Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Xbox 360 Racing Game | High-Speed Police Chase & Exotic Cars | Perfect for Racing Enthusiasts & Multiplayer Gaming Nights

I just love this game. Currently, it is the my favorite racing game of all time, and that comes from a guy who once loved the Midnight Club series and bashed the Need for Speed series. I do not understand why people hate the game and say that it is a waste of money when it isn't. It was definitely worth my 60 dollars as I played it very often.HOWEVER, two reason that I do understand for not getting the game is that there are no cops in freeroam nor is there freeroam online and there are no customization options what so ever other than the paintjob. That is perfectly clear as most NFS fans loved the earlier games of the series which includes Underground 2 and especially Most Wanted. If you are buying this game expecting that, expect yourself to be very disappointed. I think it is quite a bummer as well, but I have my own likes in this very particular game.1) Graphics = 6/5!!!Gorgeous, gorgeous, GORGEOUS! I would have to say that this is hands down the best graphics I have ever seen in a freeroam racing game and Midnight Club LA (as much as I love that game) cannot compare to it when it comes to graphics. I may be over-exaggerating, but the cars in this game are basically GT5 quality to me. They are simply that beautiful to look at and the details that come to the car (emblem, rotor discs, carbon fiber, etc)are very precise. Don't even get me started on the environment. I just love strolling down the road at over 150 mph in my Lamborghini with the sunset settling on the beach. I also love drifting down the windy roads in the blue mountains and just look upon the valley. When I came into the entrance of the mountains and got an amazing view of it, I fell in love. This is the main reason of why I love this game. I can simply play this game, enjoy the sights, and just relax to some trance.2) Sound = 5/5Nothing much to say about sound. The ambient sounds are soothing and you will hear airplanes past by you from time to time. The sound from the cars are absolutely sexy. The sounds of the police sirens are very crisp.3) Gameplay = 4/5Races are a lot of fun and it is definitely intense. I find the AI to be very aggressive at trying to win in this game, but can't go wrong with a little challenge. The hot pursuit and gauntlet events are possibly my favorite. You can either be a cop and take down some bad guys under a good amount of time or you can escape the cops as fast as you can as a racer. Again, excellent events that will get your heart going.A problem I have is with one of the game modes which I believe is called "Rapid Response". When you play as a cop, you have to play these time trial events to move on. Don't get me wrong, you can finish it and still move on with ease. If you are looking to get a gold medal in those events, then you better drive very carefully as hitting walls and other cars will add a couple seconds to your time. Doesn't sound very hard, but if you are a moderate driver like me then you will have a hard time trying to perfect these events.Freeroam is excellent. No cops, however, which I find to be a good thing as they just annoy the heck out of me sometimes. It is just a mode to chill and explore the whole county with your favorite ride. One thing I find weird is that there is a lack of an ingame map. Since when is there an absence of a in game map, in a freeroam racing game? I don't find myself to be lost often though since I've been playing enough to remember where I am going. For your first time playing, I recommend you look at the map inside your game case.Online for me is a bit dead which is disappointing. I played a couple of times and it was pretty fun, but there aren't a lot of players for the cops vs racers mode. For the races, you can expect a good amount of people in a lobby. Jeez are people aggressive when racing though.Conclusion: Great amount of cars, amazing graphics and environments, exciting gameplay, what more could you ask for in a racing game? It was definitely worth my money and what you get with it will be worth your cash as well. Even though the content is worth the cash, remember that there are no cops in freeroam and that there is no freeroam online. If you are willing to spend a couple more bucks, buy the Most Wanted game mode from the marketplace which has a type of cops vs racers in multiplayer on the whole entire map which is open.After a run of declining sales and increasingly poor reviews, the Need for Speed series shifted developers in 2010 from the overworked team at BlackBox to Criterion, developers of the Burnout series of action-oriented arcade racers.I've personally never played any of the Burnout games, so this is my first experience with Criterion. However, I am a longtime NFS fan going back to the original release back in the mid 90's. I lost interest in the series during the Underground era, but I was brought back into the fold with 2005's Need for Speed Most Wanted. Even though the sequels to that game (Carbon & Undercover) had some issues, I still enjoyed both of those as well.My first impression of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit was that they were definitely going for old-school NFS with this title. The car list, events, & racing environment definitely bring to mind the early titles in the series. Gone is the emphasis on tuner cars & urban street racing. In it's place is a long list of exotic cars and a wide open rural playground to drive them in.While turning back the clock certainly has it's merits from a nostalgia point of view, they have also stripped away a decade-plus of features accumulated in previous titles. Some of the obvious ones are:- No split-screen multiplayer- No car customization or upgrading of any kind besides color- No real story or narrative to the career mode- No cops or racers to encounter in free-roam (what's the point then?)- No quick-race feature to allow you to set up a custom race in single-playerThe last one is the biggest shocker for me. You are literally stuck with the stock events provided to you in the game, which are often restricted to one car (or perhaps a small handful) and will only have one weather type. This smacks of pure laziness on the developers part. Given the decent sized car list, varied racing environments, and also lack of a story line in career mode, this game absolutely begs for a custom race mode to extend replay value.In place of both the quick race mode and the split screen multiplayer is an emphasis toward online multiplayer. Right from the get-go the game steers you in that direction by attempting to log you into your XBOX Live account each time you load it up. I don't have an XBOX live account, so I have to skip through that each time. An associated feature that EA/Criterion is now pushing is Autolog. Autolog will show your friends' best times for an event, which you can try to one-up. You can also post pictures on it to show off exciting game moments to your friends. There's nothing wrong with this feature, but it's completely worthless to me minus the additional purchase of XBOX live. None of my friends are into racing games and I'm just not into online multiplayer gaming in general, so I'm not going to bother with it.The single-player racing action in Hot Pursuit is actually pretty solid. The cars have more weight to them then they did in NFS: Undercover, which is nice. The graphics, sound, and frame rate are better than ever. The game is most definitely an arcade racer; they might as well call the brake button the initiate drift button, as that's about all you'll ever use it for. Drifting is an essential part of being competitive in this game. Once you have it down, you will find yourself drifting through turns at well over 150 mph.The events in Career mode are split between racer events and police events, which both follow divergent paths. The racer events are a letdown. For whatever reason, Criterion decided that what gamers want is a boatload of (at times) frustratingly difficult time trial events. Once I got the mechanics of drifting down, these became much more manageable, but it still required multiple attempts to achieve gold with some of these events. A variant on these races are the Gauntlet events, which are basically time trials with the added bonus being heavily engaged by the cops.There are actual races versus AI drivers mixed in there as well. Some are basic races where it's just you versus the competition. These are my favorite, but then again, I am a purist. I don't mind the cops versus racers aspect (it is NFS Hot Pursuit, after all), but any racing game worthy of such classification should be able to provide a good pure racing experience. Unfortunately, while this game does achieve that, there are comparatively few such events to choose from.A large number of the racing events are hot pursuit events where you get to deal with an increasingly forceful police force while also trying to outrun the reasonably challenging AI racers. These are certainly fun (though very difficult later in the game when the cars get hyper fast and the races get very long); however, this is where the lack of a custom or quick race mode kills the game for me. When I'm in the mood, dueling both the racers and the psycho cops can be a blast. However, it can also be frustration city. Winning is often a matter of luck given how aggressive the fuzz gets, which really makes me wish I could duplicate these races without the cops.To help you fight off the cops (and your fellow racers), the game equips your car with various weapons (which of course the cops also have and will use on you relentlessly later in the game). While these seem cool at first, this is the point in which the game basically turns into Mario Kart. Dropping spike strips behind your car is akin to dropping banana peels. Your targeted EMP blast is basically just like firing off turtle shells. Your turbo boost is your thunderbolt, giving you a huge burst of speed for a short time.The police mode is basically the same as racer mode minus any actual racing. Instead, your goal (assuming the event isn't yet another time trial) is to violently run the bad guy racers off the road by smashing into their car or using the above weapons and/or calling in roadblocks. The cop mode is a cool add-on to extend gameplay; however, these events don't excite me too much.Overall, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit is a disappointment due to its failure to consistently deliver the solid racing experience that I look for in such a title. The sad part is that it's not at all due to a poor graphical or physics engine or bad controls. The game (at its core) is quite fun. The failure lies entirely with the extremely shallow & restrictive single player career, the corresponding lack of a quick race mode, as well as the lack of any split-screen multiplayer. This is a title that is absolutely chock-full of wasted potential. Oh well...Llegó antes de tiempo y en excelente condicion.Buen juego y facil de usar a mi hijo le gustó mucho.Y a mi también.Good condition and arrived promptly. Gifts for our grandchildren for Christmas. Plays well.Très bon jeu avec option d’être police ou criminelNão é possível jogar em tela dividida com outro jogador, o clássico multiplayer. Jogo para solitários!Entrega super rápida, o produto veio muito bem embalado.Quanto ao jogo, achei o gráfico excelente.Recomendo a compra!