Gli amici del portale italiano di Nextgame.it ci segnalano la pubblicazione di una doppia anteprima dedicata al nuovo Need for Speed Nitro targato Electronic Arts, titolo esclusivo creato per le console di casa Nintendo: non perdetevi quindi la preview della versione DS e quella per la Wii.

Con Need For Speed: Nitro prosegue il lavoro da parte di Electronic Arts per il rilancio del marchio Need For Speed come "contenitore" di svariati giochi dal target assolutamente diverso. Se Need For Speed: Shift è una produzione dall'impianto realistico, che strizza l'occhio agli amanti delle simulazioni, Need For Speed: Nitro punta nella direzione opposta, quella dei giochi arcade e "ignoranti" in stile Ridge Racer.

Con un nuovo trailer, Codemasters svela le modalità online dell'imminente Fuel, gioco di corse fuori strada che vanterà scenari davvero smisurati. Il titolo vi permetterà di sfidare fino ad altri 15 giocatori in gare di vario tipo a bordo di uno degli innumerevoli veicoli presenti, sia a 2 che a 4 ruote.

Set to revolutionise multi-terrain racing with the largest environment ever created in race gaming, Asobo Studios' Fuel promises a truly next generation addition to the racing genre, complete with the ability to go online to explore this massive world and compete in hundreds of multiplayer challenges.

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Born of Asobo Studios’ cutting-edge proprietary engine, the result of over four years in development, Fuel will present players with an astonishing no-boundaries playfield that’s over 5,000 square miles (14,000+ km²) in size. Creating the ultimate competitive go-anywhere racing experience, Fuel will have players competing across wildly different terrain and executing spectacular death-defying stunts as they race dozens of varied two and four-wheeled rides and explore this epic world on an unprecedented scale.

Fuel is set in an alternate present in which whole swathes of the globe have been ravaged by the effects of climate change brought on by decades of environmental abuse. Here oil prices have rocketed and yet a new breed of racing junkie takes to the wastelands, pitting their grungy home-tuned vehicles against each other in an all-new extreme sport as they compete to win fuel supplies. To triumph means travelling the wastelands to challenge the best; from the tsunami-wrecked pacific coast through the Nevada wastelands, including the Grand Canyon, up treacherous snow-capped mountains, thick forests, arid deserts, abandoned lakeside resorts and much more.

FUEL’s breath-taking 5,000 square mile+ racing sandbox will become the perfect setting for online multiplayer racing when the game launches on May 29th†. The new video showcases online Free Ride, where up to 16 players can explore and enjoy impromptu races and Race Events, where players can climb online leader boards and compete against up to 15 other racers. Unique custom races, player-created using FUEL’s powerful yet intuitive race editor, are also featured.

FUEL’s online events will see over 70 vehicles, including bikes, quads, buggies, trucks and cars competing on and off-road in challenges that include Circuit, Checkpoint and Raid races. The unique gameworld, which features no corridors or unnatural barriers, offers unprecedented player choice for on-the-fly route selection and delivers an exhilarating online racing experience across varied and challenging terrain.

In multiplayer Free Ride, the nearest 16 online players are connected together to create a busy world where gamers can explore together, seek-out collectibles and enjoy ad hoc races. The race editor allows almost limitless opportunities to create new and unique races set anywhere in FUEL’s beautiful and huge world and play them online. The extensive online offering compliments FUEL’s career mode, which features hundreds of races, events and unlockables, as players race and explore a world featuring the most diverse, inspiring and iconic areas of North America.

Bringing this vast, open ended landscape to life is a dynamic weather system with full day and night transitions, brilliant sunshine, torrential rain and everything in between, plus destructive tornados, sandstorms, thunderstorms, lightning strikes, and blizzards requiring mid-race strategy changes. The new video demonstrates the game-changing effect of just some of the game’s extreme weather: lightning strikes illuminate the sky, torrential rain destroys surface grip and blizzards create treacherous racing conditions. The video culminates with the awesome destructive power of the tornado, as an immense twister obliterates homes and throws a truck into the path of racers as they battle against each other and the elements.

It’s every man for himself as these adrenaline junkies go head to head with each other and Mother Nature in this beautiful, yet perilous, environment. Trucks, buggies, quads, muscle cars, scramble bikes, road bikes and more participate in hundreds of on and off-road events across the game world’s 100,000 miles of tarmac, tracks and trails.

Fuel is in development at Asobo Studios in Bordeaux, France, for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and due to release in Q2 2009.