Need for Speed Hot Pursuit: Mini Demo Review

[HamadaLFC8]

http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/need-for-speed.jpg

Alright so I just played the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Demo

and OH MY GOD I can't wait for this game!!!! I don't know if it's just because I love racing games or if everyone thinks that but it's awesome!!!

http://hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/sites/hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/files/imagecache/screenshot_fullsize/mp4cop.jpg

Be A Cop:

You are a cop, you can either choose the mighty Ford Crown Victoria or the Nissan 370z as a police car! Now the easiest way to knock the racers out is by just smashing into them. I was a bit disappointed that the car just "rams" into the other. I tried to Pit Maneuver some of the racers but it would just give them a little nudge instead of spinning them 180 degrees :-(.
In the demo you got 2 power ups, one of them are spike stripes. To my surprise one hit with them isn't enough to bring down a racer (even thought all of his tires should be ripped apart?) so you have to lower his "health" a bit and then hit the racer with the spikes, then they would be down (finally).
Second power up is the roadblock, which I found rather useless. It actually blocked me more than it blocked the racers :twitcy: but maybe you just need to learn how to use the road block correctly. I think online that would look different though, as the AI tends to dodge roadblocks better than real humans. I hope.



http://hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/sites/hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/files/imagecache/screenshot_fullsize/gt3rs.jpg

Be A Racer:

If you have a friend on XBL that did download the demo as well, EA will be very generous and give you an extra gametype! Hooray! You get to be a racer! Yet you won't be chased in this race, but I'm pretty sure that will change once the full version comes out. There's 3 cars to choose from; The Nissan 370z (again), a BMW z4 and some Porsche I'm not sure which one as I didn't use it yet. You get to choose the color for each one of them but that's about it.




Some little things I enjoyed;
- You could switch the car lights on and off by pressing B
- You can switch the siren on and off by holding Y or you could cycle between 3 siren sounds by tapping Y.
- There's a "speedwall" which shows the best times for racing events or how long it took you to take all racers out as a cop.
- Police radio sounds pretty authentic
- If you enter a tunnel without your lights on, they will automatically switch on
- After you choose a car, a woman starts telling you a bit more about the car (history, engine, etc.)

Controlling the car was not hard AT ALL. So even if you've never played racing before and as long as you use gas and break you should be fine with this game.

3 different camera views are available:
- the regular one which shows the whole car
- A view from right on top of the hood (cockpit unfortunately does not show :( )
- A type which just shows the street

The graphics seem very clean and the game ran very smoothly.




I know I'm not a reviewer but I just had to do this ^^ hope you guys like it =)

[Jokersvirus]

Im downloading it right now it looks good, but I must say the PIT manuever isnt as easy as it looks. Im pretty sure you can spin them out but you have to do it just perfect. my best guess.

My question is this, How can I Provoke people on this game? I wish to make them rage at me. :P

[Charlotte]

Yeh, this sound really awesome. I'm also like racing games especially NFS series and this is surely one of its. I like the new improvement. Couldn't wait for this one.
I'm really like to customized my cars and showing off it to my friends and family. I mean, what else better than that.



You are a cop, you can either choose the mighty Ford Crown Victoria or the Nissan 370z as a police car! Now the easiest way to knock the racers out is by just smashing into them.

Wow, lol this gonna be rock bebeh.

[HamadaLFC8]

My question is this, How can I Provoke people on this game? I wish to make them rage at me. :P

My best guess for that would be that you would just stay in front of them and slowly try to slow them down. That would be my first guess if I think of more I'll let you know ;-)

[Diligence109]

haha oh NFS... NFS has never been known for it's incredibly realistic racing physics. I can tell you are more a heavy-weight racing game player than NFS is made for from a couple of your comments:


I was a bit disappointed that the car just "rams" into the other. I tried to Pit Maneuver some of the racers but it would just give them a little nudge instead of spinning them 180 degrees :-(.

[...]

Controlling the car was not hard AT ALL. So even if you've never played racing before and as long as you use gas and break you should be fine with this game.

sounds like a NFS game to me... NFS games have such a vanilla control system that really boils down to "this is the go button and this is the stop button. Oh, and those ones turn. Have fun!" and that's all you need to know XD


Sounds like their not trying to confuse their game's aim with realism:



To my surprise one hit with them isn't enough to bring down a racer (even thought all of his tires should be ripped apart?)


makes sense that it would more closely resemble mariokart with realistic graphics than a hardcore racing game.


I'm glad that we've got another new NFS that gives the option to play as the cops :D that was a fun idea that I know they had in at least one earlier version of NFS but it seemed like that idea kinda was dropped. I think it introduces some rather unique gameplay to NFS that sets it out from other racing games... seeing it reappear here with it's own unique system (players having health that cops have to whittle away) sounds like a game I'd like to play :)

Thanks for the review Hamada!