Rockport (Need for Speed)

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Rockport City, as seen from Point Camden's waterfront fairground, in Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Note the architecture of the city's skyline: there are slight hints to real-world skyscrapers from the East Coast of the United States.

Rockport is a fictional city in Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), a racing computer and video game by EA Games, and part of the Need for Speed series. Based on the surrounding natural landscape, Rockport is suggested to be located on the northern end of the East Coast, and the creators claim that Rockport City is a hybrid of two American cities: New York City and Newark, New Jersey ^{[citation needed]}. Clearly, though, there is evidence of such cities like Vancouver (the development of the game was at EA Canada), Philadelphia, Ottawa, Boston, and Pittsburgh throughout the city area, and the surrounding boroughs (as they are called in the game) give hints to smaller towns such as Gloucester, Massachusetts, Ithaca, New York, and Stowe, Vermont. Rockport's map design is reused in Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City, a PlayStation Portable port of Need for Speed: Carbon, but lacks a section (the Coastal area/Camden Beach).^{[citation needed]}

Rockport exists alongside Bayview and Palmont, the settings for Underground 2 (2004) and Carbon (2006), respectively.

[edit] Areas and districts

Rockport encompass three major areas, unlocked in progression through the Career mode of Most Wanted: Rosewood, Camden Beach, and Rockport.

[edit] Rosewood

Rosewood is the first level of Rockport accessible to the player in Career mode. Rosewood is a small-town, New England-styled village sheltered by maple trees and white steeple churches. At the center is bustling Main Street, which stretches from the main clock tower town entrance to the very edge of Central Rosewood.

The borough's prominent landmarks include Rosewood State University from the north and Highway 99, a ringed expanse of interstates that surrounds the neighborhood, passing countryside and forested mountains; the latter houses several buildings on the foot of a large mountain noticeable from the town center. Rosewood State University is surrounded by Campus Circle, a ringed avenue surrounding the university compound, while the Circle's interchanges forms many roads, tunnels, parking lots and garages, and campus compounds in between. North of Rosewood is a baseball-cum-university stadium (home to the Rosewood State "Highlanders").

The northeast of Rosewood also contains several nature trails dubbed the Highland Trails, as well as the Forest Green Country Club and golf course. Between Rosewood and Camden Beach is an area referred to as "The Boundary", and is home to a large strip mall complex and the local bus terminal.

[edit] Camden Beach

Camden Beach (or "Coastal" in the official Most Wanted website) is the second level of Rockport accessible to the player in Career mode, depicted as a port and resort town. The whole of the region specifically, as it's name implies, is right alongside the coast.

Camden Beach includes the regions of Gray Point at the north and Point Camden at the south. Ocean Hills, which is concentrated on the east side of Point Camden and at the center of Camden Beach, is a recreational seaside town, home to a massive boardwalk (known as Camden Boardwalk), Camden Beach, luxury apartments, and a large marina. To the west of Ocean Hills are old construction sites and rusted industrial factories and smokestacks, as well as a seaside fairground towards the coast. Gray Point is a mountainous shore side area, and is the location of North Bay (a fishing cannery district), Dunwich Village (a small fishing and trailer park town located at the northernmost end of Gray Point), and The Horn (a refinery district containing numerous distillation towers and a port). The southwestern-most point of Gray Point, bordering northern Ocean Hills, contains a complex of contemporary apartment projects and office buildings made of concrete and glass. The complex's center point is the Omega Shopping Mall, located affront the Omega Power Station complex. Farther east is the local penitentiary.

Across the river that defines Rockport City from Camden Beach is the Masterson Naval Shipyard, a run down ship breaking facility, which also features a decommissioned aircraft carrier. At the mouth of the river towards the south is a lighthouse on a small island known as Beacon Point.

[edit] Rockport

Rockport is the final level of Rockport unlocked during Career mode. It is the center of the Rockport metropolitan area, and sprouts with skyscrapers and major thoroughfares. Much of the avenues and boulevards are lined with trees and are rarely straight-aways. A massive complex of highways and overpasses surrounds the city center, which also meander their way through the skyscrapers. Rockport is surrounded by Highway 201.

Major sights include Century Square, a play off of Times Square with many billboards and advertising, Little Italy (due to the red-white-and-green decor and "ristorantes"), the massive Riverfront Stadium (home to the Rockport Tigers football team), surrounded by a new highway under construction, Fairmont Park (containing the Fairmont Bowl concert hall, an amphitheatre), and Grand Terrace, a pedestrian walkway that meanders through the center of the city's financial district. Cascade Park, a smaller park in the city, is to the east, while a region farther to the east, dubbed "The Projects", consists of a series of construction cranes and run-down tenements that are not accessible in game, but seen by the highways.

Other locations of interest include a drainage system to the south that has been dried up and accessible, and the city's international airport, can be distinctively seen southwest of the city but is not accessible.

[edit] Highway routes

Rockport features a number of fictional highway route with names commonly associated with North American highway names, including Route 55 (sometimes called Interstate 55), Highway 99 and Highway 201.

[edit] Geography

Rockport is made up of mostly mountains (probably the Appalachian Mountains), and contains areas located along shorelines, where the terrain begins to level out slightly. Trees in the city are mostly deciduous and evergreen, and according to recorded dates and the foliage in the game, the yearly time seems to be between late August and early November. Based on the appearance of the landscape, the location looks to be in New England according to its Fall scenery, and is connected to the Atlantic Ocean.

[edit] Police force

Little is known about Rockport's police department, except for its patrol cars. However, the force has been known to be highly aggressive when pursuing highly wanted suspects on the road, employing multiple tactics to stop suspects. The police vehicles issued to the city are listed as followed:

• Standard and Undercover Ford Crown Victoria-like police cars (civic/local police).
• Pursuit specific police cars, including Pontiac GTOs (state police) and Chevrolet Corvette C6s (federal police and a unique unit driven by Sergeant Cross). Both the State and Federal cars can be undercover pursuit cars as well.
• Police "Rhino" SUVs. They resemble a mix of an Acura MDX, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Mercedes-Benz M-Class, or Volvo XC90.
• Police Helicopter. Appears to be a mix of an AH-1, RAH-66 and Bell 206, from the cockpit, tail rotor and body respectively.

[edit] External link

• Rockport at NFS Planet.