Like many of you I have a pressing need, and it can only be sated by mushing my face against a solid wall of air resistance, preferably while inside a metal horse powered by tiny explosions.
After a year off in which we were just about sustained by The Crew, the Criterion veterans at Ghost Games are accelerating out of the final bend on their new Need for Speed. It’s a nocturnal open world fuelled by something the series hasn’t dared to have in a while: narrative ambition.
An official announcement last week credited the new iteration to Ghost Games, the studio based in Guildford and Gothenburg that took on staff when Criterion Games shrunk down to the size of a family barbecue.
EA promised an “Autumn” release, but an Xbox Store leak can be more specific: November 3rd.
The page was swiftly removed, but Redditors had gleaned everything they needed. A screen-grabbed blurb named five “ways to play” – Speed, Style, Build, Crew and Outlaw – and said that players were free to “carve their own unique path”.
Expect “multiple overlapping stories”, and a system for “gaining reputation on your journey to become the ultimate icon”.
The fictional West Coast area of Ventura Bay will host a “nocturnal open world of urban car culture” which, as our Matt notes, sounds a lot like Need for Speed: Underground. It’ll incorporate a harbour, canyons and downtown urbanity.
Here’s last week’s teaser, which capitalises on the YouTube culture of filming silly-speed street racing on phones to make work easier for the police:
The last Need for Speed to attempt to play with plot was bizarrely misconceived quick-time-a-thon The Run. Developers Black Box, who once made Underground, have since shut down.
Do you require another generous dose of speed?