Last week, Electronic Arts revealed the next game in the Need for Speed series called Need for Speed Heat. Taking place in Palm City, the focus on the game will literally be night and day. The open-world racing will get cranked to a higher level as police will be constantly patrolling the area. During the day, the cops can nab the player for speed and as they increase their reputation, they will strategize different ways to take you out. Sanctioned racing events will take place during the day during Hunter Showdown. Night time is when things will get insane as illicit street racing will up the difficulty and players will see the cops doing their advanced moves. The more the player’s heat level increases from racing at night, the cops will target them more. It will almost be an adaptive AI. Escaping to a garage is crucial when the cops are on the player’s tail.

EA has eliminated the speed cards from Need for Speed Payback and will go traditional with the grind of upgrades coming from reputation points. This goes for both visual and performance. Heat will include a car material editor as customization looks to be the deepest the series has ever featured. An exhaust tuning system will allow variations of sounds for each car. Players will also be able to customize their avatar for a real personal experience. The biggest news comes from being able to customize cars from an app on the phone. The NFS Heat Studio app is actually available today for download and will allow players to test out some customizations. If a player has free time away from the game, this is a great opportunity to play around with the cars. NFS Heat will also include Crews for multiplayer integration. Crews can jump in online together and also check out each other’s cars in their garage. Check out the trailer below.