Games

Need for Speed: Nitro is the fourteenth installment in the long-running racing video game franchise Need for Speed. It was published by Electronic Arts for the Wii and Nintendo DS platforms, It is also the only game to date in the franchise to not be made for PC. It was announced in January as part of a three-game announcement that includes Need for Speed: Shift and Need for Speed: World. The game was developed by EA Montreal who have previous experience with Nintendo titles, although the DS version was developed separately by Firebrand Games' Florida studio. An improved version of the DS edition of the game, Need for Speed: Nitro-X, was released for DSiWare in November 2010.

To be Most Wanted, youll need to outrun the cops, outdrive your friends, and outsmart your rivals. With a relentless police force gunning to take you down, youll need to make split second decisions. Use the open world to your advantage to find hiding spots, hit jumps and earn new vehicles to keep you one step ahead. In true Criterion Games fashion, your friends are at the heart of your experience. In an open world with no menus or lobbies, youll be able to instantly challenge your friends and prove your driving skill in a variety of seamless multiplayer events. Your rivals will do everything they can to stop you from getting to the top. In this world, there can only be one Most Wanted.

Need for Speed is going back to its roots and that can mean only one thing: police chases and ridiculously expensive supercars. Hot Pursuit doesn't make any claims to be the most realistic racer out there, even compared to previous games, but it does aim to be the most fun. You can play either as cops or racers, but both sides get ultra powerful cars and a range of power-ups to get them to the race's end. If you're a cop your job is to chase down your quarry using any means necessary, including roadblocks. If you're playing as a racer you'll often be in a slower car than your pursuer, but you won't be tied to any of their rules and get your own powerful power-ups like the radar jammer.

Just like its predecessors Need for Speed: High Stakes is an action racing game with a wide selection of exotic sports cars and many different types of tracks. The trademark Hot Pursuit mode game mode from the first game in the series is still present, where players race opponents on tracks filled with regular traffic and police cars that chase the racers. The classic pursuit mode is extended with two additional modes: Getaway and Time Trap. In Getaway the player needs to shake off the police in a set amount of time, or playing as the police trap a speeder before time runs out. In Time Trap an entire race needs to be completed before time runs out, or as the police all speeders need to be arrested. There are minor differences between the two platforms for this game mode, regarding spike strips, road blocks, and back-up. The latter for instance is unique to the PlayStation version. The Pursuit mode is available in multiplayer as well and players can take different sides or race together. It is the first game in the series to introduce a Career mode with a set of challenges. Beating these is rewarded with trophies for unlocks, and money to spend on new cars, repairs and upgrades. In the PlayStation version the Career mode is split up into two different sets of challenges: Tournament (required races) and Special Event (optional races). High Stakes in the title refers to races where players bet their cars. In the PC version these are a part of the Career mode when the player owns more than two cars. In the PlayStation version two players can insert their memory cards and race against each other. The winner immediately receives the opponent's car and it is deleted from the loser's memory card right away. In addition to the new game modes it is also the first game in the series to have a detailed physics models. Damage now affects both the appearance and the performance of the car for the first time.

Need for Speed: World is a massively-multiplayer online racing game and the first with that model in the long-running Need for Speed series. For Electronic Arts it is the spiritual successor to Motor City Online where a similar concept was used. Players drive together in an open, free-roaming world and participate in races against each other to progress in the game, buy new vehicles, and unlock more of the city. It also includes a lot of social aspects. The environment consists of two large cities, Rockport and Palmont, previously featured in Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Need for Speed: Carbon respectively. The main racing modes are also modelled after those games, combining illegal car races, tuning cars, and police chases.