I remember a time when the racing game genre was littered with a seemingly
endless sea of titles featuring nothing but exotic European cars, with Ferraris,
Porsches,
Lamborghini, and such. What an about face we've seen in the last five or so years as the focus has shifted towards the Japanese import scene with Skylines,
Lancers, and seven different flavors of Honda strutting their stuff on
all manner of platform. One of the few series to keep the exotic
sports car flame a-flickering on these shores is the Need for Speed franchise
from Electronic Arts. Now it's getting ready to step onto the scene once again putting its Smokie and the Bandit hat back on as it goes for another round
of Hot
Pursuit, this time on the Playstation 2.
The key elements that made the original Hot Pursuit work will be coming back in the sequel as players will have the option of racing while avoiding the long arm of
the law, or being the police trying to stop the racers. Regardless of what side you play on, there will be street traffic to contend with, making flying down
country roads at 200 mph a far more harrowing experience. Throw in shortcuts, 20
different licensed exotic cars (which can be modified), and 12 different tracks, and players should have a decent
amount of gameplay at their fingertips.
From a visual standpoint expect all the usual nips and tucks and polish that comes with a series making its way onto a new, next generation console. From early
images it looks like the usual mix of graphical delights are being implemented into the game with lighting effects, smoke trails off of the tires when they're trying to gain
traction, and a ton of textures. On top of this there will be a number
of weather effects for players to deal with as rain, hurricanes,
blizzards, and so forth do their best to obscure the drivers' ability to
see the road. Whether or not the final version of the game will be able to handle all of this is anyone's guess, but for the time being it's still plenty
nice to sit back and soak in the current screens.
Racing games are one of the few genres that can get away with more of the same with relative ease in this industry, hell it's practically expected in most cases. It all
just comes down to vehicle selection and track design. So far we know that there will be a good amount of cars to pick from the game, and a nice presentation, so
now if we can get some engaging courses and a return of the quality control
found in recent NFS titles we could have a very worthwhile racer on our hands here.
