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.

Modern Warfare 3 Singleplayer - A Reivew

So I finally finished the Modern Warfare 3 single player, to which I bet everyone that knows me is wondering why it took so long. Well, I'm not really addicted to the single player campaign, so it has been getting way less play time than the multiplayer. Secondly, I haven't been enjoying it since the first game where everything felt fresh and original.

How do I feel about the new single player? Terrible.

I'm just going to start off this review by saying that besides the fact that the entire plot is a little beyond ridiculous, it also fails at everything. Let me show you how. First off, they say welcome to World War 3, but then the war is over like 3 missions later. Its drives me nuts when games want to declare world war 3 and then end things before anything can really happen on a global scale. Here's what I would have prefered:

1. Scale the whole damn thing back to one country per act. So act 1 is the attack on American soil and we get these epic fights throughout the east coast. Not 2 mission and then "Oh they're retreating" but instead a full on epic war where we are trying to take things back and at every push they push harder. Yea, and lets NOT retake america. I'd rather leave it open, maybe expand on it in a future title with the characters made.
2. Then make the battle in Europe for Act 2. This also remains open at the end, but will be very carefully cued to whats going on there. Most importantly, lets make the battles big, epic, and very drawn out. What I'd love to see is just levels where maybe you spend the whole time trying to push forward, multiple paths and multiple options, and when you get there you have to turn back. That would be great. 
3. Last act should focus back on Price and Roach and them killing Makarov. To be honest, the final act in the game was by far the worst since it was one ridiculous idea after another and the last mission ruined the game for me. Don't end with this epic battle between Makarov and the player or some shit, but leave it open. WW3 isn't going to end in a day and 2 people will not win an assault on an army.

So that's how I would have done it if WW3 is what was wanted. Not this "its over in 1 game" crap that doesn't make it feel epic or hard at all. Now let me give you a list of what I thought took the game and killed it beyond the story.

• Linearity - Every mission felt like a "Go Here, Do This" mission with a single hallway or a single place to get the objective done. I would have LOVED optional gameplay, like go this way and see if it pans out or try this route. This game was by far the most linear of the bunch and it was painful to say the least.
• Obviousness - I hate it when movies and video games make things so stupidly obvious. Like for instance the part where the Eiffel Tower falls, it was so lined up that I didn't even have to guess when it would happen. What would have been better is they are walking the streets of paris and suddenly BAM, right on the doorstep. Then we get to make a comment like "Isn't that the Eiffle Tower" and it gets its pay day. Even beyond that, there were other moments that were just so damn obvious I couldn't believe they were even trying.
• Unbelievable - A lot of shit happens in this game that is just plain unbelievable. Not joking. Here are some examples. One, a train goes off track and smashes through not 2 or 3, but like 10 or 15 columns. No, stop it and make that thing hit maybe 2 and end it or make the tunnel break behind him. It was just unbelievable. Two, the final stand, where it just goes on and on and on in this final battle, then the guy pulls out a lighter and smokes? What the hell, he's bleeding from every hole shot in his damn body!
• Not able to Stay Focused - The game switches so damn much between different types of gameplay, which you would think would make it interesting. Actually its annoying. If I'm doing a sneaking around level then I want the whole damn level to be about sneaking around. If I'm doing a level in a plane then I want the whole damn thing in a plane. The most I want to switch between the two is once. Trust me, they break this rule a lot.

I think another thing that just started to get to me the more and more I played was that they also would make these epic moments or scenes, and then ruin them 5 seconds later. Anyway, I'm off to do something else now.