So I got Most Wanted running today. I played about 20 minutes with the keyboard. I must say that the first impressions are quite good. There are some minor things I didn't like much, but here's my first opinion.
Graphics: in two words, damn good!
With everything maxed out the game does look really good. The detail of the cars is great including moving parts like spoilers; shadows are realistic and the sun really blinds you. Textures are very good too. The city may not be as big as I thought (looking at the map I would say it is as big as Paradise City), but it is very varied and absolutely crazy! In 20 minutes I jumped through stuff, landed on the side of a building, drove calmly through a mountain road, played around destroyed airplanes, entered a tunnel, created some trouble with the cops and found about 10 cars, including the Lamborghini Countach. However, despite all this, the game is not properly optimized. In fact, I think Criterion did a really bad job, at least on the PC. The framerate is unstable even with everything off, I can have 60 fps and a second later they drop to 30, then get back to 60 or 50. Compared to Burnout Paradise, which ran at 60 fps EVERYTIME, and Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted 2012 has a crappy optimization. I played around with the settings a bit until I found a visual that I like, but the framerate only goes to about 40, and only when you are driving more or less alone. In the middle of the city, with traffic cars or cops around, the framerate and the constant breaks take all the fun away. I seriously hope Criterion is working on a patch right now. One good thing, the game still looks good even with everything off, which I think is good for players who don't own a nice computer. They will be able to play and still have reasonable graphics. Some games look awful when everything is turned off, but that's not the case with Most Wanted.
My current settings are: 1280x1024, High Resolution Textures ON, Motion Blur HIGH, Shadow Level LOW, Headlight Shadows ON, Ambient Occlusion OFF, Reflection Detail MEDIUM, VFX Detail MEDIUM, Geometry Detail HIGH, Light Scattering OFF.
Sound: perfect.
The roar of each car is awesomely made, I tried a bunch of different cars and all of them sounded great. OST is nice too, so far I enjoyed the tracks. Crashing effects are nice too, so in the sound department, nothing to say, Criterion did a good job.
Gameplay: as I said, I started playing with the keyboard. I will try my Fanatec wheel later, but so far I enjoyed the handling. It is much better than The Run, and slightly better than Hot Pursuit. You can drift with ease and it feels natural. It is not as easy as in Hot Pursuit, but it is OK for me. Each car that I tried felt different.
The cars do slow down a bit when turning, but that's realistic my friends. Let an IndyCar driver explain.
It comes down to the laws of physics. If you go into a turn, there are G-force loads that load the tire, and that tire only has so much grip. As you turn, that slows the thing down, it’s causing friction. Anytime you have friction, no matterwhat it is, it’s going to slow down.
I took that from a very interesting article about this matter. So, don't complain about the cars slowing down when turning, that just means Criterion made an arcade game, but still decided to apply some real life physics.
And obviously, it depends what type of car you are driving. My Aston Martin didn't slow much while turning, but the Panamera did. I'm sure the Ariel Atom or the BAC Mono can turn without losing so much speed. I think a wheel might minimize this effect, because you will be able to control how much the wheels turn. With a keyboard, you press the key and the wheel turns all the way.
Anyway, back on the game, I love the way they designed the menu. You can access everything without ever "leaving" the game world, change game settings on the go, it's really well designed. Easy Drive menu so far is a plus for me. I also enjoy the speed cameras, the billboards, and overall jumping around. Taking down cars is AWESOME, in the first race the first thing I did was approach the rival car and hit him hard on the side.
I also went for the cops as soon as I saw one Ford Crown Victoria. The pursuit lasted some 7 minutes, unfortunately, I was busted.
But I liked how the cops kept going after you. Two minor flaws: no hood camera, and no rear-view mirror (I didn't find the key to look back either).
Overall, and after 20 minutes, I'm enjoying Most Wanted. I haven't played enough to have a solid opinion, especially when it comes to career length or multiplayer, but so far it is living up to my expectations. The city seems to be well designed to give you a lot of fun. I just hope Criterion brings a patch out to fix the optimization, otherwise I will have to wait for the price to go down.