Need for Speed is all about the racing, however, and EA will be inviting the top drifters and time attack cars from all over the world to compete in an international race battle, along with a manufacturer time attack exhibition.

The event will be open to the public, and is penciled in for the Brands Hatch Circuit near London, though negotiiations are still underway. Hit the jump for more details, or visit www.needforspeedlive.com, where I am certain they will eventually catch up with the press release.

EA BRINGS NEED FOR SPEED TO LIFE IN NEXT SUMMER'S BIGGEST DRIFT AND TIME ATTACK RACING EVENT
London to Host Need for Speed Live 2009 International Race Event

GUILDFORD, UK – November 5, 2008 – Today at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced Need for Speed™ Live, a unique festival and competition that celebrates car culture. This first-time event will be open to the public and will be hosted next summer at the world famous Brands Hatch Circuit* located near London, England. The weekend-long experience will be a showcase of entertainment, videogames, music, car shows and displays designed to appeal to fans of racing games, proud owners of hot vehicles, fans of exotic cars and motorsports enthusiasts.

Need for Speed Live will invite some of the world’s top drifters and time attack cars from across Europe, North America and Japan to gather in one location to compete in a battle of the continents. Need for Speed Live will also include demonstrations by some of the world’s most famous race and exotic cars in a manufacturer time attack exhibition.

“For over 14 years, Need for Speed has been at the forefront of automotive culture and this Live race event brings the spirit of Need for Speed games to life with all of the energy, adrenaline and sexiness that the franchise represents,” said Rod Chong, Creative Director for Need for Speed Live. “Need for Speed Live will definitely push each driver and their cars to the limit as they contend with dramatic elevation changes and harrowing fourth-gear 100 mph drifts.”
For more information on Need for Speed Live, please visit www.needforspeedlive.com.

* To be confirmed; Negotiations in progress.

Mr. Stubble here may be bursting at the seams to get his hands on Need For Speed Undercover, but I'd have a hard time telling you what differentiates this particular Need For Speed from the previous half-dozen. That may be based on the extremely low ratio of gameplay contained within, but is more likely due to the frequency of Burnout, Forza Motorsport, Project Gotham Racing, Midnight Club and, of course, Need For Speed releases.

The whole thing sounds sort of erotic, based on the monologue from John Q. Stubble, which may be a big factor in my aversion to learning more. Also, NFSUC looks like a dirty acronym. Potentially, gaming's dirtiest?

According to GamesIndustry.biz, the Vancouver-based Need For Speed developers (pictured) have been slaving away on a brutal 12-month dev cycle for each entry in the series. Admitting that Need For Speed: Pro Street was just "okay", Riccitiello says that they've since added more staff, split the team in half, and put them on 24-month cycles, a winning formula that will hopefully make NFS: Undercover better than "okay." Congratulations to all involved.

Riccitiello: We were torturing Vancouver studio [GamesIndustry.biz]

If that's not enough Need for Speed ProStreet for you, EA has also announced Energizer's Community Race Weekend, starting February 22. PS3 and Xbox 360 racers can compete for prizes and bragging rights, once they're registered at the official Race Day page.

Details on memorial services are available at the Vancouver Sun.

Martin Sikes co-founded Black Box Games [Vancouver Sun - thanks, Victor]

So long Fast And The Furious neon puke glow, hello duct tape. EA's next entry in its long-running racer looks to head in a new direction, away from the pristine candy colored past and toward a more rough and tumble future. The new Need For Speed will be announced sometime next week, so watch the clip and see if you can see the subtle hints about when it's going to hit. Michael McWhertor

In addition to housing the world's largest motion capture studio, EA Mocap, the campus is also home to two basketball courts, one indoors, one outdoors, a 3/4 pitch soccer field, a massive full service gym and loads of other diversions.

The studio has its own arcade, loaded with certified classics Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Outrun 2, Street Fighter III, NFL Blitz, an Ultracade cabinet, a Neo Geo arcade unit and two pinball tables. Don't like those games, EA employee? There's a corporate arcade request line so you can make your case for something new.

Despite these enviable, potentially distracting benefits, EA wants you to focus on work. And to stay at work. That's why you can have your dry cleaning, alterations, haircuts, personal training, and (subsidized) meals taken care of here. No beds, however, from what I saw. Dogs, though. Lots of dogs.

Sure, you may have to work on the DS port of Need For Speed: Slightly Different Cars, but this place is pretty swank. Photos of the whole shebang in our gallery. Michael McWhertor

Kotaku reader A_Zombie contacted us about an email to industry trade association Entertainment Software Association (ESA). He contacted them regarding the lack of subtitles in gaming. Not sure if ESA is the place to go with this concern as the ESA is the industry's "voice." Regardless, here's the letter:

Dear Sir or Ma'aam,

I am a deaf 20 year old that loves to play videogames. I've been playing videogames ever since I first played the Atari 2600 with my father as a young child. Back then, games were not as complex as they are today. Sometimes, as a deaf gamer, I struggle with many mission based games such as Quake 4, Star Wars: Rouge Squadron Rouge Leader, Perfect Dark 0, Need for Speed: Carbon, X2: Wolverine's Revenge and many others. The reason for the frustration is for the lack of subtitles in the above mentioned titles. Quake 4 is a perfect example of my frustrations of what I am supposed to do next because the mission objectives and ways to beat certain bosses were given over the intercom and it was mostly garbled. Perfect Dark 0 was frustrating for me because I had no idea what was going on with the story. At one point I was fighting in buildings shooting at mobsters and all of a sudden I'm fighting a midget skinless Chinese dude with a sword in some alternate dimension. That did not make sense for me at all because... who was that Chinese dude?

I may be deaf but I do have most of my hearing left over. I depend mostly on my eyesight to give me information while playing games. Mostly, depending on eyesights make my job for completing games a much more daunting task than they should be.

Another game I would like to bring up is Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Both of these games rely on hearing much like in MGS2:SoL bomb searching which you use a device that beeps in a high tone if your near a bomb so you can disable them. I had a tough time searching for the bombs in the game since I cannot hear high pitch tones that well.

Maybe in the future, if you can start putting subtitles in the games, especially Halo 3 since I am a huge Halo addict. Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 did not have subtitles though Halo 2 had subtitles but only in the cutscenes as 70% of the game did not.

I hope I can hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

So, if the ESA is not actually the place to go, where is? Ratings board ESRB? Individual companies? Ideas welcomed. Brian Ashcraft

What's better than blaming video games for killing people? Blaming them for shitty driving! A new German study says that people who play driving video games with life-like environments are effected when they get behind the real wheel. From the study:

Driving actions in these games often include competitive and reckless driving, speeding and crashing into other cars or pedestrians, or performing risky stunts with the vehicle. In short, most actions in racing games imply a very high risk of having an accident or severe crash in a highly realistic virtual road traffic environment.

Almost 200 men and women were interviewed — People who played games more were aggressive drivers, while people who played less were safer, more cautious and totally suck at Need for Speed. Brian Ashcraft

Driving Blamed For Dangerous Driving [Reuters, Thanks Huginn!]

Games of the Week is pressed for time! And there are a LOT of big releases. Let's see if we can get game descriptions down to three words or less! New, notable, now!

Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
Shirtless RPG epic.

Need for Speed Carbon (GC, PC, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360)
Night driving drifting.

Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City (DS, GBA, PSP)
The portable version!

Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC)
D&D mega-hit sequel.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories (PSP)
More GTA PSP!

F.E.A.R. (Xbox 360)
Scary, sparky FPS.

Children of Mana (DS)
Square-Enix RPG sequel.

Powerstone Collection (PSP)
Frantic 3D fighters!

Killzone: Liberation (PSP)
3rd person shooter.

Lawnmower Racing Mania 2007 (Xbox)
Maniacal lawnmower racing.

That was harder than I thought! I'm going to consider the Powerstone Collection and Final Fantasy XII, but I'm backed up. You lords and ladies picking up anything this week? Three word responses are encouraged.

Since launch, Microsoft has only offered a 39,800 yen (US $342) Premium pack to Japanese consumers. Looks like The Land of the Rising Sun is getting another choice. Microsoft Japan shoved a press release in the ol' Kotaku mailbox, saying the company will be offering a Core Xbox 360 bundle, starting on November 2nd. For 29,800 yen (US $256), consumers will get the console, a wired controller, Project Gotham Racing 3 and NINETY-NINE NIGHTS. Also on November 2nd, the company will be offering a special "Platium Collection" for 2,800 yen (US $24) a piece, which is more than half of what new games go for. The five titles in the collection include: Need for Speed, Rumble Roses XX, Every Party, PGR 3 and NINETY-NINE NIGHTS. Shortly after these reduced priced games and new system pack hit stores, 100,000 PLAYSTATION 3 consoles will go on sale. With PS3 numbers scare, Microsoft's betting (and hoping) it can ski in Sony's wake, picking up new customers along the way. Brian Ashcraft

Artist Aram Bartholl must really dig Need for Speed: Underground 2. He's recreating directional arrows from the Electronic Arts title in Germany. In-game, these arrows prevent players from veering off course. The installation will be visible from September 14 to 17 (and hopefully, the arrows won't be pointing into on-coming traffic). Illegal street racers, start your engines! Brian Ashcraft

More Here [WMMNA]

Check out the full list to see what you'll be playing solo come autumn.

October 1, 2006 Online Service Shutdown

Madden NFL 2005 for PS2
Madden NFL 2005 for Xbox
Madden NFL 2005 for PC
NFL Street 2: Unleashed for PS2 (I assume this is supposed to be simply NFL Street 2, as the Unleashed moniker was reserved for the PSP port)
NFL Street 2: Unleashed for Xbox

August 1, 2006 Online Service Shutdown

FIFA Soccer 2005 for PS2
FIFA Soccer 2005 for Xbox
FIFA Soccer 2005 Demo for Xbox
FIFA Soccer 2005 for PC
EA Sports Fight Night Round 2 for PS2
EA Sports Fight Night Round 2 for Xbox
NCAA March Madness 2005 for PS2
NCAA March Madness 2005 for Xbox
NBA Live 2005 for Xbox
NBA Live 2005 for PC
NBA Live 05 for PS2
NBA Street V3 for PS2
NBA Street V3 for Xbox
NCAA Football 2005 for PS2
Need for Speed Underground 2 Demo for PC
Need for Speed Underground 2 for PC
Need for Speed Underground 2 for Xbox
NHL 2005 for PS2
NHL 2005 for Xbox
NHL 2005 for PC
Total Club Manager 06 for PS2
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 for PS2
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 for PC
UEFA Champions League 2004-2005 for PS2
UEFA Champions League 2004-2005 for PC
UEFA Champions League 2004-2005 for Xbox

I can understand dropping support for many of these titles, but NBA Street V3 has only been out for something like 18 months. Bummer. Anyone out there get this communication from EA? Anyone still playing any of these titles online? Let us know. Michael McWhertor

EA Closes Online Service For Older Titles [Game Informer]

The lastest dip into the Need for Speed money trough is going to be hitting streets this November in the form of Need for Speed Carbon.

Best I can figure is that it's Need for Speed in the wild. According to the description, after plenty o city racing, the cops drive you from town and you take to Carbon Canyon to race it up. It sort of sounds like these idiots here in Colorado who occasionally race along the mountain roads in and around the Rockies.

Carbon will be coming to the 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, DS, GBA, PSP, cell phone, PC, and, if EA ever figures out how to, your microwave. Brian Crecente

Carbon [EA]

The Endangered Gamer let us know there's a Need for Speed demo on Xbox Live for the Japanese market. The demo isn't currently on US servers and loads significantly faster than the retail version. There are nine cars from which to choose, three quick races and three challenge series races. Best part? It's all in the Queen's English.

Xbox Live Japan [Xbox Live]

Thanks for writing. You may not know this, but reporters don't write headlines. We just write the story and send it in. The editors create the headlines and the front page.

Look, the lead cop said Need for Speed may have contributed to the crash. Hence the headline. But I want to send you a short opinion piece I wrote this morning. I was going to put it up on a new blog I'm starting, but we couldn't get it to work yet. So here it is for you:

No doubt, we media hacks will be tripping over ourselves today on the issue of video games and their influence on behaviour in the wake of the alleged street-racing murder of Toronto cabbie Tahir Khan. Read my story about Khan here and the video game that may have contributed to his death.

Add your voice or comments here. Some random thoughts:

The lead cop on this case, Det. Paul Lobsinger, was careful with his words. He made it clear the game
Need For Speed, found on the front seat of one of the suspect s cars, may have contributed to the crash, but it wasn t solely to blame.

Indeed, drag racing, speed-addicted yahoos, car crashes and vehicular homicide date back to when the first cars rolled off the assembly lines. (Many cops will tell you, however, that attitudes have changed and kids are more reckless and more prone to race on city streets today than yesteryear, when muscle cars stuck to the remote country roads.)

So can a street racing video game influence a player to take his or her need for speed out into the city? Can a first-person shooter turn a young player into a real-life killing machine?

A major review of the last 20 years of research on violent video games and behaviour published last August by the American Psychological Association found a definite link between such games and increased aggression. In one study of more than 600 Grade 8 and 9 students, the more kids played video games, the more likely they were to be rated by their teachers as hostile. Read a summary of the study here.

Studies like this are ammunition for parent activists against media
violence, such as Toronto s own The Free Radical and its founder, Valerie Smith. She s taken on everyone, from controversial rappers to violent games such as Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Postal 2. Check out her complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission against The Star.

Toronto is also home to one of the leading skeptics on the link between media violence and behaviour. Professor Jonathan Freedman did his own review of the research in 2000 and found no link, although many of his peers disagree. Freedman writes:

"The scientific evidence simply does not show that watching violence either produces violence in people or desensitizes them to it."

My opinion? We need to own up to the fact that we re in a brave new world of simulated violence and insanity. Twenty years ago, gamers chased ghosts, shot down spaceships and helped a little frog cross the road. Today, it s about killing cops, murdering innocent passersby (the bloodier the better), stealing cars and mowing down anyone in your way.

I recently played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The first night after playing, I dreamt I went on a violent rampage, stabbing anyone who walked close to me. So yes, the game is brutal and it imprinted on some part of my subconscious.

It didn t turn me into a killer. None of my friends who play similar games has changed for the worse. Of course, we re all educated adults, well-adjusted people who can easily distinguish between fantasy and reality.

But I do fear for children, my own 10-year-old nephew being one: I shudder when he tells me (with a smirk) that he s played Grand Theft Auto.

Like everything else these days, it falls on parents to get involved. Limit your child s exposure to violent video games, but don t be so nave as to think they re not going to play somewhere else. Instead, tell them what s wrong about the violence and images, tell them why you don t like it, tell them why it s unacceptable.

Give them a moral compass and they ll find their way safely through the filth when they inevitably trudge through it.

Battling The Toronto Sun [Kotaku]

The newspaper that asked "Did Need for Speed Kill?" drew the ire of Kotaku reader Skitzo and he updated a message board with where things have gone since the email exchange. The short story is that the Editor-in-Chief was less than sympathetic to Skitzo's complaints, but he did get the EIC to admit that the cover was done the way it was (see image for idiocy) simply to sell newspapers.

My Battle with the Toronto Sun [Assembler Games]
One Reader's Battle with the Toronto Sun

More Need for Speed Blame on Accident

From: Skitzo
To: readership@tor.sunpub.com
Hello,
I've have just finished viewing Toronto Sun cover today, and might I add, you couldn't possibly be more repulsive. I'm saying this with no disrespect towards the family of the driver who was killed. How can you run a cover like that with out mentioning the teens parents? Are they not at fault teaching kids right from wrong? I myself grew up playing video games throughout my child hood, teen years and even to this day. My parents always showed me right from wrong, what is fantasy and reality. Maybe that's the issues these days' people like you pressing garbage in the media, for the masses to swallow to detour away from the real problem at hand. Parents being lazy in this day and age.
Maybe you're right; maybe the parents shouldn't be to blame, and maybe its rubbish news outlets such as yourselves pumping fictional prints like this to scare parents from the big bad video games. Hey I have a question if I rob a bank and blame it on video games, will I still go to jail? I would love to have your feed back, please email me asap.

From: Alison Downie
To: Skitzo
Hello,
Regarding today's newspaper ... the reason we did not mention the parents on the front page is because they are not facing criminal charges. Anyone who knows these 2 young men would know who their parents are. We identified the school they went to, where they live and where they are attending for post-secondary education. Both of the suspects are of legal age, so they are adults and are being treated as such by the courts.
I don't have enough information, and I doubt you do either, to determine if the parents of these young men were at fault or not. Life has taught me that good parents can sometimes have bad kids. And sometimes good kids do bad things. In this instance, there is no indication that either of these young men had any previous trouble with the police.
I must also point out that it was the police, not the Sun, that inked the video game with the accident. It is a fact that a car racing video was found in one of the vehicles involved in this crash. That's relevant information which is why we printed it. Had it been a fishing video, we wouldn't have mentioned it.
I doubt the video will matter much to a judge and I can't imagine it being used as a defence. If you believe parents are responsible for the actions of their adult children, and believe that should be in the paper, then you might consider writing a letter to the editor stating your opinion. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I always enjoy hearing from our readers.
Best regards,
Alison Downie
Sun Readership Editor

From: Skitzo
To: Alison Downie
Good morning,

Please have a good look at your front page. http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/TorontoCover.jpg

I will give you the matter of the doubt, that yes the police did say, Need for speed video game was in the car. But yet again I point to that front cover and ask myself, "Wow so drag racing has not been around for years like I always thought it has, Sony Playstation 2 and Xbox must have invented that." I just love the way "cops say high octane video game found in car of one 18 year old charged in alleged street racing crash that left cabbie dead" and in the eye attractive color and size DID NEED FOR SPEED KILL?
Of course the sun did not link the video game to the death at all, how silly of me to think so. Please if you wish to pass this email over you're an editor. Since apparently I did at first, and now you are emailing me with this insulting reply back. I would love to hear your response.

With absolutely zero disrespect to the family of the driver who was killed, the image above - the cover of the Toronto Sun couldn't possibly be more repulsive. Video games can kill now? They can perform actions? To my knowledge they are inanimate objects incapable of killing anyone on their own. The type of language that's being used surrounding this horrible incident is extremely frustrating. Where are the parents of these two youngsters? We can't actually be trying to hold video games accountable for this, can we?

You can read more about the tragedy here.

Cop Makes Link Between Racing, Games [Toronto Sun]

Toronto's news, Pulse 24 reports on a car wreck that claimed the life of a cab driver. One of two Mercedes Benz automobiles, allegedly locked in a street race, hit the taxi cab and caused the accident. In the passenger seat of one of the Mercedes involved in the wreck? A copy of Need for Speed Underground. The story's lede: "It appears to be a tragic case of life imitating art—or in this case, a video game." Sounds like more finger pointing at the video game industry is incoming.

Deadly Driving [Pulse 24]

Over the weekend, 360 kiosks were set-up in front of automobile parts dealer Super Auto Bacs. A squad car from the game, complete with chicks to drape on it, was set-up outside the tent. Looking at this photo, the turnout could hardly be called spectacular. Please keep in mind that Need for Speed is a Japanese launch title for the Xbox 360. Ouch.

Find Photos Here [Famitsu]