Some people said, "It's just another burnout game". I say, "GREAT!". Burnout Paradise was a great, great game. Some people complain that it's not how they would like it, like some past iteration of need for speed. They give it a 1 to 5 out of 10. and that is simply ridiculous.--
Now I loved Burnout Paradise, but this is not Burnout, although I see some inspiration from it.--
I loved the original Most Wanted, and this is different, and in my opinion, very much better.--
The graphics are beautiful, the sense of speed is great, the cops are tenacious, the jumps are awesome, and the engine sounds are awesome. This is not a simulation, but an arcade racer, and I found myself smiling many times from the fun factors of this game. Nothing is overly complicated, and everything is accessible from the menus, even mods for your car can be applied on the fly. Love the re-inflating tires.--
If you are a gear head, and love to tinker around with parts, and tuning, this is not the game for you. If you prefer driving, and going fast, to tinkering, then this it your game. I like both in depth simulations, and arcade racers, and as an arcade racer, this one is great.--
On the first day, I was a little disappointed it did not have more Burnout Paradise in it. Both in gameplay and ambiance. Like the music in BP was my taste, and I loved most of it. Both the rock an the classical. The music in this game is lame (IMO), and I turned it off. So when I looked to see what scores it got, I was expecting a 7, and I saw a 7.5 from Game Spot. But I played it some more, and was addicted to what was there. It is great fun. And that is what games are all about.--
I am amazed some people are so biased about these need for speed games, and have a favorite and wish to see the things from that game make its way into the new one. If it doesn't then they pretend the new one has no value, or is a terrible game. This is not a terrible game. It is a great game, dare I say an awesome game, but it is not NFS Underground, or Underground 2, or the original NFS Most Wanted, and it is not Burnout Paradise 2 (Although I do no think that would be bad).--
It is Need for Speed Most Wanted A Criterion Game, and it is simply great.
I would like to see more of this type of game.
Something needs to be addressed, and that is the steering. I have an analog controller, but from center to full turn the game takes like a full second to implement, even though I do it instantly on my controller. It makes the game feel like it is on ice. I knocked off 2 points because of this. It could easily be a 9, but this steering just makes it frustrating. And as of 7-10-13 no patch addressed this for me. Terrible steering. You do not notice the steering on most cars, but with Hyper cars, like the Bugatti Veyron, the lag in steering is terrible.