#5. NEED FOR SPEED: HOT PURSUIT (2010)
2010’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was Criterion Games’ first crack at EA’s long-running racing series, and at that time, it felt like a match made in heaven. The Hot Pursuit subtitle had a lot of cache with Need for Speed fans, of course, but it’s fair to say that Criterion’s take on it more than lived up to the billing. The developer brought its trademark action-heavy arcade racing style from the Burnout series and applied it to the Need for Speed formula with nary any hiccups. What they ended up delivering was an open world racer defined by blistering pace and consistently thrilling cops and robbers races and events, where you can play as both sides of the law, and have an equally enjoyable time regardless of who you were playing as.
