Hands On: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
I feel the need!Published: 15:00, 20/08/2010 by Dan Lee.
5
Even queuing to play this game was an exciting experience. Defining the word ‘flash’, EA had provided about £1 million worth of exotic cars to ogle at, so by the time I got to sit down and play the game I was truly pumped.
Unfortunately Need for Speed’s biggest rival this year is going to be anticipation. Let me explain. In my mind Criterion’s previous racer – Burnout Paradise – is arcade racing perfection. The handling is spot on; it’s faster than Superman with the runs and it looks superb. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit has a lot to live up to.
Things start off well as the game looks absolutely stunning. The car models are extremely detailed and are deformable, and the track I played - whilst not up to the standards of the cars – looked good. This game is all about the cars though, and they are shined to perfection.
The handling is nice and weighty but it lacks the fun factor that Burnout has. Perhaps it’s down to using real world cars, but powersliding was a) harder to do well and b) nowhere near as satisfying as I was expecting. The game seemed to lack a bit of speed as well. I (sneakily) tried out several cars and found that the issue affected them all – the speed dial is stuck at seven, when really this game needs at least a nine.
It would be nice to also have a bit more traffic on the roads. There was some, but it was so few and far between I actually forgot it was there at all. The racing as it stands is intense but the tracks can look a bit barren. Denser traffic would take the game to a whole new level.
The cops are relentless, and for once they don’t just go after you – every racer is stalked throughout the course. Criterion has managed to achieve the perfect balance between difficulty and just plain frustration – yes the cops will bother and hound you, but it’s enjoyable and never gets to the point where it ruins the actual racing, although the cheats do have helicopters!
The power ups I had access to were quite miserly – a turbo boost which was very helpful, and a stinger which reminded me of the banana skins in Mario Kart. Tantalisingly locked out were weapons such as ‘EMP’ – I’m looking forward to exploring these further as they will add a nice layer of strategy.
I came away from the game desperate to play more – and if they can turn the speed up a bit this game might just deliver a knockout blow to Burnout and take the arcade racing crown.
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20/08/2010 at 15:14
Member since: Aug 2008
Sounds amazing. I like a game where getting away from the cops is possible but feels like a proper achievement. Some of the most fun I had in GTA4 was getting up to a 3 star level and then evading the cops, unfortunately they were just to suicidally stupid to really feel like you’d outwitted them.
“for once they don’t just go after you” – made me very happy
20/08/2010 at 15:15
Member since: Forever
So looking forward to this game, and it’s released on my missus birthday, so I somehow need to engineer this into the day’s presents.
20/08/2010 at 22:03
Member since: Jul 2009
That’s easy. Buy her something that’s worth two to three times the cost and pick it up for yourself. Always worked for me.
20/08/2010 at 15:16
Member since: May 2009
How was the damage and wrecking?
From the vids shown at the EA conference, it seemed that it was nigh on impossible to wreck ones car… Heck, they crashed into the back of practically stationary cars (in comparison) and all that happened was you slowed down…
Not really what I was expecting, and since I want Burnout Paradise 2 and expected it to just add cops somewhat like the Marked Man events, but throughout every mode…..
20/08/2010 at 15:20
Member since: Jun 2010
i wrecked a few cop cars, and nearly had mine wrecked. it would be annoying if your car was easy to wreck as the cops really do go after you hard!
20/08/2010 at 15:25
Member since: Forever
Sounds like you kinda want Burnout Paradise 2 in the same way I wanted Burnout Paradise to be Burnout Takedown/Revenge 2
20/08/2010 at 15:21
Member since: Jan 2010
For me I think its going to be the same issue. It’s not gonna be the game let will be a let down, it’s the hype! what were the crashes like though? On all the videos I’ve watched so far they get hit > Turn sideways > Then roll a few hundred times. They look far from the glorious crashes in paradise!
20/08/2010 at 15:24
Member since: Jun 2010
i didnt crash unfortunately :op wrecking a rival looked good though
20/08/2010 at 15:28
Member since: Jul 2009
I would argue that Burnout Paradise was the biggest letdown ever, because the “open world” structure took away the sense of immediacy, just like the later SSX’s after Tricky.
I hope this game will bring some of the fun back.
20/08/2010 at 15:30
Member since: Jun 2010
youll love NFS then mate!
20/08/2010 at 15:37
Member since: Apr 2010
This comment is hidden.
20/08/2010 at 16:36
Member since: Aug 2008
I find it hard to fathom why people liked the open world route that paradise took, id be interested to see just where the preference lies for the next burnout.
I fear it may be more time wasting and driving around randomly :(
20/08/2010 at 20:59
Member since: Jul 2009
Damn it would be good if the next Burnout brought back the option to pick events from a map like before. And I hope they bring back crash events too, loved that bit.
Open world is possibly fun if you’re an online gamer, but I’m not, so it wasn’t.
20/08/2010 at 15:28
Member since: Apr 2009
This is a bit too Arcadey for me! It looks good though If you like these style of racers! :)
20/08/2010 at 15:35
Member since: Apr 2010
This comment is hidden.
20/08/2010 at 15:38
Member since: Jun 2010
the ones we could use were a gallerdo, the new mercedes, a porsche gt3, nissan gtr – and the cops had porsche panamaras and zondas. id expect muscle cars though
20/08/2010 at 15:41
Member since: Forever
No, muscle cars apparently.
the slowest entry level vehicle is still a supercar… its all about the supercars
20/08/2010 at 15:43
Member since: Jun 2010
thats a shame – still, it was total car porn lol
20/08/2010 at 15:37
Member since: Jan 2010
Yeah I have the same issues with burnout but from what I’ve heard this keeps you to a track when you enter an event, which makes me very happy as I can know look at some of the scenery and cars instead of the mini map in the corner of the screen.
20/08/2010 at 15:43
Member since: Forever
Agreed, looking at the minimap ruined the events in Bo:P for me, although its open world enabled zero load times and some other benefits. This looks like it has the best of both worlds
23/08/2010 at 13:43
Member since: Aug 2008
I always said that all Burnout needed was the ability set waypoints before starting a race, then a big arrow pointing to your next waypoint and perhaps a smaller one showing the one after that so you can prepare for turns etc.
That would have taken away the need to keep looking at the map while keeping the benefits of being able to plan your own route and the open world etc
20/08/2010 at 15:44
Member since: Jul 2009
Loved the orignal need for speed games on the pc, especially need for speed 3, looking forward to this, got a list thats too big so will probably be a christma/january sale pickup for me
20/08/2010 at 22:17
Member since: May 2009
It’s F1 2010 and GT5 for me so this will have to wait until Feb or March…or longer.
20/08/2010 at 16:10
Member since: Mar 2010
I want this game to be as good as possible, so I hope they’ll fix the issues mentioned by release.