14 DAY TRIAL // EA's Need For Speed franchise hasn't exactly been going through the smoothest period in its lifecycle, but with the release of the brand new Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, the company hopes to get the franchise back to its roots with a developer known for polishing its games to the highest degree, Criterion Games.
We've had a chance to take a quick look at Hot Pursuit, so read on to see if Criterion managed to breathe fresh life into the racing series or if the NFS franchise is slowly heading to the junk yard.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is definitely a more different beast than previous iterations, especially considering we're dealing with a different studio, as opposed to EA Black Box (ProStreet or Carbon) or Slightly Mad (NFS Shift).
This is for the better, as the game doesn't throw in some wild story about your being a racer or an undercover cop.
Hot Pursuit just throws the map of the fictional Seacrest County in your face and lets you choose what events you want to race, either Racer or Cop ones.
You can go into free drive and explore the world, but most of the times you can just choose the event and get right into the action, whether you want to be a cop or a racer.
The game looks great, and you can see that Criterion took its time and polished the heck out of the environments, the effects and, most importantly, the cars that are featured in the game.
The cars feel much better, being both tighter than previous Black Box games, but also more manageable than in the previous NFS: Shift.
You also aren't stuck with just having to buy cars or anything like that, as the game just unlocks new cars for you to drive and you can choose between them without having to limit to just a few vehicles.
One of the big features in Hot Pursuit is the Autolog online system, which enables you to stay in contact with friends, and posts your performance, as well as your friends' on your speed wall.
It lets you know if friends beat your times in certain events, and lets you race them again in order to beat them and prove your skills.
Needless to say, things can get pretty competitive and friendships may be made and lost thanks to this new system.
Overall, judging by a first glance, Hot Pursuit is definitely one great racing game.