Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Personal Gaming Note: I'm rank 5 as racer and cop, NFS:MW was my favorite racer and I never played Burnout until Paradise (which I've bought for both PS3 and 360 and have beat near 3 times). I'm not a hugely competivie guy but enjoy games with friends. 

For me, NFS:HP is a competent multiplayer game made fun only if playing with friends but the single player is lackluster, to put it lightly. I'm not having any fun with it at all by myself, and even autolog is pointless for me. I don't really care about other people's times and if I didn't have to use the code to get online I, in hindsight, should have left it alone so it would have a better sale value.

The damage feature is mediocre but some things are inexcusable, like turning around and t-boning someone only to see *my* car crashed by them even though they were barely doing 50mph, and I struck them square on the driver-side door. Add in how pointless it is to hit someone without using nitrous (hint: it's a waste of time) and it becomes even more of a problem.

Most all the cars I've driven feel floatier then they should, with very few exceptions.

Time trials where you are penalized even more time when hitting a wall or crashing are absurd and pointless, I'm already penalized by being slowed to a crawl or stopped, don't completely discourage me. 

The "career" mode let's you earn experience for racing, and you earn a new car so often you'll wonder what kind of accomplishments are in the store.  I can tell you that there are few, if any, other than (surprise) more cars, more upgraded gadgets, new race types and more racing.  The end goal is to hit level 20 as both a cop and a racer, and to do that, you're going to have to really enjoy driving in this game, and I mean really enjoy it.

In the end, though, the biggest thing I am missing is some sense of accomplishment. I only get cars they provide for me (after *every* ruddy race it seems, too), there are no upgradeable parts, and winning a race / pursuit nets very little other than *gasp* a new car and some bounty (i.e.: experience). Even equipment upgrades can't be purchased.

If you are an open world kind of gamer that would prefer to earn your rides and spend time suping them up, I would tell you to take a pass on this game.