Mafia II

Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games. Originally announced in August 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention, it was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August 2010.The Mac OS X edition of the game was published by Feral Interactive in December 2011. A version of the game for mobile platformswas developed by Twistbox Entertainment and released in 2010 by Connect2Media.

Gameplay 

 The player character engaging in a gunfight with the authorities. Police awareness in the game works in a similar manner as with the previous game, although the player can now bribe or pay fines after committing an offense.

The game is set in the 1940s-1950s era of Empire Bay, a fictional city based on New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Detroit.There are 30-40 vehicles in the game (45 with DLC) as well as licensed music from the era.
Many firearms from the previous return, such as the Thompson submachine gun and Colt 1911, as well as a pump-action shotgun (though it was changed from a Winchester Model 12 to a Remington 870). New WWII-era weapons like the MP 40, the M3 submachine gun, the MG 42 and the Beretta Model 38 also appear in the game.
Interacting with objects in the environment involves two action buttons- a standard action and a "violent" action (for example, when stealing a car, the player may choose to either pick its lock or break the window glass), used in context-sensitive situations. A map is included as in the original Mafia game. The checkpoint system has been completely overhauled.New controls include a cover system that allows the player to hide behind objects (such as generators, walls and large crates) to shoot enemies, rather than just using a crouch while behind an object.
It has been stated by 2K Czech that the game's cutscenes are created by the game engine, in real-time, rather than pre-rendered cutscenes. For example, if the player is riding in a car and a cut scene starts, the player will be driving the same car and if the car is damaged, that too will appear in the cut scene. Certain scenes, however, such as the opening sequence and the Empire Arms Hotel explosion, were presented as pre-rendered Bink videos.
The game has three different in game radio stations, Empire Central Radio, Empire Classic Radio and Delta Radio, with licensed music, news, and commercials. The radio stations includes music from different genres including rock and roll, big band, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, among others with licensed songs by Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Dean Martin, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Bing Crosby, Bill Haley & His Comets, The Chordettes, Bo Diddley, Rick Nelson, Eddie Cochran, The Champs The Drifters, The Fleetwoods, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Andrews Sisters, among others.

Synopsis

The game begins with Vito Scaletta looking over a photo album, as he begins to tell his story in voice over. He was born in Sicily in 1925 to an extremely poor family. A few years later, his family immigrates to the fictional Empire Bay in America. They are no better off there than they were in Sicily. As he gets older, Vito gets involved with a local criminal named Joe Barbaro, who becomes his best friend. Vito is arrested during a botched robbery and given a choice: Go to jail or join the army. He chooses the latter and ends up in Sicily in World War II, which he helps liberate before getting shot and sent home on leave.
Once home, he is discharged courtesy of Joe's Mafia connections, and learns that his dead father left his family in massive debt. Vito's mother tells him to start working for his dead father's boss at the docks named Derek. Hoping to make more money, Vito turns to Joe, who introduces him to Henry Tomasino, an employee of crime boss Alberto Clemente. Working under Henry, a soldato in the Clemente crime family, Vito does several illegal jobs. On one of the jobs however is ambushed when Vito and Joe rob a jewelry store at a shopping mall by an Irish mob. After a brief shootout, Vito and Joe escape. The next day, Henry introduces Vito to a man name Luca Gurino who sends Vito, Joe, and Henry to assassinate a man at a factory. At the factory, the trio does in fact succeed in the job, but Henry is injured by a bullet in the leg. Though Vito makes the money to pay the debt, he is soon arrested and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Once inside, Vito falls in with the crowd of Leo Galante, consigliere for Frank Vinci, another crime boss. After doing some jobs for him in prison (one of them is killing the Irish mob leader) Galante manages to shorten Vito's sentence.
He is released in 1951. Once out, Vito meets up with Joe, who now works for the last of Empire Bay's three crime bosses, Carlo Falcone. He starts doing odd jobs for Falcone and another man Eddie Scarpa. Later some of Falcone's men have been captured by Luca at a meat factory, but one out of the three men are killed. Vito does manage to save the other two men and takes out Luca and his men. After killing Luca, Vito and Joe then swear and an oath and join the Falcone family. Vito does in fact manage to get a house near the bay.
Vito's biggest job comes when he is sent to kill Clemente, who has participated in the drug trade, against the commission's wishes. Vito and Joe then head to the Empire Bay hotel with Joe's 17 year old friend and neighbor Marty. At the hotel, Joe tells Marty to stay in the car inside the parking lot, while Vito and Joe head into the hotel disguised as a hotel staff. They head into the conference room where Clemente and his men are having a meeting and sets a bomb in the room. The bomb then goes off and the conference room explodes killing everybody inside. Vito and Joe then find out that Clemente was in the bathroom and didn't get killed in the explosion. After shooting many of Clemente's men in the hotel, they then head to the garage and find Marty dead. An angry Joe then chases Clemente in a car chase with Vito. Once Clemente's car is wrecked, Joe then kills him and leaves his body in the car.
Soon after, Vito is approached by Henry, who wants to defect to Falcone's crew. In order to do this, he is ordered by Eddie to kill Galante, though Vito saves his old friend by convincing Henry to let Galante simply disappear. During the night, the Irish gang formerly led by Brian O'Neill whom Vito killed in prison on Galante's orders, burns his house to the ground. Broke, he turns to Joe who helps him get revenge. They both head to a bar take out most of the gang members, thought the new leader tries escape in car, Vito then shoots the gas tank leaving the car to explode. Joe then gives Vito the key to Marty's apartment. To help him get out of debt, Henry gets Vito and Joe involved in the drug trade, revealing that Falcone is also involved. Although Vito is successful, the Chinese (who supplied the drugs) discover that Henry is a federal informant and acting on this new found information. They brutally kill him in the middle of the park with meat cleavers in broad daylight. Angered, Vito and Joe seek revenge and shoot up a Chinatown restaurant, killing the Chinese enforcer Mr. Wong who won't give them any further information. They are now indebted to the loan shark they got money for the drugs from. Now very poor and in large debt, Vito is tasked to earn most of the money through his own means, which involves petty theft throughout Empire Bay.
Vito and Joe eventually manage to get the money back; in the process, they kill Thomas "Tommy" Angelo, the protagonist of the first Mafia game, and Vito finds out that his father's boss Derek and his right hand man Steve killed his father leaving Vito to kill them both. However, Joe and Vito are then kidnapped by Frank Vinci at a constrctiong site. The two escape leaving half of Vinci's men dead.
Sadly, the incident with the Chinese has caused too much tension between Falcone and Vinci, as both believe the other did it, and Vito is forced by Vinci's men, led by Galante, to assassinate his boss. With Joe's help, Vito succeeds by killing Falcone at a planatarium and they go with Galante to celebrate. The car Joe is in suddenly turns away at an intersection. Galante apologizes to Vito and claims that Joe wasn't a part of the offer he made for him, indicating that Joe is on his way to be killed. The game shows an angry Vito finally realizing that he's lost everything as a consequence for the path he chose (being in the Mafia). The game ends with a panoramic view of Empire Bay.

Marketing and release

System requirements

Minimum Recommended Windows Operating system Windows XP SP2/Vista/7 Windows XP SP2/Vista/7 CPU Intel Pentium D 3 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (Dual Core) or higher Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Memory 1.5 GB 2.0 GB Hard drive space 8 GB of free space 10 GB of free space Graphics hardware Nvidia 8600 / ATI Radeon HD 2600 Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX / ATI 3870 Sound hardware DirectX 9.0c DirectX 9.0c Network Internet connection required (STEAM) for online activation and installation

A promotional trailer was released for the game in August 2007. A second trailer was released on the Spike VGA show on 14 December 2008.^[17] An extended version of the trailer was released on 15 January with an extra 30 seconds of cut scene footage.
The first gameplay footage debuted on GameSpot on 17 April 2009 as part of an interview with Mafia II's producer, Denby Grace. The video shows driving and gunplay aspects to gameplay as well as portraying the physics engine. The interview was later removed.
A third trailer was uploaded to the website on 28 May 2009. From 1 June 2009, four short videos are to be added to the Mafia II website. The first of these is called "The Art Of Persuasion" and features the song "Mercy, Mr Percy" by the female singer Varetta Dillard
Another video was released featuring footage from the mission "The Buzzsaw". The video reveals the fate of "The Fat Man" who appeared in the earlier trailers.^[20] On 27 March 2010, a new trailer was released showcasing the PhysX-based cloth and physics system used in the game.
On 3 August 2010, Sheridyn Fisher, the face of Playboy Swim 2010, became the official ambassador for Mafia II. Sheridyn’s involvement with Mafia II highlights the agreement between 2K Games and Playboy magazine to use 50 of their vintage covers and Centerfolds in Mafia II as part of the in-game collectibles integration. A demo for the game was released on 10 August 2010 on Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network

Pre-order bonuses

On 26 May 2010 four content packs were offered as pre-order bonus's in America and European countries, each one available through different retailers. The Vegas Pack containing two additional cars and suits for Vito and the War Hero Pack containing two military-style vehicles and suits was available from GameStop and EBGames. The Renegade Pack containing two sports cars and two jackets was available from Amazon and the Greaser Pack featuring two hot-rods and two suits were available to Best Buy customers. These pre-order packs are now available for purchase as game add-ons on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Steam. On 26 May 2010 a collector's edition was announced for Mafia II.

PlayStation 3 version

The PlayStation 3 version became subject to controversy on 2K's Mafia II forums when 2K's interactive marketing manager Elizabeth Tobey stated that the PlayStation 3 version would be missing certain graphical details that were present in the Windows and Xbox 360 versions including three dimensional grass, pools of blood forming under dead bodies and realistic cloth physics. These details were said to be present in earlier builds of the game, but had to be removed to increase the game's frame rate.
Upon release, the PS3 version received the same or higher review scores than the Xbox 360 version from Destructoid and Nowgamer (sites that review the game on multiple platforms rather than the normal practice of reviewing a single platform) due to additional content.Metacritic gave both versions the same score of 74/100, while GameRankings has the Xbox 360 version 4 points ahead of the PS3 version based on more reviews.

Downloadable content

Three downloadable content packs have been announced for the game. The first, titled "The Betrayal of Jimmy" is a PlayStation 3 exclusive episode that was a free download upon release to users who purchase the game new. This was announced by Sony on 15 June 2010 at E3 2010
The second installment of downloadable content, "Jimmy's Vendetta", was released on PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Steam on 7 September 2010.^[34] "Joe's Adventures", the third and final DLC was released on 23 November 2010. "Joe's Adventures" focuses on the events that occur in Empire Bay during the years that Vito is imprisoned in the main Mafia II storyline while playing as Vito's best friend Joe Barbaro and seeing his perspective. The DLC combines standard missions with score-based, open world missions. It is estimated to provide eight hours of gameplay.^[35]
The Russian company 1C officially announced Mafia II: Extended Edition for the Russian market. It will include the game, 4 DLC (Vegas Pack, Renegade Pack, Greaser Pack, and War Hero Pack), and "The Betrayal of Jimmy", which was previously available as a PlayStation 3 exclusive addon, as well as the 2 other addons (Jimmy's Vendetta and Joe's Adventures). It was released on 3 December 2010 for PS3 and Windows. It will be released for Xbox 360 later.^{[citation needed]} The same package is released for Western markets as Mafia II: Director's Cut on PC, Mac OS X^[2] and their respective budget labels on consoles.^[36]

Mobile version

A version of Mafia II was also released for mobile phones and smartphones by Connect2Media. The game features a different storyline and follows the exploits of Marco Russetto, a soldato for the Salieri crime family.

Need for Speed :The Run

Need for Speed: The Run is a racing video game, the 18th title in the long-running Need for Speed franchise, and developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. The Wii and 3DS versions were developed by Firebrand Games, the team behind Undercover and Nitro (both DS versions). It was released in North America on November 15, 2011 and November 18, 2011 in Europe.
The game is described as an "illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination".
Producers Jason DeLong and Steve Anthony stated during an interview that Black Box aimed to obtain critical acclaim after their last game received universally poor ratings. The Run was in production for three years even though previous Black Box titles had much shorter development periods.

In The Run, players are participating in an "underground world of illicit, high stakes racing," in a race from San Francisco to New York, with stops through Las Vegas, Denver and many other locations, making it the first title in the series to use real locations. The cops aren't the only ones after the player though, as the player "blows across borders, weaves through dense urban traffic, rockets down icy mountain passes and navigates narrow canyons at breakneck speeds."^[8] There are over 300 kilometres (190 mi) of track, three times more than Hot Pursuit, making it the biggest Need For Speed game.

The Run is powered by DICE's Frostbite 2 engine, making the game the first non-shooter and one of the first console titles to use the engine, which provides visuals and car physics that "hug the road even at top speeds all built around a gripping storyline." Additionally, Need for Speed Autolog, the Need for Speed franchise's social competition functionality, which was introduced in Hot Pursuit and was previously used in Shift 2: Unleashed, is also back as it continue to track career progression and compare game stats.

The game features quick time events, with the player for the first time in Need for Speed history, exiting their car and traveling on foot. These events won't always be about harsh success or failure states. In some sections there are branching outcomes, so if the player mangles a certain button press, they'll get another chance to pull through.

The cars can be altered with performance upgrades and visual upgrades, such as paint colors and body kits.

The driving model of the game is described as "sit somewhere between Shift and Hot Pursuit", not as arcade-styled as Hot Pursuit, but neither as simulator-styled as Shift. The Run employs a large range of real-world vehicles, seemingly taking in the usual mix of muscle cars, street racers and refined exotics, described as "each car presents a different driving challenge for the player." Exclusively digitized for the game is the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S and the Pagani Huayra. The damage system is similar to that seen in Hot Pursuit. The cars can be altered with performance upgrades and visual upgrades, such as paint colors and body kits. There are cosmetic body kits known as Style Pack kits and Aero Pack kits, which affect aerodynamics as well as performance.

An XP (Experience points) system is used for unlocking cars and events. The game also feature a Rewind option to allows the player to restart an event to their last checkpoint if they wreck their vehicle or rewind their vehicle from a collision or missed opportunity. Rewinds are only available in limited quantities as their amount dependent on the difficulty level that the player has selected; Easy have 10 Rewinds, Normal have 5 Rewinds, Hard have 3 Rewinds and Extreme have 1 Rewind as well as the most difficult AI opponents.

Multiplayer

Up to 8 players can participate in a single online match. Players are able to party with friends, pick a playlist of their favorite challenges and compete for supremacy across every stage of game. In addition to this, players never have to wait in a lobby again even if they are joining a race in progress. The multiplayer matches are split into differing game type playlists, such as Supercar Challenge, NFS Edition Racing, The Underground, Mixed Competition, Exotic Sprint, and Muscle Car Battles. Most of these modes pertain to different car varieties for each race, but the Supercar Challenge is meant entirely for the fastest cars on the fastest tracks. The player can select an event and vote towards the race course where the multiplayer game should be taking place on. Players also take part in a reward system known as "The Bonus Wheel", which randomly selects a reward and required goal criteria for it.

Wii/3DS versions

The game is similar to Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Players race down freeways until they meet a police car. The police then try to chase them down and wreck their car. They also encounter other objectives such as a straight-up race. There is another mode where players 'duel' a rival. They can also race to toll booths that double as checkpoints.

The 3DS version also features Autolog, which is integrated throughout the career mode and uses 40 in-game challenges scattered throughout the campaign. The game also takes advantage of StreetPass, letting players upload their best Autolog scores to other Nintendo 3DS devices. In multiplayer, the game features a straight race mode where eight people compete. There is also a four-on-four Cops vs. Racers mode. The game supports Wi-Fi and local wireless connections. However, the Wii version lacks online play, yet it has split-screen multiplayer.

Plot

Need for Speed: The Run features a linear story mode, which places the player in the shoes of Jackson "Jack" Rourke. After an incident leaves him in bad standing with a mysterious crime organization, Jack becomes a marked man and must flee for his survival. The consequence of his situation leaves him owing large sums of money, which he cannot pay on his own. He is directed to a massive illegal street racing event called "The Run" by an associate, Sam Harper. The Run is a 3000 mile (4828 km) journey across the continental USA, starting in San Francisco and ending in New York City. She informs him the prize money, $25,000,000, is enough to secure his freedom from the organization, but he has to beat over 200 other drivers to the finish line to win. To complicate things, he is in debt to both the police and the criminal organization, and both want to make sure that he never finishes the race.

Characters

Several characters in the game are digital likeness of real world actors. The cast also lends their voices to the game. Actor Sean Faris portrays protagonist Jack Rourke while actress Christina Hendricks plays Sam Harper. Two Sports Illustrated models, Irina Shayk and Christine Teigen also have roles in the game.

Wii/3DS storyline

The Nintendo 3DS and Wii versions feature a different storyline than its contemporaries. The plot unfold through graphic novel-esque cutscenes that also contain minigames, though they are not the same as the quick-time event gameplay of the console version. The story is divided into five acts (which is further divided into 26 "episodes"). The protagonist of the 3DS/Wii version is not Jack, but rather a down-on-his-luck stock car racer named "Matt". The premise remains mostly unchanged (a coast-to-coast race with a large pot at stake), but introduces a female character who takes the story in a different direction.

Development

Since the release of Undercover, Black Box has been working on another entry to the franchise, presumably continuing the action focused street-racing gameplay of Black Box's previous titles. This game has an extended development window to give the developers a chance to create a game that "could really blow the doors off the category". It was confirmed that the game will feature a fictional storyline and characters. The game was first hinted early in November 2010 by Senior Vice President of EA Games Europe, Patrick Söderlund in a interview with Eurogamer, before the release of Hot Pursuit. Söderlund stated he want to alternate developers to give them time to make a good game. Eurogamer’s Robert Purchese asked, "You say there will be an arcade NFS game every year in November, but next year's game won't be developed by Criterion. Is it Black Box?" Söderlund stated "You can assume that, yes. Yes. I would say so, yes."

The game was originally set to be revealed at E3 2011, however, on April 28, 2011, a listing for Need for Speed: The Run appeared on UK retailer site ShopTo. Later, EA released the teaser trailer for all to see. On April 29, the firm confirmed the game's details. "This is the year that Need for Speed goes to the next level," said Jason DeLong, executive producer at EA. "We think that Need for Speed: The Run is going to surprise people with its intense, thrilling story and big action feel. But the game would be nothing without hot cars and crazy-fast chases. So that is what we're delivering — explosive racing that will have players flirting with disaster at 200-miles an hour." EA Games Label president, Frank Gibeau stated that Need for Speed: The Run will offer "an edgier experience" than previous entries in the racing series.

The Run's lead development platform is the PlayStation 3. At E3 2011, it was announced that the PlayStation 3 version of the game includes seven exclusive cars, including the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, Hennessey Venom GT, Gumpert Apollo Sports, Lamborghini Countach 5000QV, Koenigsegg Agera R and Porsche Carrera GT.

EA Black Box said that the Frostbite 2 engine allows The Run to look stunning, stating that Frostbite 2 is not only the best engine it has used in a game to date, but "the most versatile" too. According to designer Alex Grimbley, it apparently took a year to re-purpose the tech for driving rather than shooting. The EA Black Box team, especially the artists, coders and designers, for the first time, worked collaboratively in small groups on The Run. Executive producer Jason DeLong stated that the Frostbite engine provides a more detailed cinematic environment and experience to the game.

Jason DeLong, executive producer at Black Box, said the studio used DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine for The Run as it was intent on making a "Hollywood" experience and to give the game a more cinematic feel than past story-based Need for Speed titles:

“	When they decided to split the development across Criterion and Black Box to give each studio the time and development to create a quality experience, one of the things that we obviously had to do was to reinvest in our technology, because we hadn’t been able to because of the yearly cycles in the past. So we looked at several options: do we advance the engine that we currently have? What other third party ones are out there? And when we realised the game that we wanted to make, which we knew was based in a cinematic kind of Hollywood storytelling fashion, we looked at Frostbite and it seemed like, ‘Well, it’s internal; we can work closely with the dev team’: it was the right choice. It allowed us to get a character in the game, have incredible, believable characters in addition to amazing worlds and amazing looking cars. Their visual effects work is second to none; the world destruction, their audio is incredible. And most importantly, one of the nice side benefits was that it’s an incredibly content-driven tool, which allowed us to create more content than we’ve ever done before.	”
	— Jason DeLong, executive producer at Black Box

The Run is the first non-DICE game to use Frostbite 2, but Black Box did collaborate with DICE to make certain that the engine was used properly, with DeLong commenting that the collaboration allowed for a "very deep racing mechanic of handling physics into the game". "We did a cross-studio development on the Frostbite 2 engine that we’re using", DeLong said. "And yeah, it was a lot of collaboration and work with them to get things like our road tool, which is our internal tool that allows us to build a track very quickly."

The Run's producer Alex Grimbley confirmed that The Run would not feature any form of vehicle customization. "We decided against customization because that is not what The Run is about. It is an understandable stance given that is a whole new direction for the franchise. We want to focus on the story and the race itself." However, this statement was retracted after some trailers and screenshots of the game featured visually modified vehicles. A GameSpot trailer released on November 2, 2011 officially confirmation that body kits and selectable body paints can be placed on vehicles.

When asked why is The Run from San Fran – New York rather than LA – New York, game’s producer Brian Lindley replied, "That’s a good question. I think we were maybe looking for more of a direct route. It’s more of a straight line route rather than being sort of corner to corner. But also, San Fran has some iconic landmarks and things like the bridge and the downtown. Also, what we can do with the environment with things like fog, it makes it of a bit cooler place to drive than LA. And my experiences driving in LA are largely being stuck in traffic! So that’s the primary reason, it’s just a cooler looking start for the game."

Black Box PR Manager Dana Sissons stated that The Run is going to be more exciting, more varied, and bigger than ever. The race from San Francisco to New York is full of new race modes, tons of different terrain, and a few "Michael Bay movie moment" avalanches to keep you on your toes. "As a result of Frostbite 2, we were able to create this really robust, huge game that is reflective of, basically, the size of the United States," said Sissons. Which means that as racing through the United States, there will be treated to realistic and varied terrain, including deserts, mountains, cities, farmland, and so much more. According to Sissons, it’ s not just going to be a huge game, it is "easily the biggest Need For Speed game, with 303 times the track space of previous games."

Marketing and release

The Limited Edition of the game features three exclusive cars, the Lamborghini Aventador (top), and Porsche 911 Carrera S (bottom), and the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 (not pictured).

Prior to its release, Need for Speed: The Run was marketed and promoted heavily through the use of numerous Internet and TV trailers. Famed Hollywood action director Michael Bay has directed a TV advertisement for the game. Talking about his venture of directing a trailer for a game, Michael Bay stated, "What I try to do with my trailers is to get your heart racing to the end of it." The advertisement features explosions, car crashes, supercars and police vehicle.

In addition to the standard edition, a Limited Edition of the game has been announced, which is available through pre-order. The Limited Edition features numerous bonuses over the standard edition, including exclusive packaging, three exclusive cars (the Lamborghini Aventador, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Porsche 911 Carrera S) and five exclusive challenges with bonus rewards and achievements.

There were three pre-order offers through several retail outlets. Each pre-order consists of two bonus cars and three events inspired by the "exclusive" Challenge Series, which depends on the outlets the player pre-ordered the game. The three "exclusive" Challenge Series on offer are inspired by EA Black Box previous Need for Speed games Underground, Most Wanted and Carbon. The Underground Edition Nissan 370Z (Z34) and Underground Edition Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32) are included in the Need for Speed The Run Underground Challenge Series as bonus cars, while the Most Wanted Edition BMW M3 GTS and Razor's Mustang Boss 302 are included in the Need for Speed The Run Most Wanted Challenge Series as bonus cars, and the Carbon Edition Corvette Z06 (C6) and Darius Audi R8 are included in the Need for Speed The Run Carbon Challenge Series as bonus cars.

Buying the game through Origin comes with two special offers. These who pre-ordered the game received a PC Digital download for one of five past Need for Speed titles. Not only could the player get The Run, but also choose between Hot Pursuit, Shift 2: Unleashed, Shift, Undercover and Prostreet. The Need for Speed The Run Carbon Challenge Series was also included as a pre-order bonus. This offer was only available until November 14, 2011. These who buys the game after November 14 through Origin receives seven EA racing titles for only $79.99 ($159.99 value) that’s 50% off the Need for Speed Collection, which included The Run, Shift 2: Unleashed, Shift, Hot Pursuit, Undercover, Prostreet and Burnout Paradise. This offer was only available until December 31.

A demo of the game was released on Xbox Live first on October 18 (expired on November 1) and PlayStation Network on October 19 (also expired on November 1), a month ahead of the game's launch. The demo featured two levels: Desert Hills, California and Independence Pass, Colorado in a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni, and supported a "refer a friend to download the demo" feature giving players access to a 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S. Autolog also implemented in the demo, allowing the player to compare best times with friends across the two tracks.

Need for Speed teamed up with HP and Vagrant Records to let fans decide which of the favorite bands they would like to see in The Run. The fans got a choice to vote for their favorite song and artist, which includes the song "Mama Taught Me Better" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Solar" by MonstrO and "Tropical Depression" by The Night Marchers, on The Run's official website.

The Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni appeared as one of the available cars in the demo.

To promote the game in Europe, EA and Need for Speed is conducting the 2011 Need for Speed European Spokesmodel Search. This continent wide search is set to discover two women with boundless energy, an outgoing personality and an edgy style fused with a passion for cars and gaming. The winners act as Need for Speed ambassadors at events throughout 2012, including representing Need for Speed products at high profile gaming events across Europe and the Team Need for Speed racing team in the prestigious FIA GT3 European Championship and Euro Drift program. Models searches are being conducted in five territories: France, Germany, Norway, Russia and the United Kingdom. Finalists was selected from each territory with the final two winners being announced in November in conjunction with the release of Need for Speed: The Run. To promote the game in US, Canada and UK, EA announced a competition, giving away one 2012 Porsche Carrera S. All the competitions had to do is enter by logging in with the EA account, or register for free.

Electronic Arts and Sports Illustrated have announced a marketing partnership for the Need for Speed franchise, "bringing together the worlds of fashion, video games, cars and beauty in a first-of-its-kind partnership." EA announced that the likenesses of 2011 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover model Irina Shayk and model Chrissy Teigen appears in the game as part of a promotional deal struck between the game publisher and popular sports magazine. The cross promotion isn’t limited to the models appearance in the game. Sports Illustrated is a featured advertiser on billboards that appear in the gamescape. S.I. offers a bundle that see buyers receive a six-month "All Access" subscription to Sports Illustrated, a copy of Need for Speed: The Run for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, and a Making of Need for Speed: The Run documentary DVD starring the two swimsuit models for $50.

Electronic Arts and Adidas collaborated to produce 100 pair of shoes tied into Need for Speed: The Run. "Our goal with Need for Speed is to be more than just a video game franchise, as we view ourselves as a leader in youth and automotive culture as well," said Kevin Maher, senior director of marketing at EA. The first 50 pair of shoes was available at the Adidas Originals Chicago store on October 10, with another 50 available at the San Francisco store on October 22. The first to purchase the shoes was invited to "exclusive kick-off" events at the stores a few days later.

Downloadable content

The first post-launch downloadable content package, titled "Signature Edition Booster Pack", features nine new cars, all modified to insane levels ranging from a "Venom" Nissan 370Z to a "Falken" Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0. The second post-launch downloadable content package, titled "Italian Pack", features seven new cars (Alfa Romeo 8C Comptizione, Lanica Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera, Pagani Zonda R, Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale, Maserati MC12) and ten new challenge events added into Challenge Series. The third DLC is the Heroes and Villains pack which features all the pre-order vehicles available for download.

Reception

Need for Speed: The Run received mixed reception from critics, making The Run the worst received installment in the franchise since 2008's Undercover. The first review was published by GameInformer, which gave the game 7.8 out of 10, saying that "Need for Speed: The Run is by no stretch a bad game; it just fails to capitalize on its chances. San Francisco to New York is a long haul, and it's even longer when not enough happens in between."

A couple more positive reviews include GameTrailers, which gave it an 8.4, writing "Need for Speed: The Run falters with its high-profile but underdeveloped plot as well as some awkward design choices. However, it overcomes these potholes with courses that are a blast to drive and simple multiplayer that keeps you hooked in." Gaming Nexus which gave it an A-, and stated "The Run takes the venerable franchise in a startling new direction while preserving all of the aspects that have made the series so successful. This one is definitely worth taking a look at."

IGN gave it a 6.5 "Okay" rating, stating "All this awesome racing action gets somewhat lost amid the nonexistent story, the dumb/scripted AI, the lack of options, and the overall shortness of the game. The Run is not a marathon racing game, it's a quick and dirty drag race." 1UP gave it a C+, stating "The Run takes an awkwardly serious approach to its story, eschewing the over-the-top fun and wackiness of its clear inspirations -- movies like the Cannonball Run series and classic arcade games like Cruis'n USA --to deliver a cross-country campaign that's sometimes exhilarating, but often frustrating and surprisingly banal." Eurogamer gave it 5 out of 10, saying "The worst of the game's technical sins is performance, with appallingly low frame rates in our patched PS3 retail version when you brake suddenly or drift through many a corner."

GamesRadar was more positive to the game, which gave it 8 out of 10, and stated "It's possible Need for Speed The Run won't provide as many hours of entertainment as previous NFS games, but then it packs in unique events and some incredibly exciting chase sequences, meaning it packs a lot of entertainment-per-hour. It's not very forgiving of mistakes, but then it provides greater rewards as a result." VideoGamer gave it 6 out of 10, saying "The Run certainly isn't terrible, and a big improvement on Black Box's previous effort, Undercover, but it needed more moments like the avalanche and less monotonous freeways. With the campaign over in an afternoon and the rest of the package failing to offer anything to keep you playing, The Run is some decent throwaway fun that will be forgotten as soon as you move on to something else." Joystiq also gave it 3 stars out of 5, and going so far to say that "Need for Speed: The Run's biggest problem is how much it has in common with a real drive from one end of the US to the other. There are a few bright spots here and there, but it's mostly full of unexpected stops, lots of flat tires, and too many assholes on the road. This isn't the worst Need for Speed, but it can't place against other, better racers from the last year."

Destructoid gave it 8.5, and wrote "A lot of my driving fantasies were realized in this game. I found myself grinning the whole time, gripping the hell out of the controller, leaning into turns with my body, gritting my teeth as I mashed on the nitro button to boost past rivals. If you've ever found yourself daydreaming about whipping past slow cars on the highway, passing on the sidewalk, or bashing police cars off the road, you're going to love this game."

GamePro gave it 6 out of 10, writing "The journey across America is beautifully rendered, capturing the varied landscapes spectacularly as you travel over the Sierra, across the Great Plains, and head towards the East Coast. The quality of the movies is very good too, and the characters' faces are nicely rendered to convey emotion. But the story and the gameplay just don't hold up their side of the bargain, and the game ends up falling short of its considerable potential."

Edge gave it one of its lowest scores, a 3 out of 10, saying "The notion that playing games is a waste of your time is nonsense, of course, but... stuffed with a procession of long-winded loading sequences, protracted menu flipping and unskippable cutscenes, it often feels like there’s as much watching as there is playing. Time wasted, in other words.". They criticized the many technical and graphical glitches, saying "sometimes the lighting effects mix textures into strange oily swirls, while at other times it feels like you’re driving one big polygon.". However, in the post script, they did concede that, while flawed, the game does have a clever concept and occasionally delivers those rare feelings of escapism that many arcade-style racers strive for: "The Run may not have much else going for it, but in its unusual approach to the genre it at least tries to do something new.".