NFS: Most Wanted 2012 PC Review

Most wanted is back and with a bang!! Its tougher, better and cops are more gruesome than ever before. Most wanted has been one of the most anticipated racing games of this year. EA and criterion games work together to bring this awesome game for this year.

Just like in previous most wanted there is no story except we have a set of 10 racers who are known as the most wanted whom we should beat. For first timers the objective is simple- earn speed points and beat the rivals in the most wanted list. The game draws heavily from other franchises developed by EA and criterion games themselves. It is easy to notice the game has close details from NFS: Hot pursuit and burnout paradise. 

The city of Fairhaven is deadly and filled with cops at every corner of the street. The beauty of the Fairhaven simply astounds you. Game developers have this city much more thrilling to explore and more to the racing genre. City is filled with lots of speed cameras, billboards and restricted gates etc smashing which will earn us bounty or speed points (here). 

Each podium unlock certain car part!!

Most wanted is filled with lots and lots of cars.There are different types of cars like muscle, exotic, SUV's etc. Unlike previous most wanted, cars can be found on streets, only we need to find them and its ours. Most wanted allows us to customise our cars. There are different mods possible for example burn nitrous, reinforced chassis, off road tires etc and many more. Only drawback i felt was each time i drive a new car i need to play race specific to the car and install the mods. This happens with every car. There is more to this mods. Each car has certain achievements if on completing them will unlock better mods. Like driving and using burn nitrous for 600s will unlock pro nitrous. 

Unlock pro parts completing these challenges!!

Cops are deadlier than before. There are no such "cool down" locations unlike in its prequel. Either you lose them or get busted. Again which is problem. Cause we get busted we got nothing to lose except the speed points we collected in the pursuit. Cops search the perimeter thoroughly before calling it an "end". By which again we can get caught if you are not paying attention. 

For me gameplay seems tricky topic to discuss. The handling of the cars initially is very bad and can make the person lose interest. I mean even i drive at 10 kmph and collide with oncoming traffic i am directed to cut scene and am showed how i crashed. Seriously @10kmph ?? One major drawback was accumulation of speed points. Whatever you do everything counts as speed points. That is a problem cause we may not be ready to take on a most wanted racer. Also if becomes difficult to race the most wanted we just escalate through the speed points requirements and are left with countless number of races to play.


Most wanted 2012 features a lot of races. There are different types of races like speed run in which a min avg speed is required to maintain, Ambush- where we are thrown at unknown location and told to escape the cops. Each type of car has specific kind of races to be played.

Different races for each car!!

Whatever i say shouldn't bother a true most wanted fan. cause this is the best racing game of series and it only gets better and tougher as you progress. Most wanted 2012 came out with a bang and lives up to its name. A must play...

+ All new cars - Gameplay initially bad
+ Cops are tougher - No more cooldown locations
+ Types of races
+ Lots to do 
+ Visuals are great

My rating is 8.5...

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LA Noire PC Review

Its unique, its thrilling, its great environments of streets of LA simply spell bounds you. Guys i am talking about the third person shooter LA NOIRE. After playing for a few hours itself the gameplay felt great. This is a unique detective game set in 1947 in LA. The time setting of the game is what makes the game it is.

LA NOIRE is a third person detective/ thriller game set in 1947 in the streets of LA. LA NOIRE is a typical of Rockstar production-an open world game filled with lively environments, buildings and featuring 1947 style cars.Players must investigate crime scenes for clues, follow up leads, and interrogate suspects, and the players' success at these activities will impact how much of the cases' stories are revealed.

MotionScan Tech

I heard the game draws the plot, style and aesthetic elements of film noir which included similar visual styles and themes. The game is known for the tech used in the game for facial expressions. The developers were able to achieve this by using a tech called motion scan, where the actors in the game were real characters in the real world , whose actions were recorded by 32 cameras. Recording from every angle,almost 360, each camera captures the slightest change in expression which is essential for the player as they will have to use that to detect whether the person is lying or not.

Beautiful streets of LA

Graphics 
The environments are lively. Sometimes i even thought twice whether the characters were real. Cause every person in LA is different as if in the real world. Not to exaggerate, but the graphics were bound to be good cause the player need to confirm whether the suspect is lying or not. Developers have done a really good job in making each building different and so real. Coming to the cars...what can i say? The cars in LA are so real and have that classy finish which look exactly similar to the cars in 1947. 

Audio
Audio is key element of LA NOIRE. There's different type of sounds for everything--wrongly accusing, answer the question correctly, when we pick objects to scan etc. Whenever we find a clue the chime sound is played, when we wrongly accuse a different sound is played.
The player has the choice to tick the option to stop the music when all the clues are found. I felt audio makes the game even more exciting. Some missions need creepy music, some need romantic effect,etc. This is how important the audio is in this game.

Finding Clues,eh?

Gameplay
In short i would recommend to play rather than asking my opinion. Not that i don't know how to describe the gameplay but to get the feel of the game one needs to play the game. The game takes place in the year 1947, in the city of Los Angeles, a meticulously planned (both in terms of gameplay and developers) for crime, felony, beauty,glamour, corruption and rife. The player assumes the role of Cole Phelps, a retired marine, who now works for LA PD as a detective. The game starts off with Cole being assigned with traffic desk as a patrolman. The game explains how the read people, find clues, how to go about the investigation, whom to accuse or whom to not. There are about 21 cases to solve. The best part being that each case is different than the other. All the cases are subdivided into four different categories-traffic, homicide, vice and arson. Each category differs from the other. Each case starts with same type of gameplay of briefing with the person in command, finding clues, interrogating possible suspects or neighbours, sometimes fighting some people sometimes just subduing the suspects. 

Accusing somebody?

Instead of the usual levels the player gets experience after interrogating people which will result in increase in rank. Each level increase rewards the player with an intuition point which eliminates one of the three possible answers(truth,doubt,lie) and gives the clue attached to the question in case of a lie. Instead of missions the game presents different categories of crime possible in LA. Each of the desk has 5-6 cases which the player pairs up with a partner who helps us to find the suspects or clues. In between the cases there will a cut scene showing the war memories of Cole Phelps which in turn unfolds the events of the overall plot/story.

Phelps has a notebook in which he records every clue, writes about the people likely to be involved in the case, general objectives to be followed. Its a useful tool to progress through the game. We need to use the notebook when you accuse someone of lying and need evidence to prove it. 

Sometimes we need to fight to get the evidence

To increase the player's chances to nail down the suspect one can use intuition. Intuition points are earned through experience.Players earn experience by correctly answering the questions, completing the street crimes, capturing landmarks, or reading newspapers. There are about 40 street crimes. I could complete only 12. But still i could achieve rank 17 without that. The game blends investigative elements such as mystery and crime solving, with fast-paced action sequences, including on-foot and car chases, hand-to-hand combat, interrogations and gunfights.

This man is weird-solve the case he praises, screw it up he messes with you

When the player is interrogating suspects and witnesses, the player must listen to the story that they give. The player will be given the option to either believe them, doubt them or accuse them of lying. (If the player accuses them of lying, the player must have evidence to prove that they're lying.) If the player interrogates two people at the police station, the player will be able to decide who to charge with the crime. The captain's attitude will tell if the player charged the right person.
If the player is having trouble completing an action sequence, after three failed attempts, they will have the option to skip past and continue through the narrative. I felt this was good.

Negative aspects
whenever i replay a mission the cut scene cannot be skipped. Sometimes is essential sometimes it is not. At least when replaying a mission we should be able to skip the cut scene. Also the rewarding system is limited. And of course they are usual glitches. 

Lasting appeal
I felt that this game is a must play. I loved this detective side to the game. The overall plot of the game unfolds in the last cases. And the cases are absolutely thrilling and heart racing. The game ends with Cole Phelps dead. This was not expected as usual cause nothing is so easily predictable in this game. Loved every part of the game and every case. The characters in the game are so different. I loved working with fellow partners especially with Roy Earle cause he is bitchy about things and finds the use of threat as a means to spill the answers of the suspects :D . 

My rating is 9.5...

A exciting game and must play game, unique in its own way...
If any other developers want to make a game like this, Rockstar and Team Bondi have set the bar high. Try and beat this...:P

+ I am detective           - Cut scenes cannot be skipped
+ Different gameplay
+ Beautiful streets of LA
+ setting of the game
+ Thriller

9-graphics
9-audio
10-gameplay
9-lasting appeal

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