WP: Let's talk about new features. What are you introducing in Undercover that we haven't seen in previous games in the Need for Speed franchise?
Need for Speed Undercover is all about the chase, chasing, and being chased, and that really represents the essence of how we built this game out. That element or concept of the chase really comes to life in three different ways, three pillars, if you will: the Heroic driving engine, highway battles, and our undercover arc.
In terms of the Heroic driving engine, what that refers to is, we've got over 430 different levers that we can play around with to really give you the ultimate control over the car and the game. When you see people doing things in Hollywood films in cars, things that are just impossible for you to do in everyday life, that is what we want to recreate in the game. We want everybody to feel like a hero, and we finally sort of have the engine that allows us to do that. That engine also extends to the damage system, it extends to the intelligence in the game, how you interact with the cops, how the AI is racing against you, a lot of great stuff. All of that comes together to really perform and sort of make you feel like a hero.
Highway battles really represent innovation on the gameplay side. These are very, very intense, really raw, emotional — it's a really thrilling gameplay experience. You had a chance to hurl yourself really fast down a highway at 150 miles an hour, weaving in and out of cars. It's an experience that you really have to play to really get the feeling of.