There are 17 titles within the very prolific NFS franchise, but only one has truly stuck with me. 1998's Hot Pursuit holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the first racing games I ever played and I immediately associate it with my childhood. I remember going over to a friends house during the holiday and seeing it for the first time. I was mesmerized. All of this time I've been playing San Francisco Rush on the N64 and there are games like this? Fast-forward 13 years. I pick up on NFS: Hot Pursuit on impulse and here is why I think it is one best games of the year.
I'm approximately 16 hours into Hot Pursuit and I'm only 38% complete. The size and scope of this game is tremendous. It's so difficult to stay on course with this game. I blame that on the Autolog, which is easily the best feature in the game. The Autolog serves as a live update of what you and your friends are doing in the game. Think of it as a Facebook news page, minus all the shit you don't care about.
Here is an example. Eric and I are extremely competitive in this game. Whenever Eric beats my time I'm alerted. So when I come home to find my "wall" plastered with notifications of how Eric kicked my ass on four courses, the last thing I want to do is progress further into the game. I want to crush his times. This is what Hot Pursuit is all about, keeping the player engaged in competition whether they want to or not. You beat a friends time? Awesome. Talk trash and post it on his wall.
Rather than take Blur's flawed Facebook connect approach to show the world how awesome you're doing, Criterion simply created their own symbiotic racing social network. This is the most impressive aspect of this game. You will no longer be plodding through the game going through the motions to simply beat the game and get on with it, no sir, this game wants to hold your attention. It wants to make you better, faster, stronger, and to prevent you from trading the game in after an afternoon play-through.
I could bore you with how the game plays, but I mean it's Criterion. If you've played the Burnout series, then you can pretty much expect the same level of amazing. It is more or less a refined version of Burnout, just as fast and furious. I love it. The online play is very simply laid out. You can do your standard race, pursuit, and interceptor. Interceptor is the most fun and intense play mode. It's one cop vs one racer, limited resources, and complete insanity. It's really all about outwitting your opponent and using your resources wisely. An incredibly fun play mode.
NFS: Hot Pursuit is one of my favorite games of the year. It's fun to play, encourages players to keep playing, an innovative internal "social network" system, streamlined online mode, and did I mention its fun? The game doesn't try too hard. It sticks to what it made it popular in the first place and introduces some new aspects that make Hot Pursuit one of the better racing games in recent memory. Kudos to Criterion for delivering a hell of an experience. Time to hit the open road.
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