Need for Speed has been one of the best selling racing game franchises for the past several years. The most recent incarnations of the series have centered around the underground racing scene, with a heavy emphasis on car customization, both interior mechanics and exterior paint jobs and decals. The upcoming Need for Speed: Most Wanted will move away from the underground focus and instead head back to the roots of the series, complete with police chases.

We had an opportunity to get our hands on the Xbox 360 version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and so far things are shaping up nicely. The cars available in the build we played were the Lexus IS300, Ford Mustang GT, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, and the BMW M3 GTR. Each vehicle offered various power and handling ratings, but we not customizable. In the final version players will be able to customize their rides to their satisfaction.

Quick Race was the only available option in the Most Wanted preview build we played. Included under the Quick Race menu were Challenge Race and Custom Race. The Challenge Race featured a specific vehicle in a challenge mission. You were thrown into the middle of a police chase, and given 60 seconds to outrun a squad of police cars. After evading the police for 60 seconds, you succeeded in your goal, but you were still able to corner the police cars and find a bounty (a location marked on the map). We raced into a football stadium, followed by a herd of police cars, only to race out, running into one of the support columns around the exit, collapsing the exit and trapping the police cars inside. We then headed to one of the bounty locations to successfully end the mission.

The Custom Race option was your standard issue race for the most part. We were able to select the car of our choice, then race against several other cars. We could customize the race through several options, including number of laps, level of traffic, computer difficulty, and the easy catch up option (allowing the cars out of first place to run faster than the car in first place). On the medium difficulty, and with the medium setting for traffic, the race was relatively challenging. Getting into second was not a problem, but catching up to the first place car was rather difficult.

Throughout both race types, the control was very loose in the same fashion as the Need for Speed Underground series. For those unfamiliar with the Need for Speed Underground series, the control is not as spot of as it is in some other racing games. While it may take a bit to adjust to the loose control, once you have the hang of things, power sliding around corners will be second nature.

The atmosphere and graphics of Need for Speed: Most Wanted were above average. Graphically, the game is on par with most of the other Xbox 360 launch titles. The car models looked very good, and the damage dished out to the cars from crashing into numerous objects (our driving wasn't very good at first), was top notch. Smoke from burning tires, and reflections on the car windows were also very impressive. The sense of speed you get from using the NOS, or simply driving fast was also above average when compared to other racing games. Adding to the Most Wanted atmosphere, when a police car spotted us, the action slowed down and the camera zoomed in on the police car, making for a very tense scene.

If you're a fan of the Need for Speed series, Most Wanted should meet and exceed your expectations. From our short time with the game, things are definitely looking up for the franchise. There are a few issues left to be polished up before the game ships, but if you're looking for the best version of Most Wanted, the easy choice is the Xbox 360 port. While not as graphically impressive as Project Gotham Racing 3, the NFS fans should be pleased with the Xbox 360 graphically upgrade. We'll have more on Need for Speed: Most Wanted as we approach the November launch of the Xbox 360.