Need for Speed: Carbon – Christmas Number One?

Since being announced at E3 last month, the petrolheads in the SPOnG office have been patiently awaiting further details on Need for Speed: Carbon – this winter’s next iteration in Electronic Arts money-spinning street racing series.

US Magazine, Game Informer, has just published the first details on the game, which it describes as a fusion of the previous top-selling Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Underground titles, featuring both the popular police chase sequences as well as the also-popular modding system. Given that Most Wanted was a fusion of the modding system from Underground and the police chase sequences from earlier NfS titles, such as Hot Pursuit, we're a little nonplussed.

So, what is actually going to be new in Carbon? The game structure is to be based around winning one of twenty-one territories spread across three wide-ranging maps, which you ‘win’ in racing duels. The more territories you win, the more bonuses you unlock to pimp your ride with.

Okay, that's a slight tweak on the "win races to unlock new areas of the city" from Most Wanted. So what else is going to be new?

The game is also to feature death-defying canyon racing, hence being named after California’s "Carbon Canyon", and is rumoured to make use of the PS3’s tilt-sensor, but exactly how is yet to be outlined. More details are also soon to be unveiled on the 50+ cars said to be featured in the game. Watch this space and we’ll be telling you more about NFS: Carbon as soon as we squeeze the news out of EA’s well-oiled PR machine.

Need for Speed: Carbon is due out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PS2, Xbox and PSP this winter.