What is there to say that hasn’t been said already? Fast-paced action is where it’s at and Hot Pursuit gives you just that, at first it seemed like some kind of ‘cops & robbers’ where you pretty much just chase after criminals in Chase HQ style, EA have taken it beyond that by raising the bar to tip-toe heights.
The graphics are at a standard now where it’s only worth mentioning the quality if they’re really sub-sub-standard and anyway, it’s never been a problem with all the current generation NFS titles as they’ve all been supoib. One of the more impressive videos showing off the graphics and gameplay came from The Gadget Show’s Jason Bradbury as he films Gerwyn Williams playing on a 3 monitor PC set up, the excitement is understandable due to the sheer speed and shouts of nitro boosting give even the more sedate viewer a little tingle.
The main feature of the game that EA are pushing is Autolog. It’s the ‘social network’ that records what you do and lets your friends know what you are up to, allows you to share your Hot Pursuit experience with your friends and even take on challenges to beat their times. Need to keep an eye on your Autolog?
There’s an app for that. One of things that benefit the game is the arcade atyle of play, if you’re a fan of Burnout, then this will appeal to you as it’s clear to see that they’ve taken a pinch of some elements from the franchise and thrown them in there to set sparks a-flying.
Despite a seemingly short amount of gameplay of around 15 hours in single player, there’s always the multiplayer where up to eight players can take part chasing each other to see who is the best at evading and smashing through roadblocks or throwing out stingers to make the chasee’s skid off the road and roll off a cliff, or something. If you prefer, you can just go one-on-one and take it in turns chasing each other, whichever way you look at it, it extends the gameplay somewhat and should keep you happy at least over Xmas.
You could basically call it a modern-day Chase HQ when it pretty much all boils down to the essential basics of the game, with Burnout to give it the breakneck rampant recklessness for which it’s well-known for, but the mix of those games is not particularly a bad thing.
They’re both addictive classics that had gameplay coming out of their noses and that’s what Need for Speed should be about, good-looking fast rip-the-skin-off-your-face action and in totally awesome exotic cars that the average Joe will never afford in his lifetime, it gives us all that break from reality that every videogame should do, that’s the whole point of them, isn’t it?
For those of you want to break out the EMPs and jammers in the latest title of the Need for Speed franchise, the recommendation would be to go for it. There have been a couple of disappointments along the way, that looks like things are about to change if we get more NFS of this calibre.
Wednesday, October 16
