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 Need
For Speed: Most Wanted for the Xbox360 is the latest in the Need
For Speed franchise. There was only one course playable at the
show, but it certainly gave us the chance to see what the Xbox360,
and Electronic Arts can do. It runs very smoothly, despite the
console crashing (unsurprising really, when you consider the
console isn’t ready to market yet), and there’s a real sense of
speed.
We
had to use a manual gearbox in the Electronic Entertainment Expo
(E3) Demo Version but presumably an automatic gearshift will be
available on the final build. This manual shifting system adds a
‘real’ driving element to it, shift too soon and it will slow
you down but do it too late and you over rev and can end up blowing
up the engine. There are screen prompts which tell you when the
best time to shift gears is so it doesn’t distract too much from
the actual driving by constantly checking the rev meter, which is
conveniently positioned just in your field of vision on the left
hand side of the screen, rather in the bottom right of the screen
as in other games.
There
is a Nitro feature in place, which you definitely  need to use lots
to win the races. When you use it the car and the edges of the
screen blurs slightly to really give you the feel of driving fast -
although this concept is not a new one. If you enjoyed previous Need
For Speed games then chances are you will like this one too and
it should be available in the launch window for the Xbox360, though
the possibility of a BurnOut release may overshadow this a
little.
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