Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit PS3 Review

As you might well imagine as with all best video game locations Seacrest County is completely absurd, a quite ridiculous place! You'll find the roads universally pristine and layered with awesome shortcuts. At the same time the national parks are free of gigantic RVs. Also, when people decide to break traffic laws, they do it travelling at 200 mph in exotic supercars. So does this feel like heaven to you? If the answer is the affirmative then you'll definitely need to check out Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit that is a complete reboot of Electronic Arts' cops and speeders driving series from veteran developer Criterion Games.

However, the very concept of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit could well have been all dreamed up at a sleepover party. And this begs the question: what if there was a locale where both cops and illegal street racers drove Lamborghinis, Mercedes, Bentleys, or Porsches, plus other jaw-dropping marques around a gigantic network of roads all at great rates of speed? And another thing: wouldn't it be amazing if they could all crash into each other, drop spike strips, call in helicopters, and run each other off the road? And, besides, as you crash into another vehicle, it should drop into ultra slow-motion, and then provide you with a ton of points?

So what do think about all that?

Well, what I really enjoy about Hot Pursuit is its complete embrace indulging the spirit of adolescent craziness, and then just runs with it! And there's no packed in storyline here either. You're free to play either a cop or a racer, and, besides this, you can increase either your rank or wanted level, run people off the road, drift around the corners to your heart's content, or even drive into oncoming traffic (if you're a racer) - well, just actively behave like a real racing maniac! Along this journey you'll earn bounty to unlock new cars, expand your arsenal of weapons or gadgets, plus open new sections of the Seacrest County map. In fact, the more you drive, crash and smash, the more cool stuff you'll accrue.

It's as simple as ABC - and it works!

It's worth bearing in mind that Hot Pursuit: Need for Speed isn't a collecting game, though. There's no real garage to speak about even if you do unlock vehicles as you progress. As you might expect, in fact, the focus remains on driving these cars and not upgrading, tweaking or painting them. But there shouldn't be a problem with this for the list of vehicles reads like a multi-billionaire's Christmas selection: for instance the Bugatti Veyron, McLaren F1, Lamborghini LP 670-4 SuperVeloce, Mercedes SLS AMG, Nissan GT-R SpecV, plus Porsche Panamera - well, they're all here and that's just a sampling, folks!

Suffice to say that Criterion has created a racing landscape which feels alive as well as kicking! Traffic (all licensed vehicles) come and go, aircraft fly past as you're at the wheel driving, weather effects remain realistic and dramatic, whilst the buildings alongside the roads are - well, how best to describe them? - well, they're real! Hop into Freedrive mode, for example, and you'll discover you can hop, skip and jump, into any car you've unlocked, and just dazzle the environs of Seacrest County to your heart's content! As you motor along you'll be amazed how the weather comes and goes, and how the sun rises and sets, with the world around you just rolling along.

It mightn't have a sexy name but Hot Pursuit's new competition engine remains one of the coolest additions to any game design for a very long time. In the world of online connected gaming there remains a small fraction of the population that actually expects to rank atop the global leaderboard for any given game. And if you're like me - when you post a personal lap time in a racer like Forza 3 or Grid - you hop over to the leaderboards to note where you stack up. Then you might shrug your shoulders and realise just how much you suck! But afterwards, just to make yourself feel better, you investigate how and where you compare to your friends and compatriots! There's bound to be somebody worse off than you - right? - some geek not so good as you!

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is pure over-the-top driving entertainment. You'll find that the cars and environments are gorgeous, the crashes are spectacular, with the new Autolog feature breathing new life into the time-honoured tradition of video game competition to be shared amongst friends.

However, it's worth pointing out that the single-player race can appear repetitive with presentation issues, yet, overall, you'll discover that Hot Pursuit is a real blast!

If you're seeking a high-octane racer that grabs you by the throat, and holds you tight, whilst at the same time not taking itself too seriously, then you must give this one a shot.

And with OpenWheeler you're driving will become all the more desirable with all your skills and finesse truly and properly honed. It's a great racing simulator for all racing game enthusiasts which encompasses unrivalled driving realism combined with experience!

OpenWheeler is a GT racing game cockpit with a PlayStation compatible racing simulator seat, where you can take a great deal of pleasure in your everyday car game racing exercises.

The OpenWheeler racing seat offers this fantastic realism thanks due largely to the correct driving seat position, the firm backside and shoulder support, and the fantastic positioning of the steering wheel and the pedals.

With OpenWheeler you can get extra enjoyment from your favourite racing car games such as Need for Speed, Formula 1, Gran Turismo, and many others besides!