Electronic Arts based in Vancouver has released these rather impressive grabs, lifted from the Xbox 360 development kit currently housing Need for Speed: Most Wanted - the game SPOnG doesn’t talk about.

Following suit with the other snippets we’ve seen of the game, these latest screens look rather spectacular and, more importantly, very next-gen. EA promises the biggest free-roaming city to date for the series that has seriously evolved in the past two years.

As you’ll probably be aware, NFS was a dead franchise, languishing in EA’s bulging IP cupboard. Add some graffiti letting, a yoof-culture soundtrack and a marketing budget almost as big as SPOnG’s collective bar tabs and hey-presto! You have one of the best-selling, Christmas number one grabbing game series' on the market!

And included for your pleasure is a picture of developers and webmasters from a recent US open day. Can you tell what they’re thinking?