Autolog, A True Game – Changer

At the end of last week the videogame industry moved into a whole new era, it’s quite possible you didn’t notice this if you didn’t pick up a copy of Criterion Games’ Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, but a new era is most definitely upon us, through the title’s ace up the sleeve, Autolog.

We’ve previously had a look at Autolog, when the developer interview/trailer for it was released during the build up to the game’s release. For those that don’t know Autolog is a social network underpinning both of the offline single player campaigns, it has been nicknamed the Facebook of gaming, but as a self-confessed Facebook hater I don’t see too many similarities beyond the fact that both systems feature something called  a Wall, oh and a place to share photos, make comments and reply to others. OK, so it’s quite a bit like Facebook but obviously all geared around all your in-game activities.

Lots of games feature an area where you can track your stats, and look at the profiles of your friends and check your standing on in-game leaderboards, but never before has a game been built around such social features. Through Autolog, you can track your career and game stats, check out all your captured photos, brag about your latest accomplishments, and jump directly into challenges recommended by Autolog’s comparison engine based on your friends’ gameplay.

That isn’t all though because Autolog doesn’t just exist in the game, you can also access it through its website meaning you can text-chat directly with any friend in the game, run a side-by-side stats comparison with any of your friends,  and most importantly, save any Autolog Recommendation for the next time that you’re in the game. This way, if you check the site on your lunch break and see that one of your buddies just knocked you out of first place on a given race, you can make sure it’s all queued up the next time you’re in the game.

Still it doesn’t stop there as the Need For Speed team has announced they’re about to release an iPhone App, meaning you’re never going to be out of touch with the action, stay in touch with your friends and queue events for later when you’re back in front of the console.

Autolog really does feel like a defining moment in gaming, far more than just a clever interface for leaderboards, or a way to keep abreast of your friends activities. It makes it impossibly easy to meet-up online for all the multiplayer gaming you’d expect, but adds the exciting, competitive multiplayer experience to every single aspect of the lengthy dual single player campaigns and in the process extends its life indefinitely.

Autolog isn’t a flash in the plan, where you’ll have to wait for bi-annual releases to get your social groove on, it’s here to stay, as EA have already announced it will underpin Need For Speed: Shift 2, their take on the sim style racer, which will be out early next year.

With the NfS: Hot Pursuit disc remaining super-glued inside my PS3 since purchase, it’s hard to imagine a racer without the features and importantly the benefits that Autolog brings to the genre, it could seem almost last-gen by comparison. One can only imagine the fun if EA were to open the floodgates to cross-platform competitiveness, turning Autolog into its own platform for multi-platform gaming.