Need for Speed: The Run

I am supposed to be off on vacation but we had a disk go bad on one of our arrays and it required me to do a bit of maintenance for the office. The process of rebuilding the bad disk is about as exciting as watching dots get painted to the screen. Actually that is what was happening and so I took the chance to crack the cover of another EA game: Need for Speed: The Run. I had my laptop logged into the computer at work painting dots on one side, and my 32-inch HD TV showing the game on the other. Sometimes it is nice to be able to multitask.

Once again, EA uses the Frostbite 2 engine for this game. It is also used for Battlefield 3. My two sons love playing the Need for Speed games and so when I was down having lunch at EA at the beginning of December, I made sure to pick up a copy of the latest installment. I have to say that I have not been disappointed. You start the game duct-taped to the steering wheel of a Porsche 911 that is getting put in a car crusher. You have to escape and then are invited to drive in a race across the United States. You start in San Francisco and then try to get to New York. The only unbelievable part of the game is that you don't take Interstate 80 the whole way. Instead, you are relegated to back roads, which makes for a better video game.

I have never played another Need for Speed, but I have seen my sons play countless hours of the different versions. The Run has a lot of the same elements: you have to make certain time cutoffs, evade police, as well as pass a number of other racers over a given distance. You also have various cars to choose from. I naturally chose the BMW M3 to start as I am sort of a fan of BMWs in real life. However it was a bit tough when I kept crashing my car, especially since I really was rear-ended in my BMW yesterday. Luckily there was no damage to my car, but still, watching me destroy a virtual BMW almost brought tears to my eyes.

Need for Speed: The Run is rated T for language, mild suggestive themes, and violence. I didn't think it was nearly as violent as MotorStorm Apocalypse but there are a lot of car crashes. I also have not heard any foul language, but I am only a couple of hours into the game. I am playing in 720p resolution and the graphics look great. I wish I could play in 1080p, but the game doesn't support it. As it is from EA, you can get the game for PlayStation 3, XBox 360, PC, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS. I would recommend this title for anyone that likes driving games. Parents just don't base game play on whether or not you will let your kids ever get a driver's license.