Burnout Paradise Remastered

Burnout 3: Takedown was a major change in direction for the series with its speed, wrecks, and overall addictive gameplay. Criterion’s Burnout Paradise went even further with an open-world environment and the freedom to progress at one’s own pace. This is on top of fully customizable race settings, a reworked damage model, streamlined progression that rewards new cars consistently, and much more. Crash Mode could even be accessed at any time via the new Showtime Mode. With an incredibly well-designed urban playground and fun gameplay, Burnout Paradise stands the test of time.

On July 1st, Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts will be playable via the cloud. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, an acclaimed Paper Mario-style RPG, will also be available for cloud, consoles and PC alongside Gang Beasts and Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars. If that weren’t enough, Playdead’s iconic platformer Limbo is coming to the service as well.

Interestingly, Judgment wasn’t announced for the subscription service despite a recent tease. Perhaps we’ll see it added later. In the meantime, some titles will be leaving Xbox Game Pass on June 30th so play them now while you have the chance. The games in question include:

• Battle Chasers: Nightwar (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Messenger (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mistover (PC)
• Monster Hunter World (Cloud and Console)
• Out of the Park Baseball 21 (PC)
• Outer Wilds (Cloud and Console)
• Soulcalibur 6 (Console)

But it’s not all bad news. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered will be coming to Xbox Game Pass and EA Play on June 24th. The title, a remaster of Criterion’s 2010 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, features cross-platform multiplayer on all platforms. It released in December of last year.

The game was remastered by Stellar Entertainment, who also did the remaster for Criterion’s excellent Burnout Paradise. The remaster includes all of the game’s DLC and added new car colors, quality of life improvements, an updated photo mode, and more. We thought it was pretty good, so it’s worth checking out if you have a racing itch.

With the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S launching days from now, publishers and developers have been talking about how their current-gen games are going to leverage next-gen hardware. EA recently posted an update to the same effect as well, talking about the enhancements we can expect from several of their titles on the upcoming consoles.

The most notable improvements being made are to Star Wars: Squadrons, which will have performance and visuals priority modes on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Performance mode will entail 1440p/120 FPS gameplay on Xbox Series S and 4K/120 FPS on Xbox Series X. Meanwhile, visuals mode will offer 1440p/60 FPS and 4K/120 FPS gameplay respectively, but the game will also be making use of a new lighting model for improved visual quality. Surprisingly, no such enhancements are going to be featured in the game’s PS5 version, which will be identical to the PS4 Pro version.

Apex Legends, however, will have parity across all three consoles, running at 1440p, though EA says more enhancements will be coming in a dedicated next-gen update next year. Then there’s The Sims 4, which will have smoother frame rates and faster load times across the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

Finally, EA also details enhancements for FIFA 21, Madden NFL 21, NHL 21, UFC 4, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered– in that there aren’t any. All of these will run on the Xbox Series X as if on an Xbox One X, on the Xbox Series S as if on an Xbox One S, and on the PS5 as if on a PS4 Pro.

With Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, EA has seemingly flicked a thumb at the nose of ninth-gen console fans by releasing this eighth-gen only title on November 6th, less than a week before the PlayStation 5 comes out. We have no news yet about enhanced versions for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, though some kind of update is more than likely.

But what exactly are gamers getting on November 6th? Let’s take a look.

A look at 2010’s Hot Pursuit

Considering that the 2020 remaster is based on one of the seventh-generation’s seminal racing titles, it makes sense to go back and take a look at the technology underpinning the original 2010 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Hot Pursuit was, itself, a reimagining of 2002’s Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. After the Need for Speed franchise dove deep into story and open world complexity with the likes of Need for Speed Underground, Hot Pursuit was something of a return to roots. The features an open world environment, four times larger than the one in Criterion’s previous outing Burnout Paradise. However, gameplay placed a much stronger emphasis on the interplay between police interceptors and racers, with two separate career modes for each.

Hot Pursuit is built on a heavily enhanced version of Criterion’s Burnout Paradise engine, designed around a more expansive, wide open environments, a refined physics model, with deferred lighting for the environment and image-based rendering for cars. By targeting a 30 FPS update, unlike the 60 FPS experience in Burnout Paradise, Criterion was able to push the visuals out there, one of the reasons why Hot Pursuit holds up so well, even today.

The image-based rendering for vehicles, in particular, is a standout feature. In Hot Pursuit, the environment around the cars is rendered first. The cars themselves are introduced in a separate rendering pass. This allows for lighting, shading, and reflections on cars to be based on the surrounding environment, significantly enhancing realism.

In terms of image quality, the game delivered this high level of visual fidelity at a locked 720p, with 2x MSAA, no less, on seventh gen consoles. This is a remarkable state of affairs, considering how low resolutions dropped towards the latter end of the seventh generation. If we had to pick a single multi-platform seventh-gen title that’d hold up in a 2020 remaster without too much of an asset rework, it’d probably be Hot Pursuit. But what does that mean today, in terms of the 2020 remaster? How much work has Stellar Entertainment put into it? And how does it hold up relative to contemporary titles? This is where things get a bit disappointing.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2020 – a performance-oriented retouch

We’ve seen some phenomenal remaster work this console generation, starting with Rockstar giving Grand Theft Auto 5 the next-gen treatment. Saint’s Row 3 Remastered was another example, with physically-based rendering and a new lighting model completely transforming the game’s aesthetic.

Unfortunately, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit doesn’t appear to do any of those things. There’s a reason the game has been able to target 4K/60 FPS on the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4. That’s because this is, at heart, a seventh-gen title with a light coat of paint on top.

Model quality: the biggest improvement

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit always made great looking cars a priority, with the separate image-based rendering system for car lighting built to ensure that cars are in top form. If there’s one positive about the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remaster, it’s that the cars receive an extra lick of paint: model quality and polygon counts are up, even compared to the maxed out PC original. It’s not a radical improvement. Model quality is still very much in line with seventh gen titles, with the cars themselves not that far off from what we see in late gen titles like Forza Horizon 2. PC gamers looking for any kind of measurable improvement over the original, will likely see it here.

Draw distances: pushing things out further

Unlike Burnout Paradise, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit takes place in a more expansive, rural environment. This means that draw distances can have a measurable impact on overall quality. While the original was praised for its environmental rendering, remaster dev Stellar Entertainment has dialled things up a notch or two here. Grass, buildings, electricity posts, and Hot Pursuit’s many, many trees render much further out into the distance. This complements the higher resolution output on the mid-gen refresh consoles. At the original game’s 720p output on seventh gen consoles, there weren’t quite enough pixels onscreen to make extreme distant detail properly visible. This is, of course, a moot point at 4K.

Enhanced Transparencies and reflections

High quality alpha effects for smoke and fog render at a higher resolution than in the original game, scaling nicely with the higher resolution output on consoles. Enhanced reflections do justice to the image-based lighting system used for the cars, bringing environmental reflections into much sharper focus. Again, these are minor touches, but they contribute to a more refined experience overall.

Resolution and framerate

Although the consoles versions aren’t the focus and we are not showing any console footage in this video, we just wanted quick give away some information about them.

The biggest improvements console gamers will see with the 2020 Hot Pursuit remaster are in terms of resolution and framerate. Arguably, the PC version of the game has always supported higher resolutions and framerates, so this is nothing new for the Remaster’s PC outing. However, gamers on the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro are in for a 9x improvement to render resolution which is 4K and 30fps, or a 2x boost to resolution coupled with a doubled framerate which is 1080p and 60fps. Apparently, only  the PC version supports 4K/60 FPS output. This is somewhat puzzling considering how well a number of last-gen remasters have run on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. Regardless, console gamers who want a performance option will have access to a 1080p/60 FPS mode on the enhanced consoles.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered only runs at 1080p/30 FPS on the base PS4 and Xbox One. It’s hard to see a reason, apart from a lack of optimisation efforts, as to why this last-gen title runs at such a poor target on the base consoles. A 1080p/60 mode, even one using dynamic resolution scaling would have been far more preferable. As it stands, base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 owners are getting a bump to resolution from 720p to 1080p, the other added enhancements and… well, that’s about it.

Conclusion

This late into the console generation, we expected a bit more, even if Hot Pursuit Remastered isn’t a new game entirely. The overall experience holds up well, but that’s mostly down to the fact that Criterion’s original 2010 game was far ahead of the curve in terms of visuals and the gameplay experience. 10 years later, slightly enhanced LODs and model quality don’t seem like this is a compelling remaster from a technical perspective.

"The ability to choose between favoring the frame rate and a 4K resolution is a welcomed gift for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X players as well."

That isolation gave it a powerful spotlight and earned its reputation as one of Criterion’s finest non-Burnout games. Since then, even more emphasis has been put on realistic physics and ultra-high-fidelity graphics and sound, while giving a backseat to the crashing and bashing of the early 2000’s. But with games like Trackmania and Horizon Chase Turbo raking in the dough lately, the market for more pick-up-and-play racing games that focus more on style than realism is clearly still alive and well. EA, not being blind to this, has certainly taken notice by releasing a remaster of Burnout Paradise in 2018 and now Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. So it’s come full circle. One of the Need for Speed franchise’s best games is now available in a slick remaster on modern consoles and PC, and just in time for its tenth anniversary, no less.

This new version of the game is not simply a better running version of the original. A remaster could certainly have gotten away with that, but Hot Pursuit Remastered does a few smart things, like including all of the original DLC, which adds at least six more hours of gameplay with 30 additional challenges, as well as trophies and achievements for those. On top of that, a whole host of visual upgrades including better textures, improved reflections and shadows, and better draw distances.

These upgrades are definitely striking on the cars themselves, but some of the lighting effects and environmental assets are, just as noticeably still, from ten years ago. Lens flares look flat, and background objects like trees and buildings don’t seem to have gotten nearly as much attention as the cars and roads. You’ll rarely notice this though, as you’ll be whizzing by them most of the time, but it is a rather obvious inconsistency when you do.

"The steady upgrade paths for both racers and cops holds up nicely here with a persistent stream of cars to unlock in each class and new events opening up all over the map. "

The ability to choose between favoring the frame rate and a 4K resolution is a welcomed gift for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X players as well. Perhaps the best thing that’s been added though is the ability to turn on cross play functionality in Hot Pursuit’s multiplayer modes. This will allow PlayStation, Xbox and PC players to all compete and compare times together, and gives players of the original game the ability to meet back up like old friends regardless of what systems they own today. If we combine that with -hopefully- some new players coming in who might have missed the original release, we could be in for a fairly robust community going forward.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit stood out back in 2010 for its emphasis on cop chases and stylish Burnout-esque takedowns, as well as its control style of being slightly more realistic than Burnout but still far more arcadey than the likes of Gran Turismo. This remastered version does just as much today as it’s not nearly as sensitive as the current simulation games out there, but does require significantly more skill than, say, Mario Kart 8 to get anywhere. It’s just as good a mix now as it ever was as almost anybody can be decent at it, but there’s also plenty of room for hardcore fans to be rewarded for further improvement.

The steady upgrade paths for both racers and cops holds up nicely here with a persistent stream of cars to unlock in each class and new events opening up all over the map. The variety of events is also still good enough to keep your attention, with the 1-on-1 duels and the hot pursuits being the clear stand outs. You’ll be going up against cops, other racers, and the clock in just enough ways to keep things interesting throughout, especially once you get good at using spike strips and road blocks and other items.

"The variety of events is also still good enough to keep your attention, with the 1-on-1 duels and the hot pursuits being the clear stand outs."

Weather and the time of day do play a role here with how tracks feel to race on, but it’s generally pretty subtle by today’s standards. While the class types and customization options for your cars feels downright shallow if you directly compare them to modern offerings in the genre, it also feels like a breath of fresh air to just play for a few hours, unlock a bunch of cars, pick one, make it a different color and get back on the road. There is a certain type of beauty in that simplicity that shouldn’t only belong to all the retro-style indie racing games of today. Even though Hot Pursuit is a 10-year-old game, it also fills the void of a modern-style racer with a more streamlined experience that doesn’t keep you bogged down in menus for any longer than it has to. The real focus of this game is always on the actual racing, and that’s one of its greatest strengths.

Aside from the general structure of the game holding up well, the moment-to-moment racing also still feels fantastic in 2020. Shunting a suspect from behind or slamming into the side of their tail for a devastating maneuver is just as satisfying as it ever was. While narrowly avoiding the cops as a racer, and maybe taking a couple of them out with spike strips or EMPs on your way to that precious finish line has also retained virtually all of its gratifying charm.

"Even though Hot Pursuit is a 10-year-old game, it also fills the void of a modern-style racer with a more streamlined experience that doesn’t keep you bogged down in menus for any longer than it has to."

With that, the game also unfortunately hangs on to its few-but-still-noticeable annoyances. The cop checkpoints are still threading a ridiculously thin needle than the need to be and the developer evidently couldn’t have been bothered to add in the inability to tilt the camera up or down to see over hills, which will absolutely result in the occasional, totally unnecessary crash, just like it did ten years ago. However, outside of things like that, Hot Pursuit Remastered largely does manage to get away with coasting on what a great game it was ten years ago with its gameplay.

Despite the few nitpicks I’ve mentioned, there’s no getting around the fact that Hot Pursuit is still a wonderfully snappy and nimble racer that, in this form, can easily steal your attention away from modern AAA racing titles. It’s a good remaster, but an even better racing game that mostly stands the test of time while still getting the heart pumping in all the right ways.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

DEVELOPER

EA generally haven’t been a company that invests in remasters too much (which is surprising), but this still isn’t their first remaster in the last couple of years. 2018 saw the launch of Burnout Paradise Remastered, and incidentally, Hot Pursuit Remastered shares some things with it. Not only were both original games developer by Criterion Games, of course, but the remasters for both are also developed by the same team- Stellar Entertainment. Let’s hope the combo works out the second time as well as it did the first.

ALL DLC INCLUDED

Back in 2010, Need for Sped: Hot Pursuit enjoyed solid post-launch support, with Criterion Games releasing several DLC packs for it that collectively brought new cars, Achievements, events, modes, and more. Unsurprisingly, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, which is looking to be a definitive release of the game, is going to compile all of that DLC alongside the base game.

6 HOURS OF NEW CONTENT

On top of the DLC and the base game, there’s still going to be plenty else to enjoy in the upcoming remaster in the form of completely new content. EA have announced that Need for Sped: Hot Pursuit Remastered will also have an extra six hours of new gameplay content, which will also include over 30 new challenges. Of course, one has to wonder how well the new content’s quality will match up to the original game, but hey- it’s more content, so you’re not gonna find us complaining about it just yet.

MULTIPLAYER

The autolog was one of the original Hot Pursuit’s best features- especially in terms of how it integrated multiplayer into the experience with its asynchronous structure and the head-to-head competition that it faciliated. Autolog will, of course, be making a return in Hot Pursuit Remastered, but it will receive one crucial improvement- multiplayer in the remaster will now support cross-platform play, allowing PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch owners to all play with and against each other.

VISUAL ENHANCEMENTS

Of course, the first thing that you wonder about any remaster is just how it’ll be improving upon the visuals of whatever game it’s modernizing. Hot Pursuit was already an excellent looking game in 2010 (and still is), but Stellar Entertainment are still touching some things up. Expect higher res models, more objects and props, improved videos, longer draw distances, and higher res shadows on all platforms. On everything but the Switch, you can also expect unpressed UI assets, improved AA/SSAO, more particles, higher res reflections, and improved textures.

NEW ACHIEVEMENTS

Of course, there will be new Achievements and Trophies to hunt down as well. EA haven’t said exactly how many of these there will be, or if they’re going to replace older ones or just pile on top of them. The remaster does, however, come with 6 new hours of gameplay, as we’ve already mentioned, so it’s more than likely that that’s what the new Achievements will be based on.

PHOTO MODE AND COSMETICS

improvements are being made in other areas as well. For starters, EA have promised quality-of-life improvements, though details on those haven’t been forthcoming. New car colours and wraps have also been promised to add to the game’s range of cosmetic customizations, while EA also promises reduced hard stops. Meanwhile, the photo mode is also going to be updated (though once again, there have been no details on what these updates will be), and will come with a new gallery.

FRAME RATE AND RESOLUTION

And now we arrive at the question everyone invariably ends up asking about any new remaster before launch- how’re the numbers looking for its resolution and performance targets? PC players will essentially take it as far as their hardware can allow them to, but what about the consoles? On the PS4 and Xbox One both, NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered will run at 1080p and 30 frames per second.

PS4 PRO AND XBOX ONE X

On both PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, the remaster will, to no one’s surprise, release with higher frame rate and resolution targets. On both enhanced consoles, you’ll be able to choose between modes that prioritize one over the other. One mode will allow you to run the game in 4K at 30 FPS, while the other will target a resolution of 1080p at 60 FPS. Higher frame rate is always desirable in a game such as this one (or any game, for that matter), but it’s great to have the 4K option as well.

NINTENDO SWITCH FRAME RATE AND RESOLUTION

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is going to be available on the Nintendo Switch as well as EA tries to support the system better than it has done in the past. So what frame rates and resolutions is the game targeting on this weaker hardware? Well, there will be sacrifices, as you’d expect. In docked mode, the game will run at 1080p/30 FPS, while in undocked mode, it will run at 720p/30 FPS. If you want 60 FPS gameplay, don’t go with the Nintendo Switch (or the base PS4 and Xbox One).

NINTENDO SWITCH LAUNCH

Resolution and frame rate aren’t the only areas where Need for Sped: Hot Pursuit Remastered is making some sacrifices on the Switch. The game won’t be launching on Nintendo’s hybrid alongside the other versions either. Instead, the release will be delayed by a month- Hot Pursuit Remastered launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 6, and for Nintendo Switch on November 13.

PRICE

Remasters (or even remakes) don’t usually launch for full price (unless Nintendo is releasing them), and Hot Pursuit Remastered isn’t going to either. When the game releases this November, it will be available for a price of $40. Considering how good the game is, and the fact that it will even have additional new content in the remaster, that sounds like a good price for it.

Yesterday came the announcement that we would be seeing a remaster of 2010’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. The game was one of the earlier ones developed by Criterion Games, of Burnout fame, and saw a harkening back to the roots of the franchise with high speed chases and fast races. The game will be coming to a variety of platforms and now we’ve got the requirements PC players will need to play the game.

As you’d expect, being a 2010 remaster, the actual requirements are pretty modest. On the minimum side, you’ll need an AMD Phenom II X4 965 or equivalent Intel Corei3-2120 with AMD Radeon HD5750 or equivalent Nvidia GeForce GTS 450. Recommended only bumps that up to an AMD FX-8350 or equivalent Intel Core i5-350K with AMD Radeon R9 270x or equivalent Nvidia GeForce GTX 660. Both minimum and recommended see 8 GB of RAM as well as 45 GB of available storage. You can see the requirements in full below or on the game’s Steam page that is live now.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered will launch on November 6th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC with a Switch version coming a week later on November 13th.

MINIMUM:

• • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: WIndows 10
  • Processor: (AMD) Phenom II X4 965 or equivalent (Intel) Corei3-2120 or equivalent
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: (AMD) Radeon HD5750 or equivalent (Nvidia) GeForce GTS 450 or equivalent
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 45 GB available space

RECOMMENDED:

• • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10
  • Processor: (AMD) FX-8350 or equivalent (Intel) Core i5-350K or equivalent
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: (AMD) Radeon R9 270x or equivalent (Nvidia) GeForce GTX 660 or Equivalent
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 45 GB available space

Electronic Arts’ other worst-kept secret Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered has officially been announced with Criterion Games as the developer. It’s out on November 6th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC (both Steam and Origin) with the Switch version arriving on November 13th. Check out the official reveal trailer below.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered features higher-resolution models, improved shadows and reflections, more particle effects, better anti-aliasing and SSAO and much more. It also runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second on PC (PS4 Pro and Xbox One X can run it at 1080p/60 FPS or 4K/30 FPS) . Cross-platform play between all platforms is also confirmed along with all of the DLC content, which adds another six hours of gameplay.

Other changes include new achievements, wraps and car colours along with updates to Photo Mode. While Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered will retail for $39.99 on consoles, it will only cost $29.99 on PC. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay footage in the coming weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeRnez3di1I

We’ve been hearing about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered for a while. It was first leaked back in June, which has been followed in subsequent months by several retailer listings and the game being age rated in South Korea. Now, it seems like the official reveal is around the corner as well.

EA are counting down to a Need for Speed-related reveal, with the countdown ending tomorrow, October 5, at 8 AM PT. with the words “Reignite the Pursuit” written beneath the countdown.

Additionally, Twitter user @Renka_schedule has also leaked the box arts for the game’s PS4 and Nintendo Switch version, details on the remaster, and new screenshots, all of which you can view below.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered will apparently have over 6 hours of completely new content, including over 30 challenges. Meanwhile, there will supposedly also be new customization options and new Trophies and Achievements. All the DLC originally released for the base game will also be included. The leak also mentions that the remaster is being developed by Stellar Entertainment, who previously worked on Burnout Paradise Remastered.

We will probably know more tomorrow, once the game has officially been unveiled. Stay tuned for all the details.

PS4/Switch
「Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered」

11月6日発売、税込4299円

・全DLC収録済

・約6時間の追加ゲームプレイ（30を超えるチャレンジ含む）、新たなアチーブメント＆車の色など、追加DLCを発売時に全て配信予定

・クロスプラットフォーム マルチプレイ対応#NeedforSpeed　#NFS pic.twitter.com/VGAzreyndu

— れんか (@Renka_schedule) October 4, 2020