14 DAY TRIAL // Need for Speed: The Run has been officially announced and detailed by Electronic Arts, the publisher of the iconic racing series, and will be launched at the end of the year on a variety of platforms.
We heard of the existence of Need for Speed: The Run at the end of last week, when a retailer leak busted through EA's strict embargo on information.
The publisher immediately released a teaser trailer, and it has now revealed the first pieces of information about its brand new racing game.
Need For Speed: The Run will see the return of the franchise to story-based games, with its developer, Black Box, taking things one step higher than previous titles, like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit or Shift 2: Unleashed, which shined through their extremely polished gameplay.
“This is the year that Need for Speed goes to the next level,” said Jason DeLong, executive producer at EA. “We think that Need for Speed The Run is going to surprise people with its intense, thrilling story and big action feel. But the game would be nothing without hot cars and crazy-fast chases. So that is what we’re delivering -- explosive racing that will have players flirting with disaster at 200-miles an hour.”
NFS: The Run will have a huge ace up its sleeve, as the game will be using the new Frostbite 2 engine, created by EA's own DICE studio for the upcoming Battlefield 3 first-person shooter.
We already saw what stunning graphics the engine produced in several videos for Battlefield 3, so it's going to be very interesting to see just what it can do for a racing game.
As was revealed in the retailer leak, The Run will see players engage in a bitter race across the USA, from San Francisco to New York, with not only the police but with other racers hot on your tail.
"Entering the race is just the beginning as you blow across borders, weave through dense urban traffic, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds. Powered by DICE’s state-of-the-art Frostbite 2 engine, Need for Speed The Run takes the action racing genre to new heights with stunning visuals and car physics that hug the road even at top speeds all built around a gripping storyline.
"The cars are hot, the racing is intense and the story will have you at the edge of your seat… all the way from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Empire State building."
Besides the new story, highlighted above, and the great graphics, provided by the Frostbite 2 engine, Need for Speed: The Run will see the return of the Autolog online multiplayer component, which has been refined after appearing in Hot Pursuit and Shift 2 Unleashed.
NFS: The Run will be released on November 15, in North America, and November 18, in Europe and the UK, for the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo 3DS platforms.