During EA’s Gamescom keynote, Criterion’s The Websterhoff took to the stage to get to grips with Need For Speed : Hot Pursuit.
As you can see in the footage below the experience starts off in the game’s Autolog, this is a ‘live’ homescreen where you’ll be able to see at a glance what your friends are doing. You’ll be able to respond to challenges and get notifications if they’ve beaten one of your times, with the option to jump straight in to try and better their time.
From then on, it’s straight into the action as you race super cars through gorgeous scenery in a world brought to life by EA’s DICE studios, which is four times bigger than Burnout Paradise. The gamplay seems to show a kind of ‘Spidey sense’ whereby you get a little preview of obstacles ahead including roadblocks, police spike strips, and yes that is a Pagani Zonda police interceptor unit.
In the past I’ve always been confused by Need For Speed, I’d never really bought into the whole urban racing thing, and although NFS: Shift was solid I felt it was lacking something, then when I’d heard that Criterion (one of my favourite devs) were doing Hot Pursuit I thought the waters were muddied further still.
However, following this outing it’s clear that no one knows how to add thrills and excitement to a race quite like Criterion. Its now shot straight to the top of my Crimbo must-buy list, and I’m counting down the days until its November 18th release date.
bunimomike
I would just like to say… The driving genre doesn’t seem to do it for me any more but that was very good. If ever a trailer shows you how sound can make or break a game, that was it. I was waiting for a lot more damage to the vehicles than this but that’s just me. However, it’s now on my list of things to watch. That… was superb.
teflon
I was wanting more BO:P Marked Man/ Road Rage style damage.
The most annoying aspects in this will be smashing into the back of someone and simply slowing down.. That does nothing for me when the point is to be taking someone else out. It needs to be risk vs reward.
Might skip this till it’s cheaper, then.
bunimomike
Aye, that was part of the feeling. Very much a Gran Turismo vibe where I can overtake someone by simply T-boning them at full tilt as I go into the corner.
cc_star
It needs to differentiate itself from Burnout Paradise, if vehicles were fall off the track just by tailing them for a while or scraping their sides then it would be Burnout Paradise 2.
Anyway, there’s an energy meter above the police car, and he does take it out once he’s grinded it and attempted to fish tail it a few times.
Presumably if he’d have fish tailed it first time to have a direct collision rather than grinding it down he could have took it out immediately.
Jumping Monks
Nice. Me thinks I’ll be getting this.
Oh wait… did you say a November release date? GT5…
aerobes
I was seriously unimpressed by the teaser from E3 but that looks truly ace! Damn you Criterion!
This has just strong-armed its way onto my already bursting-at-the-seams list, there is just too many great looking games out before christmas.
Winkle
My god this is going to an expensive last few months of the year! Then again 2011 isn’t looking like it’s going to be cheap either!
baconsarnie
This does look ace, not sure if i’ll pick it up at launch though. Racing games for me this year are GT5 and F12010.
cam the man
I’m playing the same two so NFS will have to wait.
Seventy2
Dear Santa…
m61726b
I don’t want a sack of coal again…lol
EntitledToOpinion
Off topic, but as good a place as any, i’ll ask, why.. since this is predominantly a playstation site, can i 9 times out of 10 not watch the embedded videos on my PS3 browser? Its an outrage!! (shakey fist)
bunimomike
Possibly because the PS3 browser sucks prehistoric donkey balls.
gurglesletch
The PS3 browser needs a serious update so it doesn’t suck donkey balls anymore.
Stitch
I think the PS3 internet browser is getting a huge overhaul soon.
cc_star
YouTube is the most popular videosharing site in the world, and its videos including embeds work on practically everything including mobile phones, so it’s presumably down to the PS3’s backward PS3 browser.
However, seeing as you asked nicely I’ve updated the article with a direct link which I believe does work on the browser.
TSBonyman
Thanks Chris but sadly it’s just 480p at that link.
I was able to watch a 720p version for PS3 browsers here..
http://www.ps3youtube.com/?go=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrErTz7rLXY
bunimomike
Pedantic correction (although I’ve just learnt more about YouTube).
The clip Chris linked to was only 240 and 360p. However, if Chris posted a 720p link, it’s possible to force default play to be HD as oppose to 360p. Whatever the YouTube link is, you just need to suffix it with “&hd=1” at the end.
For 1080p, you need “&fmt=37” at the end of the Direct Link. Obviously both options require the source video to be in a suitable resolution but that’s good to know (well, it is for me!). :-)
cc_star
Although regardless of whether you get YouTube to stream at their 720p or not, it all depends on the source material.
*edit* which is what you said anyway, teach me to read the whole comment before replying.
bunimomike
You got over half way through my comment. You earn a B+. :-)
Grey_Ghost13
Graphics actually look good for a NFS game. Can’t compete with GT5 though.
cc_star
GT5 looks amazing, particularly the vehicles which are jaw droppingly beautiful but NFS is an open world game 4 x the size of Paradise so it’s comparing apples to oranges I’m afraid.
Modelling a whole world along with every single thing you can see in it so that its viewable from any angle is very different from making a track where everything is viewed from the viewpoint of the track, for example you’d only need to map a texture over the front of a building on a track based game, whereas in a game where you can go anywhere, you’d have to map every single aspect of the building from all angles including on top and underneath it, and maybe even through it for some building types.
GT goes way beyond the call of duty to look stunning, and the devs have succeeded, but its not really comparable to other stuff.
gazzagb
4 x the size of Burnout Paradise is too big IMO. It’ll probably mean superlong loading screens. :\
cc_star
you can see the loading time in the video, looked very short to me… and as an open world it streams all the data directly off the disc/hdd, so once you’re in – you’re in
Stitch
Yeah, the game has certainly come a long way from the glimpse we got of it at E3. It’s interesting to see the game developing like this. The visuals do seem to be getting there but I don’t think the gameplay is quite right at the moment – the road is too straight and there aren’t enough explosions! Still there is plenty of time and I have plenty of faith in Criterion to perfect this one!
hunterstryfe
Cmon! The original hot pursuit had straight roads, maybe a homage?
gazzagb
Looks alright, will probably wait til this is cheaper.
ScottW-1976
Seen it all before TBH. Looks quite pretty and decent SFX but this kind of arcadey handlinmg and gameplay has never really appealed to me.
Shouldn’t really be compared to GT5,very different audience I reckon, but I’m more interested in the new Test Drive Unlimited game than this. Really enjoyed the first TD, a goof mixture of open world and decent driving dynamics.