Not the much-needed reboot for the "NFS-with-Cops" series.
User Rating: 3 | Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit X360
This game is a disappointment. It seems not even Criterion's intervention could reverse the downward slide in the NFS series. While the visuals are decent, there isn't much else to get excited about in this game. When given the choice between having unlicensed cars and full damage (not really an NFS thing to do) and licensed cars with very limited damage, EA chose to go with the latter, which is unfortunate, since Criterion is better know for crashes than racing mechanics. AI opponents have an on-rails quality that makes for some extremely frustrating racing (oh, they'll make mistakes from time to time), but while you can get taken out, you can't take them out, not even the PIT maneuver works, which makes hearing the phrase "Go in for the PIT" over the radio just that much more annoying. The physics for the rest of the game are similarly frustrating, it's as if EA decided to bypass "realistic" and "fun" for "aneurysm-causing frustration." Throw in some (and by that I mean a lot of) canned animations and you have some money that would be better spent on almost anything.
