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"Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the latest instalment in EA&amp;#039;s enduringly popular street racing series. Criterion Games has dipped back into its experience with 2008&amp;#039;s Burnout Paradise to create a fully open world that is perfectly set up for driving supercars at incredibly fast speeds, and often with a stream of wailing cop cars in pursuit. We caught some time with Criterion creative director Craig Sullivan to discuss breaking the rules, the simplicity of Apple&amp;#039;s iPhone and why racing games don&amp;#039;t need a story.  You have talked about approaching Need for Speed: Most Wanted in terms of addressing the shortcomings of other racing games. What do you mean by that? &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not that driving games are going in the wrong direction, it&amp;#039;s that there aren&amp;#039;t enough teams exploring the way in which driving games could go. There will always be a place for the Forzas and the Gran Turismos, but there are also new experiences to be had.  &amp;quot;We always pride ourselves at Criterion on pushing the boundaries of what people think is the norm for any genre. With Burnout, we really just changed the game. With Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, we introduced Autolog and showed that a racing game can be about competition between friends. &amp;quot;With this game we are trying to show that having all the cars open from the start can be a cool thing. There are no rules on how racing games should be made. Who says you can&amp;#039;t be driving your favourite supercars within 20 or 40 minutes, there is no linear path.&amp;quot; Are you not concerned, though, that some players will feel that there is no structure? &amp;quot;Absolutely, absolutely. But without some kind of risk, it means you are not pushing boundaries. I am a big Apple fan and I can remember when I got my first iPhone. There wasn&amp;#039;t an instruction manual, but they hold your hand enough so that you work it out. &amp;quot;There is a risk in doing that, but there is a very fine line between: does the player have enough to know what they are doing, or are they baffled and having a bad experience? I hope that we have toed that line enough that there is still that sense of freedom and discovery, rather than just &amp;#039;go there and do this&amp;#039;.&amp;quot;  Do racing games need a story? &amp;quot;There is no story in Forza. There are people who want stories in racing games, and that is fine. I play games with stories. But we don&amp;#039;t think at Criterion that a driving game needs a story, when it is ultimately about you and the car. &amp;quot;The story is your journey through the game. The reason why the driver in the car has a helmet on is because he is not very important. If you think that is you, then fine, if you think that is Michael Schumacher, that&amp;#039;s also fine. It&amp;#039;s the experience of driving that is important.&amp;quot; So, you have instead tried to create a platform for people to express themselves in driving? &amp;quot;Yes. All you do in this game, really, is drive the car. You drive it in lots of different ways, against your friends and online. You get into cop chases, but ultimately it&amp;#039;s all about driving the car. &amp;quot;Because what we have always focused on at Criterion is that if driving the car and literally doing nothing else is not fun, then the game is going to be crap. &amp;quot;If driving the car is fun, then you are half there. If you then get the player to do lots of fun stuff, then you have a winning formula. It should not be overly difficult to make a fun driving game as long as you focus on the driving as the fun part.&amp;quot;  In terms of the multiplayer, are you sure you have given players enough information to feel engaged? Because after playing through the modes, we were left rather baffled at first... &amp;quot;We play a lot of Call of Duty. The first time you go online you are just thrown in and there is no tutorial, and you usually get your arse handed to you in about ten minutes. But gradually you discover a better way to play. &amp;quot;We would rather give you just enough information. We could tell you down to the tiniest degree what to do in the game, but is that as much fun? &amp;quot;Probably not. I remember watching The Matrix for the first time, there are parts of that movie where I just did not know what was going on. Inception took that even further. There is nothing wrong with having to think a bit.&amp;quot;  How important was it to ensure that the player is always compared with those of similar abilities rather than lofty leaderboards? &amp;quot;It is not just important, it is the most important thing about this game. &amp;quot;I can compete with the people around me, I can&amp;#039;t compete with the best in the world. That is just going to end up being boring and nobody wants to be told that they are rubbish over and over again. &amp;quot;Whenever you see a leaderboard in the game, it will always feature your name. So you will know your position in the game. It might be that you are down in 30th position, but you will still look at the people nearest to you and try to beat them. We have thought about the design of that very, very carefully. &amp;quot;Everything in the game is Speed Points. This means that even if you are not playing the game, you are playing the game. It is impossible to drive around the city and not earn Speed Points. &amp;quot;Get into a cop chase, smash this and smash that, race through a speed camera, and you will earn Speed Points. I won&amp;#039;t play games now where I waste half an hour and don&amp;#039;t get any progression. I want everything to take me forward. People don&amp;#039;t have as much time on their hands now as they had five years ago.&amp;quot;  But is there an actual end point to the single player campaign? &amp;quot;Yes, you can take down all the Most Wanted cars and that is an end. You become the Most Wanted driver. But that is not really the end. You can continue playing the game and earning points. &amp;quot;You can play this game for hundreds of hours, and that is even before getting into multiplayer. We had people playing Burnout Paradise for 500 or 600 hours. If you have enough friends who also want to play the game, you can play Most Wanted forever.&amp;quot; &amp;gt; Read our hands-on preview with Need for Speed: Most Wanted Need for Speed: Most Wanted will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on October 30 in North America and on November 2 in Europe.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/interviews/a422865/need-for-speed-most-wanted-interview-criterion-talks-open-world-racer/>