Four years after Criterion finished Burnout Paradise, the studio returns to the open world format. While the sterile seriousness of the Need For Speed series has seeped into its formula, Criterion has made another spectacular game.

Need For Speed Most Wanted starts with all the humor and self-awareness of a Levi’s ad in the back of Maxim. It’s got that same wet-eyed sense of self-importance and put-on sexiness as those horrible “Go Forth” spots. A Muse song simmers in the background as dramatic, hazy shots of the city of Fairhaven and its automobile citizens parade by and a breathy female voice welcomes you to the game. It’s not the invitation back into Criterion’s open world driving that people have been waiting for these four years since Burnout Paradise. If that game was full of youthful guileless and boundless enthusiasm, Need For Speed: Most Wanted comes off like a petulant teen that’s too cool for school. Bright-eyed fun? That’s for babies.

The comparison to Paradise is unavoidable. The sprawling highways and city streets, the industrial parks and massive jumps, all those delightfully crushable billboards and security gates to the side of the road: This is Burnout Paradise 2 in everything but name. As first impressions go, though, the one made by Most Wanted is misleading. It does indeed take itself too seriously, but it is a beautiful and deeply fun machine all the same — the opposite side of Paradise’s coin.

Take It Easy

Before talking about the game’s vehicles, it’s important to talk about Most Wanted’s most distinguishing feature: EasyDrive. Criterion has sloughed off the baby fat that made Burnout Paradise’s beautiful bay and surrounding hills difficult to navigate. No more getting lost on your way back to the start of an event you want to retry and no more hunting for the car you need for a specific race right when you need it.

Mapped to the directional pad on your controller, EasyDrive is a pull up menu that addresses your every need. Pressing right brings up a menu for selecting which car you want, car customization options, your current car’s events (each car has five individual races), access to multiplayer, and the Most Wanted list (more on that in a moment.) Picking which race you want highlights the fastest route to the start on the map below, but after you’re tried it once, you can start the event automatically from Easydrive. It’s hard to overstate how smooth this system makes the game, efficient without sacrificing the do-what-you-will feel of the open world.

Even the game’s odd geographic rules for the cars don’t muddle it too much. Picking a new car sends you off to where you discovered its Jack Point on the map, potentially on the other side of the world from your current location (Most Wanted’s crime theme is pretty loose, having you boost cars in the wild, but since there are no pedestrians in Fairhaven it feels a little silly). I only found that I needed to change cars so I’d have a better machine for a Most Wanted race I’d already lost, so it’s not a huge annoyance.

Incredible Machine

There are ten Most Wanted races in the game, and those are the heart of the campaign. Most cars are discovered tucked away in Fairhaven’s dark corners, and most of your time is spent searching for them then playing their five events. These break down into circuit races on a looped course, sprints on a single path, sprints where you have to keep a high average speed, and escape the cops events. Provided you win, you’re awarded with upgrades (nitrous boosts, lighter chassis, off road wheels, etc.) and Speed Points. Once you have enough Speed Points on your profile, you get to take on the top ten Most Wanted cars; rich man’s machines from Lexus, Mercedes, Lamborghini, and others. You race these machines in a car of your choice — it really needs to be fully upgraded for you to prevail — while avoiding increasingly aggressive cop cars and blockades. Beat it, then take it down to add the car to your roster.

It’s marvelously addictive and more varied than it seems at first look. Sampling exotic cars like a Porsche 911 and an Audi R8 Spyder before taking on the Most Wanted makes it feel like all the races for each car are the same, but hop into stocky beasts like the Lancia Delta HF Integrale and you’ll find the sprint races transformed into jump-filled rallies across construction sites and train tracks. There’s always something new to do, even if it’s just cruising around, hunting for new cars.

Speaking of those cars, they are indeed beautiful, a bountiful collection of real world vehicles that range from the most mundane Ford pickup to the most wild Italian concept. Fairhaven is also beguiling. The spray of mist kicked up on wet roads and the flush of lights on its streets, perpetually shadowed even in daylight, make this the most visually impressive Need For Speed I’ve played. There’s a pervasive sterility in the game, though. All of the cars and city blocks feel too perfect. When you zip around a park, knocking down street lamps and trashcans in a reign of destruction only to find everything perfectly replaced on the next lap, it’s disconcerting. Fairhaven doesn’t feels less like an actual place, as Paradise City did, and more like grownups’ Matchbox playset.

Sexy sterility is Need For Speed Most Wanted’s bag in every regard really. When you’re introduced to a race and one of the Most Wanted cars, it’s through an arty short with weird camera angles and effects like a car being sucked out of what looks like white paint, glimmering as it emerges like a Playboy centerfold for engineers. When you got a new car in Burnout Paradise, it plopped down in your garage like a dirty heap of parts.

Autolog, Multiplayer, and Vita

But wait! There’s more to Most Wanted than the console and PC game’s core! Special mention needs to be made of the PS Vita version of the game. Criterion itself made the portable version of Most Wanted, but “portable version” is something of a misnomer in this case. Most Wanted Vita is the exact same game — same city, same cars, same races — as the one on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3, plus a smattering of exclusive races to boot. Everything said above holds true, but the Vita version of the game does lay bear how great the racing truly is.

The primary difference between it and the console versions is the look of Fairhaven. The cars are almost just as glossy, but the environment has been stripped of the textures, lighting, and particle effects (sparks, etc.) that make the console versions such spectacles. It doesn’t look bad. Far from it. The Vita city simply looks much simpler. The game doesn’t suffer for it. All the things that make Most Wanted good are preserved and it’s one more precious essential for Sony’s handheld.

For those of you thinking about getting the Vita version and the PS3 version for seamless home and portable gaming, bad news: Cross play isn’t supported. There is, however, cross play-like functionality between the Vita version and all console versions thanks to EA Origin and the game’s Autolog. Since your Autolog and its attendant Speed Points are tied to your EA Origin account, that same account carries over to your PS Vita game. You won’t have all the cars you’ve unlocked on PS3 or Xbox 360 accessible on your Vita (and vice versa), but you will have the requisite points to automatically compete in Most Wanted races.

You will also have complete access to your ranking and roster of cars in multiplayer. Multiplayer in Most Wanted includes a variety of unique events as well as the race types seen in the campaign. Competing and winning earns points, which raises your level, which in turn unlocks new cars to use when playing with friends. This being Autolog-specific info, multiplayer is ready to go on both platforms provided you use the same accounts.

Conclusion

Need For Speed Most Wanted is Burnout Paradise’s equal. The driving is pristine and primal, the drifts succulent and the crashes shocking, just as it always is in Criterion’s drivers. The crisp efficiency of EasyDrive makes Most Wanted a more direct game than its predecessor, a boon for achievement-oriented players, but there’s no sense of messy freedom and goofiness here. A winking DJ Atomika doesn’t compliment the greasy pop soundtrack. You can’t press in the analog sticks to suddenly cause a massive pile up on the highway, crashing for points. It’s a matter of taste. Do you prefer the fantasy of the beach or the cool logic of the city grid? If you lean toward the latter, Most Wanted is your game.

Score: 8.5 out of 10

 (This game was reviewed using PlayStation 3 and PS Vita copies provided by Electronic Arts)

Though it was under-appreciated in its own time, Capcom hopes that modern technology might offer its Okami a new lease on life.

In 2006 Capcom published a PlayStation 2 game developed by Clover Studio called Okami. Though it was one of the last games released for Sony’s best-selling console, Okami was an ambitious project. At that time Clover was known solely for the stylish beat ‘em up series Viewtiful Joe, but with Okami it hoped to marry Japanese mythology and historical art styles with modern gameplay concepts to create a sprawling, epic adventure. As reviews published around the time of the game’s launch will attest, Clover was wildly successful. Critics seemed to unanimously agree that Okami was a masterpiece. Despite all this positive press though, Okami never sold very well. Clover Studio was shuttered by Capcom after releasing only one more game.

I offer this history lesson not just to educate you all on the history behind the game I’m reviewing today, but also so that I can publicly apologize for not having purchased Okami when it debuted. I probably didn’t directly cause Capcom to close Clover down, but after having finally experienced this modern classic I can’t help but feel guilty about how the whole situation panned out.

As with the original Okami, Okami HD tells the story of a world threatened by the demonic hydra Orochi. The opening describes a legend of a white wolf protecting a Japanese village from Orochi at the cost of her own life. Of course, this being mythology, eventually Orochi returns to menace the world again and the wolf reappears to once again defend humanity. Trust me, that introduction sounds a lot better when presented in front of gorgeously stylized sumi-e imagery. By the time you’re actually given control of Amaterasu (that’s the wolf’s name; she’s a Shinto sun goddess), not only does it make perfect sense that you’re now running around as a white wolf with a flaming disk on her back, you’re also absolutely primed to explore this new world and find some way to stop Orochi.

Old Dog, New Tricks

While Okami has always been a gorgeous game, it was released more than half a decade ago on a console now considered “last gen.” Thus, as we’ve seen in other recent high definition remakes like the Ico & Shadow Of The Colossus Collection, Okami had to be equipped with new, modern features that simply didn’t exist when it was initially developed. These new accoutrements include the standard things you see in all PlayStation Network releases (like Trophy support) but the two most important additions to the game are definitely its new high-definition graphics and Okami HD’s support for Sony’s Move peripheral.

Retrofitting older games with high definition graphics isn’t anything new. Unfortunately, it’s also rarely as impressive as you might hope. Most developers, when converting a PlayStation 2 title to the increased graphical specs of the PlayStation 3, simply boost a game’s resolution, which is helpful but does nothing to improve the textures used in the game that were originally created at the lower PlayStation 2 resolution. Actually, the increased resolution can often highlight these shortcomings, making an HD version less attractive than its original iteration. To Capcom’s benefit though, the sumi-e art style used throughout Okami almost completely masks any glaring issues that would instantly give Okami HD away as a PlayStation 2 title. I won’t say that Okami HD looks good compared to the other big-name releases hitting store shelves this year, but it could very easily pass as an Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 title from as recently as two years ago. If you’ve never played Okami before, know that Okami HD is gorgeous. If you have played Okami before, you already know that the game is gorgeous, but trust that the high definition improvements are even better than you might have hoped.

Unlike the newly improved graphics, I’m of two minds on the implementation of Move support in Okami HD. The Move support itself works perfectly. Controlling the Celestial Brush (long story short: Amaterasu can alter reality by painting on it; this is one of the core game mechanics in Okami) is quite simple with the Move, as long as you have the system set up correctly. Although Okami was developed long before Move, the Celestial Brush mechanic just so happens to perfectly suit Move. It’s quite comfortable to use the Move controllers during gameplay, the motion control is as intuitive as you could possibly want it to be, and if you prefer not to use it, the feature is never forced on you.

Despite its impressive functionality though, I just can’t see why anyone would ever want to play through the entirety of Okami HD using those day-glo wands. I played the game for a few hours using Move and while I will admit that the addition has some novelty at first, it quickly made me wonder why I was flailing my limbs when it was far more comfortable and familiar to perform the same actions via a traditional controller. It’s sad that I have to criticize a game for a feature that absolutely works, but in this case Move is, at best, a gimmick with very niche appeal.

A Link To The Past

Beyond those new additions, Okami HD features the same classic gameplay found in its predecessor. And, it should be said, in all of Nintendo’s recent Legend Of Zelda games. 

It’s never been much of a secret that Okami’s gameplay was directly inspired by and/or an homage to Nintendo’s franchise. Okami HD features essentially identical gameplay to its predecessor, so the Legend Of Zelda influences are also prominent in this game. As in the modern, 3D Legend Of Zelda titles Okami is largely an adventure focused on whimsical fantasy, acquiring new abilities to enter new areas and getting to know the eccentric locals you meet in your journey. Combat is real-time but relatively simple (the Celestial Brush doesn’t complicate battles as much as you’d expect), the story is alternately epic and humorous, and enemies are suitably puny/impressive/horrifying as the situation dictates.

Normally I’d slam a developer for so blatantly lifting design cues from another developer, but if you have to swipe ideas you may as well swipe from the best. Plus, the results speak for themselves: Okami is a thrilling adventure that is not only inspired by The Legend Of Zelda, but also stands alongside some of its best entries in terms of sheer entertainment value. Since it’s anyone’s guess when Nintendo might release a proper Legend Of Zelda sequel on the Wii U, Okami HD is the best way for fans to get their action-adventure fix.

Conclusion

Subjectively I want to give Okami HD a perfect score. Not because of my latent guilt over the closure of Clover Studio, but because the firm’s biggest game was also a gorgeous, engaging adventure that is only improved by the thick coat of polish seen in Okami HD. That the game is being sold for $20 as a convenient digital download only improves the already fantastic offerings here.

Objectively though, as I said, while Okami looks great it’s not quite up to modern standards. Graphics certainly aren’t everything, but there are a few other issues caused by the game’s age. They’re minor to be sure (save points are occasionally too scarce, controlling the camera with the right stick takes a bit of getting used to), and are certainly just the result of game design conventions gradually changing over time, but taken as a whole these issues prevent Okami HD from earning a perfect score.

Still, I can’t recommend this game more highly. $20 is a phenomenal bargain for the grand adventure that is Okami HD.

Score: 9/10

(This review was written using a downloadable copy of Okami HD provided by Capcom.)

Those having trouble finding signal in the wake of Hurricane Sandy will be glad to know their coverage is now temporary expanded thanks to a T-Mobile/AT&T partnership.

Those in New York and New Jersey may have experienced a shortage in network over the past few days in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, so cell providers T-Mobile and AT&T have decided to put their rivalry aside to offer customers extra coverage. The companies have just announced that they will be joining forces to share their networks for the affected NY and NJ areas to help those having difficulty in their search of a working signal.

AT&T and T-Mobile customers would not have to sign up for any extra features to enable the functionality. Instead, they can go about using their phones as they normally would, and hopefully the added coverage will help provide a wider range of network. The shared network agreement is possible since both companies rely on similar GSM-based networks, and data charges will still be billed to the provider that user is originally under regardless of which provider allotted the signal during the duration. Theoretically, if your phone receives both the signal from AT&T and T-Mobile networks, it will run on whichever signal is stronger.

No words on when the temporary arrangement will last, but this is a compassionate act by both AT&T and T-Mobile to offer a little bit of help while they can. As of today, there is still no power in areas below 34th street in New York City. Limited public transportation service has been reinstated, though buses are not running downtown after nightfall due to the lack of street lights, making it a “dangerous condition” for commuters and local residents. Although Con Edison recently announced that approximately 225,000 customers have had their powers restored,  the rest of Manhattan will have to wait until Friday or Saturday to be back up in lights.