NeedForSpeed:HotPursuit (2010)

[Art Blade]

This is a remake of the old classic NFS title, this time much better graphics, great cars to drive early in the game already, and you can choose to be the maniac driver whacking traffic signs or the police chasing said kind of drivers.

Going to install now :)

[Art Blade]

OK, installation took 15 minutes (felt like half an hour) and I used "custom" installation (always do if available) so I could install it in my games folder instead of that fricking C: drive (as if we still had only one disk like we used to have 20 years ago). Installation was in English without asking, from the first moment and the game is in English, too (despite having bought a German CD, and I always like it when I can install an English version.) Online registration required, typed in the code from the back of the loser manual and activated the game without any problems.

What I don't like is that a couple of features are bound to an online EA account - mostly MP stuff - but why the hell do I have to have an online account if I want to take screenshots??? I can't, because I refuse to register with EA.

The game itself however... WHOA!  ??? :-D :-X

It is not designed for sophisticated wheels, but supports controllers and can be played with keyboard (which I do). You can remap all keys. Graphics and sound settings are simple but good, I use it with native screen resolution 1920*1200 and 5.1 sound. Graphics are crisp, nice, beautiful, and all cars are original licenses. Sound is good, voices have a massive thick American accent  :-D

Camera view while driving is 3rd person (behind the car), hood (you don't have a dashboard) or bumper cam (probably that kind of view a dog has while chasing a car  ^-^ )

I managed to win the first race in a single go (whoa, first attempt a win? nice) and already unlocked a new car. I tried to race the same event again and indeed I was allowed to. Best thing: It keeps adding to your score (on your way up to "most wanted") so it makes sense in a way if you want to redo races.

Driving feels cool, I tried to drift a little around corners and it works without having to w@&k too hard.. nice. There are shortcuts (turn right and drive down a dusty track that leads underneath the highway, through a rocky passage, through tunnels and then.. you get back on track, ahead of the other racers).

I can tell you, the very first race and racing it again made my hands tremble a little, it's so bloody exciting and fun!!  ^+-+ :-X

Oh, you can free roam, too! :) :-X

[Art Blade]

Man, this is fun  :)  :-X

Compared to other games, the selection isn't that big, 51 cars.. but they've got all the good stuff you really want. ;D

Retrying races is a lot of fun because you keep building your bounty (in case you're an insane maniac driver like me) and keep adding new cars to your garage or whatever you store your wheeled madness in.

Some races allow you to use a limited amount of gadgets, like spike belts (forgot what they called it exactly) which you can use to stop pursuing cops or to take out opponents. You can ram opponents and wreck them (called "take down") as well as cops. Nitro is always built in, no matter if you're driving against or with the cops. You build it up by driving in a certain manner, like slip streaming, drifting, or oncoming ("wrong lane") and may use it whenever you feel like it.

Free roam is basically sight-seeing, you can't wreck your car nor does the police chase you.. nice for a chill-out cruise at say 250mph ;D There is a weather system (although during races it's pre-defined but may be anything from sunny to thunderstorm at night) and while free roaming you get to see different times of day/night, so it is indeed nice. The landscape is enjoyable and varies in terrain, be it coast line with a nice sea view or country side.. I can't tell what else there is, I haven't seen so much as of now. I just completed a series which unlocked a new part of the map.

I tried the cop race for a change, that is something I'm not really enjoying right now, so far it means "wreck that maniac" while you basically have to ram him or make use of gadgets. I prefer racing and getting away instead of racing and ramming cars (it's OK while you're a driving renegade but as a general goal it's not really convincing so far). You gain some kind of reputation that is similar to the bounty system and you advance in ranks (renegade is "most wanted" and cops is something like "destroyer"  ^-^ ) and you also keep unlocking cars. Basically there are two games, criminal and cop, each of them has the same ladder and rewards system, so you can play as long as you want what you prefer to and then for a change play the "opposite" side (like, play cop for a change) and advance that second career, or the other way round. Even if I don't know much about that cop career so far, I do like that concept of having a choice and being able to advance in two different careers :)

THIS IS SO MUCH FUN  ;D ;D ;D

[mmosu]

Sounds good Art  :-X
NFS: Most Wanted was my favorite of the series.  It had some similar elements as far as the police chases went but also leaned heavily on upgrading and customizing the performance and look of the cars.  No mention of that in your first impressions - am I to assume this has gone by the wayside?

[Art Blade]

I always liked tuning my cars in NFS, but indeed now you can't (except choosing colours). Makes things easier though. By the way, this NFS game was designed for the first time by Criterion who designed BurnOut before :)

There are upgrades, however..

..for weapons  ;D

You have those spike strips (slow down or wreck cars behind you), EMPs (needs to lock for a few seconds onto either an opponent or a police car in your sight and within your range; and after a few moments it either causes the targeted car to "stumble" -- perhaps crashing into something -- or if already damaged to wreck itself), Turbo (either to get ahead or to ram) and Jammer (to block police EMPs locked onto you). As Police you can use road blocks and helicopter support as well as EMPs and spike strips.

I have now for example level 3 EMPs and spike strips (well, more damage, radius, quicker deployed etc).

Here the first and "cheapest" and slowest cars are those you were happy in other racing games once you got them after hours of gameplay, like a Lancer Evolution X. Here you can get rather quickly a fast Porsche, Maserati, Lamborghini, Aston Martin.. oh, sorry, there are also American muscle cars hehe, anyway, you name it, they've got it  ;D

Oh, this title is available for PC, Xbox, PS3 and Wii :)

On a PC it runs on XP, Vista and W7, and the specs are rather low (2.2 GHz multi core CPU, 2GB RAM, 256MB vid card)

[Art Blade]

There are a few more things that I like:

Not all those races involve "hot pursuit" -- even when you're already quite advanced, there are still regular races.. just races (involving traffic and oncoming traffic but no police) :)

Even if there is police and you slam into a road block or rip your car to shreds driving over a spike strip, or every time you just crash, the game puts you back on track after a few seconds and you've already got some speed so you can continue driving.. nice  :)

The graphics are stunning particularly when you drive at night. Man, this looks so realistic.. great ;D

The map (menu) reminds me a bit of the map of FUEL because it involves shore, countryside and snowy mountains. There are races scattered across it, you need to unlock them. What I like particularly is that a race location (once it is unlocked) shows a handful of different races which you'll have to unlock some time later during the game.. they made good use of the map :) Those races "inside" of race locations are not necessarily identical tracks. Some are longer, some use different routes or different weather and time of day.. that kind of thing.

And I love the fact that you can always return to races and earn reputation points. It also states your best time and if you set a new best time, you get 1,000 points rewarded each time :)

So far, there are a couple of races I like so much that I had to try to get a better time and again and again..  I have advanced (bounty, new cars..) quite a bit just by doing certain races over and over again because they were so cool ^-^

The AI is good. They know how to drive, it looks just great if you see a car turn up next to you and overtake you drifting  ??? They drift like hell!  ^+-+  :-X Looks great by the way because you see either some kind of mist or smoke coming up from their wheels, depending on whether the surface is dry or wet (weather plays a role). Sometimes they commit mistakes and slam into a car. If they do that in front of you, bloody hell.. I keep slamming into them although I manage to evade them just as often. If they do that behind you (rear mirror, you see them bounce.. hehe), you might just as well slam into something else because you can't help grinning, chuckling and finally laughing -- and then you lose it and crash :-D

[Art Blade]

As far as I can tell, the game offers around 60 race events and 51 cars for renegades and around 50 pursuit events for cops with 49 cop cars (probably the same cars with a different paint job, I've seen a couple of them which were identical). If you're up for online, then there are additional 20 events each.

I've played around 15 hours now and my stats show 31% completion but I don't know if some of the remaining percentage includes online stuff. My "wanted" reputation is now 14/20 and I am worth around 1.2 million bounty.. hehe :)

it's good fun for the money :) (both buying the game and the bounty  ;) )

Pursuit races are now getting really a lot tougher. I need to use EMPs, spike strips and jammer to survive/win a race and they actually busted me twice (there is a damage system which displays a damage meter, if your car crashes too often or gets torn apart by spike strips and EMPs, the meter goes towards zero and then you're toast and lose the race). Cops use all that stuff and helicopters that throw spike strips at you.. hard :)

Still, there are races without cops and time trials without cops, which is great fun. The cars look just fantastic. If you had more time to admire the landscape (well, actually you can, in free roam mode).. Races keep you from admiring details, but the showcase is always there when you want to free roam, you pick the car of your choice and drive around.

This is like the good old NFS used to be, not that clean racing crap they used to do recently. I like NFS (probably most of us) the old-fashioned way with illegal street races and cops. Although I always liked tuning cars, I don't miss it here.. it only helps to maintain the speed of the game and the quick progress, no need to spend hours or days finding the best setup for a particular car. :)

[mmosu]

Did they do away with the "speed-breaker" feature?  In older NFS titles, it was a way to cause the action to enter a bullet-time mode when an extremely tight or precise move was going to be needed (like cutting underneath a semi-truck trailer or threading the needle through a tiny gap in a roadblock barely big enough to fit your car - some of those were so small you could barely make it without scraping the handles off of your doors :-())

[Art Blade]

That's still there.. slow motion of peculiar events/moments. Like when you crash or when a road block or a spike strip comes up for the first time in a race (your crashes will always be shown as a short replay, and if you wrecked someone). So those "traps" are being brought to your attention like that every first time in a race and then you'll have to pay attention yourself ;)

[mmosu]

Oh, so you can't trigger the slow-mo yourself . . . rats  >:((

[Art Blade]

No, that's why crashing into road blocks is occurring far more often  ;D They leave a tight gap which is hard to spot and even harder to hit. Mostly you just hammer into one of those cop cars without ever knowing where the gap was, and if you knew, you still missed it  ;D However, those crashes take up far less time and you'll get reset automatically and find yourself in an already moving (racing) car -- you're right back into the action after that slo-mo review of the crash.

[Art Blade]

OK, once you hit the mark (20/20 of the ranking, worth 2,000,000$ bounty) and become "most wanted" you'll get to see the credits (which can be discarded by hitting ESC) and.. return to the game (in my case, there are still unfinished and untouched races left). Just so you get an idea, your bounty increases after a race win by like 5,000$ plus between 0$ and like 16,000$ for driving skill (you'll see races where you get like 800$ skill bounty and my highest was something like 16,000$) and extra $$ if you did something else like wrecking cops. The higher ranking races will reward you (as far as I have come) 12,000$ for a win I think. So, to get a 2m$ bounty and become most wanted you really have to race a lot and win a lot :) Took me like 25 hours and the game isn't over but I can't climb the ladder any higher.

You know, Need For SPEED wouldn't deserve the name if it hadn't got fast cars.. which you can race à la "pedal to the metal" in free roam without damaging your car nor having to worry about crazy cops. Now, I got that Bugatti Veyron 16-4 Grand Sport which goes 407kph..  ^-^

..it is hard to reach and even harder to maintain top speed (fastest car there is) especially if trying to dodge traffic and oncoming.. ;D

..but you know just as well that you're going to try anyway.. and start to believe that it's normal to think, "why the hell do those idiots have to bloody park their cars on the interstate?" and that it's perfectly normal to drift around corners at 280kph and that it's only natural that you have nitrous on board..  >:D

Driving around in free roam is very much like FUEL. Day and night, landscape is even better here and I don't think it's worth comparing vehicles now.  ;)

NFS:HP is great great fun and entertaining  :-X

[PZ]

Sounds like a great game for racing fans  :-X

I've never been in a car that fast - fastest thing I've ever been in is my own car  ^+-+

[mmosu]

Bugatti eh? . . . you have expensive tastes my friend  :-X
I always thought it was funny how distorted your perception of speed could get in games like this.  In NFS: MW I used to think the same thing about the other cars on the road ("why won't these jerks drive already!!! For crying out loud, it's the tall skinny one on the right grandma!!!  >:((").  Then one day I actually slowed down and paced the other cars on the road and they were doing about 60mph/100kph . . .  :-[
My most notorious car in that game was a red and white Lamborghini Gallardo - that wedge-shaped nose was great for getting up under cop cars in a pinch  :-()

[Art Blade]

Hehehe!  ;D

The best car for busting cops, you'll be surprised, is a Bentley. That monster is heavy and solid as a tank.. not as agile as a sportster but bloody hell.. I had once a race going here (NFS:HP) where you would pass a cop waiting on the side of the road to start to chase you as soon as you passed him, and a double pack waiting at a fuel station for you to pass so they could hunt you down.

My decision earlier in the game already had been to actually kill them while stationary (different race, though, and different cars) by driving right into the cop's car  >:D ..a lightweight like an exotic sports car doesn't do the trick (well, it costs too much time as you either bounce off and around or come to a full stop at worst and also your own car takes noticeable damage; the cops of all things even survived and started to chase me like angry yellow jackets  ??? ). With that Bentley, however, I hardly noticed anything but nearly fell off the chair when that slo-mo vid popped up showing how I completely and utterly busted that cop car (which was a mean one, something like an Aston Martin) and I went on almost as if nothing had happened. The same with the double pack, I aimed at them, smashed them both and noticed but a slight jerk -- and went on as if nothing had happened. Like that, I nipped things in the bud. Never before had I enjoyed such a smooth "pursuit"  ^+-+

[PZ]

... a Bentley.

That's John Steed's car!

[fragger]

Umbrella and bowler hat optional extras :-D

[PZ]

 ^+-+

[mmosu]

I actually had to Wikipedia the John Steed reference . . .  :-[ . . . :-D.
Good thinking on the "Bentley battering-ram" Art  :-X

[PZ]

I actually had to Wikipedia the John Steed reference . . .  :-[ . . . :-D.

For those that don't know, John is the hero in a British series called the Avengers - my favorite of his partners was Emma Peel, and second was Tara Kings.  I've collected the entire series on DVD, and can highly recommend them to anyone that is interested in 1960's era English cars, people, buildings, places, etc.  The series brings back fond memories of when I was there as a child.

[Art Blade]

Thanks, PZ :)

And cheers, mmosu :)

mmosu, you're actually telling me you didn't know John Wickham Gascoyne Berresford Steed?
Good. I thought I was the only one who didn't.  ;D

[JRD]

Thanks, PZ :)

And cheers, mmosu :)

mmosu, you're actually telling me you didn't know John Wickham Gascoyne Berresford Steed?
Good. I thought I was the only one who didn't.  ;D

Aahhhnnnnnn....... John Wickham Gascoyne Berresford Steed... now that you put it that way... no, never heard of him either!  ;D

[mmosu]

Aahhhnnnnnn....... John Wickham Gascoyne Berresford Steed... now that you put it that way... no, never heard of him either!  ;D

^+-+ I was going to post the exact same thing until I turned the page and saw JRD had already beat me to it!!  ^+-+

Great minds think alike!!

[JRD]

 :-D :-X

[Art Blade]

 :-D :-X