Need for Speed Heat (EA)

Need for Speed Heat for PC is the latest in a long line of fast-paced and exciting racing games: the sixteenth to be precise. The game is set in an open world called Palm City, which is heavily inspired by Florida, complete with wide Miami-like tree-lined avenues and a sea-side, beach vibe that gives the game a hint of holiday vibes.

About the Game

The player must cruise about the city, exploring the open world and seeing what there is to see – at least by day. There are legal street races during the day, and if you win you will make money at these games. Your two day time activities are exploring and racing, and both of these are completely legal, so feel free to poke around and see if you can find any hidden secrets.

Once you have had enough of the more vanilla side of life, you can trigger sundown and voila day turns to night, opening up a whole different world of opportunity and risk.

At night the races are no longer legal, and the stakes are considerably higher. You are no longer racing for cash, you are racing for ‘rep’ which is reputation, or basically, street cred. The more rep you have the higher your heat goes, and the higher your heat goes (all the way from one to five) the more ‘wanted’ you are, by the police.

However, the higher your rep goes, disregarding the police attention for a moment, the more goodies, boosters and even higher quality vehicles you are able to unlock, making a little bit of uncomfortable attention from the police a seemingly minor detail.

What About My Rides?

The vehicles look and perform like magic, and you can enhance both of these features by popping to a garage and spending both rep and cash in order to upgrade the external appearance of the car and the internal engine, upgrading speed and performance to the max.

And they will be worth spending money on: Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren are just a few of the impressive one hundred and twenty-seven (127!) vehicles that are fully customisable and playable in the game.

There is an app attached to the game which allows you to work on customising your vehicles while out and about, sending the finished car to the game, so it is ready and waiting when you are back home and itching to get racing in your newly refurbed speed machine.

Watch Out for the Police

• They will get you in the daytime if you speed or otherwise break the law. They cannot stop you from racing during the day and earning cash, but any other infractions will attract their attention before you can say ‘Can I help you, Officer?’
• They might ‘accidentally’ ram you if you start winning too many races and cashing in a bit too readily. Not for any real reason, just to keep you on your toes!
• At night, they are out to get you, and as all your races are illegal after dark, they have the right to detain and arrest you – which kind of ruins your reputation as a sick racer
• Should they catch up to you when you are holding a lot of rep and cash, they will remove it from you, leaving you broke and discredited. Get around this by popping to a safe house every so often, to stash your loot, whether it is ill-gotten or honestly obtained!

Need for Speed Heat for PC is available for purchase on Instant Gaming for a fraction of its retail price. You will receive an official key and be able to play the game in seconds. Play smart. Pay less.