Need for Speed: Most Wanted is Criterion's second crack at the Need for Speed series, EA's biggest racing brand. Unlike 2010's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion's first shot at the series, Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a game very much rooted in Criterion's past - not EA's.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an open-world racer akin to Criterion's last effort for its most well-known series, Burnout: Paradise. Paradise's world felt larger than Most Wanted's city of Fairhaven, but Most Wanted is a more learned execution than Paradise, a game that doesn't take your time for granted and never takes you out of the driver's seat - literally and figuratively.