Collisions, meanwhile, are met with enthusiastic storms of particles. Weather systems roll in, with lightning forks casting brilliant light on the muscular machinery and rain dramatically dancing across the screen, while waves crash across seafront walls. There's a beauty to the world, too: Ghosts Games' Redview County is one of the better ways to show off next-gen hardware at launch. It's not far off, though - if the measure of a good open world is how easily you're sidetracked when going from A to B, then this is a considerable success, with each stretch of road offering a new car to shut down, an online record to beat or an event to partake in. Ghost has been vocal about the recruitment of Jamie Keen, a producer formerly of Ubisoft Montreal who is in part responsible for Far Cry 3's open world, and while a certain influence is felt, Redview County isn't quite Rook Island. We've only seen next-gen versions so far - once PS3 and 360 code is with us, we'll update you with our impressions. Rivals keeps the open world, but it restores the wide, long highways of Hot Pursuit and weaves them in to a space that's vast, cohesive and full of countless little distractions. It's a continuation, but also a balancing act: the open world of Most Wanted was an automotive playground stuffed full of treats, but there was a sense of claustrophobia creeping in to the confines of the urban backdrop. Rivals feels like a continuation of those titles, which is no surprise - the bulk of the staff at new studio Ghost Games was transplanted from the Guildford studio earlier this year, and the weight of handling, feel of vehicle combat and technical achievements will be familiar to fans of the Burnout developer's brand of racing. It's a sensation that was brilliantly felt in Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit in 2010, but one lacking a little in its 2012 follow-up Most Wanted. A drive around Redview County sees the speedometer rarely dipping below the 150mph mark, and the game delivers a sense of speed to back up its convictions. You'll see traces of AM2's magic in the languid powerslides that send sweet white smoke pluming from wheel arches, and in the long drives that take you through sinewy roads darkened by the thick canopy of pines, on to snaking snowy mountain passes, and climaxing in full-throated blasts through wide, parched desert.ĭial back some of Rivals' obnoxious background chatter and soundtrack and you'll feel it in the base thrill of pounding open roads, and see it in far-off horizons that can be reached in several quick seconds with a heavy foot and a boost of nitrous. Grab a Ferrari 458 Italia and hit up Need for Speed: Rivals' Redview County and you can find yourself in a pretty decent approximation of what a contemporary, open-world OutRun would look like. Ghost Games' first Need for Speed takes the very best of Criterion in this excellent package.
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March 2023
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