10. Need For Speed: Rivals
Need for Speed (NFS) has always been one of Electronic Arts's (EA) most successful franchises. Ever since the first Need for Speed was released in 1994, the series has captivated gamers by giving them the opportunity to act out their wildest road fantasies. Many afternoons were spent replaying those exotic locations we loved most, along with our favorite exclusive car, trying to beat our previous lap time record. This new kind of gameplay, (at that time) along with the combination of exotic cars which we couldn't afford in real life, and exotic locations which we couldn't afford to go to, was what made the NFS series so darn good. Sadly though, while EA continued to reap the profits from the series as the years rolled by, a steady decline in the standard of the games was painfully obvious ever since NFS: Most Wanted. Features that we used to love such as fully customisable cars and full on street races in what used to be breathtakingly detailed atmosphere's, slowly started to fade away into the modern series as we know it to be today. Thankfully though, EA has finally realised its pitfalls; CEO John Riccitiello admitted that their studio Black Box was severely overworked. With that in mind, the future of the series looks bright...at least for now. Need for Speed: Rivals was announced on May 23rd 2013. And although we don't even have a full trailer as of yet, from what we see from the teaser, it has definitely whet some appetites... The graphics are absolutely jaw-dropping (the teaser claims in a not very subtle way that all the footage is in-game) especially for EA's standards and it seems that they are finally going back to their origins, bringing good ol' cop chases and street racing with fantastically realistic cars, back. Add this to the fact that they are pairing up with Criterion Games, producers of the much-loved Burnout Paradise, makes this a viable come back for the car-racing genre. Need for Speed: Rivals is out 19th November on PS3, Xbox 360 and PCs, and is expected to release on PS4 and X1 at a later date.