SCHUMI_4EVER
November 25th, 2010, 14:48
Been playing Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (2010) for PC and enjoying it a lot. Here's basically review in sort of summary form on the game.
The good:
Exotics
Beautiful locations that if you played any of the first 6 games that are likely to send you on a nostalgia trip and may even get you to cry (the graphics are ok, it's more the setting that's awesome).
In the faster cars there's a real sense of speed and thrill that I haven't experienced in a while.
Tons of shortcuts.
The ability to actually be a cop again.
The neutral:
Control is beyond arcade, it's almost like a cellphone game where hitting the left button makes the car start skidding left...it sort of resembles BurnOut (which was obvious since Criterion developed it) but unlike those hovercraft/hydrofoils these cars grip the road a lot more and handle more predictably. Corners, even the sharper ones tend to just evaporate. There's no such thing as precision cornering, there's only drifting/skidding too much and losing too much speed or not bothering to skid/drift and crashing into the far-away side (most roads are very wide). It sounds very wrong and if you expected something like Most Wanted handling it most likely will be to you. I however love it, it definitely harkens back to the days of the original Hot Pursuit. It's something that has to be experienced though, you can't judge it based on what I others say and you can't judge it from vids either. If I had to pick a game it most handles like it most likely be Split/Second, seriously though you have to experience it for yourself.
The badish:
Well my GTX260 chugs in the game now and then so it's not exactly light on the power requirements (running it maxed without AA at 1680x1050 but dropping the settings didn't exactly change anything...and there's not much to drop anyways)
In Free Roam there's absolutely nothing to do, it's just your dream machine and the road, no findables like BurnOut, no cops or racers, no nothing, you can't even drive to races. Can still come in usefull to get the feel of the game though, and enjoying some of the beautiful scenery without the pressure of a race.
The game is unplayable for some, it crashes during car selection. A patch should be on the way to fix this though, a dev actually mentioned he's surprised the game works at all after finding the bug.
The PC version is missing some effects though the patch that's coming should also fix that.
Autolog commands the whole so similar to BurnOut Paradise you'll be hassled to log in every once in a while.
It looks like some nasty DRM, got a big SolidShield Activation exe in my folder...and it has limited activations, EA has a deauthorizing tool for it though so you don't lose the activations.
The car list is perhaps a little on the short side and obviously Ferrari's are missing.
The cars do feel a little samey.
Seriously though what I tell you about this game can't do it justice, what reviewers and other players tell you about the game can't do it justice, vids can't do the game justice, screenshots can't do the game justice (which is why I haven't included any), you really have to experience it for yourself because quite possibly a lot of what you read may sound wrong and boring, but I assure you that somehow it works.
This game to me truly is a return to NFSs roots when compared to the original Hot Pursuit for instance. Beautifull tracks, check. Cops, check. Exotics and other dream machines, check. Arcadey handling, check (even the cars feeling samey bit reminds of oldschool control). Even the weather is decided for you on a track by track basis like the oldschool NFSs. No customization of any sort, pick a track, a car, a colour and enjoy the race that's all there is to it.
BEST NFS OF THE DECADE (though to be fair there hasn't exactly been much competition since series hasn't been itself in a while, SHIFT for instance was superb...but it wasn't NFS).
The good:
Exotics
Beautiful locations that if you played any of the first 6 games that are likely to send you on a nostalgia trip and may even get you to cry (the graphics are ok, it's more the setting that's awesome).
In the faster cars there's a real sense of speed and thrill that I haven't experienced in a while.
Tons of shortcuts.
The ability to actually be a cop again.
The neutral:
Control is beyond arcade, it's almost like a cellphone game where hitting the left button makes the car start skidding left...it sort of resembles BurnOut (which was obvious since Criterion developed it) but unlike those hovercraft/hydrofoils these cars grip the road a lot more and handle more predictably. Corners, even the sharper ones tend to just evaporate. There's no such thing as precision cornering, there's only drifting/skidding too much and losing too much speed or not bothering to skid/drift and crashing into the far-away side (most roads are very wide). It sounds very wrong and if you expected something like Most Wanted handling it most likely will be to you. I however love it, it definitely harkens back to the days of the original Hot Pursuit. It's something that has to be experienced though, you can't judge it based on what I others say and you can't judge it from vids either. If I had to pick a game it most handles like it most likely be Split/Second, seriously though you have to experience it for yourself.
The badish:
Well my GTX260 chugs in the game now and then so it's not exactly light on the power requirements (running it maxed without AA at 1680x1050 but dropping the settings didn't exactly change anything...and there's not much to drop anyways)
In Free Roam there's absolutely nothing to do, it's just your dream machine and the road, no findables like BurnOut, no cops or racers, no nothing, you can't even drive to races. Can still come in usefull to get the feel of the game though, and enjoying some of the beautiful scenery without the pressure of a race.
The game is unplayable for some, it crashes during car selection. A patch should be on the way to fix this though, a dev actually mentioned he's surprised the game works at all after finding the bug.
The PC version is missing some effects though the patch that's coming should also fix that.
Autolog commands the whole so similar to BurnOut Paradise you'll be hassled to log in every once in a while.
It looks like some nasty DRM, got a big SolidShield Activation exe in my folder...and it has limited activations, EA has a deauthorizing tool for it though so you don't lose the activations.
The car list is perhaps a little on the short side and obviously Ferrari's are missing.
The cars do feel a little samey.
Seriously though what I tell you about this game can't do it justice, what reviewers and other players tell you about the game can't do it justice, vids can't do the game justice, screenshots can't do the game justice (which is why I haven't included any), you really have to experience it for yourself because quite possibly a lot of what you read may sound wrong and boring, but I assure you that somehow it works.
This game to me truly is a return to NFSs roots when compared to the original Hot Pursuit for instance. Beautifull tracks, check. Cops, check. Exotics and other dream machines, check. Arcadey handling, check (even the cars feeling samey bit reminds of oldschool control). Even the weather is decided for you on a track by track basis like the oldschool NFSs. No customization of any sort, pick a track, a car, a colour and enjoy the race that's all there is to it.
BEST NFS OF THE DECADE (though to be fair there hasn't exactly been much competition since series hasn't been itself in a while, SHIFT for instance was superb...but it wasn't NFS).