Hit the Streets
With
The thrill of the open road - it's something that appeals to anyone with more than a drop of testosterone coursing through them; hot black tarmac stretching as far as the eye can see unfurling under a clear blue sky while tall pines and rock faces sculpt miles of automotive pleasure that offer the ultimate in male hedonism. Video games have been treading these tracks since their inception, from OutRun's breezy take on the experience through to the studied autism of Gran Turismo.
And it's something that was core to the very first Need for Speed, a game that wowed some 16 years ago and spawned what's become one of gaming's very biggest racing franchises. There have been some interesting detours since, whether that was the Hollywood excess of Undercover or the white-knuckled brilliance of Shift, but the first game was essentially about nothing more complex than the joys of one man and his machine pitted against miles of winding road.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion's much-anticipated spin on the series, takes this basic concept, furnishes it with the Burnout developer's experience of connected play and polishes it to within an inch of its life. The result is a promising and potentially potent mix; a racer that's aware of its heritage while acknowledging the connected nature of its hardware – and it means that Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit could be the most exciting driving game in some time.
First the basics; Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit excels on the road, something that's immediately apparent during our first demonstration, a straight-up Time Trial behind the wheel of a Carrera GT. The car itself is heart-stoppingly attractive; this may be the first time that Criterion has been charged with replicating real-life vehicles but you'd be hard-pushed to tell. The in-game models stop-short of the precision offered by the likes of Forza and Gran Turismo but to atone it seems they've been oh-so-delicately caricatured, the curves and bumps bought to the fore and ensuring that the cars are just screaming to be chucked around.
Hot Pursuit's handling plays well to this impulse. The cars feel pendulous with a real sense of momentum, and while teasing the rear end out with a dab of the brakes is straightforward, maintaining a powerslide with grace is a rewardingly tough endeavour. They feel alive, making Burnout Paradise's cars feel restrictive in retrospect – and it seems as if Criterion has struck the perfect balance between its arcade heritage and the Need for Speed's more straight-faced demands.
What's really impressive is how this informs the on-road action; events are suggested off the back of friend's recent activity, while a 'speedwall' serves as Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit's leaderboard. It's pervasive too, as friends' hot times that are within the player's grasp are displayed on the in-game HUD.
This borrowing of social networking traits is something that's been tried before with the likes of Blur, but never has it been so fundamental to a racing game's make-up. But while it's certainly interesting, making for a game that's connected in a much more natural way than Criterion's Burnout: Paradise, it's the other aspects of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit that really excite; the glorious open roads and ferocious supercars alongside all the brawn and dazzle that's become the studio's territory. 16 years on from the original and it looks like Need for Speed has found its perfect partner in Criterion - and the result could well be the best in the series yet.
Posted by Ashley
Aug 18, 2010
