Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit may have been a late entrant into the race, but it both grabs the checkered flag for this year and may set a land speed record for this entire class of racer.

It's the most enjoyable experience to be found in arcade racing this year, and it provides that feel through fantastic courses that allow for deep strategic moves, especially when your team works together.

"Quotation Forthcoming"

It's just plain fun. No other way around it. Criterion managed to bring back a series on the brink of collapse and make it into the best racing game of the year.

It delivers a near-perfect competitive experience, in a way that few games -- racing or otherwise -- can. Hot Pursuit is not only a defining moment for the series, but for arcade-style racing, period.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is one of the generation's best racing games.

NFS is totally back on form, returned to glory by the best arcade racer creators in the business. [Issue#232, p.63]

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is one of the must-have titles for this holiday season.

Criterion Games not only reinvented one of my favorite and unforgettable franchises but created the best "near perfect" arcade racer while setting the bar high for any upcoming arcade racer currently in the works.

This is the Need for Speed that returns to the roots of the franchise with awesome police chases, fine graphics and a fantastic soundtrack. The new Autolog is a great feature which is meant to be used to compare your achievements with your friends. One of the best Need for Speed game in years.

We couldn't have asked for much better from Criterion's first entry to the NFS series. [Issue#199, p.76]

The game looks great, handles fantastically, is fast as hell, and has a large amount of licensed cars.

When the online modes work, they really sing, allowing for hours to slip away into tons of entertaining crashes and near-misses. Unfortunately, they can also be extremely broken.

Hot Pursuit is not the most feature-rich, realistic, or deep racing title available, but it certainly is one of the most exciting and enjoyable ones.

We suspect that last year's excellent Shift didn't make as much of an impact as EA anticipated. That semi-serious sim has given way to a positively Burnout inspired iteration that liberally takes the better bits of old NFS titles and makes this gorgeous fast paced treat. [January 2011 p70]

The best arcade racer of the year and one of the best of all times: Criterion delivers what we want, an intensive and adrenalinic title that will run in your veins for a long time.

This game is huge, addictive and polished in every single manner. When it all comes to it, Hot Pursuit captures the very essence of what a racing game should be - fun.

Speed and spectacle are the words that define Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, a succesful entry which hits the spot and brings some freshness to EA series.

A furious arcade racer for adrenaline junkies everywhere. Every race will put your heart in your throat and a tickle in your stomach, and the new Autolog feature, that recommends races for you based on your friends' activities, is nothing short of brilliant. Winning a race is one thing, but smashing your mate's previous record while doing it is just awesome. Fans of sim-style racers will probably hate it, but if you like arcade racing, this is about as good as it gets.

In the end, Criterion did something that no developer has been able to do with the Need for Speed series in over 10 years; bringing the game back to its roots and making me feel like I'm still at that computer watching my brother.

Fun, fast and attractive. One of the best NFS titles to come out in years.

Essential. [Christmas 2010]

Even though Gran Turismo 5 is now available, Hot Pursuit is absolutely worth checking out for racing fans.

This is how I remember the series when it was in its prime, and it feels good to get back to the core of enjoyment.

The best arcade racer of not just this year but this whole generation of consoles, with an unrivalled sense of speed and the sheer joy of competition.

What Criterion Games has done with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is develop the best entry in the series in the last 5 years of release.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit speeds past the arcade-racing competition with its deeply connected Autolog system, breathtaking visuals, and the thrill that comes with driving exotic cars at 200 mph while chasing, or escaping, your fellow racers.

Criterion has taken the series back to its first principal of cops vs racers, and constructed a high-octane combat racer of beauty and depth. [Christmas 2010, p.82]

An unqualified triumph. It's stuffed with content but rarely for the sake of it, and knowing Criterion it will be handsomely supported for months to come, even though it's already the best pure arcade racing game since Burnout Paradise.

Hot Pursuit is everything a game of this genre should give its players. It's fast, has cars we all dream to drive and a rewarding and accessible gameplay.

Pure over-the-top driving entertainment. The cars and environments are gorgeous, the crashes are spectacular, and the new Autolog feature breathes new life into the time-honored tradition of video game competition among friends.

All in all, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is an admirable return to form on a franchise that I had felt lost its way since NFS Most Wanted was released five years ago.

It's without question that Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is one of the, if not the most enjoyable racing games of 2010.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is one of the best pure arcade racers I have played in a while. Refreshing and damn fast, 'Hot Pursuit' will fill anyone's need for speed.

With its electrifying blend of raw speed, intense pursuits, wince worthy crashes and revolutionary Autolog system, Hot Pursuit is an adrenaline-fueled rush that's a sure contender for racing game of the year and the best Need for Speed in all too long.

It's a game built round a single mode, in effect, but with its hefty community presence, asymmetrical flex and raw kinesis, it offers more entertainment value than racers many times its size on paper.

Hot Pursuit addition of the cops, returns the Need for Speed series to its amazing roots. Great graphics, excellent audio and amazing value for an eclectic combination of gameplay elements that definitely resurrects the franchise.

The career mode is just deep enough, but the online mode feels like it could have been fleshed out a little.

"Quotation Forthcoming"

A great return for the NFS saga. Driving is funny, weapons are balanced and Autolog keeps you always busy. It's a shame the the only original race mode is Hot Pursuit. Another couple in the mix could've made the fun last longer.

This game finally leads Need for Speed back to where it should be. It's very addictive and rewarding.

The good absolutely outweighs the bad and I freely admit that my complaints in this review can be deemed as very subjective; other racers may not have been quite as frustrated quite as often.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit reminds me of the first part of the assassin's creed-series. In general, the game is great, but it's missing variety and long-time motivation. Especially the number of time trials shouldn't have been this high. Races and pursuits are much more fun. The small amount of about 100 cars doesn't really matter, because all of them were done well, although some them have only 300 PS. Altogether, it's a great action-racing-game, but there is maybe more potential for Hot Pursuit 2.

Wonderfully polished. [Jan 2011, p.90]

Spectacular arcade with one of the most important innovations in on-line modes: the new autolog. A social tool to update the competition between friends.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a very good racing game that brings back the extreme arcade racing from the older games in the series. It's the Need for Speed we all used to know, covered in a brand new coating.

If you are driving fast the AI is driving fast as well. If you are slow the AI is slow as well. The graphics of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit are nice. But the good old Burnout games were much more entertaining. Time trials and car chasing between the police and bad guys are somehow lame.

This fast-paced racer keeps you glued to the TV and on the edge of your seat regardless of which side of the law you're playing on.

Hot Pursuit has overdosed on the adrenaline, providing gamers with some of the fastest action this year.

On the face of things, Need for Speed: hot Pursuit seems like a fairly standard racing game. However, the break neck speed the game runs at combined with the prospect of being involved in Burnout style smash-ups and the pressure of the police presence really help make this one of the most engrossing arcade racers in a long time.

Need for Speed: Pursuit is a ridiculous game. It's totally absurd.

High speed chases is more fun than ever in Criterions take on speeding. The online multiplayer will keep you playing for hours and hours every day.

Hot Pursuit is back and you can't ignore it. And why would you? Criterion took the best parts of the Need for Speed-series and created one of the most enjoyable and progressive racing games of the year.

The core driving is never anything but exhilarating, visually it's almost flawless and the Autolog features are genre leading. There's still something missing, though. While the high-speed pursuits are up there with the best gaming experiences of the year, the game needs more than that: car tuning, a resemblance of a story - complete with cheesy acting - and a reason to explore the open world.

This latest Need for Speed is the best it's been for years, and although it's naturally not going to be a game for everyone (and up against the juggernaut of Sony's exclusive Gran Turismo 5 next week) anyone looking for a solid racing game this Christmas with a significant emphasis on online competition should find this is well worth investigating, especially if you liked the demo.

While Criterion appears to rest on its laurels throughout much of the 'Racer' side of Hot Pursuit's gameplay, effectively producing a quite bland recreation of Burnout in the process, ultimately it's the 'Cop' side of the action that saves the day. From that perspective, Hot Pursuit proves itself worthy of the name with some of the best cop chase gaming of recent times.

Thanks to a "back to the roots" formula, Criterion succeeded in restoring the right path for the Need for Speed series : the chase HQ style pursuits between the police and the crazed drivers. It manages to do this with an inspired approach, borrowing from the original game or more recent ones, like with the finesse and fun inducing in-game equipment. The Autolog feature is a true revolution community-wise, and the online play guaranties hours of added fun. Can we ask for more ? Yes ; a less "heavy" handling of the cars, for an even more dynamic urban rodeo. The best NFS game since the third installment.