Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an open world racing game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. Most Wanted is the nineteenth title in the Need for Speed series and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, iOS and Android, beginning in North America in 2012, with a Wii U version following in 2013 under the title Need for Speed: Most Wanted U. The game picked up on the Most Wanted intellectual property, as opposed to the Hot Pursuit reboot that Criterion Games developed previously. Need for Speed: Most Wanted received positive reviews, which focused on the world map that blended the styles of previous Burnout and Need for Speed games, and the social features, while criticism fell on the single-player mode. Following its release, the game won several awards including the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards for Best Driving Game and was nominated for Best British Game and Best Online Multiplayer at the 2013 BAFTA Awards, and was repeatedly recognized as the best driving/racing game of 2012 by several outlets. Gameplay Need for Speed: Most Wanted is set in an open world environment. The game takes on the gameplay style of the first Most Wanted title in the Need for Speed franchise; the contrast difference is the 2012 Most Wanted does not contain a story. Most Wanted allows players to select one car and compete against other racers in three types of events: Sprint races, which involves traveling from one point of the city to another, Circuit races, each having two or three laps total and Speed runs, which involve traversing through a course in the highest average speed possible. There are also Ambush races, where the player starts surrounded by cops and must evade their pursuit as quickly as possible. Cops are integrated into certain racing sessions, in which the police deploy vehicles and tactics to stop the player's car and arrest the player, like the original Most Wanted. The game features a Most Wanted List of 10 racers, similar to the Blacklist in the single-player section of the original Most Wanted, which featured 15 racers. As the Most Wanted racers are defeated, their cars are added to the player's roster the moment the player wrecks them. In this reiteration, the focus shifts from Rockport, the city in the original, to a new city called Fairhaven. Fairhaven resembles a regular