First off this 2010 release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a reboot of the old games where you played cops and robbers and not a bad one I might add. The game doesn’t really have a story, it’s just a good old arcade racer, however the Hot Pursuit is not an open world game where you can just roam free. The gist of the game is to basically crash.. and crash well and will style if that makes sense to you. You can play as a cop or a racer at any time in any race pretty much. You will gain rank or a wanted level depending on what you play as, while you unlock cars, new areas/tracks and weapons/gadgets. Yes I said weapons and while there is not a large assortment you can throw out spike strips ruining you opponents tires and even call in helicopters.

As a racer, your job is basically what I wanted to do the first time I ever played a racing game.. not really race. You gain more bounty by driving extremely fast and crashing into oncoming traffic, even better another cop car or just about anything. Causing absolute mayhem is the name of the game as a racer. But don’t worry because as a cop you get your chance to crash into racer stopping them from their fun. I have to add that these crashes are not just your average crashes we have seen before. Being the meat of the game, the crashes are basically.. well.. fucking awesome and in slow motion. Better yet you get to do these crashes in multimillion dollar cars that you just can’t do in real life. Speaking of real life, that is exactly what the crashes would look like in so much beautiful detail going 200 miles per hour.

In the Hot Pursuit Career mode you’ll choose a destination on Seacrest County and that will bring up a list of events to choose from. Upon choosing one, you will be taken there and the races are off as you must get to points first while being tailed by cops as well as other racers. Free Drive mode is perfect for viewing the amazing scenery, enjoying the many different types of tracks and to take some cool screen shots. There are no re-percussion’s in Free Mode, everything you do there is separate from you Career, Online and Leader-boards. In Time Trials you play as a cop and have to stop illegal street races from going on. Of course there is an online mode with up to 8 players where you can play as cops or racers and even team up with friends. You bounty also carries over to online mode.

A new and unique aspect added to the game is the “Autolog”, which is basically like an in depth leader-board system that includes your friends and people you play with online. You can obviously see where you and your friends rank in the game but also see what they are doing, what they have achieved and pictures they have taken in the game that can be posted on the Wall in Autolog. Think of the Wall on Facebook and that is almost how is can be compared to in Autolog. One of the best features of the it, is that as soon as you beat your friends time on a track, you are prompted to let him know… just to inform him of course, not to taunt him while he struggles to beat your time again.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is like a person with ADD’s dream of a racer. Just have fun with some awesome cars such as Mercedes, Bentleys, Porches and Lamborghinis. Cops get weapons such as spike strips, helicopters, EMP blasts and roadblocks while Racers get spike strips, EMPs, turbo boosts and jammers. Helicopters can job road spikes on enemies ahead of you while jammers shuts down everyone’s weapons, EMP’s and Cops can’t see their map, which can be vital in Hot Pursuit. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a fast paced, unrealistic arcade style racer that has some beautiful graphics whether it comes to the scenery or the crash detail. If you are a hardcore racing game fan that loves the realism of racing simulators this isn’t for you, but if you like to have fun and cause mayhem go pick up Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.