Need For Speed: Rivals ought to be the best racing game on PS4 and Xbox One. On paper it already is: an enormous open world where street racers challenge each other to reckless head-to-head showdowns, all as the police strive to shut them down hard and fast with an insane range of gorgeous...

Exhilarating arcade racing; Phenomenally good fun; whether pushing the limits or upholding the law; AllDrive is nearly a game-changer when it works..

...but fails to cater for anywhere near enough simultaneous players to be worth the hassle; Appalling host migration and loading times; desperately needs dedicated servers; World feels empty; progression system bogs down in boring challenges

Terrific game which brings out the competitive streak in you when you are playing against other people. Great graphics and definitely has long-term appeal.

In a narrative introduction that is so "gritty and serious" that it borders on satirical, Need for Speed Rivals (NFSR) sets up the dual narratives of international street racers and the high-octane police force dedicated to taking them down.

Narrowly escaping a pursuing squad of police cars and power drifting into the safety of my hideout with hundreds of sounds of speed points under my belt

For an open world driving game; there are not nearly enough alternative paths and emergent gameplay moments that use the geography

Need for Speed: Rivals is a wholly enjoyable open-world racer. The driving is solid, its streets are a joy to explore, and its racing assignments--though a bit repetitive at times--are incentive enough to keep you coming back for more.

Absolutely gorgeous; evolving next-gen environments; Redview is replete with both AI and real-life rivals; Some of the slickest controls this side of a Burnout game

The few reasons youre given to upgrade your car; Impact damage is dealt haphazardly

The onramp to next-gen could have been messy. Shifting from the steady hand of Criterion Games to a new studio (albeit one headed up by top racing talent), Need for Speed Rivals could've easily taken a wrong turn. But Rivals passes inspection on Xbox One with flying colors.

+ Alldrive excellently mixes single- and multiplayer; + Manages to incorporate many wonderful weapons and items without upsetting the balance

- Not much buildup to new objectives or races like in previous; ? Is it just us; or is a garage or safehouse never nearby when we're about to get wrecked

*The game was reviewed with the DualShock 4. It is important to note that NFS Rivals does not support any wheel peripherals.

Grab a Ferrari 458 Italia and hit up Need for Speed: Rivals' Redview County and you can find yourself in a pretty decent approximation of what a contemporary, open-world OutRun would look like.

It's best to think of Need for Speed: Rivals as a thrill ride. Get on, scream, plead to go faster, and it will. It has some of the best car chases around, and they've never looked so chaotically beautiful as they do on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Dazzling graphics; Intense chases; Accessible handling

Bland weapons; Lacks variety

If I were Need For Speed: Rivals right now, I'd be having a serious attack of stage fright. The arcade racer has frequently served as a benchmark for a new console generation's launch.

In Need For Speed: Rivals, single-player and multiplayer modes are no longer options separated by a menu tree; they coexist inside the active game. Anything related to starting a driving event takes place on the road among the living, breathing, driving ecosystem, and anyone driving by can join...

Low on innovation but high on spectacle, as the cumulation of the last several years of Need For Speed games the first entry on the next gen is already one of the best.

Great driving model and some of the most exciting races in the series' history; Fun upgrade path and a very well designed score multiplier; Excellent graphics

Very little in the way of new ideas, in particular a lack of variety in the race types; The online options can easily be abused by antisocial players