Need for Speed: Rivals Announced!

Hot Pursuit 2 (2?)

EA have today announced a new Need for Speed title called Need for Speed: Rivals with a trailer and some damn tasty screenshots that are very much indicating a next-gen flavour and wow do they look incredible! There is a definite classic NFS vibe a la Hot Pursuit and even High Stakes/Road Challenge being oozed from these images in my opinion, the Ferrari being pursued especially will be met with an irony that will not be lost on many who can remember, that the Prancing Horse could not be chosen in the 'Hot Pursuit' mode and could only be used in the races. There was of course a solution for those on the PC via a small modification but it just goes to show how times and perceptions change.

NFS Rivals is being developed by the Swedish-based developer Ghost Games in collaboration with Criterion who have brought the series back to success with their reboots of Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted. The game will be running on the Frostbite 3 engine created by DICE (Battlefield 4) and is sure to look amazing. As you can ascertain from the name, Rivals is all about two types going up against each other and this takes place as cops vs racers. The game will incorporate a new feature called AllDrive. AllDrive will allow players to seamlessly transition from playing alone to instantly joining their friends and being able to team-up and become a part of each other's game, much like TDU and TDU2 did.

From the trailer and screens you can see that weather is going to be a factor though how this will affect your car in it's handling will remain to be seen. Gadgets make a return, so if you hated them well they're back to annoy you again and may even be upgradable this time. A long overdue but welcome addition - or should that be re-introduction - is the ability to personalise your number/license plate as well as the typical of today livery and decal editor so you can show how much you love bacon to others. Autolog will also be back to show you every instance that your friends are bettering you in, making you want to cry and re-evaluate your life and discover where it all went wrong.

NFS Rivals will hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 19th 2013, a PC version is also in the works, maybe alongside the Xbox One and PS4 (?)

NFS: Rivals Announced Gallery

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