Need for Speed: Most Wanted
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Critic Score User Score
Xbox
83
2.7
GameCube
82
3.7
PlayStation 3
...
...
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Description

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is in fact a cross between the Underground and the Hot Pursuit spin-offs. The player must gain notoriety by racing in the streets and attracting the attention of the cops in order to ascend in the Black List of illegal racers. In the end he must face no.1, Razor who tricked him out of his own car and used it to get to the top.

Many racing modes are carried on from NFSU2 with the addition of "Milestones", special events where the driver must evade capture and/or disable police cars by bringing down Pursuit Breakers, specially marked buildings such as gas stations and water towers. For each one of the 15 Blacklisted opponents, the player must win a specific number of events from each of the two main types and gain enough notoriety in the process. The player can invest bet money to buy new cars or improve his existing one's looks and performance so that he remains competitive.

In Most Wanted, Josie Maran replaces Brooke Burke as the racer girl. The plot is furthered through use of FMV video with live actors and digital sets, which has been heavily enhanced so that it looks quite real.
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Screenshots

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Xbox 360 Race is about to start.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted PlayStation 2 Stadium is accessible
Need for Speed: Most Wanted PlayStation 2 Screen turns blue when police notices you
Need for Speed: Most Wanted PlayStation 2 Main Menu - Quick Race
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Promo Images

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Screenshot
Need for Speed: Most Wanted Screenshot
Need for Speed: Most Wanted Screenshot
Need for Speed: Most Wanted Screenshot
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Alternate Titles

  • "极品飞车：最高通缉" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • "NFS:MW" -- Common abbreviation
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Part of the Following Groups

User Reviews

It still needs....something. Windows Sam Hardy (76)
A Fun Racing Game Xbox Jason Wilkinson (7)
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Critic Reviews

PGNx Media Xbox Nov 27, 2005 9.3 out of 10 93
Game Informer Magazine Xbox 360 Jan, 2006 9 out of 10 90
Gameguru Mania Windows Nov 27, 2005 89 out of 100 89
Imperium Gier Windows Dec 09, 2005 8.9 out of 10 89
GameZone Xbox Dec 02, 2005 8.7 out of 10 87
GameSpot Xbox 360 Nov 17, 2005 8.4 out of 10 84
Video Game Talk Xbox 360 Jan 14, 2006 4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars 80
X-Power Xbox Dec 04, 2005 8 out of 10 80
PlayFrance PlayStation 2 Dec 23, 2005 7.5 out of 10 75
Totally Gaming Network Xbox 360 Feb 02, 2006 7 out of 10 70
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Forums

Topic # Posts Last Post
Similar game wanted 4 havoc of smeg (21714)
Jul 29, 2012
[new thread]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Need for Speed: Most Wanted appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Advertisement

The EA Belgium office planned a little stunt on 24th November 2005, the launch day. They intended to give away free copies in the morning's traffic bottlenecks, but that didn't go through eventually.

Instead, on 25th November, they announced, together with the Dutch office, to have reserved an amount of PS2 copies for everyone who had had a speeding ticket the day before, on 24th November. You just had to fax proof to them to receive the game. In Belgium, you were only eligible if you did not exceed 6% of the allowed speed.

Mods

There is an unofficial patch on various fansites that enables all cars and races which are normally available only in the Black Edition.

Multiplayer server shutdown

On 1st November 2007, EA closed their servers for multiplayer games, for the Xbox version.

References to the game

Need for Speed: Most Wanted was parodied in an episode of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVD of issue 03/2006.

Support

When an issue with stuttering sound in the Windows version was reported on the EA forums, the official statement was that EA had no time and resources to work on a patch for it. This was less than 5 months after the release.

Awards

  • GamePro (Germany)
    • February 23, 2006 - Best Console Sports Game in 2005 (Readers' Vote)
  • GameSpy
    • 2005 – PC Racing Game of the Year
    • 2005 – PC Racing Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • February 23, 2006 - Best PC Sports Game in 2005 (Readers' Vote)
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 04/2006 - #1 Sports/Racing Game in 2005 (Readers' Vote)
    • Issue 02/2006 - Best Pursuits in 2005
Information also contributed by Mr. Sefe
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Related Web Sites

Contributed to by Sciere (443677), Kabushi (180677) and Silverblade (1408)

GameCube Credits

Need For Speed - Most Wanted Game Team

Programming:
[complete credits]