The PC version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted will be prettier, faster and support more players online than the console editions according to Criterion's Leanne Loombe in an interview with Games.on.net . "The move to DX11 from DX9 has given us around a 300% improvement in rendering performance," she says. "This has enabled us to provide an improved image based lighting model over the console version, as well as allowing us to run with higher detail shadows and reflections.
"The increased power of DirectX 11 hardware has also allowed us to implement features such as real-time ambient occlusion, and light scattering algorithms which are absent in the console version."
Most Wanted PC will support 12 players in a multiplayer game, as opposed to just eight on the consoles. The DirectX 11 support allows for more shiny additions like "SAO, light scattering, high dynamic range motion blur, high resolution textures, advanced specular lighting models, headlight shadow casting, enhanced VFX quality, and enhanced shadow quality levels."
If you're keen to run Most Wanted on max settings, you'll need a current quad core CPU with an AMD Radeon 6000series or GeForce 500 series card in the GPU slot.
Most Wanted is set in the open city of Fairhaven, which will operate a bit like Paradise City in Burnout: Paradise City. You'll be able to drive any car you can find in the world and engage in time trials and other challenges on almost every street. An upgraded Autolog system will publicly grade your performance against your friends', initiating lifelong rivalries that can only be resolved in a bitter fight to the death, or with a quick drag race down Fairhaven's longest road.
