Nice Graphics and that's all. This game has some gorgeous scenery but the gameplay is so fail that I don't want to play this game anymore. When you brake the car to pass through a corner, it goes drifting like nuts and you don't have any control over the car. Every car feel like trucks because they all so damn heavy, and especially on the straights, it appears to have some kind of delay when you press the button to go to the right or left, if you just slightly press it, the car doesn't turn, and if you just press the button, the car goes too much. And there is no sensitivity to change on the options.
And there's more, all cars have the same way to control, like the guy said before, it has absolutely no difference between a Crown Victoria and a Lamborghini.
I would think two times before buying this game.… Expand

And I thought that NFS Undercover was the worst of the series... man was I wrong... But that's just my opinion. To be realistic: if you liked NFS 1 and 2, and I mean the real NFS 1 and 2, made years ago, you might enjoy this one. This one feels just like those oldies (sure, and goldies), but in this day and age this is just weak. Sure, graphics look great, but that's about it... So, if you want some 80's arcade style gaming with improved graphics and online features, go for this one, but if you want Need for Speed the way it was in Underground or Most Wanted the only thing you can do is pray...… Expand

Pro: "omg shiny"
Con: Everything else.
Every car handles just about the same, the only difference is the top speed, the AI is horrible, power drifting at 300kph is ridiculous, there is no fun, the game just repeats itself time after time.
It's for the 10-12 year old young ones... You don't need to watch your start, the game does it for you, you don't have to change gear, it does it for you. They could have just come out with a 2 hour long cut scene, it wouldn't made any difference.… Expand

Given the history the NFS series has come along with, I found this to be a very disappointing title. All of the previous titles have tried to afford players as much flexibility in their gameplay as possible, within reason, namely in regards to how different cars handled and performed, the differences imposed based on whether the car was front, rear or all-wheel drive and in driving assists such as traction control, ABS and the like.

This game has none of that. In fact, it provides a worse experience by doing some things that will undoubtedly only annoy some gamers, both casual and serious alike.

Examples of this include an incredibly poor acceleration model; sometimes your car will simply fail to speed up reasonably for no apparent reasons, while at other times it will pelt forwards like a rocket taking performance enhancing drugs. Drifting is also an integral part of any race you take part in, irrespective of the track surface you're driving on or car you're using.

You don't get points for your drifting in this game, though, and it serves no purpose other than to get through sharp corners; but that's where things go completely wrong. It's the only way to get through sharp corners. You can't not drift; the game will automatically enter a drift state provided you are on what the game constitutes a turn, and to make matters worse, drifts follow a certain (and by certain I mean very high) degree of autopilot-esque gameplay.

You can almost simply engage a drift, ensure you're going through a turn at the right angle and then hold in your accelerator at full-throttle. Once the turn, that which the game considers to be the turn, is complete, your car will automatically straighten out for you.

To make matters worse, there is no manual transmission in the game; no option for it, either.

Making matters worse is that there appears to be no true variety between the cars. Within a class you're looking at as simple a set of factors as losing some top speed to gain more acceleration, losing some turning for better drift angle (and subsequent speed through a drift) or having greater turning but worse speed retention during a drift, Whether a car is front, rear or all-wheel drive has virtually no true impact on anything besides off-road handling.


Ultimately, I'm left very disappointed in the game. Given Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit's gameplay and then the shift to unmodifiable cars in Hot Pursuit 2 but still the facility to use a manual transmission and cars that actually felt like they differed from eachother, this game leaves everything feeling exactly the same all the time, which makes for a wholly monotonous driving experience.

It doesn't help that you more often than not feel like you're doing exactly the same race all over again in single-player.

Easily one of the worst aspects of the game, to me, is that somehow the developers completely broke the relation of the bumper-camera to the width of the car in comparison to the previous games. This results in far more collisions with things that players of the previous games will be confident they should have passed, which makes true near-misses and proper navigation through streams of cars a headache rather than a fun/exhilarating experience.

The damage in the game is also incredibly lackluster in complexity. You have multiple 'lives' within your damage bar to use to try and stay in the race; this amounts to three crashes. To make matters worse, a bug exists with the physics behind said crashes; you can total your car entirely by ramming into the backside of another car, while you are at full life, even if there is as little as a 20km/h difference between you. On the other hand, if you collide with a traffic vehicle at anything ranging from 40km/h to 300km/h, you again stand a chance to 'crash' instantly. However, if you simply brake for a split-second before colliding with oncoming traffic, often even if you are traveling at 300km/h, you will miraculously survive the experience with minimal damage.
This game has merit in its graphics, but has poor sound and worse race-intro animations that you have to wait to skip. Gameplay wise it feels monotonous and generally boring in single-player.

If you're a teen that just wants a pretty arcade racing game in which smashing other people off the road or into oncoming traffic/obstacles is your thing, then by all means go for this game. On the other hand if you want a serious racing game where you need to be strategic about when you hit other players and when to back off or try and get a lead, avoid it, you'll only leave disappointed; there is no 'realistic' damage in this game, and if you crash your car you have multiple lives of sorts to use before you're completely written off.… Expand

I wish EA did spend all the money they used to buyout all the game reviewers out there for actually developing a quality game.
That's why piracy will endure forever EA.. because it's our only defense against false advertisement! And that's why the corporations hate it so much, because of the "Try before Buy" option..

The NFS series went downhill since Most Wanted and the main reason for me are the unneeded changes in the already perfect driving engine. This one have utterly unresponsive controls, boring arcade features, frustrating time trials, cars in the same class have zero difference in handling, and repetitive gameplay.… Expand

Flashy, loud, fast paced, and annoying. The game has many flaws. Graphics are bad and I really hate how the AI works. NFS titles don't rely on how well you're lapping, but rather, a AI will decide to overtake you and somehow get +100hp and zoom by you when you're at top speed. It's annoying. The story is really just dumb for lack of a better word. However, there is a nice car selection and there are some exciting times. I would recommend this if you find it for $5--$10 for a cheap thrill.… Expand

I was waiting for something like this, an old-like NFS, and it's seems that EA listened to me. AWESOME graphics, scenery, cars, crashes, EVERYTHING looks gorgeous. The only thing that I can regret for, is the "impossibility" of change things, such as graphics, driving helps, etc. But I think they will fix it, with some kind of patch. But in spite of that, it's a great game. Congratulations EA!

Enjoyable, challenging, LIGHTNING FAST! A gorgeous racing game packed with LOTS of action, and offers a very reactive control scheme. Finally an enjoyable NFS up to its name! Considering Burnout Paradise was the fastest racing game full of action, Criterion Games proved themselves again in making the newest Hot Pursuit. Extremely detailed graphics in terms of cars and the world itself, lots of cars, very enjoyable game modes and missions, The sound effects are simply BRUTAL. As an engine kicks in, as you wreck another car, the speed feeling blows your head off! Ever wondered why is there a Bugatti Veyron in NFS - Shift, while you can't get it to top speed? Forget this. Hot Pursuit offers very open and long roads in various environments, so you can blast your way through them like a tornado with nitro. I did not enjoy the last 4-5-6 Need for Speed games, but this one seriously worths its price. Fantastic, awesome, rapid, adrenaline packed game. Well done, Criterion!… Expand

first off, it is the most anticipated racing game this year. but I had to hestitate because of Assassin's creed brotherhood. fortunately(?) PC version is delay to Feb, 2011. so I just got it. it's been about 4 days since I have played. graphic seems to improve better than previous hot pursuit EA game. control, all other stuff is similar. but it's not why this game is so shine. it actually added the functionality of social network. I think it is great idea especially for PC. since console boxes have already this kind of function long time ago. I guess that EA was listen to customers what they wanted for the game. photo, post (twitter like) is brilliant. updated news also gives me what's going on recently. multiplayer mode offers various racing options which I like to play it more than ever. only thing what I concern is that there is no detail video settings. so I can't really adjust for optimization. other than that, the game is unbelievably near perfect. so far I haven't found any bug both for single and multiplayer mode. I think that this is what we want. Thank you EA to bring awesome game.… Expand

"Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit" is a great racing game with clean, smooth graphics and solid gameplay. However, the controls are kinda buggy for PC and if you're not playing online there really isn't much to do with the single player. If you want a solid racing game, NFS: HP might be your best choice....for now.

Again, EA and Criterion show how much they care about PC gamers: no DLC, no LAN support, and only another **** facebook clone to show for it.

Sorry, EA, you're the ones making us not buy your games. And don't BS us with the piracy excuse, your support is just abysmal.

Racing with weapons? Yes please. This is another adrenaline packed Criterion game. Great graphics, cars, online multiplayer. It's got the lot, at the right price. However, sim fanatics will hate the fun beats realism concept, so they they should definitely buy something else.

Same as Xyz, that's about it. (Only the cars model looks a tat bit better, everything else is crappy.)
No proper driving physics, just slam your break and you drift like 'OUTRUN'.
Soul-less. Most Wanted is far better. Even the lacklusters that came after Most Wanted is better than this. There is nothing to get you engaged.
BORING~ voice over, ESPECIALLY the first Police Intro, she's like yo nanny rushing the scripts.
Take it for a casual ride. Not a worthy buy.

**PS: No settings for graphics, and the graphics looks YUCKS with no reason, unpolished product, and lame Interace/transition design, boo.… Expand

Although I can mostly agree with Xyz, I just need to correct one thing: This Need of Spead Hot Pursuit being already an insult to some of the other incarnations of NFS in the series I hereby wish to clear the name of NFS 1 aka "Road & Track presents the Need for Speed" from a wrong comparison with this piece of arcade console port.
In Road & Track presents the Need for Speed one would use manual gear shifting skills to maximize your control over the vehicle, keep it to the road and help braking. This NFS Hot Pursuit does not even have manual gear shifting options. The reason there for is that it does not have a physics engine that could take advantage of gear shifting. You can't control any option like ABS braking or traction control. You can't adjust any steering parameter besides assigning axes. I have learned how to drive a car better thanks to NFS1 by avoiding any contact with borders and other vehicles and brake and shift in a controlled and synchronized way.
NFS Hot Pursuit will teach you nothing about driving a car, not even avoiding deadly objects. It is a different game than NFS 1, it is not back to the roots, it is arcade to the max, it is a port from consoles to PC, it depicts cars but you can't actually drive them, you make the float through some scenery. The mechanics feel like they were generated by the generic arcade racing game generator program, clearly aimed at those who were still unborn when NFS1 hit the shelves and haven't played many racing games before this.
This is not a classic!
A waste of beautifully rendered scenery!… Expand

I am having a hard time even finding the pros of this game. Graphics, well with no AA option no matter how beautiful the scenery is or how wicked the car is, the jagged edges ruin it. Without any customization options, it just killed over half of my gameplay time. I used to spend over half of my game time cusomizing my ride and admiring its unique looks in the previous versions, and NFS Underground series and mostwanted were simply the best . Gameplay is weak.. the cars turn horribly .. not responsive at all and when i keep the key pressed a little longer the, car just goes out of control. I think it will take time for me as i have been playing DiRT2 a lot lately.… Expand

This game is a total disappointment. I have to admit that the graphics are okay, but the game-play is very bad. I could only play this game for about 2 hours before i got bored. I think EA doesn't afford to pay an extra team to develop a story line.

Oh and did i mention that you can't travel from town to town on the streets by your own ? You can just select on a map to which race you want to participate. Looks like i still have to play my old NFS Most Wanted, it never gets old. NFS Hot Pursuit got old before appearing on the store shelves.… Expand

Finally NFS has gone back to its original style! The graphics are decent, sound is good, loading times aren't too bad. The Races and Cop chases are sufficient. Going as fast as possible in Freeplay mode is good fun. The gameplay is ok but needs tweaking. There seems to be an unresponsive steering delay which gets you into crashes, it can be a huge task trying to avoid oncoming traffic properly. Drifting around corners can be a bit tricky, the cars seem to power slide and tire squeal a bit excessively. It would be great if the driving dynamics was more similar to Grid. The game deserves a 9 but I gave it a 10 because this is how Need for speed games should be like.. driving Lambo's at high speed down long country roads. The game is called "Need for Speed" after all ;)… Expand

On my dual GTX-580's this game is godlike, it forces you to pick certain cars which is a turn off, but the free ride and the spike stripping the PO-lice make it so worth getting...

I wish I had Spike Strips.

I loved the original Hot Pursuit, so I looked forward to playing this game. Most Wanted was fun, but it took too much configuring to get it to look OK on a widescreen monitor. Everything else in the series didn't interest me all that much. They all seemed to be "Fast and Furious - The Game". This is not a racing sim by any stretch of the imagination. This is an arcade type racing game. For that I'm greatful. I don't have to worry about banging a $250,000 sports car against a guardrail. At first I was mostly sticking with playing the street racers, but it's just as much fun to get behind the wheel as a cop and take down the criminals.

As per normal for the NFS series, you get a real sense of speed, and I find that I can finally handle the corners better than ever. This may be in part because I finally gave up on my Logitech gamepad and (stares at shoes) bought an Xbox 360 controller. I hate to say this, but it is the best gamepad for Windows 7. You plug it in, and it works.

You can't tweak the cars in this game, which is a half point against it. However there are quite a few cars available and they do unlock at a good rate. The EMP, and Spike strips are fun to deploy in the Hot Pursuit modes, but here timing is everything. (I actually managed to run over my own spike strip.) The game runs well, but the lack of graphic settings is another point against the game. Even at 1920 X 1080, the lack of an anti-alias setting is sorely missed. I've completed one race on line and there was a very slight lag. Not Black Ops lag, but there was some none the less. I still enjoyed it, and look forward to playing it more, once I get used to the maps. All in all, the game is great fun, and a worth while purchase for anyone looking for an arcade racer.… Expand

This game is great, the socially connected online features that Criterion has created brings real innovation to the racing game genre. The game modes are solid, but it's Autolog's friends comparison engine that really brings the game to life. Competition can become intense as you attempt to shave fractions of seconds off of your friend's times. Almost all of the negative reviews on here fail to mention online play, or Autolog, which was locked out of the pirated version so I presume the majority of poor user reviews are from pirates who are only playing 60% of the game. Buy the full version, play the full game and see for yourself. Possible contender for game of the year.… Expand

Apart from the sulky reviewers that either cannot drive or expect human like behaviour from the AI, this is an excellent game if you are looking for fast paced fun. It really comes into its own when you have friends and play as cops v racers. Yes it has some issues, what game hasn't ? Scenery is nice, cars handle arcade style, not sim, so anyone can drive. If you can't beat the AI on this, play something else ! Just wish they could add proper wheel support, which criterion and ea are just too lazy to incorporate. Works great with 360 controller on PC. Servers can be apain to connect with friends, as it regularly drops someone, but that is a minor set back. Playing this with friends is the way to go, and single player will hone your skills. Beautifully rendered cars, but no unique handling features apart from the odd weight difference.… Expand

If you are looking for the NFS Most Wanted/Underground type gameplay, then this is not for you. If you enjoy the burnout series, and/or the first few need for speed games, then this will be great for you. I will say that in normal races it plays like standard burnout, and would only merit a 6/7 for me. however, when you go into the more innovative game types such as Hot Pursuit, the game completely changes from normal racing to the best racing game i have ever played. I will also say that i got this game expecting it to be like previous NFS games (car modifications, etc.) , but i was pleasantly surprised to find it different.
People will say that it is not like the rest of the NFS franchise, and it plays more like like burnout. I agree with them, but this does not make it a bad game. Overall, the best racing game i have ever played.… Expand

NFS games of late have been poor to say the least, however this game has exceeded my expectations.
This game has a good variety of game types and excellent graphics.
The online multiplayer is great and is suitable for all variety of racers.
The best thing about the multiplayer is that if you aren't comfortable using the high powered cars you can race the slower cars and race against cars of a similar spec. E.G. you cant be in a subaru Impreza vs a Bugatti Veyron.

Finally they have made a good NFS game.
10 / 10… Expand

Dudes who do a racing game with no manual transmission are completely dumb, dude. You're driving a Shelby GT500 @ 70mph, pull the handbrake and the car don't even drift. It completely stops in one second. There's no simulation! Long live NFS Porsche Unleashed.

I think this game is good. I don't play too many racing games, but as far as games like DiRT 2 and GRID goes, this is right there next to them. A lot of people are giving this game bad ratings because of their own PC limitations and ignorance, and that's pretty stupid. Nvidia's already confirmed to be releasing a patch that will allow forced AA through inspector, and ATI users already have CCC patched which lets them do that. If you know how to open up your GPU's graphic options from the desktop, you can force any type of graphic options you want, which makes the argument "This game doesn't support any graphics/AA/etc!!!!" null. And it'd be pretty lol if you fell back on "Well it should have been in the game anyway!!!!!". You can't turn the low-category/starter cars on a dime. That's the deal with every racing game and it's an effective system to encourage the player to upgrade. Delay issues are purely individual-based and are not widespread. This game has fantastic graphics, fluid and intense gameplay, great sounds and music, and I'm having a great time playing in it. The only reason I can't give it a 10 is because I don't play too many racing games and because I haven't played the game for at least 100 hours yet. I don't recommend listening to anyone who says that you can't change your graphic settings such as the amount of Anti-Aliasing, that cheaper/easier-to-obtain cars should have perfect handling, or anything else that they nitpicked. This is a great game, and even though I got it for free, I'd pay full price for it. Thanks for reading.

4GB RAM
GTX 480 @ 1GB
3.4GHz Phenom II X4… Expand

The graphics are good, but that is the only good thing about it.
The car-control is horrendous, it feels like you're driving a semi-truck on ice, and there is no difference between driving one car and another. There is nearly no difference between driving on tarmac and the dirt-road in the shortcuts. The voice for all the menus is annoying, when you select cars it feels more like a car advert than anything else.

Overall, the game is pretty freaking bad, I regret deeply spending money on it. If I had had a chance to try it out first I would never have bought it.… Expand

Game is awesome!!! Graphics are great!!! game play is awesome both single player and multiplayer..The only drawback is the no chat in game or lobby...

I've set up the account just to make a review for this game... I'd say it's an epic product if you are playing it on an older machine like mine (core 2 duo 2.13///2gb of 'mystery' RAM///8600GT). I am playing it on 1280x1024 with HQ textures on and it is perfectly smooth with some odd shortcuts where the game goes down to 15-20 FPS.
As for the gameplay, it is the true meaning of words Need for Speed, if you're looking for some cheap simulators go play toca race driver or gran turismo... It is a pure speed-based game. Just like the HP2 from ~2000 it is about getting to the finish line 1st.
There are two storylines, one - the racer and second - the cop; after 2 days of 5+ hrs of playing im not half way through the ranks, but have unlocked almost all events.
For the game physics, its the 1st game where I noticed it takes time for the driver to turn the god damn steering wheel - stop whining about it, its the way it should be. For the drifting part - find an explanation of words 'Need for Speed' somewhere on the internet... this game is about pure speeeeeed
The 4 'weapons' are IMO a funny solution that replaced the tuning progress.
Overall, game features something new, like undercover, but much better (well yeah UC was a fail), with a wide variety of cars, rapidly unlocked one by one at the early stage the game allows you to test all of them on different tracks... and dividing cars into 'series' is a perfect solution separating all BMWs and similar from Veyron and Koenigseggs.
If you are not after realism and some crap simulators but looking for a game that introduces something new to the market i'd deffinitely recommend it to you.… Expand

real nfs game like a first hot pursuit. not simulation but pure fun with fight between racers vs cops. plus very nice graphic and arcade gameplay. with MP is really addicted. (who want sim : buy Rfactor and who want semi-sim - go for Shift 2. this IS ARCADE) for me 100% fun

My favourite NFS incarnation remains the classic Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, and this is very much like that.

The torrent of hate spilling from many other reviewers seems to just be shock after the hardcore sim-ness of NFS Shift. EA marketing have screwed up because people don't know what NFS means anymore. Hint: it doesn't mean anything now except "EA driving game".

Anyway. this game looks really nice, runs fast and smooth on my not-so-hot-anymore rig (with AA forced on in the nVidia drivers even!) Admittedly, the car handling takes some getting used to, and it's definitely Burnout under the bonnet, but once you've accepted it for what it is, it's fast and fun.

If you're looking for a racing sim, there are plenty of other games (even other NFS games) to appease you. It's not the best arcade racer ever, but if you're looking for a pre-Paradise Burnout-style arcade racer then you should give this a look.

I can see why people who paid full price and weren't sure what they were getting might be pissed off, but for £15 in the Steam sale, it was well worth it.… Expand

I'm sure many newer players will not be satisfied by this turn of the game. However, older players like myself, who have played since the begging of this series and remember what Need for Speed used to stand for, will love this game. NFS back in early days it was just 2 simple things. Exotic cars, racing at exotic places. Add some cops for a spicy note and here we are. The last NFS with this recipe was the Need for Speed 6, a.k.a. Hot Pursuit 2 (because the original Hot Pursuit, was NFS 3).
After that Underground and Most Wanted were good games, but the only common they did had with the past of this series were just... that you drive cars.

Sorry guys, I enjoyed UG and MW but I never felt them like NFS games.

Now NFS is back to the root and I can't give less than 10 for this great game. I wish the series will get separated, 1 at classic style like this game and one with tunned imports. Everybody will be satisfied, including myself.… Expand

This is no Need for Speed: Underground 2, Carbon or Most Wanted, but that might be a good thing for those wanting a refreshing, back-to-basics arcade racer.

Not sure where all the hate is coming from. I have a sneaking suspicion that some people are making up reasons to hate it just because it's new and has good graphics. Make no mistake, this game has unbelievable graphics AND gameplay. The cars feel great and react smoothly, that is in the hands of the right player of course. The police chases are incredibly intense as are the races. The stunning environments and scenery coupled with the near perfect soundtrack makes races and test drives euphoric. The little things you get to sabotage other racers or your pursuer are sinisterly fun. And boy are the police cars beautiful. All in all, it's a honest step forward in the series and NFS fans should love it just as much as I do.… Expand

Just wanted to express my disappointment about this game. I expected NFS not Burnout. Constant over-steering in corners, unstoppable catch-up AI and a steering that's reacting so slowly that one might think they brought this game out just to annoy people. Cant say anything against graphics and sound. Also haven't had any technical problems. But the contrast to SHIFT is just immense. Cant recommend it to any racing gamer.… Expand

My disappointment is that new generation of gamers spoiled by everyday game releases! Hot pursuit is good racing game to relax without 1000+ useless car models and unnecessary realism - arcade as it`s meant to be!
But if you want realism, true 3D, motion blur, AA and other blablabla then buy real Lamborghini Reventon, go to the real track and get it!

Need For Speed has been my favorite series since the first release of The Need For Speed but i really got into Need For Speed when the sequel came out then of course Need For Speed 3 Hot Pursuit really got me more into the Need For Speed Series. There is a good amount of Need For Speed games and EA keeps the genre right with keeping the Need For Speed name for there racing games minus the Burnout series which is more like a Stunt game then a racing game. When Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 was released for PS2,Xbox,GC and PC they were made different on all consoles. PS2 made the better version and the PC, Xbox and GC versions were made differently and some of the reasons was they had to get the PC, Xbox and GC versions ready for release date so they had little time and somethings were missing that the PS2 version had. I played merely on PC and i thought the game was fun minus the issues with the FPS and missing graphics and was unhappy that 2 player offline was missing which of course is still missing today in most PC games but even console is having those issues today. Anyways now im going to get into Need For Speed Hot Pursuit (2010) which is now being developed by Criterion Games the creators of the Burnout series of games. This game was much different then there other series of Hot Pursuit games and at first i wasnt to much about the game. First thing i wasnt happy about was the graphics which of course for PC has been getting worse for some games cause they are now usually direct ports from consoles. Its not that the graphics were totally horrible but of course you could see a little bit of poly's which on PC shouldnt happen unless of course your computer really sucks and you have to go to the lowest settings. At launch there was some missing graphics like rain and snow effects which you'd think would already be available in the game but a patch fixes this and that patch sharpens things up a bit better then they were. For sound in the game all cars sound effects sound great and when it comes to music the songs are great but not all fit in the Hot Pursuit genre of music. The game play was also different not only in cop mode but in some sports car races you get weapons aswell. At first i thought it was weird only cause this wasnt something in the other Hot Pursuit games but it soon gives meaning to the game. The controls with the Xbox 360 controller are really accurate so the game plays really well. The drifting is amazing unless of course there is a car in the lane which can get you a little tempered at times but it gets worse when there is a car in each lane so you have to squeeze in the middle which can be kind of tough during a drift. I seen other reviews for the so called slo motion vid crash, or smashing another opponent and they were complaining that after the auto slo motion vid the car would not always remain in a good position meaning that they place your car in front of on coming traffic or your set on a drift thats not accurate. After reading that in another review i seen that very rarely and i seen they did a near accurate job of those small little sequences and made sure that you would be able to control your car after the sequence is finished. There is also a new feature in the game called Autolog which is almost like a leaderboard but of course only contains friends. Once you add a friend you'll be able to compete against each other and beat each others records and of course play online together. Though a leaderboard is missing i dont believe that to be a big issue the reason is i'd find it hard for anybody to come first place anyways and your usually placed pretty low on the board anyways. I havent tested the online mode part so i cant review that but from what i heard its mainly like your single player mode except your versing components online and the difficulty would probably be harder then offline mode. There is supposedly DLC coming out but as of right now im unsure if its being released for PC and if it doesnt get released for PC then your probably better off getting the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game. So this is not like your average Hot Pursuit game and you have to give it some time to get into but im sure you'll enjoy the game i know i did.… Expand

Very good graphics and gameplay, strong multiplayer component. Nice crashing/damage model and takes "catastrophic" crashes into account nicely without demanding perfect driving... (it may hurt me to put a scratch on a Lambo, but at least the game recognizes such mistakes as minor things). It was annoying to be forced into an unskippable advertisement at first startup, but at least it only happens once. I also wish the multiplayer allows for racing with AI cops (so both human players can race). Otherwise, I'm not sure why there are so many low user scores here, this game is great. Takes me back to the original releases. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for a simulator, and this is the racer title I've turned to. Reviewers that are bashing the driving mechanics may need to tune their controllers rather than assume the gameplay is borked.… Expand

It is very rare that I find myself actually angered by a game, but what EA has done with this one has more than earned my ire. Before I could even begin playing, I encountered a several-minutes-long unskippable ad for another game, which prevented me from just getting in and starting playing--a bad sign of worse things to come, but deserves a mention all its own, because when someone pays to play a game, they're NOT paying to watch ads. If a publisher is going to force their customers to watch ads, then the game should be free. So for respect for customers, this game scores a 0. An online login is required for the offline single-player campaign, as if I didn't have enough logins without legitimate uses cluttering up my password wallet, and if you lose your internet connection while playing, the campaign menu will fail to load. This is the most unacceptable variety of DRM, so in this category, the game scores a 0. The gameplay and mechanics are clunky and unintuitive. EA boasts that future NFS games will use the same engine as Battlefield 3. Newsflash: no game engine can possibly be ideal for both racing games, AND FPS games. This is a big part of the problem with EA's approach to game development, and it really shows. Instead of intelligent AI opponents, we have rubber-band racers, which will teleport ahead or behind you if they fall too far behind, run off the road, crash, or otherwise are boxed in and immobilized. Yes, this includes suspects when you're playing hot pursuit mode, so, all you will accomplish by doing the intelligent thing and pinning a suspect to a barrier, is allow them to escape by teleporting back into the middle of the road and speeding off. Contrary to the instructions given right in the game, the ONLY way to stop a suspect is to total their car with full-contact juggling. Spike strips do not damage tires or slow them down, and your opponents can absorb stupid amounts of damage like being struck against a barrier at 200MPH. The teleportation thing gets really out of hand at times, and you can actually watch them jump around in your rear view mirror or ahead of you on the road, or, of course, from between your front bumper and the guardrail you have them pinned against. Hitting the nitro causes your opponents to speed up, and they can go far faster than the top speed of their respective cars in the interest of pissing you off. Drifting is the fastest way to go around a corner... whose idea was this, anyway? FWD, AWD and RWD cars all drift the same.. in fact, all cars handle equally on the road for the most part overall, and the car selection is drab and boring, despite the number of exotics to choose from. In fact, most of the exotic pursuit cars are only available for special "time trial" stages, and not for pursuit at all... there's a distinct shortage of fun and engaging multi-car racing and pursuit stages in this game, so they really should have just called it "Need For Speed: Boring Arcadey Racing Game" So, for game mechanics, AI, and all around fun, this game scores a 0. I'm just going to stop here, because I really have nothing nice to say about this game. Sure, the graphics are passable, but if you really care about that, you should be playing Crysis or some other sandbox tech demo. I'd promised myself in the past I would never buy another EA game again, and I should have kept that promise, as this is just another reminder as to why. I picked this game up for $15 on steam, and I really wish I could just have my money back. Don't buy it. Don't even rent it. It's not worth it.… Expand

NFS Hot Pursuit is a game where players get play as both cops and speeders. I like the game and it provides a very unique experience as players get to test out new super cars while evading the law, this wouldn't be the best game I've ever had but it's worth buying. It will test your driving abilities.

This game is amazing, the graphics are amazing, the scenery is amazing, and the gameplay is absolutely fantastic. Online especially is so fun, online is amazing, NFS has gone back to its original style. The game has so much to offer, so many different places to race, a wide variety of cars, and online you race as a cop or the racer, the cop trying to catch the racer, the racer trying to get away, with friends this is so fun, I love it. Anyone who disses this game don't know what up. Really though, give it a shot, it's like $30 bucks max, and it's so worth it, very fun.… Expand

I want to explain some things first that will explain some of the negative reviews. The maps were designed for some serious drifting. With this in mind, you must drift to make the corners but if you come out of them right, you will have more nitrous and will end up going super fast. This is hard to pull off on the keyboard. I admit it didn't feel fun. Once I used the xbox controller on my pc, the game suddenly became MUCH easier. Drifting felt like paradise. The first cars are terrible at this. Later on you feel like you can drift on a dime with cars like the McLaren F1. The problem with cars that turn well is that they get shredded by cars that don't turn well like Lamborghinis. It's kind of a trade off depending on how you like to play.

Overall, the game is a great follow up to the Hot Pursuit series. It has great graphics and gameplay. Only get this if you like arcade games. I normally only play simulator car games but this one was an exception.… Expand

Read the negative reviews, they are basically true. I did not expect much from this game, and I had my share of fun with it. Multiplayer can be quite challenging, and you get bounty points for multi as well. So there is no need and point grinding trough the single player, only for practice or because of the nice locations.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is the latest instalment in this old series of games. Hot Pursuit boasts two separate game modes within the single-player career option, an amazing list of the worldâ

if you're the sort who plays racing games with the arrow keys and never turned on manual shifting (which is not in this game at all), you might think this is a good title, otherwise ignore this sorry waste of code

I have to start by saying this is the worst Need For Speed game I've ever played and I'm a big fan and have played nearly all of them since the first Hot Pursuit coincidentally. The handling is atrocious, no matter what car you choose it's gonna handle like its towing a caravan full of obese hippos. There's a horrible delay whenever you try and turn making avoiding other cars and traffic a nightmare and if you do manage to turn in time your car will wobble all over the place before straightening up again and to get round bends power sliding is a must although, paradoxically, the cars handle best when they're sliding sideways around a bend at 100+ mph. I can't help but feel that the handling could've been fixed somewhat by allowing you to tinker with a few simple settings such as steering sensitivity, ride height/stiffness, aerodynamics etc but there are absolutely no tweakable options whatsoever, you can't even have manual transmission, let alone purchase any upgrades for your car like in nearly every NFS game in the past decade. It really detracts from the sense of achievement and progression as you get handed cars after most races and you know that they're all gonna handle abysmally with no incentive to race them anyway to save up for upgrades. The AI is another serious problem with this game. Extreme case of horrible rubber banding where you can be flying along at top speed after a near perfect run and the AI can still cruise right on past you half a mile from the end, it just makes playing boring and frustrating. The graphics aren't too bad but there's a distinct lack of options for tweaking and no support for AA. Made by Criterion and yet manages to be worse than both NFS and Burnout. Overall extremely disappointing.… Expand

When i saw the good critic reviews i looked forward to playing this game, but when i played it disappointed me. The graphics are nice, but i feel like there isn't a story, and how the cars feel is really bad. I play Racedriver Grid a lot, and i think that game has the right balance between fun and realism in the handling. I can imagine that a lot of people will enjoy this game, but for me the fake driving just kills the fun. I'm not going to give it a really low score, because except the game-play it looks good, and you can have a bit of fun with it, but i would give it a 6.5. A 7 is too high in my opinion, so my score is a 6.
You could have fun with this game if you don't mind the driving, but for me this just isn't the game.… Expand

This will be my second 9 out of 10 for any game, I only have one 10 out of 10 but its not listed on metacritic. I will explain all of the reasons I really cannot give it any lower than 9 out of 10 so please bear with me. First of all, the game play is amazing if you like street racing games, the campaign is moderately long and you can be either a cop or a racer. Both of which are incredibly fun to play with different types of races/missions. The controls might be a little quirky but they are moderately easy to get used to. The cops vs racers game play is fun in it self, even though some players can use cheap bs tactics and it kinda takes the racing element out of a "racing game" when they drive around in circles and are not timed. Aside from this, unethical and cheap shot tactic, its a fairly fun mulitplayer mode to play with your friends. Multiplayer is moderately dead right now but the single player is fun as can be as well. People who say every car has issues driving or feels heavy, or some delay, they either got the game and it was patched after or they did not give it a full chance. To those who say it has beautiful graphics, I gotta give them two thumbs up as it is incredible. Even the cars have different moving mechanics, including different drift speeds, how easily you drift, how fast you can go, how soon you can drift you are just turning and not hitting the brakes, etc. The controls are the big issue for newcomers here, the scheme is a is accelerate and z or s is brake (I forget which off the top of my head), and the learning curve is moderately high, it is a very good game once you get past all of this. The only complaint I have, there is only one race that takes longer than 10 minutes to complete, on average, and its the Seacrest tour. The game needed more of these very long races for racers as they are fun. Even the seacrest tour goes from morning till night, it feels awkward but at the same time its a seamless transition so you sometimes do not realize the time that it takes. The races get progressively harder and the ai is actually fairly good at racing you. Only complaint about the ai is that they keep up with you but if you crash you dont keep up with them, sometimes. It would be nice to be able to break away 30 seconds ahead of the ai when they crash like they can do to you in certain duels. But yeah, all things aside, incredible game, incredible graphics, great controls, great racing in general, and even some combat racing using spike strips, helicopter spike strips, emps, roadblocks, jammers, and nitro to either escape the cops or disable the racers cars. Despite this, the racers would have likely died in the crash but somehow they are unharmed. So here is the breakdown. Graphics 10/10 Music 10/10 Sound Effects 10/10 Controls 9/10 Lasting Appeal 9/10 Gameplay 9/10 Overall 9/10 Fantastic title, EA, quite possibly the only series you have not ruined.… Expand

this game should have been rated a 2/10, i cant say one good thign about it besides being able to be the cop but they screwed that up so much its like slapping a lightbar on a gokart from mario kart 64...

It's not so bad. Granted, when you first start, it's horrible.
You have to sit through an ad then you have to connect the the "autolog".
Honestly, though, these are temporary distractions and really don't need to be done again. They just don't add to the game's initial impression one bit.
However, playing the game's career mode is pretty good fun. It seems like criterion researched the original Hot Pursuit and tried to reproduce it with their own Burnout Paradise kind of twist.
It does occasionally feel like the original game, and it comes across that they did try hard to keep the player feeling carefree about game progression and upgrades, while still giving the free-roaming that NFS has included with almost every release for many years (barring SHIFT and Pro Street).
This Free Roam is a failure, as there's nothing to do but drive in the car you select.
For some odd reason, I can't help but feel like I'm playing a great DLC for Burnout Paradise.
That said, the car control isn't as refined as BP, and I've heard that using a wheel is nigh on impossible.
Which is just plain stupid. It's a racing game.Wheels add to the realistic feel of the game, therefore, there will always be players wanting to use wheels.
So, Ratings...
Graphics: 7. It's not revolutionary, but they look ok.
Sound: 6 Decent music if you like that kinda thing, nice SE but the engines just don't come through for me, no matter how much I tweak. EG, Even in the in-car camera modes, the engine is barely audible. That bites, and you can't adjust engine volume.
Gameplay: 8. A great try to remake something that many people played and loved. Not many are going to see it the same way, but I did catch glimpses of the old HP in this game, and they were nice memories.
Overall, I reckon it's in for a 7.
A good game, but introduces itself in the most irritating way possible. The meat of the game is great fun, and quite similar to the game it's based on. Still, something tells me that Criterion could have done much better.… Expand

Like many others, I bought this because it was supposed to get back to the roots of the NFS games and because the critics gave it good reviews. I was very disappointed however.

Features:
First of all you're basically forced to do the career when playing single player. There is no option to make a custom race. Don't get me wrong, I do want a career mode. I loved the career mode in Need for Speed Porche Unleashed. You started out with slow cars and slowly earned money to buy faster and more powerful cars. In this game you unlock cars by earning points, but most of the time you won't get to chose car before the race.
There is also no option to tune your car before the race. You select a car (if the race allows you to chose of course) and a color and you're off.

Interface:
To put it mildly, the interface is annoying. It is obviously a console port. The menus are flashy and animated instead of being short and to the point. But the major flaws are the unskippable and/or unneccecary animations/cutscenes. Like the introduction to the race after the loading screen (skippable, but annoying and unneccesary) or the unskippable animation when you unlock a new car. What I find most diruptive is the in-race interruptions. When you first encounter a roadblock or when you first wreck a cop car, your driving is interrupted by a short animation which throws your driving off balance. A simple notification on the side of the screen would have been plenty.

TLDR:
Pros: Nice graphics, nice feel of speed
Cons: Severe lack of features, lack of gameplay settings, bad and disruptive user interface, Cars handle the same

The game would have been great if it had more features and fixed the UI.… Expand

After owning this game for a month or so, I've played it for a few hours at best. The basic gameplay is very burnout. Which, when I bought I assumed was a good thing. But if you enjoyed burnout, wait for the next one. The cars all have the same controls, and feel ridiculously heavy. Where crashing into other cars was fun in Burnout Paradise, HP makes it a tedious mistake, slowing you right down.

The completely unresponsive controls mean you will end up barralling into a wall if you don't see it 500meters before or more.

The campaign mode quickly feels like a grind, and the online mode no better. I have no interest in the autolog feature, which failed to suggest friends. Which is humorous, since you cannot communicate with those you are playing with over voice. Completely retarding the point.

The game looks nice and runs well, as much as burnout paradise did.

In short. If you want to buy this game, get burnout paradise instead. Or Hot Pursuit 2 for earlier consoles. This does nothing to afford the price tag, and is an unfortunate purchase.

If only I could return video games.… Expand

What is that? It feels just like 80's Outrun just with better graphics.
The steering is a joke. Keyboard ist simply not possible cause of the latency in fast S-turns (you have to plan 3 seconds ahead!)
No Steering Wheel support.
Free drive is nothing but scenery, no Cop hunt or Chase like in Most Wanted, just nothing.
All in all it is just a "drive from a to b" game that lacks any innovation and open World feeling like in Most Wanted or Burnout Paradise with bad Controls, Cars that feel all the same and great graphics.… Expand

I agree with the people here - bought the game influenced by the good critic reviews, however it is highly questionable why the reviews are so good - personally I do not understand it. This is by all means a poorly designed game, excepting only the visuals - but you tire about them after the first hour of gameplay. Then you are left with ridiculous car handling, ridiculous physics, unresponsive cars, no manual shifting, incoming traffic is just for the sake of it (behaving irrationally, incoming cars are feeling weird when passing them), horrible AI... also, cars cannot be customized, soundtrack is too quiet, awards are received without any sense of achievement, so you are just skipping it and going to the next race - there is no sense of advancing. Crashes are OK, for the first few times you experience them, but they can not be a reason for good rating. I know that the goal was not to deliver a simulation, but the good old Most Wanted (and Shift, for that matter) are so much more enjoyable... Maybe this game is good for your 10-year-old kid, but to anyone above that age I advise to avoid this game and spend the money on something else - you will be doing a favor both to yourself and your wallet.… Expand

Ok let's get the good stuff out of the way first. Graphically it's probably the best game I've ever seen, the environment and especially the cars are almost life-like, it doesn't require a monster PC to run and look good, there are invisible walls only enough to keep you on the road, and the dynamic time / weather are amazing. The car choices are also great even if there aren't any Ferrari's (FYI that's Ferrari's fault, not EA) (their loss as well) and although some cars can't race with each other although they would be able to (ex: The ultra light Zonda vs that brick Bugatti). Music is also great, especially the theme song.

Now on to the bad stuff, and I hope you're sitting comfortably cause you'll be sitting for a while.

First thing that I noticed even before the game was released is the crash / game moments camera. Yes, that anomaly that EA keeps putting in every f***ing NFS and Burnout game that makes you crash and hit spike strips by taking the control of the car away from you. But unlike the previews NFS games, you can't disable it, and unlike in Burnout it only works in your favor 10% of the time, the other 90% you'll be hitting roadblocks, spike strips and pretty much everything else, costing you the race most of the time. And as if that wasn't enough, Criterion did THE DUMBEST THING POSSIBLE: They added the moments camera ON MULTIPLAYER! Can't comment any further on this, it's bad.

The moments camera by itself wouldn't be enough to ruin the game, after all, it backfired in Burnout Paradise sometimes as well. But combine it with one of the worst rubber band / catch up features in history and you'll achieve the highest level of frustration since Contra. Again, the NFS and Burnout series are no stranger to rubber band, but again, old NFS games let you disable it and Burnout does it right.

If the game moments camera and rubber band still aren't enough to make this game the most frustrating racing game ever (nah kidding, 2nd most frustrating after Most Wanted) then the final piece of this painful puzzle will: controls. I don't know how they are on the Ecks Bawks or the Pee Es Three but on PC they are terrible. Steering is way too sensitive and if you try to slow down (or get forced to slow down by the moments camera that refuses to trigger in a crash) and steer you'll end up doing donuts.
And these weapons, they work in every way possible except how you want them to, why the hell does that EMP target helicopters when they are impossible to hit unless you bring your car to a complete stop, or racers if the damn cop is right in front of me??

The absence of a reset feature doesn't help things ether, but taking all of the above in consideration, a reset key wouldn't make a difference.

And now comes the biggest kick in the b*lls (no offense girls) for PC gamers: yeah I'm talking about the DLC's. EA claims they can't bring the DLC's to PC because they lack the resources. It's enough to Google ''EA'' to know they have enough resources to buy Canada and still have enough for the Niagra falls. Proof that they DO NOT WANT to bring the DLC's to PC is that the Crew Edition / SCPD Rebel / Dr Pepper / Etc cars actually exist in the PC version. Ok ok if you don't wanna make new DLC's for PC fine, but why not unlock these since they already exist in the game?

I hope other people don't get tricked into buying this piece of crap.… Expand

I enjoyed the crap out of this game. I'm not much of a racing-game guy at all. Back in the day, I got "Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit" in a bundle with my freaking VOODOO graphics card. Yeah that's right, 3DFX. I played the crap out of that game. Getting away from, and playing as, the cops was fun as hell. Running cars down, setting up road blocks, smashing cops off the road, making your escape... physics and realism be damned. This is the kind of racing game I need, I suppose. I'm not a Gran Turismo guy. After playing that game, I thought all Need for Speeds would be equally fun so I bought the next one I came across, "Porsche Unleashed"... and was subsequently bored to tears. I didn't go back to NFS, or racing games in general, until I heard about this "reboot", I guess you could call it. When I heard about it I got so excited, thinking about all the fun I used to have with the original Hot Pursuit. I tried it out and YES, awesome, they captured the original spirit of the first game very nicely. Yes, yes, I see all the complaints. The AI grants the cars sudden bursts of speed, it's not realistic, yada yada. Dude, who GIVES a crap? That is not what this game is about. This game is about going full throttle, sliding around corners, and smashing cars to bits, which it delivers in spades. I liked the graphics, liked the car physics, liked the weapons, liked the new "open world" style (it's not a looped track anymore, there's just a huge county that you could technically drive around forever, they just section off bits of that county to be that particular events track). If I were to levy one complaint against the game, it would be that I find it annoying that brake-checking a car that's behind you into your rear bumper always seems to do more damage to you than them. Always having to ram a car with your front bumper (from the side doesn't seem to work out too well either) was a little annoying, if for no other reason than I could've set up some really sweet swoop-and-swats if the game were coded otherwise. 9 out of 10.… Expand

I had such high hopes for this game, loved the original on PS, High Stakes, Most Wanted, Carbon and my most favorite of all, that perfect combo of music, gameplay and arcade, Hot Pursuit 2. Then Criterion got a hold of it and just made Burnout Takedown with real cars that handle like crap.

Explain to me how my computer controlled opponent slams into another car, hits a wall and still wins by 10 seconds with me running a nearly flawless drive? Cops dont seem to slow the cpu cars down a bit yet i have three Mustangs treating me like I'm Rodney King. Online mode isnt much better especially with the cop mode because its now just Mario Kart with high speed dump trucks. Instead of a banana peel i drop a spike strip, instead of a turtle an EMP blast. Which by the way does nothing to CPU controlled opponents, they dont slow down, they keep going. You dodged that thar roadblock like the Duke Boys on meth, yet the car in front of you didnt and he respawns ahead of you. Im really disappointed in this pile of poo that bears the NFS brand. I thought about giving it a 4 but even thats too generous. I lump it in with Underground2 and Pro Street. I dare say the NFS brand is dead to me, never again will they get my money.… Expand

Bring back the old parts of the atmosphere. Expensive cars, speeding wildly, police officers, wonderful landscapes, beautiful graphics. The Criterion games did a good job.

One disadvantage is that sometimes it can be difficult.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is one of the best selling Need for Speed game in the series. And one thing like about Need for Speed is fast cars and high speed pursuits and racing and Hot Pursuit deliver its all. Criterion Games delivers us one of the best Need for Speed games ever with bringing the series by bringing back the roots of Hot Pursuit. There a lots of game elements that made this game great like the graphics, the tracks and new and fun ways to take down cops. I like how Criterion has used Burnout's takedown mechanic to take down cops and racers I felt that fitted quiet well, I also liked use of technology that the police has was used in the game. Although I found one thing a bit annoying was the soundtrack. The soundtrack has dull and slow paced song with didn't the game's atmosphere with only a few good songs. Anyway the great game is high trilled with speed.… Expand

Need 4 Speed HP 2 for the PS2 was very fun. The best NFS was one of the Underground/2/Most Wanted. I expected much from this one. This is a big dissapointment for all the NFS shift players because it is brutally arcade! But proper arcade it is! I really love it. Smash around corner with insane drifts and wrecking opponents with spike strips. The last stages are kind of hardcore 2 get gold but it is really really good!… Expand

Thank you critics for once again giving a game a misleading rating. This piece of crap game shouldn't even have the title of "Need for Speed". No customization, no story, free-roam mode is an after-thought. The introduction when you first play the game is more like an introduction to a driving lesson simulator as opposed to an actual NFS game. Oh, and don't get me started on the selection of songs. I was pleasantly surprised to hear 30 Seconds to Mars' "Edge of the Earth" on the title screen. If they had kept with the hard-rock genre I would've been happy, but sadly I was disappointed to find I was lured in and tricked, as I endured the endless amount of "indie" tracks. I'm not slating the bands or the genre, but who wants to drive to that **** 'Does it offend you yeah', 'MIA', 'Klaxons', etc. Bull****. What happened to Most Wanted's soundtrack? Give me Celldweller anyday. As for the gameplay itself, it's not bad. But then it's not good. Firstly, automatic transmission is mandatory. Yeah. Even the old Outrun game at arcades have manual transmission. Secondly, why can't I turn off the cutscenes every time I crash or take out another race? After the cutscene you're automatically driving again, which has sent me off in the wrong direction in cop mode. Another thing is when NPC cars crash, they do the same. One NPC crashed into one of my roadblocks and then he suddenly disappeared and was placed onto the track a hundred yards ahead at full speed. Was it too hard for the programmers to enable NPCs to back up and turn around?… Expand

Another great game by Criterion Games. The graphics are absolutely impressive even though it is 2012 now! The game isn't terribly long but provides lots of fun in the large world named "Seacrest County." There really isn't any problems with the game besides the fact how all the cars basically handle the same. Even though the gameplay is more like gameplay from older NFS titles, it is nice to have a change for once.… Expand

This the best racing game ever !!! So many exotic cars you don't know which to choose. Excellent graphics, beautiful stunts and slow-motion animations. Criterion really did its amazing game again !!! Highly recommended. You will always want to play this game if you like fast racing, hot pursuits and simply a good game ;-)

Stunning graphics, physics and scenery. The game play was good at first, but Hot Pursuit's linear game play eventually gets boring. There's nothing that is distinguished from anything else, it seems all about just racing. I know the Need for Speed franchise is focused almost entirely on racing, but at least you could actually do something to your car. And the lack of customization from the previous NFS games I find very disappointing; as a racer you could only choose the colour of your vehicle, and with the cops you can't customize it at all. But although all of these features it lacks, the graphics are stunning, the vehicle models are stunning, the physics are too. But I think all Criterion are trying to do is keep that Burnout feeling in their games: The destruction when you take down a vehicle is very much like Burnout. I did enjoy Hot Pursuit, but it does not belong in the NFS genre.

Thanks Criterion, but no thanks.… Expand

Just good game in single player mode, but genius in Multiplayer, which provides a lot of fun when you play with friends. To the plus: autolog, graphics, soundtrack, awesome cars and views from the road. Worthy successor old Hot Pursuit.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a great racing game, and a reboot of the 2000s original.

The game features over 50/60 cars, more than the original, in both Racer and Police Career Mod.

Like mentioned up, the Career is divided in 2 mods, that are separate from each other, with different points, objectives and gameplay style. Racer and Police. Both mods feature lots of cars, many of them present in both mods, but even so, there are some unique cars that aren't available for both mods, for instance the Ford Crown Victoria is available only for police, while for racer isn't.

The cars are divided in several categories, such as Muscle, Exotic, Roadsters, from expensive to relative cheap cars and others.

Both Racers and Cops are having their own arsenal such as the EMP, Spike Trips which makes the gameplay exciting and very competitive.

The action takes place in Seacrest County, a fictional place located along the West Coast of the United States. It has environmental attributes similar to that of Washington, Oregon and California. It is devoid of urban areas although scenic views and wide open roads await those who take their rides for a spin.

The gameplay feels free but in same time linear, and even repetitive at some points, but this isn't a big problem for such a game.

However is a bit disappointing that you can't customize your ride, excluding paint, which takes a bit from the style of the previous Need for Speed games.

The graphics are well made, the cars have a great handling, and the location and environment look and feel like in a real racing game.

So overall, NFS:HP (2010) is a great game that deserves to be played by everyone, and as it has it's own story and location, separate from the previous games, so you don't need to play a previous game to know what's happening in this one.… Expand

I went into this game knowing it was an arcade fest, no sim genes at all, but that's ok, I love both NFS and burnout. When it was on sale on steam I finally snapped it up.
I've played a couple hours and have won everything effortlessly. Nitro (boost) is refilled easily by driving against traffic (which is easy because there's like 1 civilian car per KM), you can use it nearly all the time reducing any strategy to not wasting it when you're at top speed. The way to play this game is not like NFS at all, you play it like a burnout, so pedal to the metal and any corner can be taken at top speed. The moment I went into a corner too fast I played with the boost and just pull through it easily (instead of just sliding of the track which it should do). Later I decided I should try what the handbrake button does and discovered it's mislabeled, it's really the instant drift button making cornering even easier, which saves your boost (really it's boost from burnout, has nothing to do with nitro) and even gives extra for drifting. If you hit something, the worst that can happen is you crash, which costs you about a second or so because you're instantly respawned on the road and already driving and going pretty fast, you still have your boost so just rocket off and you'll overtake your opponents soon enough again.
When you finish a race and you were any good, odds are you will unlock something, either a new car or a level. For everything you unlock, you are tortured with an uninteresting flashy sequence that is unskippable and takes about 15 seconds. So, gain a new level and raise in rank and I'll just put down my controller and look outside for a bit. If this wait was a loading screen the game would get totally trashed for it. I guess if you stick with the game long enough to unlock everything this will go away, but it's just totally retarded not to let the player skip these loads of crap. In the same vein, while you're driving, if something happens like a crash or a cop pulls onto the road as you drive past, the camera switches to the action and no longer shows you what you're doing. In other games, this was an option to be switched off asap by myself as I want to keep my eyes on the road, but no such option is to be found here.
Now then, you do unlock a lot of cars, so that should be good right? Honestly, so far I tend to just stick with the same car because the new cars don't seem to be any better actually. Also most cars feel like they weigh 5 tons (steering barely does anything at high speed, but still you can take a hairpin turn at 200 kph by drifting), so I tend to just stick with the same light agile cars all the time. Also, if you have a race where only one or two cars are allowed, you'll still get the whole list to choose from but all the other cars will have some message over them saying you can't pick them. Was it really that hard to only show the elligible cars?
Ok, so maybe it's better if I drive as a cop, maybe I can do some more of those lovely pit manouvers I loved in NFS MW... NOPE! Taking down a car is just as moronic as in NFS Undercover, just bump into the cars until their health bar is all the way down. The only thing that seems to matter is how hard you hit them too, not where. Ramming them a couple times from the back is an excellent way to make them stop, taking the effort to try and spin them out just makes you slower at catching the bad guys. You do also get weapons, but the spike strip seemed to me to be of more use to the racers (yes, the racers get the same on vehicle weapons as the cops...) than to the cops, because as a cop you'll be chasing. You can try to overtake the racer and hit them with the spikes, but again, it's easier to just ram them a couple times from behind (especially because cops automatically gain boost at a pretty high rate). Then there's a targettable EMP, you can call for roadblocks and I believe later on you can call in a chopper? Not sure because before I got there I had to stop because I felt my braincells committing hara kiri... Anyway, it all comes down to gimmicks and no race skill required whatsoever.
Cops also gain bounty, just like racers... Couldn't you have come up with some other term for cops? Really, why would a cop rack up bounty? It's silly.

So, am I just ranting because it's more burnout than NFS? No, because if it actually was burnout I would LOVE that, there hasn't been a decent burnout for too long. But it's not burnout, it's way too tame compared to burnout. Burnout is exhilerating, so bleeding fast that you feel like crawling into your screen, totally focussed on what is appearing at the horizon because you're going to be there in half a second. This... this is just, boring, way too easy, and... well, seems to have been made for some kind of braindead gamer that cares more about social network features than a decent challenging racing game, wether realistic or arcade.… Expand

Its a solid experience until you eventually race on all like... 12 roads in total over a hundred times. I wouldn't call this game god awful, because it starts off cool, but like Howard Dean in 2004, it shines, then fizzles out really quick. Multiplayer can be cool, but queuing takes longer than you would certainly like, and well, if you played it, you could find the rest of the issues in one or two races easily, thats how blatantly obvious some of them are. Autolog is a good idea, if you have friends that have this too. Ill be nice to it and give it a 5, just for the sake of the 6 hours of fun I had with it.… Expand

Bought it recently at a super nice price, i expected an arcade just to have some fun, but tbh i really didnt expect a game tard like it is.
I play with a wheel and cars handling is really unnatural, the feeling of driving a Pagani Zonda is the same as driving a Mitsubishi Lancer, and still it seems not realistic at all, not that i tried a Zonda... but c'mon.
There is not much sense of speed, its too easy to drift, to recover, in most occasions its possible to drive the entire race without using brakes at all, just hand brake at full speed :P
There are no options to raise a bit the difficulty or to make the game a bit more realistic.
Damage system reminds me to OUTRUN the coin op, and also something incredible, there is no way to drive with manual shifting.
Other issues are about the fact there is no logic in what you doing, why you are competing, and even if the idea of the Island and the free roaming is cool, i really miss championships or something to give some more sense then just beat the best track time.
The unlock system is lame, the port is quite bad, no AA, no effects, it seems more an hard port.
Cant really understand what kind of customer they designed the game for tbh.… Expand

Hot Pursuit offers wonderful scenery and cars, nice graphics, good soundtrack and good audio sampling of the engines. Hot pursuit modality is funny (using both policeman or racer) and finally cars can be damaged. Gameplay is fast and easy, while car dynamics are completely unreal.
But Hot Pursuits lacks in variety. It is very repetitive after the first hour and it is very easy.
Another lacks are the abscence of a minimum customizzation and **** view.… Expand

CON: I am going to be completely honest about this game based on what I saw myself, and building on what others have said. Everything you see here in these reviews is mostly completely true for the negative parts of the game. The graphics are a complete disaster, the game play is dull and boring, and the cars are hard to drive and the AI will beat you most of the time even if you are going as fast as you possibly can. I have yet to even get 3rd place in the first race because the AI just keeps on passing me like nothing, I haven't even played beyond the first race. PRO:That's all I have to say about this game, as far as the good parts well, I have yet to see one. Good thing I burned a copy from my friend and then got a crack, otherwise I would have gotten screwed = )… Expand

How do I protect myself from bad games if I'm determined to not pirate? How does this game have a Metacritic score of 85? Where do I go to get true reviews? I need to start relying on the user scores instead.

My first experience in the NFS series came in 1999 with High Stakes. And have been looking out for an update to that game play in recent years. I thought this 2010 version of Hot Pursuit may be it. To some extent, the graphics captured the style of that 1999 version in regards to the environments, but the similarities end there.

The two biggest disappointments are, 1) No manual transmission and 2) very limited graphics options. First, how can you have a racing game using high performance, exotic cars with automatic transmission? Does such a thing even exist in the real world? And why does the HUD even have a tachometer if there's no shifting?

Second, this game is fairly pretty, but on my rig, I have higher expectations than this game supports and I'm running a 1.5 year old Radeon 4890. I realize this is a console port, and now I realize just how dated the PS3 and Xbox360 hardware must be. I wish there was at least Anti Aliasing support. Seeing angles in the yellow stripe going around the curve is so '90s.

As for the game play, once you get over the reality that this is not a racing sim but rather an arcade game, it can be fun. You certainly don't need a speedometer, and you don't really need to spend much time learning the courses. After 1 or 2 runs, any course is perfected because you can drive reactively. Go into a turn too hot? No problem, just drift. Still too fast? Hit the e-break and get a little better angle. Still too fast? No worries, you'll just bounce off the rail and get back into the race. The outsides of the courses have fences to keep you from running off the road. And you just rub or bounce right off of them.

The cars can take quite a bit of damage. I've yet to wreck one to the point that I can't complete the race. Oh and smashing head on into on coming traffic at 100+ MPH triggers a pretty cool 3rd person slow motion view of the action, but as far as what it does to your position in the race, no worries, you'll only loose 1 or 2 spots and easily gain them back if you have more than a mile to go to the end.

You are offered no race replays. I've had some moments that I wouldn't mind seeing again, but too bad, I'll just have to remember it. And there's no tracking of your times, only the best time on each course and which car you used. Bottom line, if you're looking for a good racing seem with lots of features and car customizing. Look elsewhere. This title doesn't live up to the legacy of the NFS series.… Expand

I give this game a 1 simply because it's graphics are average. They're not fantastic as previously implied (lack of AA) but they're not horrible either. That is where the positives end, however. Upon starting the game, you are greeted by a screen showing you all the car manufacturers who have products featured in the game. This game is filled to the brim with many cars to choose from and unlock for use. Sadly, each car handles exactly the same with the exception of top speed. A Nissan 350z has the exact same handling as a Ford GT. Cars can seamlessly enter a extreme drift going around any corner while doing 300+ kph. This is the only way to take corners since all the vehicles (when not drifting) turn roughly the same as a semi-truck.This is OK though since drifting can literally be imitated with the touch of a button. At least it is consistent. Any player of the Hot Pursuit's of old will immediately recognize the way things work up until the point they experience the SERIOUS rubber-banding issues and the downright cheating AI. Then they will find out that you cannot change anything. You cannot change the colour, settings, tuning, parts, or (!!!!!!!!!!!)even the type of gearbox (!!!!!!!!!!!!!). The tracks are supposedly set routes along a open-world but it does not feel like this. Tracks are very dull and boring with no uniqueness between them, broken up with occasional shortcut which just gives the rubber-banding AI a chance to catch up. I did not get the chance to play online, but I can't say I particularly want to. Once you've had one scoop of feces you don't typically want more… Expand

First thought: This is worse than the GTA4 port. My system is mega fast, but cant play NFS hot pursuit.
The game looks good. Gameplay is fun. BUT what is wrong with EA? I have a lot of problems playing the NFS series. Hot Pursuit is choppy and slow, while Crysis 2 plays perfectly on extreme settings. I managed to do patches and resource settings(switching 2 of my 4 cores off) and it runs a bit better. The same happened to me when I played NFS Underground.… Collapse

Just registered this account for this review. I just don't get it that how could IGN give it a goddamned 9. SP is bland and empty, MP is uninteresting, the city is empty, very poorly featured, and don't even get me started at the controls. This game successfully broke the negative record of NFS undercover in my opinion. Congratulations EA.

Solid 5 for graphics and car models, nothing more, because everything else is junk. An lazy remake of NFS: Hot Pursuit 2. Game fully supports Xbox 360 controller on PC, but it works really poor. Doesn't matter what you drive, all cars drive the same way. And... oh well, drift can make car faster on curves... Are you serious But the most irritating things, are car accidents cut scenes. Cut scenes in racing game This is the worst decision, which ruins the rests of fun left. EA publications, such as this game, can be only reconsider as bad jokes, not worth any money.… Expand

Driving in this NFS totally sucks. Cars feel like heavy vans or trucks, every turning makes drift. Career mode is boring, near every race you get a new car, races are not satisfying.

After having not played a NFS for some time, I figured I'd give Hot Pursuit a chance. My mistake. Maybe I miss the old NFS: HS days, or back when the AI wouldn't block you from working your way up the pack in a race. Maybe I liked it better when I could pick what weather I wanted, or what time of day, because with Hot Pursuit you can't. Maybe it's because I could pick my competition and actually have a fair race, unlike in this title. Maybe it's being able to use whatever car I wanted to in a race, not what they tell me I have to use. If this game changed the above, stripped the NOS, spike strips, EMPs, and all the other gadgets from the cars(including the racers), they might have something here, but so far, this game is going on my "won't play after a few days" pile. A shame.
Perhaps I'm just old school, but I really hoped for more from this title, and I'm still waiting for it to be delivered.… Expand

I Bought This Game Because I Thought This Was Going To Be Like Most Wanted ... How Wrong Was I Graphics Are Outstanding ... Gameplay Has No Real Goal .. After Playing This It Seems To Be So
Much Like Burnout Paradise .... No Car Modifying At All .. I Used To Love Tweaking My Car With Performance And Visual Mods But Thats Not Possible .... You Cant Use The Same Car For All Events You Have To Use Group Based Cars For Events .... All In All If You Loved Most Wanted Like I Did You Wont Like This Game .... As Far As Im Concerned The Best Game Ive Played From
The Need For Speed Series Was Most Wanted And It Still Is ...............… Expand

decent game, graphic is good, crashes looks cool. If you're bored try it or grid, bot very decent games. specially good time to test it now since price dropped significantly.

This game is repetitive to the point of boring. The physics sucks and the adjustments are non-existant. I can't emphasize enough what a waste of money it is. DONT BUY THIS GAME.

Very disappointing. Great potential completely wasted- just another boring console driving game ported to PC. All cars feel the same with mushy handling and silly drifting. Not even an option for manual gears. Courses are generally pretty boring, wide straight roads doing almost top speed the whole time, no decent corners which is frustrating even with the drifting and poor handling. Can get very sluggish even on a way overspec machine, sometimes to the point of being unplayable. The police element is embarrassingly cheesy and over-the-top. Progress scenes are unskippable and transition frustratingly slowly. Avoid.… Expand

Great fun and heart stopping action. Very well made, I wish I'd bought it sooner but like a lot of EA games it's over priced in every store except Amazon.

never a fan of DLC games! I just find it unfair! after buying an expensive game...we need to buy more to maximize the fun of the game?! did we bought a demo game? I just hope someday, EA will just sell a game that has everything for us buyers to explore, not to swipe before we explore

FAIL! GARBAGE! This is what happens when you join forces with losers like Criterion! I regret buying this piece of garbage, shame on you EA for allowing this trash to have your name on it! Great graphics? Is everyone on crack? Graphics are shameful for a game this new, it causes hardlocks in xfire/sli, No, AA settings, constant FPS stutters, this is definitly designed for weak consoles. It is a weak game, so it's fitting. I love the police chasing and running from the pigs, but this is embarrassing! I thought Undercover was weak, but OMG! I guess Crtierion needed EA funding to use actual cars this time instead of fake made -up rides, I don't know what happened here, but it's embarrassing, I'm half tempted to make a new steam account just so I won't have to look at this POS on my screen anylonger. Physics? Where are you? Holy Pixelation Batman! Get my drift here? Don't waste your time or precious money on this junk! If you rate this a 10 for whatever reason you defintily need your head checked, even the good features suck. I'm a die hard NFS fan, and I really wish I was dreaming when I bought this, or seen the NFS logo on it. It's reincarnated Burnout. There's absolutely no NFS identity here whatsoever, I really hope and pray to everything holy in the universe that Criterion is never allowed to touch another NFS title again! Actually they shouldn't be allowed to touch anything that runs on a PC.… Expand

Ok, this game didn't really set out to be a driving simulator. It is fun though there are problems. Controls and graphics have been compromised when being ported to the PC and it can get repetitive. Still, seeing a Bugatti police car crash is quite satisfying.

Well first off, my favorite racing game of all time is NFS: Hot Pursuit 2. NFS: Hot Pursuit did not over take that favorite slot of mine. The graphics are great, the gameplay is smooth, and the single player is close to the same as HP2, just a little different. My perspective of playing this game also is that I have never played it's online multi-player mode. The only thing I really didn't like about this game was the tools and gadgets the normal racing cars would get, which are similar to what the police cars get as well; this kinda takes the purity of racing from the game. However, the game is balanced enough, and I would totally recommend it to any racing fan. One thing that I admired about HP2, after beating that game and everything, about twice a week I would get casually get on and do 2-3 races and get off; with HP I don't have the desire to play it like that.… Expand

Great graphics and the feeling of the original Hot pursuit series with a plus: Nitrous, Powerups and the great fun of a Burnout title (thanks Criterion). The choice of let Criterion Games to try to save de Need for Speed series was a great idea because they have created an awesome game. The car models are highly detailed, you can even see the animation of the Air break of the Bugatti Veyron.

Pure arcade gameplay, it feels good with a Gamepad. Don't expect for many camera angles or for manual transmission shifting (both available with modifications). If you want to use a Steering Wheel, you have to look for a non-official modification, because the original game just can't work with a Steering wheel.

I purchased this game on a "Steam Daily Deal" expecting a great racing game to play with my friends on LAN parties... It was a very bad idea, because all the stuff on this game is Online. EA introduced the Autolog feature to stay in touch with your friends and compare your records, also offered to connect with facebook to make easier the way you find friends, BUT, the autolog feature is unique in the Need for Speed Series, so i couldn't use Autolog because Need for Speed: The Run uses Autolog, so I cannot find my friends in Facebook, making it a disposable multiplayer game if you buy it nowadays, unless you like to see that the 1st and unique records on the leaderbords are yours.

It could have beed great to play this "Cops vs. Bandits" game in a LAN party, but that will never happen. If you want a good LAN party game, you could look at GRID, Dirt 2/3 or Blur.

I don't know if it really worthed for 15 USD i payed for it.… Expand

At its best Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is an average arcade-racer. The visuals are nice, there is no shortage of tracks and there is a decent amount of cars The cars handle for the most part fine though very arcady which might put some people off) and most cars handles quite similar to each other. The game is also playable with keyboard which is always nice. The game do sadly have lot of flaws that ruined my time with the game. The camera in the game is awful and it constantly switches to crashes, new police cars etc when it really should follow the car i am driving. Another problem in the game is the rubberbanding. I can accept a certain usage if rubberbanding but its extremely noticeable in this game and it takes away any kind of immersion in the game not to mention the fact that the result of the race can be determined by those hidden calculations. Those two are my biggest problem with the core gameplay but there is also quite a lot of minor problem. Minimal graphical options, menus without mouse-support, forced on social unskippable cutscenes, too much nonsense between races and an uneven difficulty-curve. I might sound really negative but the game is not all bad. I had a couple of hours of fun with it but i would describe it as a below average arcade racing game. There is definitely worse games to pick up for a cheap price but the are certainly better as well.… Expand

No real tuning like were in Underground times .Real NFS like Underground is dead sad. Sorry, EA, you're the ones making us not buy your games. I wish EA did spend all the money they used to buyout all the game reviewers out there for actually developing a quality game. This game is a total disappointment. I have to admit that the graphics are okay, but the game-play is very bad.

race design aside, the game was really hindered by the awful (or nonexistent) driving physics. Every car drives the same, and it's not very good. I was a fan of the old skool NFS games, even the more arcade ones, because even though they felt "arcade-y", they still displayed relatively accurate driving physics, giving each car a different personality and driving style. Not possible here

I hate racing games, I do not know how, I just do. I do not find them of interest at all. But this, this is different; not your average racing game. This adrenaline-fueling game is just amazing. The concept is that you can choose to be a racer, or a cop, and if you choose to be said racer you will have to come first in a race against other racers WHILST evading the police with weapons of your choice. If you choose to be a cop, your objective is to "BUST" (immobilize) all of the racers before they finish the race. However, what I just described is only the game's signature game mode "Hot Pursuit". There are a good few more game modes, but this is the one I find to be the most engaging. The others are things like "Race", just a normal race without any police, "Interceptor" which is one cop against one racer, the racer's objective is to get away from the police whilst the cop's objective is to catch the racer. The game uses real car manufactures, and whilst on the topic, this is a 2010 game. You shouldn't be expecting top-notch graphics, BUT in my personal opinion the graphics are great anyway! Sadly, there is no Anti-Aliasing. The only thing I found partially annoying about this game is in my opinion, the PC controls aren't that great AT FIRST. The keybinds were really awkward, and it was hard to drive. Luckily, the keys are REBIND-ABLE and you can set them to whatever you like. You can play online, you can either play Race, Interceptor, Hot Pursuit, or more with up to 8 PEOPLE! This game, is fantastic. The crashes look awesome, engaging game modes, the only game mode I didn't particularly enjoy was "Preview". Thank you for reading, in conclusion, I gave this game a wonderful 9/10.… Expand