Will World War Z Work?

Troubled doesn’t begin to cover it. The journey that World War Z has made from book to script to screen has been dogged with disaster from the start. The Hollywood Reporter did a good job describing the scene back in June, but the potted version basically involves delays, rewrites, re-shoots, the departure of key crew members, and misery on set.

So with the trailer hitting today we ask if, following such monumental problems, the film has any chance of finding an audience next summer?

First things first, the book was always going to be tough source material to adapt. Written by Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War doesn’t have a simple narrative through-line, nor the kind of linear plot that a Hollywood movie demands.

Instead, it’s a sprawling account of the zombie outbreak, detailing the spread of the zombie infection through the likes of China, South Africa, Israel and the United States. And one that feels more like it should be turned into an ongoing TV series than a standalone movie.

And so screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski and latterly Matthew Michael Carnahan were charged with the task of turning what’s essentially an anecdotal historical tome into a movie for the multiplex masses.

The plot therefore now revolves around Gerald Lane, a United Nations researcher who is sent on a fact-finding mission to discover the origin of the outbreak and to figure out how to stop it.

But while the Hollywood Reporter’s source claimed that the film’s first 45 minutes were terrific, the second half was apparently problematic, with scribes Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard asked to help re-write the finale, leading to re-shoots and the release date being pushed back from December 2012 to June 2013.

Such a process is common practice in Hollywood however, and it's not always the disaster that commentators would have you believe. The Bourne Identity underwent both re-writes and re-shoots late in proceedings and that turned out okay. Same with The Amazing Spider-Man, which grossed more than $750m at the global box office this summer.

So what of the trailer that hit today? It certainly does a good job of building tension and once the zombie apocalypse does hit, it looks epic in terms of size and scale. But fans of the book have already taken to Twitter to not only complain that the story appears to bear only a passing resemblance to the source material, but also to bemoan the fact that the undead are slow shufflers in the book but have been transformed into speedy sprinters for the movie.

The film’s visual effects artist John Nelson told EW the reason for the change: “They are like predatory animals that can’t control themselves. I worked with tigers [while shooting Gladiator], and if you watch them when a horse goes by they go batty, even if they know they can’t reach it. When Zs see humans they do same thing, they activate. They launch themselves.

"There are a lot of things in nature we’re mining as references. They move like birds or school of fish, too, in reactive formations, and it’s not because they have a higher level of [shared] thinking or communication – it’s about their nature and the fact that their instinct to infect is so basic, efficient, and overpowering. They will go through anything. If they lose both legs, they will walk on their hands. They lock in and they’re like salmon going upstream or sperm swimming to be the first to egg.”

Speedy zombies didn’t do the likes of 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake any harm. But Shaun of the Dead himself – Simon Pegg – tweeted this morning, “Zombies everywhere are spinning in their graves,” adding that he’d be prepared to give the movie the benefit of the doubt, but that “Fast zombies are not my bag.”

A bigger worry may be the copious amounts of CGI featured in the trailer. Both fast and slow zombies can be made to look scary, but can you do the same with artificial-looking computer-generated zombies? The effects may not be finished yet at this early stage, but the early evidence isn’t good, particularly in the scenes where the hordes attack.

Indeed, the idea that zombies can scale huge buildings and walls by piling on top of each other is cool, but seeing it in practice as the trailer’s climactic money shot is not, the execution disappointing thanks to yet more ropey CGI.

Another question that has dogged the production from the start is whether or not director Marc Forster can handle the film’s action sequences. Forster is better known for dramas like Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner, and his one foray into the genre – Quantum of Solace – was the most underwhelming of Daniel Craig’s Bond movies, with the action a particular disappointment.

He’s got a fine actor to carry the film in the shape of Brad Pitt; one who can handle both action and drama, but will the actor’s talent and popularity be enough to tempt audiences into theatres next June?

That remains to be seen, but whatever the case, it’s clear that studio Paramount has a lot riding on World War Z, with the film’s budget reportedly approaching the $200m mark. It was also hoped that the film would be the first part in a proposed trilogy. But Hollywood is a fickle place, so if the film doesn’t hit big come the summer, expect Worlds War Z to be both the beginning and the end of this particular brand of big-budget horror.

Chris Tilly is Entertainment Editor for IGN and really hopes World War Z works. His idle chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Will World War Z Work?

Troubled doesn’t begin to cover it. The journey that World War Z has made from book to script to screen has been dogged with disaster from the start. The Hollywood Reporter did a good job describing the scene back in June, but the potted version basically involves delays, rewrites, re-shoots, the departure of key crew members, and misery on set.

So with the trailer hitting today we ask if, following such monumental problems, the film has any chance of finding an audience next summer?

First things first, the book was always going to be tough source material to adapt. Written by Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War doesn’t have a simple narrative through-line, nor the kind of linear plot that a Hollywood movie demands.

Instead, it’s a sprawling account of the zombie outbreak, detailing the spread of the zombie infection through the likes of China, South Africa, Israel and the United States. And one that feels more like it should be turned into an ongoing TV series than a standalone movie.

And so screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski and latterly Matthew Michael Carnahan were charged with the task of turning what’s essentially an anecdotal historical tome into a movie for the multiplex masses.

The plot therefore now revolves around Gerald Lane, a United Nations researcher who is sent on a fact-finding mission to discover the origin of the outbreak and to figure out how to stop it.

But while the Hollywood Reporter’s source claimed that the film’s first 45 minutes were terrific, the second half was apparently problematic, with scribes Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard asked to help re-write the finale, leading to re-shoots and the release date being pushed back from December 2012 to June 2013.

Such a process is common practice in Hollywood however, and it's not always the disaster that commentators would have you believe. The Bourne Identity underwent both re-writes and re-shoots late in proceedings and that turned out okay. Same with The Amazing Spider-Man, which grossed more than $750m at the global box office this summer.

So what of the trailer that hit today? It certainly does a good job of building tension and once the zombie apocalypse does hit, it looks epic in terms of size and scale. But fans of the book have already taken to Twitter to not only complain that the story appears to bear only a passing resemblance to the source material, but also to bemoan the fact that the undead are slow shufflers in the book but have been transformed into speedy sprinters for the movie.

The film’s visual effects artist John Nelson told EW the reason for the change: “They are like predatory animals that can’t control themselves. I worked with tigers [while shooting Gladiator], and if you watch them when a horse goes by they go batty, even if they know they can’t reach it. When Zs see humans they do same thing, they activate. They launch themselves.

"There are a lot of things in nature we’re mining as references. They move like birds or school of fish, too, in reactive formations, and it’s not because they have a higher level of [shared] thinking or communication – it’s about their nature and the fact that their instinct to infect is so basic, efficient, and overpowering. They will go through anything. If they lose both legs, they will walk on their hands. They lock in and they’re like salmon going upstream or sperm swimming to be the first to egg.”

Speedy zombies didn’t do the likes of 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake any harm. But Shaun of the Dead himself – Simon Pegg – tweeted this morning, “Zombies everywhere are spinning in their graves,” adding that he’d be prepared to give the movie the benefit of the doubt, but that “Fast zombies are not my bag.”

A bigger worry may be the copious amounts of CGI featured in the trailer. Both fast and slow zombies can be made to look scary, but can you do the same with artificial-looking computer-generated zombies? The effects may not be finished yet at this early stage, but the early evidence isn’t good, particularly in the scenes where the hordes attack.

Indeed, the idea that zombies can scale huge buildings and walls by piling on top of each other is cool, but seeing it in practice as the trailer’s climactic money shot is not, the execution disappointing thanks to yet more ropey CGI.

Another question that has dogged the production from the start is whether or not director Marc Forster can handle the film’s action sequences. Forster is better known for dramas like Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner, and his one foray into the genre – Quantum of Solace – was the most underwhelming of Daniel Craig’s Bond movies, with the action a particular disappointment.

He’s got a fine actor to carry the film in the shape of Brad Pitt; one who can handle both action and drama, but will the actor’s talent and popularity be enough to tempt audiences into theatres next June?

That remains to be seen, but whatever the case, it’s clear that studio Paramount has a lot riding on World War Z, with the film’s budget reportedly approaching the $200m mark. It was also hoped that the film would be the first part in a proposed trilogy. But Hollywood is a fickle place, so if the film doesn’t hit big come the summer, expect Worlds War Z to be both the beginning and the end of this particular brand of big-budget horror.

Chris Tilly is Entertainment Editor for IGN and really hopes World War Z works. His idle chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Nightwing #13 Review

Though Nightwing #13 doesn't have one of those creepy, die-cut Joker covers, it has about as much to do with Death of the Family as any other ancillary Batman title released this month. That is to say -- expect plenty of pointless references to Joker's return that have no real bearing on the story at hand. Most glaring is a short sequence where Batgirl pops up out of nowhere to complain about not being prepared for a battle with Joker before disappearing just as quickly. I'm starting to think that the best course of action may be to avoid these books entirely for the next few months if this is what we can expect from Death of the Family tie-ins.

Elsewhere, guest writer Tom DeFalco eases in comfortably enough and continues the threads left open by Kyle Higgins. The issue provides a nice showcase of Dick's varied day and nighttime activities, the latter of which have taken on a new sense of urgency now hat Lady Shiva is back in town and Batman is off the grid. DeFalco is at his strongest during a showdown between Penguin and Nightwing where the former is begrudgingly helpful to his old enemy.

Unfortunately, bad dialogue and overwrought narration frequently drags the issue down. DeFalco's writing style is generally better suited for more lighthearted superhero fare, and he doesn't flourish in the seedier world of Gotham. His characters aren't always very convincing. The tone is fairly schizophrenic. Some characters like Batgirl are just flat-out annoying. Nor does Andres Guinaldo impress much with his pencils. His figures are loose and often distorted, and his action sequences simply aren't very engaging. Lady Shiva's new costume design, meanwhile, is another stinker in a long line of New 52 fashion faux pas.

In short, while there's some interesting material at play in this issue, the execution tends to fall flat. I'll be glad to welcome the regular creative team back in a couple months.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Avengers Academy #36 Review

Avengers Academy doesn't have much time left on the stands. And Christos Gage doesn't seem to mind twisting the knife as readers prepare to bid farewell to this team. Of course, that's really a good thing, as issue #36 is host to all sorts of great character moments. It just hurts so good.

In this issue, the fractured team begins to come together again in order to combat Jeremy Briggs' attempt to de-power the world's superhumans. Many Academy members are forced to make fateful choices during the course of battle. No scene is more stirring than the one between Mettle and Haz-Mat. If you thought their material in issue #35 was tear-jerking, this issue raises the bar again. But Gage also has strong material in store for characters like Reptil, White Tiger, and X-23. Many of these characters have been severely down and out since Briggs launched his attack, and it's satisfying to see them cast aside teenage doubts and become full-fledged heroes again. My main complaint, as with last issue, is that it's disappointing to see Briggs degenerate into full-fledged villain mode. The character was much more enjoyable when readers were able to sympathize and even side with him and his grand plans.

Andrea Di Vito sticks around to render this issue. While it's a shame we couldn't have one, consistent artist for the entire arc (important as it is to the series as a whole), Di Vito fits in nicely with the general tone established by Tom Grummett and others. There are some fun metaphysical scenes involving characters like White Tiger and Reptil that allow Di Vito to branch out and deliver slightly more surreal imagery.

Much of this character building seems to lay the groundwork for future stories, which of course raises hope that maybe Gage won't be done with these characters just because the series is ending. No doubt there's still a wealth of material to explore in the coming weeks.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. He can't wait until he's old enough to feel ways about stuff. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Ben and Kate: "Pilot" Review

Advance Review: FOX's new single-camera comedy Ben and Kate doesn't officially premiere for another month, but since the pilot episode is currently available for viewing via Hulu (see below!), we're considering it fair game for review.

From creator Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas) comes a sweet, but not too sweet, comedy about a pair of grown siblings who, long ago, formed a unique bond due to an unhappy home life while growing up. Kate (Dakota Johnson - daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith) wound up getting pregnant at an early age and is now the sort of typical young, quirky "trying to make ends meet" TV mom that we've all come to expect. Unlucky in love, but lucky when it comes to the simple, genuine things in life. Like her extremely precocious five year-old daughter, Maddie. So far, so what, right? Kate's a somewhat typical klutzy, "rom-com" leading lady. But then comes Ben.

Ben, played by Academy Award-winning screenwriter (he co-wrote The Descendents with Community's Jim Rash) Nat Faxon, is Kate's older brother. And whereas Kate "grew up too fast," Ben "never grew up at all." He's a big, doofy man-child who's constantly making Kate's life more complicated with his crazy, random antics and, honestly, your enjoyment of Ben and Kate is primarily going to depend on whether or not you find Ben annoying or endearing. I happen to be fall into the latter category on this one, although I can totally see people not enjoying Ben's juvenile mania. I understand if he gets under your skin. In fact, I've seen this pilot twice now and I think about the Bill Murray movie "What About Bob?" each time I see it. Because, drawing from that film, you either love Bob or you totally empathize with Richard Dreyfuss.

So, much in the same way that FOX presented us with Zooey Deschanel's quirky Jess last year when New Girl premiered, Ben's naive dreamer qualities will either excite or irritate you. I think Faxon does a wonderful job of playing a lovable idiot and there were more than a few scenes here that I found pretty damn funny. In this first episode, Ben discovers that his ex, the love of his life, is getting married and decides to come up with a last ditch effort to win her back. Of course, none of this gels with Kate's plan to finally go out on a normal date with her boyfriend George and, possibly, have "the sex" for the first time since her daughter was born.

And while I brought up "What About Bob?" earlier, my thoughts also shift into darker territory when I'm reminded of Laura Linney's character from Love Actually. Remember her? The woman who had to be at the beck and call of her mentally ill brother and couldn't maintain a normal relationship because of it? I probably think of that because A) I just recently watched that movie again, and B) Kate's total acceptance/surrendering to the fact that the comically-obtuse Ben will always be a giant, dominating chunk of her life.

The spotlight might be on Faxon's Ben, but it's Johnson's Kate who does the heavy lifting. She's the other main reason why I feel this show works. If she were just the "straight man" put-upon sister, this would fall apart. These two have a goofy connection and by the end of the episode you feel as though they actually compliment one another. Ben, despite his life-disrupting ways, is protective of Kate a way that has no equal. Which comes in handy since Kate herself winds up in screwball situations of her own.

The rest of the players here - Lucy Punch's full-of-advice bimbo BJ, Echo Kellum's Kate-obsessed Tommy - are fine. Young Maddie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones), when not spouting wisdom beyond her years, makes a great, doe-eyed sounding board for Ben's lunacy. Again, depending on your personality there's a chance that Ben might frustrate you, but I think Ben and Kate is one of the most promising new comedies of the season.

The Ben and Kate pilot can be seen on Hulu. The series premieres on Tuesday, September 25th on FOX.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

Source : ign[dot]com

Karl Urban IGNUK Twitter Takeover

Karl Urban, the star of the upcoming action smash Dredd 3D, doesn't do Twitter. There are people out there claiming to be him, but the Kiwi star of Lord Of The Rings, Star Trek, Chronicles of Riddick and many more, isn't on the social networking site.

All this will change though at 18:30pm BST (or 10:30am if you're PT) today on Friday August 31st as the star of Dredd 3D takes over the @IGNUK Twitter feed for 30 minutes to answer your questions!

"Stop following me!"

Karl will be taking over the 140-character reigns to answer your questions about Dredd 3D, his past and future projects, and anything else you care to quiz him about. So, if you've ever wanted to ask whether the Judge helmet is comfy, if he gets asked medical questions when playing Bones, or just his preferred crisp flavour, this is the time to do it.

To submit a question for Karl simply tweet it to @IGNUK using the hashtag #DREDD3D and we'll try to get as many of your questions answered as we can between 6:30pm and 7pm.

Dredd 3D is out in UK cinemas on September 7th. Get all the latest Dredd 3D info from https://www.facebook.com/dreddthemovie.

Source : ign[dot]com

Wanna See The Avengers Again?

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- you've already seen it 16 times. But that doesn't have to stop you from checking out The Avengers again now that it's returning to theaters for a special Labor Day engagement.*

The film's Facebook page says Avengers will be back from August 31 to September 6, which should tide you over until it hits Blu-ray on September 25… But just in case it doesn't, check out old Thanos in the clip below:

*Of course, technically speaking, Avengers is still playing in a handful of theaters, many of them of the lower-end, mom-and-pop variety. But this special run will presumably return it to the big multiplexes of the world, where you can pay 50% more but also not have to worry about sticky floors (or seats).

Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim -- Hearthfire Announced

Bethesda has revealed the next major downloadable content for Skyrim, called Hearthfire. Unlike the vampire-hunting focus of the last add-on, Dawnguard, Hearthfire doesn't seem to do much to enhance combat. Instead, with Hearthfire you'll be able to purchase a piece of land in Skyrim and build your own house.

Within the custom living space you'll be able build kitchens, greenhouses, libraries, alchemy labs and trophy rooms to show off your accomplishments. Outside it sounds like you'll be able to set up gardens, fish hatcheries and beehives to make resource collection a little more convenient. You can also hire a steward to help out with household tasks.

Hearthfire will also allow you to adopt children and take care of them while they live at your home. Bethesda has set the price of Hearthfire at 400 Microsoft Points and plans to release it on September 4 on Xbox Live.

Source : ign[dot]com

Need for Speed: Most Wanted: Vita's Hidden Gem

“This is going to be the best racing game on Vita this year.” It’s a bold statement, but one that Alex Ward, Vice President of Criterion, doesn’t make lightly. He’s talking about the Vita version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which is being shown for the first time at Gamescom, and it’s no surprise he’s happy about what the development team has achieved with the game.

Incredibly, the Vita version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted is essentially the same as the PS3 and Xbox 360 games. “Everything from what we the ‘TV game’ is here on the small screen,” he announces. And when he says everything, he means it – every highway, back street, bridge and tunnel. All of the cars, the meet-ups, the challenges and the drive-through garages – they’re all in the game, and importantly they haven’t been cut down or changed to fit the Vita.

“This is pretty much the PS3 version of the game shoehorned onto Vita very tightly,” he continues. “This is a very technically ambitious thing to do - there aren’t any open-world games on Vita so far. To keep the world the same, to not make any compromises – that’s what we’ve done.”

So when you get behind the wheel of a BMW M5 in Need for Speed Vita it’ll feel exactly the same as it does on PS3. The handling is just as sharp and responsive, the drifting as perfectly pitched, which is impressive considering the differences between two machines. “On handheld the physics are very hard to get right because you’re very limited on memory but the handling is pretty much the same,” explains Ward. “We can do the same demo on Vita that we can on PS3.”

Better still, all of the detail from the home console game is carried over too, so as a race progresses your car gets scuffed and scraped, and damaged with every knock it takes. There will be races at different times of the day too, and while Criterion is still hard at work populating the city and implementing many of the features, we did see the switch from daytime to dusk, with your car’s headlights flickering into action to illuminate the tarmac ahead.

Impressively, Ward promises that all of the cars will feature in the game, and they look fantastic on Vita’s small but punchy screen. “These cars are the best cars ever to appear in a Need for Speed game,” he enthuses, “and they’re the same here as they are on PS3 and 360. To get them onto Vita like this is ******* insane.” And like its bigger brother, Vita’s recreation of the city of Fairhaven will be littered with supercars waiting to be found. Stumbled upon a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S? Simply jack it and it’s yours to keep.

Multiplayer will be fully supported, with all of the modes and challenges making the jump onto Sony’s handheld. Unfortunately cross-play isn’t going to feature – the idea of PS3 and Vita owners going head-to-head was a little too ambitious – but it will fully support Autolog. So when you race on the Vita version – or indeed any version of the game, including iPad – you’re constantly earning Speed Points that accumulate on your Autolog profile, all of which help bump you up the Most Wanted leaderboards.

Need for Speed will make use of Vita’s unique functionality too, and the touchscreen can be used to quickly access HUD information in the middle of a race. But Ward was quick to iterate that it won’t impact how the game plays, and that thankfully “you won’t be driving using the touchscreen.” Or the gyro, we hope.

Most Wanted on Vita is an ambitious project, then, but one whose ambition is more than matched by the talent of the developer behind the game. Criterion’s racing pedigree is unquestionable, and with Hot Pursuit and now Most Wanted it’s brought the Need for Speed name back to the top of its game. While some developers outsource handheld versions of big franchises to enable them to focus on the home console versions, it’s a testament to Criterion’s commitment that it kept the project to itself. “It would’ve been really easy to do Vita out of house,” says Ward. “We did that on some of our previous games. But when I saw the specs for the Vita, I knew we had to do it.”

I’m thankful they chose to do it, too.

Source : ign[dot]com

Guardians of the Galaxy Gets a Rewrite

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is getting a rewrite by scripter Chris McCoy.

According to Heat Vision, McCoy doesn't have any produced credits in Hollywood yet but he is one of those hot up-and-comers -- he's had three spec scripts wind up on the famed Black List, the annual collection of the "best" unproduced scripts in town.

According to HV, McCoy's scripts have been praised "for their quirky comedic bent." Which, let's face it, sounds just about right for a film that's gonna feature a tree man, a green warrior dude and a talking, gun-toting raccoon.

Nicole Perlman wrote the first draft of the screenplay.

Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com

Need For Speed: Most Wanted is How Open-World Racing Should Be

Criterion doesn’t make sequels to other people’s games. They’re quite emphatic about that. Hot Pursuit wasn’t a follow-up to any other Need for Speed, but rather Criterion’s personal take on the theme. Need for Speed: Most Wanted shares its name with another game in this genre-spanning racing brand, but the interpretation is all Criterion’s own. It does feel a bit like a sequel, though, in some ways – not to any of EA’s previous NFS games, but to the developer’s 2008 open-world racer Burnout Paradise.

Most Wanted is an open-world racer too, setting the player down in a shiny, good-looking American-style city with luxuriously wide roads, extremely car-friendly urban architecture and absolutely no cyclicsts to get in the way. You can leap over the freeway, drive up stairs, drift crazily around the end of a pier, antagonise the police and (naturally) take part in street races of every imaginable variety. And here’s the best part: every car in the game is open from the start, hidden somewhere in the city. All you have to do is get out there and find them.

No more staring longingly at greyed-out shiny Ferraris in unlock menus. No more accumulating XP or cash or whatever other arbitrary value for 10 or 30 or 35 hours before you’re allowed to drive the cars that everybody actually wants to drive. There’s just you, the cops, and a secret-packed urban playground designed for absurd driving. And, via an updated and improved version of Autolog, the constant presence of all your friends.

“

Like Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted is a social racing game, making every tiny challenge into a social leaderboard.

Like Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted is a social racing game, making every tiny challenge into a social leaderboard. Autolog is everywhere, populating the city of Fairhaven with competitive gameplay and turning every speed camera and visible billboard into a competition. Fly through the air for the longest time after smashing through a billboard, and your face will appear on it, adorning that same billboard in your friends’ game until one of them beats your record. The game’s hook, really, is the desire to become the most notorious driver amongst your own group of players.

The city of Fairhaven is full of distractions and incentives, security-gated alleyways and secreted cars and underground shortcuts, all designed to make you want to explore its 100-odd miles of road. Open-world racers can often feel directionless, leaving you to tool around in a city without giving you all that much to actually do – Burnout Paradise suffered from this problem – but here Autolog provides you with a constantly-updated list of new score challenges and people to beat, in addition to the races and events that Criterion constructs for you.

“The city has to be inviting and it has to be interesting, and at any point in the game you’re parked up and going zero miles an hour, there should be something interesting to look at,” says creative director Craig Sullivan, whom you might recognise from Most Wanted’s E3 appearance. “A jump in the distance, a ledge you think you can drive onto, a billboard somewhere high up that makes you think ‘How do I get up there?’, or an interesting drift corner, or some back allyways that have security gates up and make you think, if I smash through them what’s down that alleyway? Is it a car? Is it a hidden route that lets me go faster during a race?”

“

Some back allyways that have security gates up and make you think, if I smash through them what’s down that alleyway? Is it a car? Is it a hidden route that lets me go faster during a race?

When Need For Speed: Most Wanted’s emergent gameplay isn’t throwing up anything that grabs your interest, the Easy Drive menu is where the single-player races and challenges are hiding. Lifted straight from Burnout Paradise, it’s a real-time d-pad operated menu that you can use to switch between different cars, find events and tinker with your car’s mods without leaving the driving seat (although it’s a bit difficult to read and operate a menu at the same time as driving at 100mph down a freeway without smashing into other traffic). You can jump around the map straight to specific races from the menu, so you don’t have to drive around looking for events unless you want to. There are bespoke races and challenges for each individual car, and completing them unlocks mods (nitrous, different tyres that make life easier in off-road  races, all sorts), giving you an incentive to stick with each car for a while rather than switching between them every five minutes.

This being Criterion, of course, the cars aren’t treated with po-faced reverence. They’re there to be crashed, shunted and generally abused. “These are the best-looking cars Need for Speed has ever had. That’s just a fact,” says producer Matt Webster. “But it’s in our nature to take something beautiful and want to smash it up.” This is best exemplified by Most Wanted’s totally chaotic multiplayer, which drops you and a big group of other racers into the city and just throws races at you, sending you careening all over the map to meet-up points.

Before the races even start, there’s a melee at these meet-ups, with everyone ramming into everyone else and screeching around the vicinity. A familiar slow-motion takedown cam rewards you for nudging opponents into pillars or oncoming traffic. Most of the time you don’t even know when the race is going to start, or what direction you should be facing in when it does, resulting in absolute carnage when the 3,2,1 countdown appears on the screen. So far we’ve played drift and jump distance challenges as well as straight races, the latter of which resulted in an awesome mid-air crash.

If Forza is car-worship, Burnout is crashing and Hot Pursuit is cops and robbers, Most Wanted is chaos. It’s about doing the most outrageous things possible in a city designed for vehicular mayhem, motivated by social competition as much as the game’s own challenges. It feels like open-world Burnout that Paradise could have been, with extra structure and motivation provided by Autolog and a smarter, more fluid and intuitive single-player system. Play that uproarious multiplayer for more than five minutes, and you can’t wait to see more. Most Wanted takes many of Criterion’s best ideas and runs with them, and if it works it will play like a career best-of.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN’s games team in the UK and still thinks Burnout 3 might be the best racing game ever made. You can follow here on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com