As a big fan of the Criterion racing games I have been noticing people coming out of the wood works and talking about how this game is a "disgrace to the Most Wanted name" because of the lack of customization in it. I remember the options in Underground through Carbon lead to just making all of your cars looking super tacky with the options being neon on fat ass spoilers. Have any of your duders notice this commotion on the internet, or do you guys just not care because its fun?

I think this has been a complaint against Criterion racers since day 1. Some people really like that aspect in their racers, some don't.

This game has nothing to do with the previous Most Wanted at all. There's no callback to the story, no real visual car customization, and the gameplay feels very different. So it's pretty easy to see how someone who went into it expecting a sequel to the previous Most Wanted could be disappointed. From a Criterion standpoint, I would say it's the worst racing game they've made since Burnout 2. Now, that doesn't mean it's bad. It is a good game. It just doesn't quite live up to the standards that developer has set for itself with previous games.

I think the internet is just being loud. I basically agree with Jeff's review - single player boring (except for billboards, etc, which are still a lot of fun to get), multi player great.

I don't care about the lack of customization number one, I would rather just have cars with different styles. Number two a complaint I hear from people is that it's too easy to wreck and the controls give the car too much weight, to that I say it feels very similar to burnout paradise and has a similarly sometimes frustrating dynamic where you get caught by traffic or get knocked out but it's a skill based game in that sense and weaving in and out of traffic shouldn't be too easy I think people would agree.

For someone like me who was all over burnout paradise and spent 150+ hours on it it gives me pretty much exactly what I wanted which is an expansion upon those ideas.

The new way they handle online is good and bad in that it's much less varied in terms of objectives but then again it makes pub games workable whereas before unless you had 7 friends who could all be on at the same time you'd be shit out of luck because the general public couldn't figure out any of the objectives. That problem is still there but it's less crappy than it was in burnout paradise so I still don't see the issue for my taste anyway.

Honestly, I always wanted to pick up burnout paradise, but when I would play it at a friends I didn't like it as much as the menu based select missions style as Burnout's prior (I put so many hours into revenge). I assume it was because I didn't get the time to just sit down and just dig into the game, similar to just jumping into a game like skyrim for a short period.

@Serpentenema said:

Honestly, I always wanted to pick up burnout paradise, but when I would play it at a friends I didn't like it as much as the menu based select missions style as Burnout's prior (I put so many hours into revenge). I assume it was because I didn't get the time to just sit down and just dig into the game, similar to just jumping into a game like skyrim for a short period.

the open world aspects of burnout paradise even have their problems. I was never compelled to collect every last billboard etc honestly it just seemed annoying to me. This game is easier to enjoy than burnout paradise in a way I think because it is more about the events themselves rather than the exploration and stunts. It's sort of like the light open world you see in a lot of games where the open world provides seamless context but if you get into the races themselves there is almost always a correct path in NFS:MW 2012

I absolutely love Burnout Paradise, and NFS:MW ticks a lot of the boxes, but the police in the game are just killing it for me. I don't mind them too much in races with NPC's where the police are trying to shut the race down, that adds to the atmosphere, but the missions where your only goal is to lose the cops are nigh on impossible. I was just trying an "easy" mission to outrun the cops in a Ford GT, they are just as fast as me onroad or offroad, never make mistakes and even what you do start to get away, they just spawn another one ahead of you. Multiplayer is good however.

The only thing that really bothers me about this game is the wait time between multiplayer events (plus the lack of a mute everyone option and any/all SUV-only events) which I imagine they could fix. The original Most Wanted was cool, but I don't need another game just like it, and I don't really feel like putting spoilers and decals on everything anymore. Maybe the single player could use a bit of narrative, but at the end of the day I just wanted a fun racing game that I can pick up and put down for about an hour, and the multiplayer delivers that. More race events, or maybe an option to enter a race-only lobby would make it even better for me, but as it stands I'm having a good time.

Don't talk trash about decals and phat neons, my skyline looked sick. In other words, I wish they would commit to one style or another, either the modding scene or the pure racing, not straddle both and have it come across as watered down. Maybe it's just me, but I really miss matching my neons to my window tint (to my brake calipers).

The closest I played to the original Most Wanted was Carbon and the customization options aren't anything to really talk about. Few decals, lights, and paint didn't make that racer any better than it was. As for this iteration of Most Wanted my biggest complaint is that it isn't a proper Burnout game. I miss crash mode, explosions, cinematic wrecks, stunt mode, and all the other things that made Burnout a criminally underplayed racer. If this game and Hot Pursuit have to exist so Criterion can market the next Burnout as "From the guys who bought you NFSHP and NFSMW" and get more people to play Burnout then so be it.

My disappointment has nothing to do with the original Most Wanted. All I played of the original Most Wanted was the 360 demo. I didn't like it at all.

In fact, as far as customization, I'd rather they didn't have any at all.

My disappointment comes from the fact that I just don't think it's as fun as previous Criterion racing games. The five races per car thing is boring, because by the time you get all of the upgrades for your car, you can't use it anymore, because you've finished all of the races for it (except for the Most Wanted races). I also think it loses a lot of its sense of speed because you don't have boost for a car until you unlock it. The first race where you are without boost is downright dull for me.

Also, not a huge deal to me, but the crashes are REALLY lame. Forza: Horizon has better crashes.

I think the negative towards the game is a symptom of disappointment (based on Criterion's previous work) rather than it being a bad game. Personally, I think it's a great game. But it's just not as good as Burnout Paradise or Hot Pursuit. It's just not. So yeah, compared to those games, I guess this game has been a disappointment to me. But a bad or average game? No! I'm still having loads of fun with it and playing it nonstop. It's just that everytime I do play it, I yearn for another Burnout Paradise. This game, despite what everyone hoped, isn't that game. And it's not a quality thing, it's just a different game.

Complaints are almost always the vocal minority.

I get the feeling that it's a vocal minority too. I only play Criterion racing games and this is a great one of those. The dumb customization is what kept me away from other NFS games, I just want a car that goes fast and feels awesome to drift. NFS: Most Wanted has me covered. Also why anyone would be expecting a game similar to the last NFS: Most Wanted is beyond me, Criterion are re imaging it like they did with NFS: Hot Pursuit

The farther away from Forza Horizon I get the more I like Need For Speed. Not that FH is the better game, but I like the single player portion substantially more, and I like the way the cars handle more, but I S-Ranked it about a week ago and haven't gone back.

That being said, the multiplayer aspects of NFS are phenomenal. Each time I've put a multiplayer session together I've been able to get somewhere from 5-7 players, all RL friends or Duders from here, and it has been one of the more enjoyable video game experiences I've had in a decade. The flip side is after 30-45 minutes of playing single player I want to unplug my Xbox and drop it in a swimming pool so I don't have to play any more single player. I really dislike the single player for some reason. Probably the police presence.

@Barrabas: I actually liked Burnout 2 more than the first.