Need For Speed: Rivals first look

As the most successful racing game series of all time continues to decline after 2012's Most Wanted only stopped the series sinking lower, rather than actually reviving it, 2013 sees yet another reboot of a previous game. 1999's Need For Speed: High Stakes will now have a sequel in the new Need For Speed: Rivals.

A sequel to a game from 1999. And I thought GRID 2 took ages

So what do we know at the moment? Well, The good news is that Ferrari will return to Need for Speed for the first time since Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 in 2002, with the F12 berlinetta being the first Ferrari confirmed.

The addition of Ferrari for the first time since 2002 (except DLC) gives EA something to talk about 

From there, though, things start to go downhill for fans of the series such as myself. Firstly, the vastly overused Autolog system returns once again in 2013 to offer more misery and to force you to try to beat your friends time even though you really couldn't care less about their progression in the game. There is also a new AllDrive system that supposedly brings down the barriers between single and multiplayer, hinting that for the fifth game in a row, single player will be sacrificed because online is obviously more important, meaning that those without Xbox Live or PSN (yes, they do exist) might as well give up on purchasing this game unless you want another overpriced version of Need For Speed: World that isn't just for Windows computers.

A lack of single player makes me look at NFS World. Not a good thing

Dynamic weather returns to "make the world feel alive in a much bigger sense than any other Need for Speed game", obviously apart from Underground 2. Oh and Most Wanted as well. And Carbon for that matter. Basically, they are bringing back a feature that was nice to have many years ago but made no actual difference to the gameplay, but they dropped it several years ago for no apparent reason, so now they are bringing it back to...um...hmm...erm...make it appear more interesting to journalists and also so that they have something to say when their latest "effort" is blasted away by Forza Motorsport 5 later this year.

Customisation returns, but it won't be anywhere near as good as Underground 2

After many years of being moaned at, EA Games have brought back customisation, although it is actually worse than Forza's customisation! You can change your paint, rims, vinyls, and licence plates. Ooh, wow. For a minute there I thought they were going to include actual customisation, like in Underground 2. The Burnout handling model returns for another year (please God, no, anything but this), as do the Mario Kart weapons seen in 2010's Hot Pursuit, as the cops and robbers racing returns from that title, as do the stupid and rather pointless jumps and speed traps, the latter of which was included in Most Wanted to try in vain to keep up with Forza Horizon.

Rain. Just what British gamers need the most

So what is this Need For Speed: Rivals then? As far as I can see, It's Hot Pursuit all over again. Maybe EA have given up on the series, because it doesn't really look like they've made much of an effort with this one. Looks like they will be beaten, for the fifth time in a row, by Forza, and I am sad to see this, as I love Need For Speed. But this isn't the Need For Speed I know and love. This, then, should actually be called Burnout: Rivals Mario Kart Edition.

What the cover SHOULD look like. Oh dear