Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Review

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit [2010] 

So beyond just watching television shows and movies, and beyond first person shooter war games, I've been working on a whole new set of games that I normally don't get around to because I'd rather play the ones that make me happy and I have friends on. So one of the first games that I went back and decided to play was Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit [2010]. Let it be known that this is a reboot of the classic need for speed franchise, which for all sakes and purposes did not really need a reboot since it has had a steady release at least every couple of years. And not only that, but the games tend to be rather solid.

Anyway, here's some background information about my feelings on this game. I loved Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 back in the day when it was on Playstation 1. I really loved driving past cops and racing through the career mode. So I have high hopes for this game. But even beyond that, I love Criterion Games. I thought that they were probably the best racing developers out there since I first came across them with Burnout 3: Takedown. Seriously, I love them so much that I have two copies of Burnout: Revenge, and I played Burnout: Paradise way past when I should have stopped (and beat it twice because I played one two different consoles). So to say that I had high hopes for this game is kind of an understatement considering it is a premium racing developer working on a platinum series. Here's my review.

Graphics:

Most would think it weird that I want to start with graphics, but in truth this is where the game shines best. From fabulously done real cars to waterfalls in the background to storms happening with lighting, the game has a very impressive graphics engine. It's perfect the way it is, maybe even over done compared with what else I'm about to talk about, but by far the best part of this game is the graphics engine.

With that said, there are no Burnout style crashes and there are no large jumps or anything too extreme. Just miles of beautiful roads for the astoundingly detailed cars to drive down. This is the best part of the game, take my word for it.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is simple, cops on one side and racers on the other. Racers fight against each-other for the first-place spot while cops fight to take-down all of the racers. It's the basic formula. They also try to give cops an advantage, but that's not all.

The main difference in this game from previous ones is that the cops and racers all get power-up moves to use. For instance, if a cop wants to they can try to add a road-block to stop the racers and the racers can use EMPs. Both teams can shoot spike strips out the back of their cars. So they try to spice it up this way, but in total there are 7 different power-ups. To be honest, it wasn't reinventing the wheel but it was a step in the right racing direction. A step, not a leap.

Now before I go on, let me explain the map as well. Its open, there are tons of roads that link to one another and every now and then there's a small secret path. Overall, this was the most BORING map I've ever played in a need for speed game. Literally, most the roads are long stretches of straightways with little curves thrown in, but there's no real shortcuts or big cities to make it fun to navigate and do turns. It was like the creative center of the Criterion map brains, which in the past has been amazing, was turned off this time around as they made the map as simplistic and non-organic as possible. Overall, it added to the boredom in the end of feel like you were on the same path even in the scenery changed.

Story (Single Player):

This is let down number one in the game, there's absolutely no story. They put in two career modes but overall it should just be called advance and get stuff modes because there's really nothing more to it than a simple leveling up system. The races slowly get more exciting and over time you actually start getting some intense games, but over time.

That's my problem, the career modes (racers and cops, where you play either as a racer or as a cop) are so drawn out and boring that I actually had trouble playing even past the first 20 races on either side. And that's not to say that they aren't fun, but rather that they just aren't that interesting. Race here against no-one, race here against the clock, race here against a timer... it really did draw out so long that I wasn't sure there were cop chases in this game. And so by the time I got there, I was frustrated. Let this be known, because the intense single player is actually REALLY far in the game and takes FOREVER to get to. I recommend skipping the story.

Multiplayer:

So if Single player isn't very intense, I still could have high hopes for the multiplayer since it was cop on racer action, right? Well there's three multiplayer modes that come on the disc, a race mode where its racers vs each other vs the cops, a one on one, and a third mode that I didn't even try. So let's start with the basics.

The race mode seemed great the first time I played it, intense running from the cops and it was action packed. But the more I played it, the more I realized it was less about racing and more about trickery. For instance, racers were not compelled to move forward at any time and, for all that matters, they could turn around and just drive past the cops. So a lot of times you'll see the racers just switch gear and go backwards, making a cop or two need to turn around to go catch them. This was something that should have been fixed, get too far behind the cop and you forfeit or something. So that's already bad.

But wait, the other bad part is that there are boosts for have playing the game longer. Players who play a lot more get a TON more cars that are actually WAY better than the starter sets. It's almost like slapping new people in the face that don't want to play the terrible story mode the entire way throughout. I can't tell you how annoying it is to never even be in the league on the race because you don't have a car to really compete.

But wait, remember when I said it was Racer vs Racer vs Cops? Well I lied, because its actually Racer vs Cops with bonus for finishing. So sometimes racers will hold up cops on purpose because as long as one racer paces the finish, they all get points.

If you aren't seeing what I'm getting at, this mode is EXTREMELY flawed and kind of boring since no one really wants to play it right. I mean, it counts as a win on the racing team if another member gets across the line. That's not a race, that's just a team run-around. I think Criterion had the right idea, but then did everything wrong. And what annoys me about this is that in one of their press conferences before the game was released, they are quoted for calling it a "rabbit being hunted by dogs" game, except it felt more like a bunch of dogs without any teeth. To that extent, I leave the multiplayer annoyed and flawed.

But I would like to make one final point, which is that for a game that's supposed to feel like prey and predators, there should almost always be more prey than predators. So even if they fixed up the flaws I've mentioned above, about the only way to make the cops fun is to really give them a boost, and then down their numbers from a 50% cops - 50% racers to about 35% cops - 65% racers (IE more racers so more for the cops to take down). It sounds weird, but trust me, having to play a cop one game and a racer the next and then a cop again is kind annoying when really I bought the game to be the racer. So down the cops and make it that we play cops every two games that we play racers. Win for all.

Verdict: 2 / 5 Stars

Between the lack of a good single player (and no, I'm not saying not having a story, I'm saying in general the single player was boring) and the multiplayer being extremely flawed, all this game really had was beautiful graphics and a wonderfully done amount of cars. That's right, I'm going to give this game all of it's points for graphics and number of well-done cars. So if you haven't figured out by now, the game didn't do to well because in my mind, that's nothing compared to what is really needed to be a fully functioning game.

No, I couldn't let up that the single player is almost unplayable because of the amount of time-trials and worthless races that were not Hot Pursuits that flood the beginning. And I couldn't give points for the extremely flawed multiplayer or the lack of versatility that came with it. And I definitely couldn't give points for how boring all the roads where. Seriously, I could drive around for hours and have absolutely no idea where I was, which is a feat considering how beautiful the surroundings were. It just felt bland.

I'm giving this game a 2/5 stars.

Double Review: The Thing

So I'm actually sitting here right now, watching the 2011 version of The Thing. As I'm watching it, all I can think is that I NEED to write a review for this movie. Except, I think to really understand my review for the newest movie, I should give a glimpse into the mind and thoughts of the previous one. As such, for the first time ever, I'm going to do a double review.

The Thing [1982]

So it turns out that order of operations in important and I NEED to do a review of the first Thing [1982] before I even consider a review of the newer one. So below is my review of a movie I haven't seen in a while, but in all honesty I remember extremely well.

Synopsis:

So the movie actually starts very weird, where a helicopter is seen chasing down a dog, trying to kill it for whatever reason when they run into another camp in the middle of the arctic. The camp sees this action and tells the helicopter to not come any closer, but of course the helicopter does and so, thinking that he has gone mad since he's chasing a dog, they kill them.

Well, turns out the dog is actually an evil monster (that's not the surprise, you know it by the way that they are doing everything in the movie) and the other camp had discovered the monster buried in the ice. The rest of the movie plays out trying to solve how the monster works and, using the best graphics and special effects available for 1982, a horrific show is created where the true terror is in the story, the idea, and overall just the brilliant concept.

Verdict: 4.5 / 5 Stars

This movie is a horror CLASSIC! If you are big into horror movies or big into cult films, then please give this movie your support by going and watching it. And although the movie is considered old now (30 years and counting), the concept for the time was brilliant, the special effects were well done, and the way they use the camera to really bring out the horror is what makes this movie. So if you have some free time and don't mind things that goes on the slightly gross side, then please check this out.

But just to be frank, the best part of the movie was actually when they develop a way to solve who the thing is. Seriously, it's the most memorable scene in the movie and it has probably the biggest impact. Especially since the way they solved it was so primitive and yet so brilliant. Add in the natural terror that it could be anyone, and it's a brilliant effect.

Seriously, I can't tell how many bad horror movies I've seen, but this one has a great concept and is done very well. So my personal verdict is 4.5/5 stars!

The Thing [2011]

And so now we move onto the more recent film. Now I know I didn't give that last film a very big introduction or really any synopsis at all, but that's because the real intent of this review is to describe the newer movie of the two. I mean, surely with new special effects and a classic horror idea they couldn't go wrong, or so I thought...

Synopsis:

First of all, it is extremely important for me to point out that this movie is not the sequel to the 1982 horror, but actually the prequel. That's right, the end of this movie is obviously the beginning of the next movie. So what we know right away is that only two people should live, the thing should become the dog, and in the end we should see him chasing the pooch away. At least, in theory that's what we should see.

Well this movie starts out with some Norwegians on a big truck running all over the place and they're talking about something stupid. To be fair and honest, I was reading the text at the bottom for a minute, but it really didn't matter at this point since he's telling some sick story about a boy and his grandmother (you can imagine). Then their big truck or whatever crashes through the ice where they make a major discovery, there's an alien ship. So far so good. Well, really that's the last of the staying-on-track parts of this movie. And it should be very simple to get form point one, discovering the alien, to point two, where the whole base is dead...

Verdict: 1.75 / 5 Stars

See the cast and crew was perfectly fine, the set-up was exactly what was expected since it was the prequel to the original thing, but the problem with this movie is clearly that they would rather invest more money in special effect than work with a large group of writers that want the movie to follow the best story possible. From start to finish, you'll see where they spent countless hours trying to flash gory scenes and really bring to life the Thing, but they never quite get it looking right either. And so instead of doing what made the first film great, which is sort of hiding the creature for most of the film and making it into more a mystery of who is the thing, they go about trying to turn this movie into an action thriller.

But not just that ruins this movie. No, the creators also went into depth to really try and make something new for us to watch be hunted. But in the end, they actually end up ruining the original movie because in this movie the Thing was able to do SO many more things that it makes the Think from the original look pathetic. That's right, special effects are truly the deviant in this film series and what brought about the end to what was probably the greatest idea ever.

I think what really made me want to subtract points was that the original movie had such a clever way of solving who the Thing was that when the scientists came up with a way in this movie, it seemed like the creators of this prequel didn't understand what made the original so damn classical. And that frustrates me as a movie goer, because I WANTED this movie to be good.

However, with all that said and done, the new movie does a decent (though it could have been better) job of getting from the two points. That's why I gave it a star. And they did put some effort into the movie, it just didn't have the flavor that the original cult classic had and it really showed why modern horror is going in the drain. To the producers, I would like you to cast a view towards this movie as why special effects, which cast MILLIONS to make, will never substitute for a well written and re-written story, which costs much less.

Overall I give it a 1.75/5 stars.