A visit to EA Studios, part 1

I was invited to a Need for Speed Community Day event held by EA in Vancouver, BC, Canada on the 18th and the 19th of August 2005 - the reason: to experience the new upcoming game from the series: Need For Speed Most Wanted. What we got was a two day EA experience with lots of play time, our own little blacklist tournament, a tour of EA Canada studios and lots talking with the developers of NFSMW.

Thursday, the first day, was more of an intro to Need for Speed Most Wanted as we only got to play the PS2/Xbox demo versions which have been made about a month ago. A nice intro it was: 2 cars (M3 GTR and RX-8) and 3 game modes: tollbooth, sprint and circuit, each mode with cops. Even though the game has its similarities with Need for Speed Underground 2, the experience is a whole lot different as avoiding the cops is the main priority right after the actual racing.

Second day was more intense, started with a visit of EA Canada studios in Burnaby, then we returned back to downtown offices to play the latest build of NFSMW on either PS2 or Xbox. The difference between the demo and this version was huge! It really gave us a feeling of how the game will play like when it is done. After play time we got to see the PC version (which looks spectacular!), art section where the art director showed us some truly awesome features of the game engine on a HD monitor. After that they brought in the Xbox360 with a working demo of the game which we actually got a chance to play - on HD of course.

In the 1 and a half day with EA we really learned a lot about Need for Speed Most Wanted and how the gaming industry really works. I will reveal everything I can about NFSMW in the next few days, so stay tuned for part 2!