[Mechanical R]

Amongst the rows of games held at the expo, the stand out Racing game of the event was most definitely Need For Speed Hot Pursuit.

After a few rather disappointing ventures into the NFS franchise, EA finally listened and brought back one of the key NFS braches in its entire back catalogue. The origin of the police chases, and the first NFS game which really put itself right in the drivers seat of some of the most exotic cars, and made it all look damn good.

Available to play at the show was a few single player races and the online competitive mode. The standard races involved police chases which made the races that little more challenging, and as always in the HP series, the tracks are laid out with plenty of shortcuts for you to try out to suit your driving style, and using them wisely to make every difference making your way from first to last.

As a surprise to some, Hot Pursuit features no customisations on the cars. The Hot Pursuit series from day one was to always put us, the players, behind the wheels of the most exotic and powerful super cars of the time. There’s no need to have elaborate designs on your cars, when each and every one is a masterpiece themselves. And hey, lets not forget the majority of the cars have police versions, and cars ALWAYS look cooler in police gear.

A new addition to the game is the weapons. The police cars now have more toys to play with now for the first time so do the racers. On top of the law enforcements spike strips and road blocks, they also have access to EMP attacks. And the racers have abilities like spike traps, a jamming device as well as the EMP. This makes both escaping the police and being the police a lot more tactical and will bring a lot more fun to online play.

As Criterion have taken the reigns for this instalment, you know for sure its in great hands, and as like all previous Burnout titles, the visuals are just as impressive. Most notably during drifts when you put the back end out and see your tyres being engulfed in smoke. Something you’ll have to do a lot of as unlike normal Criterion racers, you can feel a lot of weight behind the cars, this will take a little getting used to for those not accustomed to games like Forza Motorsport 3 perhaps.

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit will be available this November, and you can get your hands on a demo on Xbox Live/Playstation Network from October 26th.

Will get this video rotated asap!









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