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Overview

I can't hide from it any longer. No more kidding myself or the others around me. I have to face it head on. What is it you ask? The fact that racing games are officially my favorite genre, ousting the long running sports titles. I don't know if it is due to the fact that there have been so many quality racing games for the PSX or what. All I know is that I can sit down and play racing games for hours on end. It just so happens that Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit is a racing game, and a damn good one at that.

The Need for Speed series is on its third installment (not including V-Rally and the old saying 'the third time is a charm' has never been more true. After a 'disappointing-at-best' effort with Need For Speed II, EA is back on track with this arcade racer. So what makes it better? How about new cars, better graphics, awesome tracks, a pursuit mode, day or night racing, backwards tracks, and even varying weather conditions. Oh yeah, it also has one tiny little thing that makes it better: great gameplay.

Gameplay

Since I have left little doubt in your mind about my feelings of this game, I will spend the next few paragraphs trying to sell you on why you need to go buy this game. No, EA does not give me kick backs or anything like that (not that I wouldn't accept them, but they just have not offered). I just really got into this game. It was one white-knuckled race after another. I knew that one mistake could cost me the race. This is what makes racing games fun.

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In NFS II, I complained a little bit about the cars and how obscure they were. One of the things I liked about the original was that the cars were all high performance cars but you could still see them on the road in everyday life. In NFS II, I had never heard of most of the cars. Apparently I was the only person who thought that this was lame because in NFS III, the cars are pretty rare with a few exceptions. You can race a Ferrari 550 Maranello, Ferrari 355 F1, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Lamborghini Countach 25th, Mercedes CLK-GTR, 1998 Corvette C5, Jaguar Sport XJR-15 and Italdesign Nazca C2. I have heard of the majority of these manufacturers but I can guarantee with the exception of the Vette, you will not ever be stuck in traffic next to any of these vehicles. I guess that the idea is to give you a look and feel of driving an untouchable car.

The biggest improvement over the previous version is unquestionably the gameplay. I really had a tough time playing NFS II and ended up not liking it much. A lot has changed. The game engine has been redone and handles like a dream. It actually reminded me of Moto Racer except in cars instead of on motor bikes. I think that the reason it reminded me of this was because of the awesome power slides that you could use to make it around sharp corners. All you had to do was hit the hand brake and watch the tail end start to slide. This made sharp corners a breeze. If you have ever played NFS II, you know that cornering was a real pain in the ass. Not any longer. This also gave the game a real arcade feel to it which I prefer over true simulations.

Another cool addition to this version was the inclusion of weather. It is about time that someone made a racing game that had varying weather conditions. This added a whole new feel to the same track. Also, you could set the time of day on random so you could also race during the day or at night. Between the varying weather conditions and the random day/night, your really had a huge combination of variables to effect you race. For example, you could race on the Hometown track at night with dry roads. Your next race could be the Red Rock track during the day in the rain. I thought this was a great addition to the game that really kept it fresh.

Also new in this release is the Hot Pursuit mode. This mode had you racing against a single racer on traffic-infested roads. Since the roads have traffic, they have to have cops to patrol the traffic, right? Since the cops are patrolling the traffic, they really don't care much for someone who fly's by at 150 MPH so they chase you down and either slap you with a fine or arrest you. They also resort to such trickery as road blocks and spike belts to try and stop you. Although this mode was fun for a few races, it did get to be a bit annoying having to slow down and get stopped by the cops all of the time. Maybe I was just not good enough to get away from them, but it seemed awfully tough to elude them. Also, since when can an old Barney Fife cruiser keep up with a Ferrari? Well, it happened all the time in this game. I would be flying at 140 MPH and the cops would be keeping up with me stride for stride. Where is the advantage in having a $250,000 sports car?

I do wish that they would have added a medium difficulty level to the game. You only have a beginner and an expert level. I rip through the beginner level with ease but when I tried playing on expert, it seemed that all of the cars had been hopped up and I was unable to keep up. I did eventually win some races but it was very difficult, and you had to almost have a flawless race. It was inevitable that you would wreck at least once per race and if you did, you had no chance of winning. It would have been nice to have a middle step instead of a giant leap.

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The last thing about this game that made it so much fun was the tracks. All of the tracks were packed with short cuts and seemed to stretch on forever. It would take 4 or 5 races before you would really get to learn the ins and outs of each track and then you would start looking for the shortcuts. You had a ton of different terrain that you would race through from snow covered hills to the desert to small towns. I could not wait to see the next track when I first starting playing and I was enamoured when I found that winning the knockout mode opened up another new track. All in all, you will be playing for a long time before you start to get tired of the tracks.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you have not already gone out and purchased an analog controller, I suggest you do so. The control in NFS III is so smooth with the analog controller that it is almost unfair. These are high end, top dollar sports cars so you may as well get the true feeling of the handling.

Graphics

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Talk about an improvement! The lackluster graphics of NFS past are gone and replaced with some great 3D graphics. The cars and tracks look much better which results in an overall more enjoyable game. There were a few breakups on occasion and the backgrounds did have a tiny bit of a grainy look but it was not really noticeable. All in all, you will be pleasantly surprised with the look of this game especially if you are a NFS veteran.

Bottom Line

If you are a fan of arcade racers, this game is a must buy. I think you will really appreciate all of the improvements in this game. I could not stop playing. It is very hard to me to really get the point across on how much of an improvement this game is so I can only suggest you at least rent it and see for yourself. You will not be disappointed.

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