Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Hands-on

As promised, a more detailed Hands-on from the Press Conference at EA UK for the pre-release version of www.criteriongames.com new Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.

A New Direction

You’d think that a racing game written and designed by Criterion Games, would contain elements of Burnout. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is no exception. This is a new direction for the NFS franchise, and a wonderful break for Criterion Games, who get to flex their creative muscles in a new franchise.

It’s fast, very fast, smooth and slick. The menus feel just like a part of the game. This isn’t a game that feels “clunky”, this game has class.

With Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit you get to play as a racer (try to avoid an Orange Lamborghini , if you are trying to escape from a Aston Martin cop car) or a Cop, and switching between either is so very simple.

Autolog and Real Cars

The game has a feature called AutoLog, which feels like a wonderful evolution of Burnout Paradise’s Road Rules etc. AutoLog fits very well with the game, and allows you to track and compete against your friends even when they are not online. When a friend beats one of your event times, AutoLog will recommend that event for you. And so the race is on.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit breaks from the Burnout trend and features real cars and it is possible to damage them, and damaging them is so much fun. When your Bugatti Veyron smashes into the side of your buddy’s cop car, this smash won’t cost you £350,000 (http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/crashed-veyron-2010-05-10)

Jelly?

Creative Director Craig Sullivan of Criterion Games told MiniGameReviews that they wanted to make a game that was fun, accessible, and they felt they could bring something special to the NFS franchise. Need For Speed on the 3D0 was one of the main reasons he got into game design in the first place.

For all you die hard burnout fans, Criterion Games said that they may work on Burnout, or another Need For Speed game, or even on a game about Jelly.

Written by David Hatch @ MiniGameReviews on the 6th October 2010