For the 2005 game, see Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)[Note 1] is a singleplayer and multiplayer racing game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the nineteenth entry in the Need for Speed series.
A throwback to the original Most Wanted, the game features a open world where players can drive around freely, while can be chased by cops during free roam and race. The game doesn't feature a story mode.
It was released in North American on October 30, 2012, followed by Europe and Japan in November 2, 2012 and November 15, 2012 respectively. The Windows version is missing contents from the Wii U version of the game.
General information
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- All versions require Origin DRM.
Version differences
- Limited Edition content includes:
- 4 hours of Double Speed Points in Multiplayer
- Satin Black livery and Early access to the Porsche 911 Carrera S and Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale in Multiplayer[1]
Monetization
DLC and expansion packs
| Name |
Notes |
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| Complete DLC Bundle |
Includes Terminal Velocity, Movie Legends, NFS Heroes and Ultimate Speed |
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| Deluxe DLC Bundle |
Includes Terminal Velocity, Movie Legends and NFS Heroes |
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| Movie Legends Pack |
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| NFS Heroes Pack |
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| Terminal Velocity Pack |
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| Ultimate Speed Pack |
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| Premium Modification Unlock |
Includes Mod Unlock 1, Mod Unlock 2 and Mod Unlock 3 |
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| Mod Unlock 1 |
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| Mod Unlock 2 |
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| Mod Unlock 3 |
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| Multiplayer Booster Pack |
Includes all satin black liveries originally only attainable by pre-ordering |
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| Time Saver Pack |
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Essential improvements
- Increases quality of reflections, shadows, draw distance, and other various effects.
- Re-enables Cinematic Mode, a setting which improves the level of detail and quality of various effects.
- Fixes a bug regarding vegetation not rendering until the resolution was changed.
- Adds a toggle for drawing HUD and screen dirt.
- Option to disable crash camera
- Camera Control mod is integrated (adjustable FOV and camera position)
- Adjustable force-feedback and raw input option
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System |
Location |
| Windows |
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Criterion Games\Need For Speed(TM) Most Wanted\ |
| Microsoft Store |
|
| Steam Play (Linux) |
<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1262560/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game data location
| System |
Location |
| Windows |
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Criterion Games\Need For Speed(TM) Most Wanted\Save\ |
| Microsoft Store |
|
| Steam Play (Linux) |
<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1262560/pfx/[Note 2] |
Video
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Instructions to disable[citation needed]
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- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
config.NFS13Save with a text editor.
- Find the following line, and set it to this value.
VsyncInterval=0
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Run the game at screen refresh rate
- The game enforces a 60 Hz refresh rate. This results in huge tearing artifacts when V-Sync is disabled and huge input lag when V-Sync is enabled.
|
For monitors that support more than 60 Hz, the following might help[citation needed]
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- Download Special K.
- Copy
SpecialK32.dll into the game folder.
- Rename
SpecialK32.dll to dxgi.dll.
- Start the game and exit.
- Open
dxgi.ini in the game folder.
- Change
RefreshRate=-1.0 to RefreshRate=0.0 under [Render.FrameRate].
- It is recommended to also disable V-Sync otherwise, stuttering might occur.
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Framedrop issue
- Mostly happening when smoke effect is on the screen.
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Disable Ambient Occlusion effect.[citation needed]
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Input
Prompt given if using unknown DirectInput controller without button binding.
Xbox Series X|S controllers
- The game will claim that the controller has not been set up if it is connected via Bluetooth, even though the car will control just fine behind the dialog box.
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Connect the controller via USB
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Input lag issue
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Reduce the input lag
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- Disable V-Sync
- Set low latency mode to Ultra in graphics control panels.
- Racer_S realistic plugin makes input more responsive (also adds new cameras and some other options).
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Audio
| Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
| Separate volume controls |
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Music and effects. |
| Surround sound |
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5.1 and 7.1 supported. |
| Subtitles |
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Setting located in Gameplay settings. |
| Closed captions |
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| Mute on focus lost |
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Does not pause the game. |
| Royalty free audio |
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Localizations
| Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
| English |
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| Traditional Chinese |
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| Czech |
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| Dutch |
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| French |
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| German |
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| Italian |
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| Japanese |
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| Polish |
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| Brazilian Portuguese |
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Fan translation, download. |
| Russian |
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| Spanish |
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Network
Multiplayer types
VR support
Other information
API
| Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
| Direct3D |
10, 11 |
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| Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
| Windows |
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Mods
- Restores disabled photo mode.
- Requires connection to Autolog, otherwise you won't be able to enter photo mode.
- Attempting to take a photo either disconnects you from Autolog or crashes the game.
Beta cars
- Three cars have been removed during development, but thanks to these mods they can be restored.
- The cars are the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, the Hummer H1 Alpha, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8.
- They are not accessible by the EasyDrive menu or jack spot. A vehicle spawner is needed.
- Restores a cut body kit for the Porsche 911 GT2.
- Allows use of the two multiplayer-exclusive cars, the Ford Focus ST and the Slim Jim-promotion-based Dodge Charger SRT, in single-player, adding two jack spots and eight events for each car.
- Also adds eight single-player events for each of the three beta cars.
- Mod does not add jack spots for the beta cars, but a vehicle spawner mod is included in an "Extras" folder.
- Mod may cause the game to crash at random when driving the beta cars.
System requirements
| Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
| Operating system (OS) |
Vista SP2 |
7 SP1 |
| Processor (CPU) |
2.0 GHz Dual Core
| Quad Core |
| System memory (RAM) |
2 GB |
4 GB |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) |
20 GB | |
| Video card (GPU) |
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 10 compatible
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 560
AMD Radeon HD 6950
1 GB of VRAM
DirectX 11 compatible |
| Sound (audio device) |
DirectX compatible | |
Notes
- ↑ Also known as Need for Speed: Most Wanted – A Criterion Game.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1262560/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1262560) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
References
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_-_Display.png)
_-_Graphics.png)
_-_General.png)
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