Need for Speed: Most Wanted first impressions

Now that EA has announced the release date of this 'criminal' racer, it's November 15th by the way, I thought I'd give my impressions from playing the game for a short while at Games Market Europe. I know this'll probably sound like a crime to anyone interested in this game, but I had never heard of the latest in the Need for Speed series when I picked up the PS2 controller at the EA booth. I was actually aiming to have a go at Bond – From Russia with Love, but the game had frozen with Sean Connery's digital hand halfway through a Russia soldier's chest (go figure). Anyway, I moved over to the next console which happened to be Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

So I started off sitting in a blinged up BMW 3 series wondering what the controls were. First I tried the analogue sticks but ended up powersliding round every corner. Then I tried the D-pad; same thing happened. Why couldn't I aim the car straight around the corners? Was it the distracting karaoke section of the EA stall? Nope, it seems the staff there weren't paid enough to actually sing loud enough for me to hear. Was it the controller itself? Nope,
unlike Nintendo, EA seemed to have provided new booths.
What could I blame? The game itself. The driving mechanics were abominable. It was like playing a racing game on your cellphone. The car felt like it was floating along a plane of ice around every corner.

I?ve driven a BMW 5 series in real life and this wasn?t even a smidgen close to that experience. On a scale of realism from 1 to 10 (with 10 being Gran Turismo and 1 being Outrun) this was a 3. Yeah, I know,
realism doesn?t always equal fun. But this wasn?t fun at all. It was annoying! Don?t get me wrong, I could steer the car perfectly fine without hitting the sides, but after the first few minutes playing the game I was bored already. Not exactly the feeling you want from an early Xbox 360 title.

On the positive side, the graphics on the PS2 version look pretty impressive and despite the noise pollution from the karaoke, it sounded pretty decent too. I also didn?t get a chance to try out the ?Bullet Time? steering mode which is supposedly the game?s stand out feature. Bear in mind although my overall impression is negative, I did only see a small section of the game. Hopefully until the release date the EA guys will stick to their word and
?put the gameplay focus back on the racing.?

[Thanks, Anuj]