Need for Speed: Most Wanted: Vita's Hidden Gem

“This is going to be the best racing game on Vita this year.” It’s a bold statement, but one that Alex Ward, Vice President of Criterion, doesn’t make lightly. He’s talking about the Vita version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which is being shown for the first time at Gamescom, and it’s no surprise he’s happy about what the development team has achieved with the game.

Incredibly, the Vita version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted is essentially the same as the PS3 and Xbox 360 games. “Everything from what we the ‘TV game’ is here on the small screen,” he announces. And when he says everything, he means it – every highway, back street, bridge and tunnel. All of the cars, the meet-ups, the challenges and the drive-through garages – they’re all in the game, and importantly they haven’t been cut down or changed to fit the Vita.

“This is pretty much the PS3 version of the game shoehorned onto Vita very tightly,” he continues. “This is a very technically ambitious thing to do - there aren’t any open-world games on Vita so far. To keep the world the same, to not make any compromises – that’s what we’ve done.”

So when you get behind the wheel of a BMW M5 in Need for Speed Vita it’ll feel exactly the same as it does on PS3. The handling is just as sharp and responsive, the drifting as perfectly pitched, which is impressive considering the differences between two machines. “On handheld the physics are very hard to get right because you’re very limited on memory but the handling is pretty much the same,” explains Ward. “We can do the same demo on Vita that we can on PS3.”

Better still, all of the detail from the home console game is carried over too, so as a race progresses your car gets scuffed and scraped, and damaged with every knock it takes. There will be races at different times of the day too, and while Criterion is still hard at work populating the city and implementing many of the features, we did see the switch from daytime to dusk, with your car’s headlights flickering into action to illuminate the tarmac ahead.

Impressively, Ward promises that all of the cars will feature in the game, and they look fantastic on Vita’s small but punchy screen. “These cars are the best cars ever to appear in a Need for Speed game,” he enthuses, “and they’re the same here as they are on PS3 and 360. To get them onto Vita like this is ******* insane.” And like its bigger brother, Vita’s recreation of the city of Fairhaven will be littered with supercars waiting to be found. Stumbled upon a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S? Simply jack it and it’s yours to keep.

Multiplayer will be fully supported, with all of the modes and challenges making the jump onto Sony’s handheld. Unfortunately cross-play isn’t going to feature – the idea of PS3 and Vita owners going head-to-head was a little too ambitious – but it will fully support Autolog. So when you race on the Vita version – or indeed any version of the game, including iPad – you’re constantly earning Speed Points that accumulate on your Autolog profile, all of which help bump you up the Most Wanted leaderboards.

Need for Speed will make use of Vita’s unique functionality too, and the touchscreen can be used to quickly access HUD information in the middle of a race. But Ward was quick to iterate that it won’t impact how the game plays, and that thankfully “you won’t be driving using the touchscreen.” Or the gyro, we hope.

Most Wanted on Vita is an ambitious project, then, but one whose ambition is more than matched by the talent of the developer behind the game. Criterion’s racing pedigree is unquestionable, and with Hot Pursuit and now Most Wanted it’s brought the Need for Speed name back to the top of its game. While some developers outsource handheld versions of big franchises to enable them to focus on the home console versions, it’s a testament to Criterion’s commitment that it kept the project to itself. “It would’ve been really easy to do Vita out of house,” says Ward. “We did that on some of our previous games. But when I saw the specs for the Vita, I knew we had to do it.”

I’m thankful they chose to do it, too.

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F1 2012: A Real Winning Formula

When Codemasters picked up the Formula One license, it marked a return to prominence for the legendary racing franchise. Having been exclusive to Sony’s consoles for a time, its re-emergence as a multi-format title with F1 2010 proved a huge success, shifting an astounding 2.3 million units worldwide.

However, last year’s follow-up, despite having numerous improvements on its forebear, sold slightly less and was generally considered to be a much tougher game. “I think the problem that we had in the past was that we didn’t call things out,” said Steve Hood, Creative Director on F1 at Codemasters’ Birmingham Studio. “It’s really galling for developers when there’s that blood, sweat and tears, we’ve put all that work into this title, there’s all those new features from 2010... But we didn’t always call stuff out, so if there was a new feature in there, players didn’t always find it. This year it’s a very simple thing that we never got around to doing; little tags that just saying ‘new feature in here!’ It just makes the player a little more inquisitive about ‘what is this new thing? Oh, Champion Mode? I think I’ll try that out.’”

The mode in question reflects the staggering line up of talent competing in the sport this year. Each of the six current superstars has specific events calling you to beat them. The first is Kimi Raikonnen, starting a half dozen positions ahead of you but on worn tires. To advance, you have to chase him down in your freshly kitted vehicle and complete the circuit ahead of him. Beat him and it’s Lewis Hamilton’s turn, taking him on in a wet weather race – and as much of a cliché as it is for the British racer to be caught in the rain, it makes for superbly thrilling race material.

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Yes, we’re working on the physics engine [but] we want the players to experience the beauty of Formula 1, which differentiates it from other racing series.

Another new addition is the Season Challenge, targeted at players who don’t necessarily have the time to commit to a lengthy F1 gaming session. Breaking a drivers’ career down to ten races, it brings all the essential F1 elements together in bite size chunks. Conversely, the full career mode will take you from the Young Drivers Test out in Abu Dhabi, serving as a brief tutorial, through to joining one of the premier sponsor teams and becoming the best driver in the world. In the course of the lengthy mode, you’ll do a fair bit of globetrotting. Tracks include old favourites such as Silverstone, and new locations – notably, the upcoming Austin, Texas ‘Circuit of the Americas’, due for completion later this year.

The weather system is one of the areas that’s had significant improvement this year. Deemed revolutionary in 2010, it’s operating at a whole new level now. “We spent a lot of time working out on the console what we could do with the weather systems,” Hood says. “We’ve made these storm-fronts which can sweep across the track, and that’s awesome.” The dynamic weather patterns can produce localised effects on different parts of tracks, depending on your location. A longer race might see rain sweep over half of it, demanding a change in your tire strategy or when to make pit stops – not to mention the nightmarish effort of steering a precision vehicle while blinded by back-splatter from the car ahead.

Criticism over 2011’s perceived difficulty should be lessened this year by a streamlined control system. “Making the cars easier to drive on the pad was number one priority for us,” Hood explains. “Yes, we build it and developed on the steering because it gives you a clear focus on what’s going on. Yes, we’re working on the physics engine [but] we want the players to experience the beauty of Formula 1, which differentiates it from other racing series. You can only get to that point if you can stay on the track and drive consistently.”

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F1 2012 should come across as a more complete experience, and we’re trying to call out the things that it has got above and beyond from 2011.

As well as being more responsive when playing on a pad, quick access commands on the d-pad allow you to select changes to your tire or engine rollout, applied at the next pit stop, or the type of fuel being used. At a lower level, these are nice bonuses but the more you improve, the more you’ll want to explore their impacts on your race. All these small changes can greatly affect the outcome of any race, and along with the likes of KERS and DRS – recent technologies added to the FIA’s rule set since 2009 and 2011, respectively – combine to make F1 2012 ever closer to fully replicating the motorsport.

“F1 2012 should come across as a more complete experience, and we’re trying to call out the things that it has got above and beyond from 2011,” says Hood. “It’s obvious to players what they’re spending their money on this year.”

Retaining the authenticity devoted fans crave while being just a touch more accessible for newcomers has seemingly paid off. The new tracks look to be a joy, and the precision given to the player – especially on a pad – is much improved. All told, F1 2012 is shaping up to be the finest virtual outing the sport has seen yet. A real winning formula.

Matt Kamen is a freelance games journalist. When the revolution comes, he's putting anyone who didn't buy a Dreamcast up against the wall first. You can follow him on IGN and Twitter.

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