My story of the original Need for Speed Most Wanted

Its been a few months since my last blog post and I'm hoping this one will be just as good as the others. I guess I'm a bit rusty but hopefully when you read this, it'll hit the spot just right.

As the title says, this is my Need for Speed Most Wanted story.

A good few years back, in 2008, a friend sold my mom Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005). I was at school at the time and she brought it down to show me when she came to collect me after school. I was a bit skeptical about playing a racing game. The last racing game I played was Gran Turismo and hell, I couldn't even get my driver's license. That really annoyed me.

I got home and fired up the game. I don't remember much but I wasn't really good at handling a car. I remember that familiar first race with Razor. I was super angry when my BMW went and died on me during the race. Razor took my car and I'll just say that on that day he made a real dangerous enemy. On top of that, Cross keying my car... I didn't like that very much either.

My schoolmates raved about how awesome Need for Speed was and how good they were at it and I was determined to take the time to actually learn how to control the car.

As time went on, I got used to making turns, winning races and making my way up the Blacklist. I learned that you have to ever so lightly touch the analog stick to make the car move smoothly and how to use the handbrake to drift around corners. I remember the first profile I made and how happy I was to make it to the top 3 and was about to face Ronnie. The next time I switched on my ps2, my profile wouldn't load and I was so confused. 10 year old me made a new profile and restarted the game. I made it to Razor and again the dang profile wouldn't load. So, I looked my issue up on the internet and found out I was making the mistake of switching off the console while the game was saving.

I started a new profile called "Swagger" and again faced the Blacklist. My Fiat Punto whipped everyone right out of their shoes. I was really, really good at racing. I faced Razor and of course, defeated him. Facing Razor 5 times really showcased my racing skills. One final intense pursuit and the game was finished with me. But I wasn't finished with the game.

I made my way to the first spot on every rank in the Rap Sheet. Beat every Challenge Series challenge and finished all the milestones and races in the game. Till my profile was 100% completed. I can drive every car in the game EXCEPT the Ford Mustang. The weight of the car just gets away from me. I know that's my weakness.

Over the years, I've had friends and classmates come over and face me. Nobody really believed that a girl could be good at racing, that a Fiat Punto could ever finish the game or beat any of the 'better' cars. I proved every single one of them wrong.

My mom even made a profile and she's pretty damn good herself. She prefers cars like the Mustang and Cobalt SS while I like my Punto and Gallardo. I'm light and fast. One time, my mom was in a pursuit and a spike strip took out both back wheels of her Chevrolet Cobalt SS. She wasn't sure if she could finish the pursuit so I took over and drove that car, busted tires, slowness, bad turning and all 300 cops to the stadium and finished the pursuit.

Another time, I was in a pursuit with my Gallardo and two SUVs approached me from the front but one hit me on the front side and I flew into the air, turned over, hit the cliff and fell back down on my wheels and guess what... I kept driving. I bet the cops thought they'd caught me that day!

There is even a secret place to park your car during pursuits while the cops try and swarm you. I used this place to stay in a pursuit for 30 minutes. Hell, I watched Cross come over and get immobilized right next to me. It was INTENSE. And funny. "Punk, that's for keying my car!"

From time to time, I still fire up Need for Speed Most Wanted and play a couple races or start a pursuit, it just never gets old for me. I love the game and it shows in how I drive when I have a controller in my hand.