The newly announced instalment in EA's racing franchise - Need for Speed: The Run - will use Frostbite 2 as its base.

Frostbite 2 has rocketed to fame after its graphical horsepower and capabilities were shown off in footage from Battlefield 3, which it also powers.

The Run is being developed by Black Box, and continues the cops vs racers war in a similar fashion to Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from last year. However, this time around the central focus is that of 'The Run'; an illegal cross-country race from San Francisco all the way to New York City. Players will have to "weave through dense urban centers, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds", whilst keeping an eye out for law enforcement.

Need for Speed: The Run is expected November 15 in the US and November 18 in the UK.

The newly announced instalment in EA's racing franchise - Need for Speed: The Run - will use Frostbite 2 as its base.

Frostbite 2 has rocketed to fame after its graphical horsepower and capabilities were shown off in footage from Battlefield 3, which it also powers.

The Run is being developed by Black Box, and continues the cops vs racers war in a similar fashion to Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from last year. However, this time around the central focus is that of 'The Run'; an illegal cross-country race from San Francisco all the way to New York City. Players will have to "weave through dense urban centers, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds", whilst keeping an eye out for law enforcement.

Need for Speed: The Run is expected November 15 in the US and November 18 in the UK.

Criterion have posted news of a new patch for the PC version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit that claims to fix "47% of the top ten problems reported." These mostly include fixes for players having problems running the game with Radeon graphics cards, but also include tweaks to DirectX performance. You can read the full patch details below.

Criterion announced the patch in a post on their website, listing the following updates.

"Fixes account for almost half (47%) of the crashes caused by the top 10 problems reported by our users. Specifically, crashes and rendering problems on ATI Radeon X1300, X1550 and X1800 graphics cards have been addressed. Fixes are also included for Intel embedded graphics chipsets such as the Intel GMA 500, Intel GMA 600 and Intel GMA X3000 which are running older graphics drivers."

The patch can be dowloaded right here.

A whole stash of NFS: Shift 2 details have been released concerning auto-log, helmet cams and, of course, cars. Read on for the latest news, along with a new trailer and plenty of screenshots.



Developer Slightly Mad Studios has revealed to Joystiq that the Autolog system that was first seen in NFS: Hot Pursuit is now 'Need for Speed DNA'. The system will appear in Shift 2 in a more-or-less identical design, but will sport extra features that will not only provide track times for unique events, but also segregate data based on quick race tracks, race types and automotive disciplines. This essentially means that Autolog will be more than just a system that throws down your friend's times regardless of how, or when, they set them during their career.




Slightly Mad also revealed that a rewards scheme would be introduced, with players of Hot Pursuit being awarded the Pagani Cinque Roadster racer and Lamborghini Reventon police car in Shift 2 when they log in.




Over at IGN, the guys have been looking at the game's helmet-cam, which puts players right in the head of the racer. More than just in in-car camera, the helmet cam will move with the head of the driver, being drawn from side to side as the car takes corners and the driver is hit by G's. As the car comes up to higher speeds, the edges of the screen will become blurred to simulate the tunnel-vision effect that drivers suffer when racing.



Here's the new trailer, highlighting some of the features:

Criterion have released a second patch for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and it's one worth getting excited about. It contains three new cars! Read on to learn more.

The second patch contains the Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible, the Lamborghini Murciélago LP 650-4 Roadster and the Dodge Viper SRT10 Convertible Final Edition. After the news that the PC version of Hot Pursuit wouldn't be receiving DLC, players may have feared that no new cars would come their way; the fact that we're getting three new vehicles for free is welcome news indeed.

Aside from offering new cars, the patch also fixes:

Flickering graphics after Alt-Tabbing out of the game and back.

Controller configurations sometimes failing to save correctly.

Steering response dead-zone when playing with steering wheel controllers.

Player car engine audio volume too low.

Some issues with CPU performance.

Rare crash issue when entering the Career map screen