is good and game has imo the best soundtrack any EA has had in the last 5 year. The handling seems a bit stiff at first but after a good hour of play you pretty much get used to it and it's no longer an issue. Lastly the autolog 2.0 is everything autolog 1.0 was and more: it basically keeps track of everything you do in the game, not just race times but also the speeds at which you pass a traffic cam or the distance you jump through a billboard. It's all there so for pretty much everything you do in this game, you can see how you're doing compared to your friends.

So much for the good things. The game has one major downside... it just lacks any sense of progress. The least they could've done is wrap the singleplayer up in a storyline. It didn't even have to be a super exciting story, just ANY basic story (like in the previous Most Wanted or Carbon) would've been fine. Instead, all you do now is drive around the map, looking for new cars. Once you get a car you win 5 races with it and you go on to the next car, rinse and repeat. The only thing that interupts this routine are the 10 Most Wanted drivers you can challenge, altho challenge is a bad word, destroy seems to be the better option.

I have not yet tried the multiplayer part of the game. I am assuming, like usual for me, that this part of the game will be more exiting.

All in all, it's a good game but they missed quite a few chances here to merge Need for Speed & Burnout together into a fantastic piece. Instead the game just feels like a dumbed down version of Burnout with the Need for Speed cars instead of fictional ones. Neither of the two fanbases will be extatic with how this game turned out.

PS: I would like to say: people that complain about the lack of manual transmission should shut up. This is an arcade racer, if you want manual transmission go play a simulation. Arcade racers aren't supposed to have all kinds of fancy crap like detailed **** view or steering wheel support, they are about hitting the gas as much and often as you can and Most Wanted gives you exactly that.… Expand

Horrible graphics, boring gameplay, absolutely no story, boring soundtrack and too easy to get any car. The handling is weird and heavy / loose, very hard to describe but you crash a lot. Sometimes I go very slow and the car still crash. The races force you to take out opponents and if you race a bit ahead of the other AI they sling shot on the mini map right behind you which is just retarded. The last nfs I loved in the series was NFS Most Wanted the first. Also the graphics are so bad sometimes and jagged at night that you can't see anything ahead and end up crashing. This game is a huge disappointment. All the high ratings like IGN and others are definitely paid reviews as there is no way in hell this game is any good.… Expand

This is the review to explain all the other reviews! Perhaps my background might help you judge how valuable this review is. I am a huge NFS fan, and I have been playing it since Porsche Unleashed, before the first Hot Pursuit. I have not played every NFS game because many have been duds. I am not a huge fan of sim-racing, I do prefer arcade racing, so Burnout: Paradise was one of my favorite driving games to date. Hopefully that gives you an idea of where I'm coming from.

The original Most Wanted was one of my favorite NFS games that I ever played. I could tell early on that this was not a successor to that in so many ways. For example, no interactive environment. You might remember the original MW had police chase breakers, where you could drive into areas on your map listed with a triangle and it would slow down cops by a giant plastic donut dropping from a restaurant logo, or perhaps a gas station blowing up. Well, nothing like that here.

I wouldn't say that the police chases are non-consequential as others have said, but they're nearly non-consequential. They exist merely to entertain and/or irritate. The cars handle reasonably well, although still not as arcadey as they did in Burnout: Paradise, and they don't have a wealth of difference between them all, other than the feeling of weight, and of course: speed.

So why the sharp difference in reviews? Perhaps some felt that this would revive the NFS franchise after The Run? It certainly won't do that. While it doesn't have a clunky narrative that gets in the way like The Run, it doesn't have... anything. Any story at all. Yes, I know this is Criterion and they never promised a story, etc. But it does feel sorely missing, especially in a game called Most Wanted where they took a game with a decent (albeit cheesy) story and attempted to remake it. So for fans that are looking for a reboot for NFS, it sadly does not start here.

What about for those looking for the successor of Most Wanted? Again, no! This is not it. Most Wanted (the original) was a really great game. You jumped in, and you felt part of the game. The story held it all together, and the cop chases were great. You really were interested in lowering your heat level, or driving around for 10 minutes to find a pursuit breaker and then a cool-down spot, only to be detected at the last minute. Paying huge fines or customizing your car really made you feel like your character... you were invested! There was gain and loss, so winning felt like success, not simply the "next step". In short: there is none of that here. No customization, which personally I can live with in Burnout, but it doesn't fly here! The single-player campaign which was so exhilarating in MW (original) barely exists here. While they matched the joy of simply driving around and taking in the sights, not much else meets the 7-year old marker left by the original, which is sad given the age difference between the two products. Junior should be beating up the dad, but it just doesn't happen.

So then, that leaves us with one last group of people... the group of people I fall into: people looking for a spiritual successor to Burnout Paradise. Before even buying the game I knew all of the above. None of that surprises me... but I was looking for the next Burnout Paradise. Even after 100 solid hours of gameplay on Burnout Paradise to get all your trophies, etc, you still had a lengthy online play-life because helping others complete their challenges or stunt runs with new challengers was always a joy. Hell, it still is! And now Criterion are coming out with a brand new game where they've focused EVEN MORE energy into multiplayer. Sign me up, amirite?!? Well - multiplayer has some advantages here and some disadvantages. Advantages is that competition is drummed up much more through results being everywhere, and of course the famed billboard pics. This is great - perhaps it would be more great if I played online with my known friends, but since I play online more with random people it doesn't pack the same punch. Be that as it may, online multiplayer is where this game is at... although without the longevity of challenges stunt runs and gameplay elements like this, I can't see it matching Paradise for long. It should be noted that MW doesn't have individual Freeburn challenges like in Paradise either, but speed lists which are a lot more clunky, and frustrating should people drop out. No more 1 minute challenges... you're signing up for 10 - 20 minutes each time.

So, why the vast difference in reviews? Perhaps someone was expecting one of the above scenarios to be true. The fact is, this isn't a turning point for NFS, it's not a better game than Most Wanted (original) and it's not better than Paradise. Still, the amalgum here is still good in it's own right. Great graphics, new challenges online, fun competition, but still: an overwhelming missed opportunity. See Praxiss review for everything I couldn't write here!… Expand

Ok everyone, take a deep breath. What about the 10 and the o !!! First, before writing a review, try to play the game more than 10 or 30 minutes. Second, every gamer on the planet knows that this game is the legetimate successor to BURNOUT and not MOST WANTED. finaly, stop comparing it to Forza, its a totaly different experience. Forza is a sim racer that let you pay outside of the track. The other is clearly a fast pace adrenaline pumping arcade racer with over the top jumps and crushing crash. For my part, this is a excellent game. It got its flaws but every game does. Its realy Burnout with real cars. Once you get used to the controls and the weight of the car it plays like a charm. Its clear that the single player is not as chunky as Burnout but you got plenty to keep you busy even if you dont play online. It could take you weeks juste to find all short cuts and billboards. I love that i can pick any car i want and try it. Changing cars on the fly is great to. There is no real customisation. Its more like tuning your car to fit the next race. If your a tuning freek and like to spend hours working on you car, look elswhere, this is not a game for you. If you liked Burnout paradise and other arcare racer, you will love this game.… Expand

Awesome awesome arcade-racer!!!! What is it with reviewers thinking this is supposed to be driving round a track for hour after hour, tweaking the car little by little then going back round a track until you fall asleep at the controls???? Go get GT or some other soul-draining sim-racer. Game is awesome and HUGE FUN!!!!!

This is a half breed for Burnout and Need for Speed. Bad thing is that they picked the worsts parts of both so its really really bad. They use the stupid "always in-game menus" Criterion seems obsessed with. Those menus are both annoying an slow to use. Handling is awful. When your handling has a totally different "mode" for going fast/straight lines and a separate "drift" mechanic, the switch between those has to feel right. Its feels awful which ruins the whole handling. Things are made even worse by bad lightning which sometimes blocks your vision causing you to miss judge your turn-in point. AI is cheap since it uses rubberband so its always close to you. Soundtrack is so bad that the 4th most used button after gas/brake/steering is "skip track". Yeah, cant say anything good about this game expect for the fact that it works and boots up. Please EA, stop making these dumb excuses for a NFS game.

In short: RIdge Racer Unbouded is a better Burnout expiriecen, Forza Horizon is a better racing game if you want real cars. Blur is also a much much better game.… Expand

I was a huge fan of the first release of NFS:MW. Great cars, customizability, a narrative, awesome graphics, etc. That game was great in many ways, but especially because you had to earn your cars or earn money to buy them. They were yours. You could customize them in countless ways. Want to buy a car and make it look like one in your driveway? No problem. Pretty cool. In this version of NFS:MW, all that make-it-yours glory is gone. Now, you just find cars willy-nilly. Hop in and its yours. Don't have to buy them. They're just sitting around in the open for you to "take". Huh? Oh, you want to paint your newly "found" Porsche red because its your favorite color? Ok, well, go to a repair shop and drive through it. Wait, it turned your car a random color? Huh? WTF? No problem, just put it in reverse, back up and drive through again. Keep doing this until you get the color you like. Who the hell thought of that retarded system?! There is NO customizability of cars in this car. Camera views? Only 2. Not even an interior camera view. How lame is that? Graphics are great, but the roads are always wet. Another WTF moment. There is no narrative AT ALL. And the cutscenes before a race are real head-scratchers. Have nothing to do with the race. One cut scene shows you go up the side of a building (presumably in some kind of elevator you can't see) and when it gets to the top, it free falls to the ground. Then you're in your car. WTF? What idiot thought up that as a good cutscene before a car race? Makes zero sense at all. It's as if they took stock footage from the bargain bin of lost games and pasted it in to fill in the lack of creativity here. A real shame and another NFS game down the tubes....… Expand

Honestly, this game is pretty mediocre. If you were at all a fan of the older Need for Speed titles, namely, Need for Speed Underground 1 & 2, Most Wanted 1, and aren't particularly a fan of the Burnout series, you'll find yourself pretty disappointed with this game.

The game shouldn't have the title Need for Speed in it, as it is extremely misleading. As many know, the game was developed by Criterion, the same people who brought us the Burnout series, which I'm going to say right out I'm not a particular fan of. I like games that have great customization, and a solid progression base. The open world style is great, but there's no unlocking cars, you just drive around and swap cars whenever you want. But there's no customization, you can swap parts around here and there to get minor boosts, but there's no customization to the actual car (you can't even change the color of your car - unless you drive through a shop which repairs your car/changes the color. I found myself disliking the handling a lot, it's extremely "drift" based where making any turn almost necessitates forcing your car into a drift because the handling is so shoddy. One of the things they imported from Burnout which I disliked the most was the wiping out, even after minor crashes your car would wreck/spin out and you'd have to wait for your car to respawn to play again. This gets extremely frustrating when you're trying to outrun cops and because the handling is so poor you almost can't avoid slamming into a car in front of you. When I saw that this was going to be made by Criterion, I thought, why not give it a go, it has the Need for Speed title afterall. Frankly, it just feels like another Burnout title with cops added in. Almost nothing was imported from what made the Need for Speed titles great, especially Most Wanted 1. If you don't like the Burnout style, don't bother with this game, you'll find yourself extremely disappointed like I did.… Expand

I did not like this game at all. It is not optimized for excellent hardware and it does not follow the formula of the first game. The only think that is "OK" about this game is the graphics but again they are not optimized well.

thank you criterion very good game everything in the right way i love this game it is one of the most amazing race games ever made really good work ..

need for speed most wanted - A Criterion Game my best car game till this moment graphics action and every thing you need you will find it in this game like hot pursuit

This game is a disgrace to bearing the name Need for Speed Most Wanted. If you have played the original NFS MW, you would really feel angry about this rubbish new one. If you have tried this game and come here to read the reviews just like I do, you would know those who give this game low scores are giving honest opinions, and those who give this game 9 or 10 are so Criterion or EA employee alike.

If you want a driving game....this is not the game for you! This is more like Pinball on wheels! This game has great parts but they just do not mesh together to make a cohesive whole. The story/reason just isn't enough to make you believe in the world they are trying to create and finding cars randomly is how you you get better vehicles?....then you have to get the same upgrades for each damn car! PAINFUL! The original NFSMW does all of these things much better. There is no feeling of progression and therefore lacks the reward of leveling up and robs you of that sense of achievement! Deciding were to spend your hard earned rewards/resources and on which car is essential to identity within the game and this just doesn't happen here. The user reviews are superb on Metacritic and are nearly always right and no more so than in this case. Get Forza Horizons if you have the choice...a much better game were you actually feel like you are in control of how you progress/upgrade.… Expand

I'm a little torn how to rate this. I play with my family and cousins online and we were all very excited about this game. Each of us had differing opinions on games, but we all enjoy playing together when we can. First, why call this Most Wanted? It clearly isn't and the idea they posted it under the NFS franchise suggests they were looking for sales based off the Title alone. NFS:MW was/is one of the better racing games made. It catered to both Sim fans and Arcade fans. This is back when it mattered to EA if they released a good game or not. I personally thought with Criterion involved even EA couldn't mess it up.
So when my cousin won a copy, we were all pretty excited. We went over expecting to find a great game the rest of us would want to buy and play together. We found some really fun aspects, which could equate to a lot of fun racing online. But after a few days playing, I think we all kind of decided it just wasn't worth the money. It's certainly not a racing Sim, which is fine since a few of us don't really care for racing sims. But the lack of camera views was annoying. I don't care about manual/automatic but my brother did. I do care about fun, and every car had it's unique qualities, which is ok, but they also all were pretty much the same. You could win with a little 4 cyl compact as easily as a super sports car. This is fun, at first, but after awhile it gets annoying. Especially if you get a car you think looks cool, because you're only allowed so many races per car.

Really, you can read most reviews, aside from the "This is the best game ever, get it now!!!' and the "WTF, no manual transmission? This game sux don't buy" reviews. There are plenty of people who actually spent time to write what's good and bad about this game. Most of the better reviews gave it lower scores, but they explained it. Many of the 9 and 10 reviews seem to write how everyone else is wrong and the game is really good but they don't really go into details why. Just from what I've seen anyway. I strongly recommend you read more than a few reviews to get a better idea of the good and bad points. Because this game definitely has some great features and some not-so-great features.

From a racing sim fans point of view, this game just isn't worth the money for me. It feels like they went for an over-the-top attempt and glitz and decided that a high production quality makes a good game. And for those who like that kind of racing, it will be a very fun game. Because, even though I won't buy it, it would be fun to play from time-to-time in smaller doses. For me, I don't think this really fits what I would call a racing game. I don't need full out realism, but I do need a challenge when I race and this game isn't challenging. It's a smash-up game, and they could substitute the cars with tractors, bicycles, old people pushing carts, just about anything that moves could be swapped out. My brother said it best "It's Mario kart but with kick butt graphics and very cool cars." And Mario Kart is a very fun arcade game, so maybe EA does have a hit on their hands. Just not with us. I think we all wanted to like this game, but it just is lacking in too many areas. Too bad.… Expand

This is the supposed to be a similar game to the original Need for Speed Most Wanted, but it lacks a lot of the most important aspects. There is no car customization, no manual transmission, no in game currency, and the worst part of all is that you can't own a car! Who thought it would be a good idea to remove one of the best parts of the original NFS MW, owning and customizing a garage full of cars? The driving mechanics are mediocre. It feels like they were made for "fun" but it makes driving more repetitive. Another extremely annoying thing about this game is the stupid slow mo- zoom out camera that happens when you crash. I just want to keep driving not waste time looking at my stupid crash without being able to go anywhere.… Expand

I have the X-box 360 version. It runs smoothly and looks good. The main problem with the game is that it doesn't live up to its name. I am a Most Wanted 2005 fan. And this game misses the mix of basic elements that made that game so much fun.
It does have an open world and cops, but that's all. It misses the story line, cheesy but fun cut scenes with the funny characters, the sense o achievement, the pimping of your ride, the building of you car collection, and the general sense of building up your rep. Most Wanted 2005 had an open world but also well defined goals. This game misses all that. But most of all it doesn't suck you in like the original.

I would have given it a 7 if it wasn't called "Most Wanted" but because it's false advertising I give it a 6.… Expand

This is not Need for Speed. They should named it Burnout. It has nothing to do with the old NFS Most Wanted. It feels like that even the police is just in the game so they could named it Most Wanted. If you get busted you dont looe any money, nothing, no consequencces for getting busted. The game has good graphics and nice sounds. If you play it without thinking that this is a NFS game, its pretty good and fun to play. So finally, the game itself would be a good sequel for Burnout Paradise but because they had to name it NFS Most Wanted, which has nothing to do with the old Most Wanted or even with any NFS this game isn't worth to buy.… Expand