Let me first start off by saying I am a huge buyer of the NFS series, the only ones I don't own are ProStreet and Shift because I wasn't a huge fan of the whole Circuit Racing Gig, I'll leave that to Forza or GT5. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a 2010 racing video game in development by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and iPhone. A version for Wii is also developed by Exient. The game supports 3D-display output on PlayStation 3 and Windows. Hot Pursuit is the 14th title in the franchise and was released in November 2010. Hot Pursuit is the 3rd in the Hot Pursuit series The first being Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit followed by Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 and now the most recent just being Hot Pursuit Overview: Hot Pursuit is all about racing exotic cars and extreme cop chases. The game does this without being too easy and or difficult to average gaming drivers out there. Reason its a good system is because I being a decent driver can beat a target time no problem and obtain the highest medal, however my cousin not the greatest can still beat the target score he just needs to be more cautious while driving since he is not the greatest. The game targets anyone and everyone without penalizing for driving ability. That is unless you have friends on your friends list where you get extra points for beating a friends time, I am currently #1 for all races on my friends list and the moment someone beats my time I go in and piss them off by setting a better record. Even without using the online multiplayer feature for direct head to head racing its engaging just trying to set the best record for a course. Single Player The game features two careers one being a racer and the other one a cop. The racers career is simple you have standard races where there is no cops involved, you have preview events which allow you to test out super fast cars way ahead of time before you even unlock them, Gauntlet a mode that puts you into a devastating chase to reach the checkpoint while excaping cops, and a personal favorite frenzy hot pursuit. Hot Pursuit is racing to the finish line while trying to avoid the cops as well. Racers get 4 tools against cops, an EMP device, Turbo which is awesome I love the whole sound effect and its use. Turbo is a super strong form of NOS and sounds like a fucking explosion going off once you use it.....my favorite device. Spike Strips, and a Jammer to foil all Police hardware such as Spike Strips, EMP's and the ability to see road blocks. Cops are the opposite of racers your goal is to take racers down in any means possible, this could be ramming or using devices that are equipped with the car. Police events include those such as preview events such as the racers ones where you get to drive cars you have yet to unlock, Time Trials where you get a practice call but you must make it to the specified area in the time limit, theres a catch you must do so without collisions on objects. If you collide with an object you get a time penalty on your total. Of course hot pursuit. Cop cars come equipped with Helicopters which place huge spike strips ahead of the pack, Road blocks, EMP and Spike Strips. Moving through the ranks: As you level up or gain "bounty" you will move a progress bar towards the next level which will increase your level. The higher you go the more you unlock. This means more cars and upgrades to the cars hot pursuit equipment. Spike strips get dual deployed instead of 1, turbo boost lasts longer, emp is more powerful, and road blocks become more tense with heavier vehicles....so on and so forth. This also means that if you want to set the best time on a track you will have to come back as the top cars for a certain tier sometimes don't get unlocked to further down the road. Which leads us into the multi-player aspect Multiplayer: AutoLog: This is the main feature of hot pursuit, it allows you to see how well your friends are doing on races, including when and if they beat your current times on events. This event allows you to go in and try to retake the top with a push of a button. You can also instantly take photo's while racing, post on walls to brag about your times or respond to someone els's post, or even grab more friends with the friend suggester. It picks friends from your friends to see if you wish to possibly add them and start comparing with them as well. Online Races No game is complete with online races Hot Pursuit includes 3 online modes of racing Race: Exactly what it says, it allows 8 players to race against each other first to the finish line wins. Races can be searched in car groups in case you have not finished a certain class and want to wait to get better cars you can use the better side of what you already own. Duel: 1 Racer vs 1 Cop..........nuff said get to the finish before he gets you Hot Pursuit is where a whole racing team and a team of cops, you all are competing though. As a racer you must dodge cops AND finish first, while the cops are chasing you. Its pretty much a 1v1v1v1v4, since the cops still somewhat work in a unified manner. This racing mode is just plain fun and outrageous. You are constantly trying to get other online folks destroyed, while destroying cops, while trying not to get destroyed and finish first. Scoring Gameplay: 9.4 Hot Pursuit offers a variety of ways to keep yourself motivated to keep playing even after completion of the game, the autolog feature is probably one of the best innovations in a video game I have seen for a racing game. I am literally progressing through the ranks by just going back and attempting to stay at the top of my friends list. Controls: 10 The cars in hot pursuit all feel very unique, the porsche is very light and can zip through turns easily but can't do much off roading, compared to a Nissan Skyline which is a much heavier car that can go offroading with little downside to speed. Cars are easy to handle and are not a hassle to drive around in as compared to the more recent series in the past. It feels like a tuned up most wanted control wise which means you can worry about the cops more then about why your car isn't turning the way you want it to. Audio: 8.2 The cars in need for speed sound fantastic, I expected nothing less from the guys who made burnout. But the sound effects for the chopper, turbo, emp and other devices all give that calling out sound of hurry the hell of out the way. The soundtrack might be the one disappointing, need for speed is known for having a decent soundtrack at times. The first 2 songs plus another are perhaps the only songs I cared for, I was expecting more old school rock and roll for a game like this but the new car chases gave me bland techno, rap, and hip-hop. I am comparing this with need for speed hot pursuit 2 which had a much more complete soundtrack . Re-playability: High Final Verdict: 9.2 Summary: Fans of the need for speed series have been waiting for a good reason to come back to the street racing game. Criterion games delivers and folks who have been waiting should be glad to his the streets once again in a familiar fashion. Where all the concentration is purely on rides, locals, and of course the amazing police chases. Only think to suggest which most people do this anyway is to turn on your own soundtrack and race the streets away.
I love NFS and might pick this up. Great review btw you should do them more often, except not for TOR
haha, hey my mind is neutral on TOR after all the updates ok, PAX just left a bad after taste. Wasn't exactly there greatest way of doing a first impression. I loved the game, but thats because I'm very big into racing games.