Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Updated Hands-On

We went hands-on with a multiplayer build of Criterion’s cops-and-robbers racing game.

Constant one-upmanship is the basis of Criterion’s first stab at the Need for Speed licence. Its Autolog feature tracks your friends’ progress, showing you their high scores and in which events they’re beating you, allowing you to challenge them in a constant battle for superiority. In a system similar to the news stream of Facebook, you can see what your friends are up to, pictures of cars they’ve uploaded, and videos of their best racing moments. The system even intelligently recommends which races to play based on this activity, creating a custom career experience for each player.

Though the social gameplay integration is intriguing, what matters most is how the cars handle on the track. We went hands-on with a multiplayer race against five opponents, without any police interference. To begin, we picked a car, going for a rather splendid bright-yellow Porsche Boxster. The race kicked off with the cars already at speed, with our opponents scrapping for first place. The car handling was arcade-style, with an extremely satisfying drift mechanic that made it easy to slide around corners. Our car was equipped with a boost, which was charged by driving dangerously. By swerving around cars, drifting, and ramming our opponents, the boost charged quickly, allowing us to make our way up to second place. Using the boost resulted in requisite motion blur, which gave us a great feeling of speed as we sped along the track.

Though there were no cops around to hamper our racing efforts, we still had to deal with our rivals constantly ramming our car and attempting to wreck it. We noticed bits of our car fly off when we were hit, with panels and paint work becoming more damaged. Fans of the Burnout series will recognise the “wrecked” animation, which shows your crash in horrifying detail in slow motion. While we weren’t able to race against cops, we were shown a demo that featured many an epic chase along a highway. This showed off more Criterion-style touches, in particular the slow motion and camera zooms which highlighted when the cops set up road blocks or dropped stingers across the road. Other police tools we saw included helicopter units and the police interceptor, which was a supercar decked out in cop colours.

Sleek, powerful, and not at all showy.

Sleek, powerful, and not at all showy.

The final race Criterion showed us highlighted many of the graphical effects in the game. It started off on a rainy track, with realistic-looking spray flying from the back of the tyres. This soon gave way to sunshine, and we could see reflections along the bodywork of the car. The race then transitioned to nighttime, with street lamps and moonlight creating a neon glow across the road. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is due for release on November 16 in North America and November 19 in Europe. Head over to gamescom.gamespot.com for more of our coverage from Cologne.

69 Comments

  • spcmercer

    Posted Nov 5, 2010 12:55 pm GMT

    I know that I may be the only person wondering this with the craze of online multiplayer but has the split screen been completely obliviated from all racing games or is it just me. I mean its nice having a few drinks with friends and playing NFS or any other racer without having 15 miles between you.

  • bisonfan2010

    Posted Sep 18, 2010 11:22 pm GMT

    I still play NFS Hot Pursuit 2 sometimes on my PS2...other than gran turismo that was my second favorite racing game! Wow two great racing games going to be released within a year that is incredible...especially since (not forza but I had a ps3) with only mediocre racing games being released

  • Master_gamer438

    Posted Sep 3, 2010 4:10 am GMT

    Shud be intresting Criterion made the burnout series

  • hpflix2

    Posted Aug 29, 2010 6:44 pm GMT

    The Need For Speed Underground series was my favorite I hope they make another one of those in the future =)

  • Oldyoat554

    Posted Aug 28, 2010 10:49 pm GMT

    I like criterion, and knowing them, they will want to bring back what made HP fun, the great cop chases, and there was even damage in High Stakes. I even liked not having free roam because of the crappy looking cities in the new ones. I could be wrong though. Carbon, and Undercover with the glitchy cop chases and the mediocre graphics have tarnished the Need for Speed name, but if they made new ones then people are obviously buying them. I just hope criterion isn't forced into making another one of those games. Viva la 90's-early 2k NFS!

    Oh yeah and about NFS:Shift....IF YOU WANT A DRIVING SIM GET GT5 AND IF YOU DONT HAVE A PS3 GET FORZA OR PGR!

  • sportwarrior

    Posted Aug 26, 2010 1:20 pm GMT

    Very interested in this one. Love Criterion's work and love classic Need for Speed. This could be awesome.

  • xbox360555

    Posted Aug 26, 2010 9:58 am GMT

    lets hope Criterion can bring back the fun of being chased by the cops (not like the glitchy undercover )

  • jakndaxter7223

    Posted Aug 25, 2010 4:06 pm GMT

    its either this or Motorstorm 3 i cant decide!!!

  • SIDEFX1

    Posted Aug 24, 2010 3:36 pm GMT

    What i would like to see is more than one cop car chasing me in the single player experience and unscripted events with the AI.

  • leysaley

    Posted Aug 24, 2010 5:48 am GMT

    I am very happy with the developers Criterion coz..now i really want to see cars getting all blown up and getting damaged..m ain't a fan of playing god mode..I want some real physics and sh*t like that..:-)

  • BladeTrinity114

    Posted Aug 24, 2010 5:05 am GMT

    Definitely going to look into this game. Can't wait to get my hands on it

  • mikedelta-09

    Posted Aug 23, 2010 12:32 pm GMT

    Ah yes, they're bringing back an all-time fav for me. Only in Hot Pursuit can you barrel down the road in an F-50 at 180mph with a half dozen Murcielago police interceptors tailing you without regard to oncoming traffic . Along with the typical "replay" option, I'd love for the game to have a movie editor mode where we can modify cam angles, field-of-view, handycam-shake, etc to record some sick cop chases or memorable multiplayer action. At the very least they should have a cinematic view for added replay value.

  • DFen

    Posted Aug 23, 2010 11:43 am GMT

    well, definitely not missing much since its a remake, I'll just wait for gt5 instead

  • majikninja69

    Posted Aug 23, 2010 7:47 am GMT

    back to the old school, its about time this hapnds away with the modding, if you guys realy want a game with that in it, thers plenty of other games to play, my fav quote ive read is " when did we trade a shiny island for an entire galaxy"

  • bored_gamer

    Posted Aug 23, 2010 3:53 am GMT

    Need For Speed has gone downhill after Carbon was released in 2006. SHIFT is actually pretty good despite that it's a racing sim. the last good Need For Speed games in my opinion were Underground and Most Wanted. Hot Pursuit actually shows promise. plus it was developed by Criterion Games; also known for the Burnout games which were great racing games. Hot Pursuit definitely looks like it's gonna save the Need For Speed games and if this game is successful, Criterion Games should continue the series

  • pokemondude2012

    Posted Aug 22, 2010 6:53 pm GMT

    oh man cant wait for this game.

  • TristanH12

    Posted Aug 22, 2010 6:26 pm GMT

    Wow day night transitions, rain, this game is the epitome of awesome!