VIDEO: Criterion Games Names Some Key Features of Need for Speed: Most Wanted

After crafting Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, the hyper-addictive, critically-acclaimed reboot of the cops-and-racers sub-franchise, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the folks at Criterion Games would be taking a long, well-earned vacation. And when two Need for Speed games not developed by Criterion – Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed and Need for Speed: The Run – landed on store shelves last year, those suspicions seemed to be confirmed. But it turns out the gaming gurus of Guildford weren’t spending all of 2011 sleeping late and watching football on the telly.

They were, in fact, working on Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which had its coming out party at E3 in June. And as with Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted shares little more than a title with a game from the Electronic Arts cash cow’s past. In fact, there are so many new ideas being crammed into the 2012 incarnation of Most Wanted that EA and Criterion are rolling out a series of video features highlighting what players can expect to find when thy boot up their copies beginning on October 30th. Check out the first of these videos after the jump.

What do we think of all this? Well, having all cars available from the start (and customizable) is neat, but we can’t help wondering how many rookies will try to wrestle a Bugatti or Koenigsegg right off the bat, wrap it around bridge pier after coffee shop after sewer pipe, throw up their hands in disgust, and quit playing the game “because it’s too hard” when they could have (and should have) learned the ropes in slower, more manageable vehicles.

As for Autolog 2.0, it certainly sounds clever, and we love the wanted poster billboards that include the top players’ gamer pictures. We’re anxious to see what else Need for Speed: Most Wanted has up its proverbial sleeve, and expect to see more appetite whetting videos as its release date draws ever nearer.

Source: Criterion Games