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The Run. An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination as you battle hundreds of the world’s most notorious drivers on the country’s most dangerous roads.
This November, cops are back in Need for Speed in a big way. Get ready for edge-of-your-seat, open-world pursuits in our most connected game ever.
Need for Speed World is a massively multiplayer online action driving game for the PC, where you can race with your friends or compete against them and thousands of other players in a seamless open world. Race in a variety of game modes (including cop pursuits), customize vehicles from a constantly growing catalogue, and fully tailor your gameplay experience.
NITRO was developed by EA Montreal and released only on Nintendo’s Wii and DS consoles. With its fast-paced, aggressive gameplay and more than 30 cars, NITRO was a big winner with younger and casual players who wanted more of an action feel as opposed to the simulation-style offered by SHIFT.
Returning to the simulation roots laid down in ProStreet, SHIFT marked the first Need for Speed game not made by Black Box since Porsche Unleashed, with UK-based Slightly Mad Studios taking the wheel. It featured nearly 100 cars and was critically-acclaimed, receiving the Editors’ Choice Award from IGN.
With former Bond girl, Maggie Q, on the cover, the Need for Speed series got a dose of Hollywood glitz and glamor in Undercover. With more than 100 miles of drivable road, the open world in Undercover is the largest ever seen in a Need for Speed game.
ProStreet was a return to a style of gameplay that hadn’t been seen in the Need for Speed series since Porsche Unleashed -- simulation. In ProStreet, several new modes were added to the gameplay: grip races, speed challenges, and top speed runs, along with more robust versions of drift and drag racing.
Following in the footsteps of Most Wanted, Need for Speed Carbon was largely based on the street racing culture of the day, introducing exotic and muscle cars, as well as canyon races. One of the coolest new features in Carbon was AutoSculpt, which molded aftermarket body parts to the driver’s liking, with no two cars being exactly alike.
Most Wanted, which was a launch title on Xbox 360, was the first Need for Speed game to have that distinction since The Need for Speed on 3DO eleven years earlier. A winner of the 2005 Interactive Achievement Award for Racing Game of the Year, Most Wanted made it three wins in four years for Need for Speed.
Underground 2 was the first Need for Speed game to feature an open world setting, allowing racers to explore the vast city of Bayview. Customization was improved with the addition of a dyno-tuning system and additional visual upgrades.
The game that brought Need for Speed from supercar paradise to the forefront of car culture, Underground focused strongly on customization and the import tuner market. It included vinyls, new wheels, paint types, and performance improvements, all designed to turn your car into a personal canvas while not sacrificing an ounce of speed.
Still remembered fondly -- and played frequently -- by fans of the series, Hot Pursuit 2 won the 2002 Interactive Achievement Award for Racing Game of the Year. This was the first Need for Speed game developed by Black Box Games.
The first -- and to date, only -- Need for Speed title to focus entirely on one manufacturer. Featuring the most impressive lineup of Porsche vehicles ever seen in a racing simulation, Porsche Unleashed offered customization from a vast catalogue of parts available as upgrades in the game.
The first Need for Speed game with a damage model, High Stakes, introduced a whole new way of punishing players for sloppy driving. Speaking of punishment, the PlayStation version of High Stakes included a co-op "High Stakes" mode where your friend would have their car erased from their memory card if you beat them.
Cops were back in the third Need for Speed title, and they had new weapons at their disposal, including roadblocks and spike strips. This time, though, players had the ability to be the cop, allowing racers to swap their stick-shift for a badge.
Released three years after The Need for Speed, this game changed the focus of the series slightly, moving from attainable, everyday vehicles to supercars, including the McLaren F1, Ferrari F50, and Ford GT90 concept, but still keeping the screaming-fast pace of its predecessor.
This was the game that started a 16-year obsession. The first truly 3D racing game, with a car list featuring the coolest cars available at the time, this was one drive you had to take.