Need for Speed: Undercover

Need for Speed: Undercover
North american cover art featuring a Porsche 911 GT2
Developer(s)	EA Black Box Exient Entertainment (Wii/PS2) Firebrand Games (DS)
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Director(s)	Oliver Marriott
Series	Need for Speed
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows Nintendo DS PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3 PlayStation Portable Wii Xbox 360 BlackBerry iOS Symbian webOS Windows Phone
Release date(s)	NA: November 18, 2008 AU: November 20, 2008 EU: November 21, 2008 JP: December 18, 2008
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Need for Speed: Undercover is a racing video game, part of the Need for Speed series, developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts (EA). It was released on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and mobile phone platforms in November 2008. The game was later released on the iOS on April 27, 2009. According to EA, the game has sold over 5.2 million copies on all 8 platforms combined.

Undercover features a new open world map (like the Midnight Club series) consisting of 109 miles (175 km) of road and a large highway system, making it the largest Need for Speed "world" EA has created so far. The game's environment consists of four boroughs: Palm Harbor, Port Crescent, Gold Coast Mountains, and Sunset Hills (in the DS version the boroughs are Metropolis, North Port Crescent, South Port Crescent and Riverton). In the Wii and PS2 versions two boroughs are copied off Need for Speed Most Wanted and put into different positions. These four boroughs make up the city, Tri-City (referring to the real-life city in Tri-City, Oregon), presumably a city located on the Gulf Coast or on the California Coast although the city itself heavily resembles Miami. The road system includes four water crossings, going clockwise: the Main Guy Causeway (Ocean Expressway connecting Sunset Hills to Port Crescent via man-made island), the Vale Causeway (Sunset Hills to Palm Harbor), the North T Causeway (Man-made island to Palm Harbor), and the Memorial Tunnel (Port Crescent to Palm Harbor).Undercover also features a new continuous highway system. In previous installments, highways were relatively small circuits concentrated within separate boroughs. In Undercover, the main highway circles Tri-City, with each of the four boroughs sharing a piece of the larger circuit. The longer highway length gives a more realistic shape, with long straight areas, gentle curves, rest areas and large interchanges. Lastly, the entire map is open from the start of the game, unlike previous installments where boroughs had to be unlocked.