Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Xbox 360)

After years of gaming and then online gaming one thing became apparent, EA were good at making money out of the same games year in and year out. Their online servers were unreliable and the experience was jaded.

But wait! Along came the XBox 360 and all that changed. With the aid of Microsoft and the power of the 360 EA have a game that every gamer can enjoy from start to finish. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the true fast and fun driving experience. It's simple, and it's a must have!

Need for Speed never appealed to me on any other console, so I came to Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the Xbox 360 without any prior knowledge or preconceived ideas. Subsequently a few games reviews have suggested this version, is in all probability closely linked to previous versions of the game. In this case I feel fortunate to be fresh to the entire experience.

If you are a fan of racing games, the thought of owning a street-racing, modified glory box on wheels that regularly exceeds speed limits and breaks the law and blows your gasket, then this is the game for you!

For the vast majority of us this is about as close as we'll ever get to owning a fully loaded BMW, Ford Mustang or Porsche. In our ordinary lives we are confined to sluggish traffic, endless one way systems, and school runs to drop off children in our street legal and frankly boring vehicular modes of boredom.

The graphics are, quite frankly, outstanding! The speed of the 360 processor allows for more graphical content, dynamics and depth than anything I have ever owned or played previously. It's still not the genuine driving simulator, but as one gamer put it to me 'if I wanted it to be real, I'd just sit in my driveway and make broom, broom noises in my car'.

You start the game by losing your pride and joy, a beautiful BMW to another street racer called 'Razor'. I suspect foul play as your engine blows halfway through a race against him, and you have to hand over your car to him. Thus, the real fun begins with you starting with a cheap, slow, rubbish handling car.

The trick is to progress through 15 other street racers, beating them in order to unlock other areas of the game (districts), possibly pink slip their car (i.e. win their car from them) and also annoy the police right royally until you have loads of kudos, respect and a garage full of gleaming sports cars.

Each of the 15 levels has a series of tasks you are required to perform prior to you racing against the next driver on the list. Like in 'Gone in 60 seconds', a blacklist of drivers and rides are slowly scored off in chalk before you clamber up the league and race Razor for possession of your original BMW - becoming 'Most Wanted' on the blacklisted 15.

That's the theory, and at present I am at position number 7 in the league table after 2 weeks of hard drivin' police bustin', butt hustlin' and car maulin'. During the day I am a mild mannered technical adviser for an electronics retailer, but at night (once my children are tucked up in bed), I take on my street persona and beat 'em bad boys at their own game.

Although in places I felt that Project Gotham Racer 3 looks better, the game play and overall addiction of this game strips PGR3 down to what it really is... a series of larger cars, harder to handle, going around and around tracks beating other cars going around and around.

Where NFSMW (Need For Speed Most Wanted) wins, is that it has more depth to it. You can compete on-line, buy, sell and make your own cars more distinctive, enhance their performance. The added dimension of beating the police, makes this (for normally law abiding citizens) real escapism. What better than hearing the authentic police voice overs squawking 'Uh central, yeah that code 6 racer, well I'm afraid I lost him', or the spine chilling 'Central, we have located the suspect please call for back up'.

The fast paced cars are graphically brilliant. They all sound, look and handle differently.

The locations, details, scenery and content graphics are breathtaking.

The feeling of motion and speed is really great.

This is a software title I would have probably not considered previously, mainly because I never thought I'd enjoy Fast & Furious style software. I'm glad I made the impulse buy, as PGR3 is now confined to the shelf, where sadly, despite the hype, I feel it belongs.

Would I recommend the Xbox 360 Need For Speed: Most Wanted game? Yes, because it has great graphics and great careers. What more can you ask for? And of course it's for the Xbox 360, so yes it's great value for money.

Go and buy it while you can!!