NFS IS BACK: and this time its packing heat
I had been quitely trying not to get excited for this title because of the slow decline of NFS, in my eyes, over the years BUT with the excellent Criterion Games on board this proves to be the series reboot THAT MATTERS :D
With the knowledge that the guys who made my much loved Burnout games behind this title I was going into the Demo with the only hope that EA hadnt totally diluted the creativity of the team and luckerly everything was right where it needed to be. The first thing that hit me was how great the game looked and secondly the handling of the cars. Both are excellent and the inclusion of the online leader boards in the demo had me score chasing times without even realising it. After getting hooked on the demo I knew I had to pick up this game.
Just a word of warning though, even though this game was made by the Burnout guys DONT be expecting to be able to drift for 3 miles while boosting constantly as the cars handle more realistically but arent going for that ultra real GT thing.
That being said you do have a boost system and there will be certain corners when you can get a tasty drift going. You earn boost the usual burnout way by driving into oncomming traffic, drafting other cars, finding short cuts etc and the cars do have a arcadey edge to them but the whole way they feel is a lot more routed in reality so if you hit a corner at the wrong angle your probably gonna lose crucial time so working out that perfect racing line is something youll have to work at.
So as you can probably already tell theres a healthy mix of the signiture Burnout gameplay woven into all the classic elements of the old NFS hot pursuit games.....WHICH IS AWESOME :D
Add that great gameplay into to online battles and youve got a seriously addictive street racer. To put the cherry on the cake the game looks fantastic with slick reflections, time of day over the track and the sig NFS smoke tech burning beautifully from everyones tyres as you screech round a corner at high speed. Plus the crashes look very tasty with the usual bullet time comming into play so you can truely appreciate all the sparks and bits flying off a car as it tumbles through the sky :)
If youve never played a hot pursuit game before all you need to know is its cops and robbers with each side racing more a more ridiculus rides. As you progress you earn bounty points to get new vehicles in each race by either driving with style if your a racer or by busting fools if your a cop. Both sides are fun to play and online this game REALLY comes into its own.
Now if your still unsure about this title unfortuneatly you cant play the demo as this was only available up to the release of the game so all I can recommend is to watch some vids in HD/ HQ or tryto find a friend who has it to try it out.
But if you want to take a punt on this title just cause Criterion Games made it then you should have plenty of content to satisfy you.
After all these years Criterion Games have finnaly made the NFS: Hot Pursuit brand mean something again.
