25.1.2011

Now this, THIS is how you make a racing game. Fast, fun, accessible and with the kind of ingeniously simple, easy to understand online integration that every game of this type should have. This is the perfect antidote for the overblown, overhyped, over-padded Forzas and Gran Turismos of this world and a genuine benchmark in simple yet effective game design. Criterion once again demonstrate why they are the masters of the racing genre with this, the best entry in the almost otherwise rubbish Need for Speed series by far.Taking a "cops versus illegal road racers" scenario as it's central theme, Hot Pursuit doesn't have any pretensions to being grounded in reality,with Mario Kart style weaponry and gadgets at your disposal for taking down cop cars/racers. For example, the EMP charge, which you can fire at opponents red homing shell style to damage them and disrupt their vehicle, sending them crashing into barriers if you time it right. These aren't available in every event on offer, as there are a number of different play types and events to experience throughout the career mode, from straight races, time trials, pursuit(In which you take out racers one by one), test driving super cars... and all of this divided up by different vehicle classes. There is a lot to get your teeth into here, and while I don't doubt that some will bemoan the lack of ability to customise your cars beyond their paint job, I for one appreciate the ease and accessability of the game's structure, where there is very little time wasted on non-racing fiddling or tweaking of any sort and the game is set up so that any given event is a mere button press away, with a steady stream of incentives and rewards to keep you playing JUST ONE MORE RACE before bed time. The game plays just fantastically, with a tremendous sense of speed and easy to get to grips with handling with drifting that is actually easy to master and not a complete pain as it tends to be in far too many racers. I cannot stress enough just how easy a game this is to play, it basically just throws you right into the fun and doesn't require you to endure any steep learning curve to get good at it. This truly is the very peak of fun, accessible and expertly designed racing games.Much has been made of the game's 'Autolog' feature, which gives you a continous feed of information from the game's other players on your friends list and the latest news from Criterion in addition to allowing you to post your best times and pictures to the "Wall" for your friends to peruse. This essentially creates a constant link between you and every other player on your friends list who is playing the game as you are playing any part of the game. For example, I was playing the career mode and completed a pursuit event with a pretty good time that I was a little proud of, then a couple of events later on the event selection screen I get a message informing me that one of my "friends" had just crushed that time I got and invited me to try and retake my position on my friends list chart by pressing R2 to immediately begin the event in question, and I spent the better part of an hour trying and failing to get back on top. It's this type of sheer compulsion to keep playing to do better than provides this game with near bottomless potential for coninued play, all thanks to some simple but extremely effective information tracking. It's the simplicity and ease of use that makes the autolog such an ingenious feature, and one I don't think I'd want to be without in any future racing game to be quite frank.To top things off, the game is a technical marvel, with detailed, smooth running visuals with outright gorgeous looking car models. It's a fantastic looking game, with the only gripe I could offer being that the crashes perhaps don't look quite as good as they did in Burnout Paradise, but then crashing isn't really the point of the game I guess. Soundwork is decent, with a selection of music which I have to admit I've never heard of and that did nothing for me making up the soundtrack. Still, great sound effects if nothing else.There's really no way I can put in any more plainly: If you like racing games, you need to get this game. It's fast, fun, gorgeous, accessible and has the potential to eat away hours of your time in the blink of an eye if you get some friends playing it. Sure it may lack anal customisation options and OTT "realism", but when it emphasises a fun experience over these things, why would you care? Buy it, now.

21.11.2010

I loved the NFS games in the Nineties, back then they were just about in a league of their own. Nowadays we have so many racing game series NFS has recently been hard to recommend against other similar titles. Can this game change that?In short, the answer is Yes.This game is made by the same developers and runs on the same graphics engine as Burnout Paradise. It runs silky smooth 60fps pretty much all of the time only getting very slight dips when using nitrous for instance. This is a big improvement in this department over Shift, which still has performance issues especially when having several cars on track.The Graphics are a mixed bag. The environment to drive around in is quite a size,so it isn't going to be the most stunning game in the world. That said, the textures are pin-sharp and look great especially in Photo Mode.Its a slight shame that there is no Anti-aliasing in the game, since these "jaggie edges" also appear on the photos that are taken. I haven't tried forcing it through Nvidia Control Panel yet though. There are also very limited graphics options as well. In my opinion small details such as grass and fences etc pop-up too close to the player, and just that little bit of adjustment would help.The vehicles themselves are great as always as we've come to expect from the series, I can't think of many games that have more accurate looking cars than this.Music is a mix of Indie Rock, Dance, House and Hip-Hop. With big name artists, but not necessarily their songs I would've picked. What happened to the song on the original teaser trailer for the game?I'm a bit disappointed also with no proper steering wheel support as Shift was generally very good on steering wheel. Its nothing though a patch couldn't sort out. The best controller to use for this game for me is the Xbox 360 gamepad, but only just.The cars somehow handle mid-way between simulation and arcade. You don't go round corners sliding sideways like in Outrun 2 for example, but it isn't that realistic either. It is a fair balance but it takes a fair while getting used to especially if you've played other recent Racers.As of writing this review, I have found no "Manual transmission" option, although it may just be me but I also haven't see Shift UP and Shift DOWN in the control options.There are also no dashboard views either. Which again is a shame since it was my favourite view in NFS Shift.So what do I think of this game? Its a much better game than recent NFS's bar NFS Shift. It is a welcome return to the series and I hope there will be another one.Those who are seeking for Fast cars, free-mode driving, cops, cars with dashboard/interior view? Look no further than Test Drive Unlimited 2 which is being released next year.Review PC specs:Intel Core2Quad Q6600 @ 3.6ghz8GB DDR2 800Windows 7 64bit Home PremiumNvidia GTX 470 Inno3D Hawk Edition

11.1.2011

I remember purchasing "Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit" in 1999. It quickly became my favourite racing game. Why? Because it was a little different than other racing games: You had to deal with the police(!) Or you could choose to police the highway yourself. Same thing here, only a lot better graphics (the in-game images speak for themselves). I think driving games that are only about doing laps as quickly as possible (like most racing games), can easily become a bit boring. But when the game is also about having to outrun the police, it all gets a bit more exciting. But the police isn't easy to outrun here. The police in this game have cars that most people would kill for. I mean,

22.6.2011

Bought the PS3 in Feb 2011 and this game. At first it seemed impossible to steer but now after 60hrs of racing, timing and pursuit I'm still fully hooked, most wanted and driving exotics with elegant drift while dropping spikes and firing EMP. The way it opens new games as you prove your ability seems like there is no end and I haven't started as a cop yet.On a big TV through separate big speakers it's a blast driving my wife crazy. Some reviewers don't like the arcade style, well at first I was shocked there was no steering wheel but now I can't stand the simulator style, much more fun watching the cars from outside and the great scenery with distractions like aircraft. Strange how you lean into the corners.

10.7.2011

These are the type of driving games that I like. I don't realistic ones where you have slow down a lot just to get round a small corner. The game is very fun to play although there were some minor issues. The game doesn't have anti-aliasing so if you are not playing the game in full hd, then you will find that there are a lot of jagged edges. I have tried forcing it through the nvidia control panel but it doesn't make any difference. Also, I wish that they could have offered all of the police cars also, as cars for the racers. I don't like roaming around freely with cars that have the siren on and the police paint job. However apart from these minor drawbacks,

23.3.2011

Need for Speed is an entertaining game, yet suffers from several minor issues which reduced its enjoyment for me.- Steering. The game is designed to cater for corner drifting and with this in mind you can burn around a long corner surprisingly easily. However, find yourself needing to nip and dart past incoming traffic and the game is less forgiving.- Levelling Up. Levelling up at various points in the game introduces lots and lots of new cars and occasional power upgrades but at other points is meaningless.- Track Variety. The game cleverly re-uses a variety of road courses for you to race through. However this variety is not quite enough for the game and nothing new seems to come along as you progress.- Opponent Car AI.

9.4.2015

First off, I should say, racing games typically aren't my thing. However, I've played and enjoyed GRID, Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer Arcade and many others. I would definitely define my gaming approach to racing titles as "casual". I have been an avid Role Playing Game enthusiast for years. So, when I bought Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, I was taking a chance, especially since I can't recall playing a single other NFS game on any platform.I would agree with another review in saying there are no open-world single player chases, so, you can expect little deviation from preset routes. If you fancy open-world racing/chases,

13.1.2011

Normally, I dislike corporates like EA, because they destroy many little and medium corporates, but in this case I have to give a big applause to EA, because they made a game which is outstanding:Graphics 1+Thrill: 1+Long time motivation: 1+BUT: Minimium PC conditions: 3-4I had to buy new hardware, couse my AMD X2 5000 and 4 GB RAM were too less. So I had to buy an new AM3 mainboard, an AMD Athlon II X3 445 (works as an AMD Phenom II X4 B45 4core!).With a watering eye I have to say:This is the most thrilling part of the NFS-games. But not everyone is willing to buy new hardware to be able to play this game.Think about it, EA!But in the end,

25.10.2011

The game was really easy to install but if for some reason you plan on installing this game on a copmputer with no internet connection forget it as you need to be connected to register and install the game before you even think about playing it.I run a dual core athlon 2 64bit @ 4400mhz with a 256mb GDDR4 radeon 2600xt pro graphics card and 4gb of DDR2 RAM and i can run this game on high settings with antialiasing on at 4x and a resolution of 1280x1024 the game runs really smooth for me but you could run it with a slower system.As for the game itself well its really good the graphics are gd 8/10 the sound is also pretty gd 7/10,

5.1.2011

I bought this game under the impression that it would be similar to need for speed most wanted; which was in my opinion the best NFS ever. It has the play as a cop mode but i feel everything is more scripted. You start if in a great car which if you ask me defeats the purpose of a good car game which is leveling up, working your way through the ranks with a bad car and earning a better car stdep by step.It is without a doubt a fun game but not a game that will keep me hooked for hours on end like GT5 or NFS Most Wanted.This game is not built for realism, it is designed for fast paced fun; turning hairpin bends at 200mph without braking in a Pagani Zonda isn't realistic but hell it's fun!I would recommend this game but if your after a more realistic,

27.8.2011

This game is what I call "One Of Those Games". When Sometimes it can be really annoying and sometimes I hate it but when on a roll this game is awesome.The game is set in Seacrest County in California, being California means I the game has an amazing environment. There is also a very good selection on cars both in-game and DLC. Some of the good cars are Lamborghini Gallardo (All of them), Lamborghini Revention, Bugatti Veyron, Mercedes McLaren F1 and obviously the Pagani Zonda. The gameplay is also good with different challenges for both racers and police like Race, Time Trial, Hot Pursuit and Rapid Response.Gameplay - 8/10 - The Rapid Response is the thing that lets this game down because of

24.11.2010

It's a wonderful game, you can play either cop or racer and both are incredibly fun!Career is amusing, lot's of exotic cars, equipments to use and a beautiful map with lots of details. But online playing is even funnier because it's like real cops are after you or it's like you are chasing real racers with the best cars in the world.Criterion did a great job with this game, I didn't feel this great sensation of driving with these last versions of the game, like I felt with Most Wanted, but with Hot Pursuit my desire to race and escape from cops is back again.I advice all people who love racing games to buy this game, it doesn't have a great story like Most Wanted or Undercover,

3.2.2011

I played the original NFS hot pursuit which was one of my all time favourites and this one does not disappoint. It is definitely worth buying especially for the online multiplayer mode,.The game does not support 2 players although that does not really matter especially if you hate the split screen mode in the older versions. Possible that some people may be disappointed.There are various tracks to choose from and loads of cars. The cars are very precisely programmed to imitate the real ones (even how they sound!!!). You can tell that the designers and programmers have put in a lot of effort and time to roll out this game. Definitely worth a purchase!

9.3.2011

Although not everyones cup of tea i find this a really great game...it certainly misses the realism of grid or forza and the fun and ability to customize of previous nfs games but i still really enjoyed this game. The game is very easy to get used to and the weapons when racing e.g. spikestrips make it fun and great to play with mates. This game handles in an arcade style so is easily playable for kids but still enjoyable for adults. It is a shame you cannot customize your ride and you are limited to certain cars for each race but overall i had a great time playing. I also found every car seemed to handle the same.

15.1.2011

I don't normally buy racing games so when I looked for one I wanted more than sheerly car racing.If you want a realistic driving game then buy GT5 or get a car(!) but if you want bags of fund, an adrenalim rush,piles of entertainment in 5 minute bytes then NFS Hot Pursuit is the business.+ points- the game is simple to get into and then gets harder as you play- the on line function is amazing. It is incredibly smooth, the links are great and its easy to find people to play- pointit is not a two player gameGreat gameBuy it

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