In the last 5 years, 3 words have made my blood boil: Need For Speed. Once my favourite racing franchise, until recently, the bane of my existence. For all of you that liked Shift, look away now: I have to admit I couldn’t get on with Shift. It was a racer that was half arcade, half simulation... and did neither particularly well. With Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, my contempt for the series has turned back into elation and with Criterion behind the wheel – sorry – and recognising what made the series great, we could be onto a winner here.
So what made the series great? Criterion were that on the ball at this year’s E3 that they actually told us what we wanted to hear: exotic cars, epic landscapes – of which there are 100 miles of road – and of course, the main ingredient: cops.
A big focus for Criterion at this year’s E3 – other than the racing itself – are the things that they plan to do with social networking within Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit – they’re looking to create a connected experience by putting a social network at the heart of it. Meet, “Need For Speed Autolog” – an in-game social network that tracks your friends’ progress, gives you news, gives you a “Most Wanted” friend, allows you to send and receive messages (and pictures) and more. Two of the things that Criterion touched upon a little further was Autolog’s “Feed” and “Recommends” aspects.
