Need For Speed: Most Wanted Message Board older than one year ago

Get ready to mess with the cops and race with friends in Need for Speed Most Wanted.

Next week sees the keenly anticipated release of Need for Speed Most Wanted, the latest release from Criterion Games – the legendary UK racing specialist behind the Burnout series and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, the phenomenal 2010 entry in EA’s long-running street racing franchise.

That the PlayStation 3 version is very, very good should come as no surprise, but somewhat more unexpected is the amount of care the studio has lavished on replicating the experience on PlayStation Vita. Producer Matt Webster and his team have squeezed almost the entire experience onto the handheld, and even found room for a little bit of extra content exclusive to the system.

We sat down with Matt earlier this week to find out exactly how Criterion has pulled it off.

PlayStation.Blog: What was your goal when you first started developing the PS Vita version of Most Wanted?
Matt Webster, Producer at Criterion Games: It was to make the same game – that was the goal. As much as we possibly could, we wanted to deliver all the great things about the console version of the game: an open world, freedom, choice, variety, highly connected. All those principles looked like they were achievable on the machine, so that was what we set out to do.

PSB: What were the main challenges you met during development?
MW: You just run across performance challenges. Some of those are fundamental, which you learn to overcome as development progresses, and others you have to make some compromises.

PSB: What kind of compromises are we talking about exactly?
MW: It is exactly the same game [as the PlayStation 3 version] apart from traffic density and number of players online. But I think that the asynchronous play is actually going to be more important.

PSB: How exactly does that work?

“I can push up my Speed Point level on PS3 multiplayer when I’m mobile with PS Vita, and vice versa.”

MW: So, if you play the single-player game, and then play muliplayer, any Speed Points you earn in SP also drive your MP progression, and that’s true when you play the game on PS Vita too. Anything you earn on PS Vita carries across to the console version. It’s a unified scoring system.

Everything you do in the game earns Speed Points. Speed Points determine your position on the Most Wanted list. Am I outscoring my friends; have I reached the necessary score threshold to take on one of the Most Wanted drivers in the solo game; what speed level am I at in MP; what have I unlocked, and so on. I can push up my Speed Point level on PS3 multiplayer when I’m mobile with PS Vita, and vice versa.

PSB: The easy option would have been to contract an external developer to work on the Vita version but you decided to keep it in-house. Why?
MW: It was something we wanted to do. It looked like the machine was going to be capable of delivering what we wanted to do. And the way that we work is very iterative – build, play, change, build, play, change – that’s how we work. When you go external it generally only works when you’ve got a finished game, otherwise there are too many moving parts.

So, it looked like something we’d be able to do and we were going to be able to push ourselves in some new directions. It was difficult, but we’re not ones to shy away from a challenge.

PSB: Do you think a massive open world racing game like Most Wanted is a good fit for a portable gaming device?
MW: I do. The game is about freedom and choice. We have a saying – ‘not playing the game is the game’. What that means is that not playing the authored experience that most games deliver for you actually is very important and a really significant part of the game.

The way that these devices are used – they’re picked up, they have some play, and they’re put down. It might be high frequency play, but not necessarily high amplitude, where I’m spending long sessions with it. Our game can work in either of those scenarios. I think the asynchronous part of it is going to be really powerful on that device – do something, have Autolog pick it up, and send it back.

“We have a saying – ‘not playing the game is the game’.”

I think it will turn out to be something that PS Vita owners didn’t realize was possible on that machine – it is quite a significant achievement to do an open world game to the level of quality that we’ve managed. And then to have something as highly connected as it is – that’s something fresh and new. I think it will find a really good home on PS Vita.

PSB: What kind of exclusive PS Vita content have you included?
MW: There are some exclusive PS Vita races and events in there for players to discover. It’s another way for players to earn exclusive SP – it’s an extra reward for having the game on multiple devices and it allows us to do something specifically tuned to that device.

PSB: Have you used the PS Vita’s unique features in any way?
MW: We’ll use the touch screen for changing music tracks and in some parts of the interface but the rest of it… you have to use those things where they serve a purpose, otherwise they’re just a gimmick. You run the risk of it not being taken seriously. We’ll absolutely use it when it makes sense to use it.

PSB: Presumably you’ll be supporting the PS3 version post launch with DLC. Will that also apply to the PS Vita version?
MW: Well, we’ll clarify that when the time comes.

No, that headline isn't our own exclamation of excitement over this week's PlayStation Plus update. Two pieces of Hell Yeah! DLC, Pimp My Rabbit and Virtual Rabbit Missions, are each 20 percent off this week for Plus members, $4 and $2.40, respectively.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted comes out on October 30, but this week it's $54 for Plusers who pre-order, opposed to the standard $60. Plus members also get a one-hour timed demo for Medal of Honor: Warfighter in preparation for its launch tomorrow. Sega Master System's Wonder Boy in Monster Land is normally $5 on PS3, but Plus people get it for $1 this week.

Check out the full details on the PlayStation Blog, and please, try to contain your hysterical joy.

What a month it’s been for PlayStation Plus in October. With NFL Blitz, King of Fighters XIII and PAYDAY: The Heist all free to download for Plus members, there’s a lot to play. You also got early access to The Unfinished Swan as well as an exclusive PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale Beta on PS3 and PS Vita, and an assortment of discounts to boot. This week, we want to remind you of some of the great perks you’ll see in Plus, along with a bit of news on additional discounts.

Don’t have PlayStation Plus? Go to the PlayStation Store on your PS3 or click here to get access.

October 23rd PlayStation Plus Update

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Pre-Launch Week Discount (Regular price: $59.99, PS Plus Price: $53.99)

It’s not often you get to save some cash on new releases, but with your Plus membership you can nab Need for Speed: Most Wanted for $53.99, as opposed to the usual new release price point. The discount is only applicable on preorders for Plus members, so get ready for its release on 10/30 next week and make sure your preorder is in to get the Limited Edition version of the game. (Note: Non-PS Plus members can still preorder to get the Limited Edition and exclusive theme, it just won’t have the 10% discount.)

Medal of Honor: Warfighter

Exclusive Timed Trial

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is set to deliver an aggressive, gritty and authentic experience that puts gamers in the boots of today’s most precise warrior, the Tier 1 Operator. Plus members will get to have their hands on the full game for 1 hour and get an enhanced peek into the action they can download when it releases at retail and on the PlayStation Store as part of the Day 1 Digital event with the 10/23 update.

Hell Yeah! – Pimp My Rabbit and Virtual Rabbit Missions

20% off for PlayStation Plus Members

If you snagged Hell Yeah! Wrath of the White Rabbit with a launch week discount thanks to your Plus membership, you can now save on the Add-Ons! The Pimp My Rabbit DLC comes with 50 new masks for Ash, plus 11 new driller skins and even some familiar SEGA faces. The Virtual Rabbit Missions will test your action and shooting skills while adding more than three hours of gameplay. If you dug Hell Yeah! get this new DLC at a steal of a price with Plus. Wonder Boy in Monster Land

80% off for PlayStation Plus Members (Regular price: $4.99, PS Plus Price: $1.00)

SEGA shows off its old school gaming roots once again with the Master System classic action RPG Wonder Boy in Monster Land. Getting the PS Plus special price at $1 means you may not be able to pass up this sequel to the original Wonder Boy. Highly regarded as one of the best titles on the Master System library and playable on PS3, you owe it to yourself to check it out. And with nostalgic boxart like this, how can you resist?

That’s it for this week. Make sure you check out tomorrow’s PlayStation Store update post to see all the details for this week’s Plus update. Thanks for reading, and as always, I’ll see you in the comments.

Get PlayStation Plus

#needforspeed When you begin a game of Need For Speed: Most Wanted, your engine will be off. How do you start it? Well, by saying "engine start." More »

Hey, it’s great to be back on the PlayStation.Blog. We’ve been working hard on Need for Speed Most Wanted, our second Need for Speed game after 2011’s Hot Pursuit. I’m pleased to tell you that we’ve just put the finishing touches on the game, and we’re winding up the online servers to take a beating from you guys come launch day — October 30th.

It’s a pretty exciting time for PlayStation fans, and we’re really excited to be able to talk not just about the PS3 game, but also our first for PS Vita. If you don’t know anything about Most Wanted, here’s the deal. The original Most Wanted was our favorite Need for Speed game. We loved the epic cop chases, hot cars, and most of all that unbeatable sensation of fast, reckless driving while on the run from the law.

So after finishing Hot Pursuit, we set out to create a game that brought you all these great elements, but fresh for 2012 and with a little Criterion DNA running through it. That means it had to be about online, friends and competition, with a Most Wanted twist.

There’s a whole lot of game to talk about, but here are four things you really need to know.

1. It’s about causing trouble

You get to drive amazing cars like a maniac through a big open city, get in massive chases with the cops and ditch them in style. The whole game’s pretty much designed so you’ll want to break the law. Restricted area? Bust into it. Speed camera? Rip past it. Jump? Hit it. Parked car? Steal it. Cops? Not an issue.

2. The world’s always connected

In Hot Pursuit, we introduced Autolog. We started tracking everything you did and comparing it with your friends in leaderboards called Speedwalls. Autolog turned your newest and most hotly contested events into play recommendations and notified you and your friends to reheat the competition.

This time, Autolog lets you leave your mark across your friends’ games. It displays record speeds, pursuits and jump distances throughout the city. Cruise past any speed camera, Jack Spot or jump to view its Speedwall, and then take a run up, hit the gas and see if you can top it. Hit the biggest air off any billboard jump, and we’ll display your face on the billboard. Your friends will need to beat you to get rid of it.

Everything you do earns you Speed Points and eventually increases your Speed Level. Earn more Speed Points than your friends to become the Most Wanted.

3. You can drive pretty much every car from the start

This is hard to get your head around, but bear with us. Grinding through hours of gameplay to get the cars you really want to drive doesn’t actually make sense, when you think about it.

So, most of the cars in Most Wanted are just parked up in hundreds of Jack Spots throughout the city. If you find one, you can just switch to it. Obviously, there are still great unlocks waiting to reward the most skilled and dedicated players, but if you want to drive a 918 Spyder, Evo X, RS500, V12 Vantage and many, many more, you’ve just got to get out there and find them.

Each car has a series of events, designed to showcase its unique qualities. Master each car in your own time, and you’ll earn Speed Points and rank up. Score enough and you’ll earn the right to take on 10 of the hottest cars in the game – the Most Wanted Racers. Beat them all one-on-one to become Fairhaven’s Most Wanted. Swing the odds in your favor by modifying your car with such pursuit-busting delights as: Reinforced Chassis, Reinflating Tires, Impact Protection, Powershot Nitrous or Track Tires.

4. Our multiplayer is way more than just racing

It wouldn’t be Need for Speed without killer racing, so that’s the heart of our online, but we also wanted to mix it up a bit. It’s still tight, competitive and fast, but there are some twists.

Every Race starts with a Meet Up. Race there, jostle for position, watch for the start and boot it. Time your move right for a headstart. Get it wrong, and you’re a sitting duck. In Speed Tests, you get 90 seconds to set a high score. Hit the longest jump or drift, be fastest through a Speed Trap or set the fastest time between checkpoints. In Challenges you do stuff like hit 5,000 yards of drift, accumulate 2,000 yards of jump distance, access a rooftop or jump over each other. Anything goes!

PlayStation Vita

PS Vita represents a huge step for us. We’ve managed to crowbar the entire PS3 game onto the system, including almost all the races and events, the online play (albeit with eight players rather than 12 on PS3) and the massive open world. It’s all right there in the PS Vita version.

That’s pretty cool on its own, but everything you do on your PS Vita copy earns you Speed Points, inching you closer to that top spot on your friends Most Wanted list.

PlayStation Move Racing Wheel

And that’s not all! We love to play with new hardware, from Burnout Paradise’s Mugshots (using the original PS Eye) to the full online multiplayer in Burnout 3: Takedown (in the very early days of PSN). So we thought we’d see what we could do with the PlayStation Move Racing Wheel.

You can use it to control the car, obviously. When you’re happily ripping through town, it glows green, but attract the interest of the cops, and it flashes red and blue. Hide out in a CoolDown spot, and it’ll glow cool blue.

We’re out on October 30th. Hit this link to pre-order from EA, or head over to the PlayStation Store to pre-order your Day 1 Digital copy now.

We’ll see you online soon.

Need for Speed Most Wanted speeds through the city in this live action TV spot.

#needforspeed Trailers are often criticised these days for showing little, or even no gameplay footage. It's a fair complaint, but also one that should be shelved, at least temporarily, for this clip. More »

Emmy Award winning Aaron Paul has signed on to star in DreamWorks' big-screen adaptation of Need for Speed.

I don't know why parts of this video are in Spanish, but...well, don't worry about it. Just watch the pretty cars crash.

#needforspeed I was a little worried my new mobile gig here at Kotaku would preclude me from enjoying Need for Speed Most Wanted. Looks like EA Mobile and the racing experts at Firemonkeys have me covered. This is gorgeous. More »

Been wanting a sequel to Burnout Paradise? This is it.

#needforspeed More »

Here's EA's brief overview of Need for Speed: Most Wanted's single-player side.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted's Kinect functionality is tied to the game's mods. A gameplay video earlier this year teased support for the Xbox 360 add-on, and today Criterion outlined how it works with the equipment and upgrades you fit your car with.

No, there are no invisible steering wheels, and yes, it's voice-controlled stuff. Just as you would in a real car, by saying commands like 'Mods, Nitrous, Burn Nitrous' you can equip your vehicle with whichever mod you need, while you're on the go. No, we don't know if the car talks back, but we'll all find out when the game comes out on October 30.

This really is the Burnout Paradise sequel we never got, isn't it?

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We wrap up our Gamescom 2012 coverage this week with a trio of scintillating new interviews with some of the the stars of the show. Self-proclaimed “teen horror” adventure Until Dawn brought the house down in Cologne, fusing immersive PlayStation Move-based exploration and immersive puzzle-solving. Executive Creative Director Will Byles joins us to share details on this thriller where the fate of the main cast lies entirely in your hands.

Then, Insomniac’s Shaun McCabe drills into the competitive multiplayer of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, complete with new details on the game’s PS Vita version and cross-play functionality. Finally, Criterion’s Executive Producer Matt Webster runs through the finer points of Need for Speed: Most Wanted and why the PS Vita version is the spitting image of its PS3 big brother.

Of course, that’s all in addition to the normal volley of weekly info: Next week’s North American PlayStation Store releases, new “player queries” and tips, a hand-plucked PSN Gem of the Week — Nick even busts out a tough new Mystery Theme. Listen in and let us know what you think!

Stuff We Talked About Until Dawn Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault Need for Speed: Most Wanted for PS Vita YouTube for PS3 Sound Shapes Voice chat Dishonored Datura

The Cast Sid Shuman – PlayStation Social Media Manager Jeff Rubenstein – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Manager Fred Dutton – EU PlayStation Blog Manager Shuhei Yoshida – PlayStation Worldwide Studios President Jeff O’Connell – Senior Producer, Sleeping Dogs Troy Baker – Joel (The Last of Us) Ashley Johnson – Ellie (The Last of Us)

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game
details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating
descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

I have drawn a graph to explain how excited I am about Criterion’s Need For Speed: Most Wanted. You can see it below. Up here I’ll instead comment on just how weird it is to be talking positively about Need For Speed. So recently it was the wideboy gaming release, a new copy out every Christmas for people who wear their caps sideways and speak exclusively without consonants. And now look at it – it’s a sequel to what is unquestionably (I’m in charge here) the most fun driving game of all time, Burnout: Paradise.

(more…)

This trailer also proves that "Baba O'Riley" probably didn't require a dance remix.

Jump into the open world of Fairhaven City and prove your driving skills against your friends. Race, Drift, Jump and Takedown up to 12 friends in a battle to become Most Wanted.

#needforspeed The reel above highlights a bit of the multiplayer action in the upcoming Need for Speed game, with the competitive play and co-op challenges I talked up in my preview showing up in gameplay for the first time. More »

EA has a released a hint at what's to come from the multiplayer mode of Criterion's upcoming racer.

#needforspeed Maybe you've had that moment on the highway where you pull up next to a fancy sportscar. You might think that the person driving it is probably some rich jerk, but still wonder how that Porsche or Lambo handles. Need For Speed: Most Wanted lets you take explore that fantasy in a different way. All the cars in the game will be available from the start. But like a harried commuter unexpectedly coming up on a sleek Aston Martin on the freeway, you'll have to find these cars first. More »

That a dubstep remix of "I Want You to Want Me" has not become this game's theme song is greatly distressing to me.

#needforspeed Early signs seem to indicate that the next Need for Speed game will essentially be a spiritual continuation of the Burnout franchise, especially since it's being made by the Criterion dev studio that created those games. The hard-driving action in this new trailer—featuring a Corvette ZR1, Koenigsegg Agera R and Hummer H1 Alpha—confirms that and makes the Burnout fan in me very, very happy. All I need to see is a proper Crash mode and I will hug this game with gusto. More »

#needforspeed A few years back, when EA bought Criterion, the developers of Burnout, people got worried. Worried that the team would be wasted churning out Need for Speed games. More »

It’s illegal street racing time again, as Criterion revs up for the release of Need For Speed: Most Wanted. It’s about cop chases and carnage, making ridiculous jumps, and exploring the new city of Fairhaven. Ah, my Fairhaven. I hope to explore thee to to a medley of classic musical numbers, including “I’ve Grown Accustomed To This Race”, the pulse-pounding “On The Street Where Your Checkpoint Is” and of course, “Get Me To The Finish Line On Time.”

Want to take a look? We have four minutes and four seconds of video, right here, with the unfortunate name Need For Speed Most Wanted Insider – which sounds like a very unsatisfying date for all concerned. “May contain content inappropriate for children” indeed…

(more…)

If Dreamworks hasn't gotten this guy on the phone yet, they're going about this all wrong.

When Criterion's Need for Speed: Most Wanted was finally confirmed just prior to E3, a cry went out for the inclusion of the "old" Most Wanted's main bad guy, Razor Callahan. Sure, that cry was primarily coming from me, but it was a cry nonetheless! Given the way that Criterion isn't really the sort of studio to put a story into its racing games, I... didn't actually expect that the new Most Wanted would contain America's Favorite Racing Bad Guy.

That's why it's so wonderful that we all have a second chance, because Dreamworks has picked up the Need for Speed name for use in a movie. And they've got some actual humans attached to it in writing and directing capacities. Some of their credits include the screenplay for Real Steel and directing Act of Valor, which sounds about right for a movie based on a driving video game that typically doesn't have any story whatsoever. In fact, the press release EA put out this morning goes so far as to state this amazing fact:

The screenplay is based on the Need for Speed series, but is not based on an individual game.

So I suppose that tosses my hopes of a cinematic retelling of a young racer's rise up the blacklist against an evil, car-thieving dirtbag like Razor Callahan out the window, but here's my little bit of advice to the people producing the movie. Include some shitty little throwaway reference to Callahan. Either cast the actor (Derek Hamilton) in a supporting role or include the character's name on a rap sheet or something. Then you can rest easy, knowing that your car movie has remained faithful to the one tiny bit of decent narrative that EA's driving series has contained since its debut in 1994.

Actually, wait. Alongside a Callahan cameo, maybe you could track down this guy from the 3DO game.

(You'll need to skip to around the 1:20 mark to see what I'm talking about, but the whole video is kind of great.)

Back up a minute. what the heck does basing a movie on the Need for Speed series even mean? I mean, it's not a story-based game. Do you think they had to sit down and generate some kind of list of "core competencies" or something? If so, I'm guessing it looked sort of like this...

• Cars.
• Fast cars.
• Oh, they're real cars, too.
• They go fast? Yes, that's for sure. The cars are fast. Oh, and they cost a lot, so...
• The cars are often expensive.
• And sometimes there are cops.

Sounds like box office gold to me, man. But it feels like it's a little late for some movie folks to get together and say "hey, that Fast and the Furious series is hot, let's do that," doesn't it? Besides, the last time someone said that, they made Torque, which is a masterpiece in its own special, bike-fighting way. But there's... actually, wait. Sorry, I need to watch the bike fight scene from Torque now.

Hmm. Kinda thirsty after watching that, but I can't quite put my finger on why. Anyway, as I was saying, there's nothing wrong with a good car movie, and the release goes on to say that Need for Speed will be "rooted in the tradition of the great car culture films of the 70s." I suppose there ain't nothing wrong with attempting that, either. And with relatively attainable aspirations like that, this sort of sounds like a video game movie that might actually get made.

Production is currently targeted to start in early 2013 for a 2014 release. Hell, I don't know. It couldn't be any worse of an idea than Battleship was, right? Hopefully it leads to some sort of ridiculous Need for Speed: The Movie: The Game tie-in product.

#needforspeed One of my happiest discoveries at E3 a couple of weeks ago was that this fall's strangely-named Need For Speed: Most Wanted could and maybe should be called Burnout Paradise 2. More »

Not Pictured: Some kind of weird ghost thing.

The back-and-forth bickering about whether this year's show was a "good E3" or a "bad E3" is one of the most pointless things I may have ever followed. But, for whatever reason, I followed it. And I come down on the side of it being a pretty good E3, actually, but that's mostly because I went in with realistic expectations. This is a transition year, one where everyone wants hints of the next moves from Sony and Microsoft, but won't actually get it. It was Nintendo's show to lose, and yet they somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I don't actually believe in that whole "winning" or "losing" E3 thing, but you get my point.

Sony managed to baffle show attendees by trying its hardest to forget that the Vita exists during its press conference, but everyone else forgot about Sony's forgetfulness because we were too busy talking about Ellen Page. With the press conferences out of the way, we were left to fend for ourselves and focus on the part of E3 that we always claim really matters in the first place: the games. And again, it's a bit of a weird year for those, with a few sequels showing up that look a bit more like business realities than creative endeavors. EA picked up UFC, Ubisoft picked up steam, and I picked up a nasty head cold that made driving home from the show some kind of mobile spirit quest. Even now, I'm waiting for my spirit animal to reveal itself so that I might strangle the power right out of it. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a diseased weasel with a bum leg.

With all that hardware stuff out of the way, the air was cleared to talk about games. Actual games. Games that will probably ship over the next 18 months or so, because otherwise they'll be shipping on "old" consoles. That provides a certain air of immediacy to the proceedings that I like. We got very little of that drawn out "here's a game, we'll talk more about it next year" stuff. Instead it was a fat list of games you'll be able to buy soonish, some of which I'm pretty excited to see more of.

FLYING CAR CONFIRMED

The top of my list is Need for Speed: Most Wanted. People are often quick to write off games that aren't super story-heavy when it comes to doling out these sorts of accolades. It's something I've felt a little guilty of in the past, like we're shortchanging certain games merely because they focus more on raw mechanics than on telling some sort of moving story. That's probably something for a longer conversation about the nature of all award shows, not just gaming awards. Anyway, Most Wanted looks like it's combining elements of my two favorite racing games of this hardware generation. It's got the cops, the chases, and the cool down spots of the original Need for Speed: Most Wanted. And the rest of it is practically a sequel to Burnout Paradise that's been better-informed by the work Criterion has done on its "Autolog" concept. It's got Road Rules, there are billboards to crash through, gates to smash through, and from the look of the map, plenty of events to go around.

I primarily saw the game's multiplayer mode, which uses a sort of playlist mentality to keep players in a rhythm of driving to a meet up, where one of a number of events starts, then you drive off to the next meet up spot to get another thing going. Those events can be races, but they might also just ask you to hit a specific jump and get more distance than anyone else. That sort of light, fun multiplayer kept Burnout Paradise stuck in my Xbox... and my PS3... and installed on my PC... for hundreds of hours. The notion that Criterion is producing something that even resembles those past works is enough to let me forgive them for not including some sort of amazing/awful/amazing FMV-based story mode.

Here's an interview I conducted at the show:

I probably don't need to tell you about Borderlands 2. If you're anything like me, you already know you want to play Borderlands 2 and you don't really need to see any more of it prior to its September release. But, for the purposes of due diligence, I went and played what Gearbox was showing at E3 anyway. The other two starting classes were in, so I went with the Commando class, sense it seemed to be the closest to the Soldier I played in the previous game. (Also, I already played a Gunzerker back at PAX East.) The sequence being shown had me and a company spokesman playing on the kiosk next to me rushing through a city area and guarding a large robot as it went from spot to spot, destroying statues of the game's bad guy, Handsome Jack. It played like Borderlands. Sign me the eff up.

THIS CAPTION IS ABOUT GUNS

That's not to say that there's nothing new worth saying about Borderlands 2. The version I played was running on a PC and it looked outstanding. It's really making the most of its high-resolution and every single edge on every surface, enemy, and item just looks outstanding. It really makes the Borderlands art style pop out even more than it did previously. As for the PC version's interface, I can't really say. We were playing it with a controller, so it worked just like the console version. Speaking of console version, the 360 version was on display over at Microsoft's booth. It looked fine, as well, but it clearly needs some more optimization work, as the frame rate wasn't as solid as it probably should be.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was another case of a PC game with a 360 controller attached, which is a pretty interesting choice for a turn-based strategy game. When I played it prior to the show, I was a little skeptical when I walked up to the kiosk and saw a PC with no keyboard and mouse available. But after playing it, I get what they're going for. Look, it's turn-based. Obviously it's going to play fine with a mouse and keyboard. But forcing people to try it with a gamepad is pretty smart, because it actually controls pretty well that way, too. I ran through a tutorial level or two that showed off the cool side-view home base, where you promote and equip your soldiers, research new technologies, and so on. In-mission, the game turns into exactly the sort of isometric turn-based thing you'd want out of a modern X-COM. On top of that, the developers have found a way to prevent that high camera angle from getting old by adding different views when you're aiming weapons and little vignettes that show your crew kicking down doors or performing other maneuvers as they execute their turns.

The burning ship was the coolest-looking part.

Oh, and Sid Meier's in it.

There's more, of course. The non-playable duo of Watch Dogs and Star Wars 1313 certainly caused quite a stir as people tried to determine when they'd be released and which platforms they'd appear on. The answer--unofficially, anyway--seems to be that they'll both end up straddling the line between the generations. Both are capable of scaling down to fit onto our existing consoles, but they're both clearly being developed with the next Xbox and PlayStation in mind. Of course, the specs for those things aren't exactly common knowledge amongst developers just yet, so everyone's playing it safe by just making high-end PC games. In other words, if you've already got a high-end PC and you're planning on keeping it that way, sit back and relax. The next set of visually stunning games is already heading your way next holiday season.

As for everyone else... well... there's always E3 2013, right?