Well, after months of speculation, here it is. Electronic Arts announced Need for Speed today, the final attempt at saving the historic franchise from total destruction. It’ll be 2012’s Most Wanted with car customization on-par with the two Underground games, and apparently we’re getting a deep storyline as well.

As much as I loved the two Underground games (I still play the original on my PS3, it’s that good), EA forcing Criterion to do Need for Speed games was seriously the worst possible decision made regarding the franchise. The Burnout games are some of the best arcade racing games out there, along with the older Need for Speed titles. Instead of getting new Burnout games, where Criterion were mostly in charge, and a new Need for Speed game with its own dedicated team and gameplay style, we have Criterion on EA’s leash producing weak, watered down Paradise clones with licensed cars under the Need for Speed brand.

Nobody wins.

But in the event that it has some sort of club functionality, it’ll be another game we support here at PretendRaceCars.net alongside DiRT Rally.