When it comes to driving games centered around running from the police, the best rules are no rules at all. While we’re at it, it would be great if we had access to any car we wanted at the start of the game, and better still if the ability to roam freely throughout an almost unlimited virtual landscape.

Enter the latest in the Need For Speed series from Criterion, called Need For Speed Most Wanted. The premise is as straightforward as it gets: avoid being caught by the police while racking up “Speed Points” that help you get performance modifications.

Out-drive your rivals and rack up enough Speed Points, and you get to throw down against the game’s ten-best to vie for the title of Most Wanted. Along the way, you can get your face on billboards and challenge online friends in wheel-to-wheel racing.

Criterion calls the driving environment an “open world, filled with gameplay,” which means you’re pretty much free to explore as you choose. There are abandoned airfields and shipyards to lose your rivals (or the police) in, and plenty of open roads if high-speed evasive driving is more to your liking.

We’ve yet to sample the goods, but experience with previous Need For Speed installments tells us that the game will likely be big on action, but low on realism and driving physics. If that sounds like your idea of a good time, look for Need For Speed Most Wanted in stores later this month.