So, here’s Seacrest County in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. It’s got every challenge a street racer could want, but man, this place feels familiar.
Tri-City in Undercover or Rockport in Most Wanted didn’t feature night driving nor snow-capped mountains, but the rest of this – the freeways, coast and back roads – have struck me as a dead match for the franchise’s old stomping grounds. I’m not necessarily saying that’s a bad thing. It’s a racer, some environmental continuity can be a gamer assist. I just keep wondering why they change the name when the scenery largely stays the same.
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is out Nov. 16; the demo is available until Tuesday.
Thomas Fulton
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:41 PMWith the advent of adrenaline-packed racing games like Split/Second, I can’t help but feel that Need for Speed left its place in the sun years ago.
Speaking of Split/Second, the box art for this game is virtually identical…
Braaains
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 4:07 PMThere’s plenty of room for both. I’ve got Split Second and love it. I’ve been playing the NFS:HP demo for a few nights now and love that too. Will be buying it day 1 for sure.
It’s a question of whether you want to engage in high-speed police chases, or set off enormous explosions. Personally, I enjoy doing both of those things, so I’ll make space on my shelf for both games :)
Thomas Fulton
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 6:09 PMI’m not saying there isn’t a place for it in the market, just not on my shelf. As someone who isn’t a big race game consumer any more, I surveyed the options and went with Split/Second because it stood out.
Need for Speed just doesn’t seem to have that edge any longer. It’s probably a victim of its own success, having epitomised the arcade racing genre for much of the nineties. The things it introduced have become the standard now.
The franchise will always have a nostalgic place in my heart though. Who could forget using the cheat codes to race with a friend as prime movers in Need for Speed II? Classic stuff.
Mr Waffle
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 6:54 PMThe stupid problem with the demo is that you only get 1 race in it (a police chase), and to unlock a 2nd race (a street race), you HAVE to have someone else on your friends list to have played the demo as well to unlock it. Absolutely absurd.
James
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 8:23 PMFrom a marketing perspective, it makes sense. It forces anyone who wants to make full use of the demo to do a little word of mouth advertising for the game to their friends.
Dr Uggs
Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 8:26 PMwhat better way to get more people to play the demo,could add 50% to their market audience
Jano
Friday, November 5, 2010 at 1:08 PMChanging the name it’s a marketing strategy and seems that is working.