The game also offers a selection of single-player events, allowing newcomers to get used to the handling engine, and the locations. You then just click on the challenge you fancy, and you're warped straight there, ready to compete against a pack of other similarly skilled human opponents. This time, technology is very much on its side… When you enter the game, you create your NFS World persona, grab a basic car and check out the map display, which shows the races available to you, based on your ranking and your vehicle. In 2001, it tried something notionally similar with Motor City Online, but the broadband penetration rates just weren't high enough and the project was scrapped after two years. In typical EA fashion this ambitious project is not the publisher's first attempt at establishing a persistent online racer. From here, all game levels and unlocking mechanics are available along with the micro-transaction engine so further content can be purchased to hasten what is unlocked over time through playing.' 'This will be a credit equivalent in Boost (the in-game currency of NFS World). 'The idea is that a threshold will be set, and to progress further, with unlocking content tied to level progression, players will need purchase a starter pack,' explains Jesse Abney, EA's manager of technical development. Players will get to download the game for free and can play for free in lower ranking events, but will need to pay to access higher levels, or to get at the cool stuff quicker. It's a PC-only massively multiplayer racing game, where users compete in an array of events against gamers all over the world, levelling up their vehicles and power-ups en route. Set to go into open beta on June 2, Need For Speed World is EA's latest endeavour to seek and exploit alternative payment models.

Need for speed world games