REVIEW: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit

       Ohhhh how I love to be a critic of stuff. Not so much movies, since its almost always wrong. Only universally acclaimed movies (like the Toy Story trilogy...seriously, look at Rotten Tomatoes) are right. At the same time, that's the beauty of deciding for yourself because you may be that 1% that didn't like Toy Story 3 (shame on you...j/k). I think I'm going to be as fair as possible with my reviews, but always remember to have a look for yourself...you could be missing a gem in disguise. I do want to add that video game reviews (like this one), and  product reviews are going to be a little more in depth because i honestly think that today's game critics just suck ass at reviewing. Case in point: big site IGN.com reviewed Gran Turismo 5 and gave it an 8.5 out of 10. Still in the high level of awesome, but not perfect as many thought it would be. What the blind readers didn't know is that the guy who reviewed the game only likes 360 shooter titles (as it says in his profile). Obviously, they didn't give it much though, and they reviewed only a part of the game, since the review was released before the game was released. The multiplayer servers weren't online until release date. Of course, the blind is going to lead the blind. Another thing is that a game like this can't be reviewed in a matter of days. This takes awhile. <----simple as that. I am not done going through that game simply because it such a huge game...but I definitely got more out of it than paid reviewers because I actually spent time playing the game.
       Although Need for Speed Hot Pursuit isn't as complex as GT5, I am going to treat the review with the same dignity and credit it deserves as GT5. My idea is to be as fair as possible pointing out its accolades and exploiting its faults. Wish me luck...this is my first (and its good practice to a potential career choice)..

        Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is the 16th Need For Speed title to be released, and the 3rd game to have the "Hot Pursuit" name sake. It was released in North America in November 16th and it was met with acclaim across the board. The fact that Criterion Games (of the Burnout franchise) had a hand in the development of this game had drawn high expectations and hope for a declining franchise (in recent years).
     The idea was to take the gameplay back to its roots of older NFS titles. With those elements fused with today's graphics, as well as the excellent crash engine that Criterion is famous for with their Burnout series make this game the perfect formula of "awesome!" Hot Pursuit succeeded in creating an ample amount "AWESOME," "OMG," and "WTF!!" So lets kick this off, shall we (about time!)?

GAMEPLAY:
    As I stated, the gameplay reminds me of the older days. NFS III and NFS: High Stakes days. The mechanics are easy to pickup, but its a bitch to master. A lot of the driving involves drifting and knowing when to do it as you could lose a lot of energy (speed...whatever) coming out of the turn and leaves you exposed to be overtaken, or stopped by the cops (or vice versa). Another factor that is introduced is the elements and time. Sometimes you drive into the night. Not too bad, right? Well, add rain into the mix and now you're racing a completely different race. Now you have more chances to oversteer and spinout, but if you mastered the elements, you can definitely use the rain or snow to your advantage.
       The organization is broken down to two sides: Cops or Perps. Each have their  own set of races, and different sets of vehicles. The story (a story? Really? Well they had to explain why you drive a  1000hp Bugatti Veyron cop car) is that since racing has become such a problem in Seaecrest County, that the SCPD were granted special funding to combat the super fast perps with equally fast vehicles and technology (and I'll get to that in a second). You know what that means? A Bugatti Veyron cop car. :) along with the fast cars, weapons and technology can be used to either aid in stopping the racers, or outrun the po-po's.

Drifting under wet conditions.

      The standard weapons we seen in other NFS titles make their way into the game (road blocks, spike strips), but they introduce new aids like EMPs, jammers, super turbos (I made "super" up, but that's what it is), and helicopters that drop spike strips. All of these weapons are used in the chase or runaway kind of missions by both sides. The weapons also level up as you use them successfully so as you start out with one spike strip, you eventually level up to drop two larger strips to cover the road (if you know how to drop them right). Not all of the missions will carry ever weapon so you do have to improvise. Like drifting, you need to know when to use your weapons, like calling a road block far enough so it'll be waiting at the end of  bend (a perfect place *hint, hint*), or using a turbo on a large stretch of road.
        Another thing that can be treated as a blessing (or burden) is the use of shortcuts. While some help you immensely, others will hurt you. You have to know your area, and whether it'll be beneficial to take.  The game actually teaches this early in the game so you don't have to spend too much time figuring out where the good shortcuts are. Some of the shortcuts are good for stalling the cops, or confusing them although that could effect the placement of your winnings.
     Hot Pursuit uses an experience/level up system. The more experience you get, the more cars you unlock. Don't be intimidated by 700,000+ xp needed to unlock the the Lamborghini Reventon. It'll be quick, but you need to place yourself at gold status. The top 3 spots give you your race earnings with 1st having the most (obviously). Even if you don't place in the the top 3, or if you're thinking of restarting the race, DON'T! You get experience for racing. Sometimes, depending on what you do in the mission/race, you get more experience than the 1st place offering. Either way, its better to just finish the race in 7th place because you still get xp for the effort. You can also go back later in the game and try it with a better car and get the credit for doing so. The xp system is broken down with the cops and perps and max out at level 20 for both sides. Each level is labeled with a rank title (i.e Felon, or Sergeant II, etc).

        One peeve that I have with gameplay is ambient cars on the road. You would think that Criterion would program the AI to move out of the way when they hear sirens screaming down the street? Nope. They're pretty dumb (as expected) since they just stop and blast their idiot horns. Its a minor inconvenience, but on the flipside, it adds to the competitive factor so that's always a plus. Two bigger problems I seen and dislike are one, the AI racers/cops catch up way too fast, If my cars go 20mph faster than the second place car (and accelerates faster too), that AI is on your ass regardless. You're defending your position at all the non-oppertune times. It may add to the challenge and some may like it, but I don't like it in this game because its too easy for the AI to catch up to you. I can understand if you screw up, but there are times when you're riding the perfect corner and gain a big lead....for about 10 seconds when the AI goes into light speed. The other problem is this spawn system that occurs when you wreck you car. Although its ok for the races and duels to keep the race going, its rather annoying when you put up a road block and the AI wrecks only for them to spawn a couple seconds later at a 100mph. Yeah, they don't spawn at a standstill, They get a running start, and that gets annoying when you turn your car around to trap them between the road block.

Lambo Reventon

MULTIPLAYER/ONLINE
        Hot Pursuit's online functionality is built on a "social network" structure. They call it Autolog, and they use it to post pics (that you can take in photomode), comments, setup races, or bragging rights. Autolog is only good if you have a set of friends who have the game. 8 other players can race along with you, or you can set records for your friends to beat on the singleplayer matches. It has the potential of being a great system, but you need have friends playing the game. I do suspect that Autolog will make appearances in other EA titles in the future. It is also possible to access Autolog through the games website where you can access all of your info and pics to copy from.

The graphics truly shine in this game.

GRAPHICS/ENVIRONMENT
       I have one word to describe both: amazing! In addition to having a near perfect gameplay formula, they hit a home run in the graphic/environment department. No artifacts , or graphic hiccups to speak of, and if it looks this good on the consoles, it'll look damn good on the PC. the usual issues plagued with the console are present (shitty Anti-aliasing...jagged lines and the like), but this shouldn't stop people from playing this game. The environment is one large map with about a 1000 miles worth of roads and backtrails. From the beach, to the forest, to the desert, and all the way to the tundra, Seacrest County has it all. The geography is integrated really well and you can freeride the entire map to see for yourself. Note worthy "wow's" are the crash system. Its very much like Burnout's system and the crashes are very detailed (as you can see above and below).
        I do have some beefs about some of the choices Criterion made in regards to the graphics. You don't have an interior view, which I think blows hard! They put a lot of effort in making the cars look good, but decide to slack off with the interior. That's my opinion (since its a review....duh!). Another is cut away scenes during the race. although it makes the game look way more crazy, it bother me at times because you could be so into playing the game and then BAM, you crashed into something and you have to wait for your car to stop flipping down the street, or someone ran into your spike strip...now you gotta watch that guy spin out of control. Its a bittersweet aspect for me since I love the hollywood style car chase moments, but don't like how it throws me off. One good thing they did was engage an "autopilot" on your car when the scenes pop up so sometimes it works out when you're about to hit a corner. The autopilot just gave you a perfect drift (nice).

Yeah, I plowed through him with my ACR :)

CONCLUSION

            Simply put, if you don't have the patience to play Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsports, you need to put Hot Pursuit on your list of must haves. Its easy to pickup, fast paced, beautiful, and loads of fun. Now i'm going to scale and summerize the above topics. It'll have pros and cons and a score between 0 - 10. Always remember that reviews are just opinions in the end, but I tried my best to be fair and show its faults. This is why the Gran Turismo 5 review won't come out for a bit, since I still have a little more to go.

GAMEPLAY: 8.5

Pros: Very easy to pick up but hard to master. The challenges keep the game fun; high replay value. Weapon systems can be a blessing and burden (in other words, you need think before you use it..and quickly). XP system is well thought out and cars are easily (but not too easy) acquired. 

Cons: Dumb AI ambient drivers. AI racers/pursuer's catch up way too quickly/car stats are really not a factor in this case. respawn system sucks in certain aspects of gameplay (i.e Hot Pursuit mode).

MULTIPLAYER/ONLINE: 7.0
Pros: "Social Network" interface has potential. Multiplayer is mad fun and 10 times more hectic than racing AI (that's a given). You can share your exploits and brag about your accolades to your otherwise pitiful friends...haha
Cons: In order for Autolog (or any social website) to be successful for you, you need to have a lot of friends playing the game. Unless EA plans on expanding this to other titles, Autolog will eventually be compromised when new titles are released. That's a loss on my count hence the 7. I'm not going to invest time into Autolog if its only limited to Hot Pursuit, and unfortunately, everything is linked to Autolog in this game.

GRAPHICS/ENVIRONMENT: 9.0
Pros: Beautiful cars! Some may say that it rivals GT5...I'm not saying that, but its beautiful nevertheless. The environment is equally beautiful and it shows with the wet glossiness of the pavement after it rained, or how the high beams shine the road and trees, and the air-scape of different parts of the map. The crash system is superb and Criterion takes cues from their work with Burnout and makes very intense crash scenes with Hot Pursuit.
Cons: At times, the cut-away scenes of crashes and successful uses of your weapons can be distracting. No interior views....WTF! This would be the perfect game to show off the interior of these beautiful cars...and they passed it up!

*All the pics were taken by me in photomode.

Next review: the Nook Color (i'm about done with it, so you'll probably see it after finals (after thursday).
 

3rd Times a Charm....right?

Hello blogger.com. Maybe this time I'll stick with You this time arounds.. I never had a relevant use for this place until now. For one thing, this will be place to let go. I can no longer do that through the Notes feature on Facebook because people are just too touchy nowadays. Another reason is that I need a place to displace thoughts although it'll be less personal since the privacy feature within Notes is a fantastic tool. I think putting all my rants on here will somewhat maintain the integrity of my Facebook page....so what's first on the agenda? Well I have 3 reviews that are ready to be published: the Nook Color, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, and Gran Turismo 5.