Pursuit Force ready to ride in 2006

Silver-screen-style chase scenes and shootouts set to hit Sony's portable widescreen next spring.

If Hollywood has taught the American public anything, it's that rookie cops are often hot-headed loose cannons who'll bend the rules in order to get the job done, no matter how many fruit stands get obliterated, giant panes of glass being pointlessly carried across streets get shattered, or how many helpless baby carriages come within an inch of automotive tragedy. If games have taught the American public anything, it's that all that stuff is fun to control. Sony is attempting to combine those two lessons in the spring 2006 release of its PSP action game Pursuit Force, the company announced today.

Currently in development at UK-based Bigbig Studios, Pursuit Force puts players in the role of a young police officer charged with cleaning up the gang-infested streets of five different districts in and around Capital City. Earlier this year, it was named GameSpot's Editors' Choice Award winner for Best PSP Game of E3 2005.

Keeping in line with the devil-may-care, loose-cannon personality of the game's main character, Pursuit Force players can reach out of their ride to shoot a variety of firearms at fleeing perps. But it doesn't end there, as they can also ditch one ride for another, jumping between cars at top speed, clinging to hoods with a tenacity that would do T.J. Hooker proud.

Pursuit Force also lets players commandeer cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses for law enforcement purposes. Beyond simple vehicular mayhem, speedboat, helicopter, and on-foot sections of gameplay offer a variety of ways to get the job done. The game includes 30 cases to solve, 10 types of weapons, and more than 50 different rides.

For more on Pursuit Force, check out GameSpot's Q&A with Sony Computer Entertainment of America producer Ryan Hamlyn.

20 Comments

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Jan 17, 2006 7:04 pm PT

    2006 is still a long way.....

  • curlymccluskey

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 11:20 am PT

    we in Ireland and the U.K already are playing pursuit force and it kick's ass

  • curlymccluskey

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 11:20 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • curlymccluskey

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 11:19 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • KrycekUK

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 10:49 am PT

    I guess its going to take that extra time to translate the language into "American" English ;-)

  • kkania

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 10:12 am PT

    I played it a few times. While the idea is nice and the execution is impressive, the game gets boring after oh... dunno, 10 minutes? Shoot, leap, drive, shoot, leap, drive... there's absolutely nothing more to it.

  • bryehngeocef

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 9:31 am PT

    Hate to say it, SClaridge77, but if that's the product you guys got at retail, it's no alpha, just a game with bad handling.

  • stevenj05

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 7:46 am PT

    sorry dude but its all about the U.S.......

  • motslaps

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 5:39 am PT

    Hurray for Europe! It's nice to finally get something first on this side of the pond.

    I really think Gamespot.com needs to become more global - the need teams working on the sites from Europe and Japan!

  • Smoke0

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 5:24 am PT

    ITīs already out Europe ha ha

  • kotg

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 2:24 am PT

    Been playing it for a bit now and imo its a great addition to the psp range. Although some may say that its a little difficult, its well worth the playing time as some later missions are fantastic. Depending on the gamer, the handling can seem bad at first but by your 6th/7th mission you wont even notice - definetly takes some getting use to at first though!
    I was dissapointed there were no multiplayer, but i suppose they've gotta save something for PF2!?

  • SClaridge77

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 1:54 am PT

    I live in the UK and yes it was released on 18/11/05 over here, I bought it at GAME on their 10-day returns guarantee.

    The game is good in many ways, it's totally unlike any other racer/action game you may have played, the closest comparison would be the arcade version of Chase HQ II, only better.

    The sad thing about it is that it would seem to have been Alpha tested on us the UK public, the vehicle handling is bad, most of the time you end up having to use the walls to get round corners and the cars don't generally seem fast enough to catch up to the bad guys which then leads to the time limits.

    Now I am no virgin gamer having played video games for nigh on 20 years but these time limits and objectives range from exceptionally easy and extremely tough and in no real order, so much so that it ceases the game being fun and turns it into frustration.

    The on foot sections are not very good either thankfully there aren't that many of them.

    Lastly there is no multiplayer on our version.

    So to conclude I would seriously recommend renting this game before you buy it, they may be taking the time to release it in a better form over the other side of the pond, so you guys may be lucky after all.

  • ewjim

    Posted Nov 30, 2005 1:51 am PT

    I thought game is complete for present moment, because i've saw the demo, it was COOL... So, i was wrong eh...

  • Jaclarks

    Posted Nov 29, 2005 8:11 pm PT

    im kinda wondering how they are going to switch from cars and stuff to being on foot... will it have like a gta affect or will the sections be completely separated?

  • lancebarlow

    Posted Nov 29, 2005 6:07 pm PT

    Hasn't this game already been released in the UK? I thought I heard someone giving it a good review from over there. Anyone know? What date did it release over there?

  • majere613

    Posted Nov 29, 2005 6:06 pm PT

    Er.. Unless I'm getting seriously confused, this is already out in the UK. It's one of the games getting bundled in the PSP Giga Pack. No idea if it's any good, though...

  • spydrman5472

    Posted Nov 29, 2005 5:12 pm PT

    Nice "words of wisdom" Joe except for the fact you can say that about any game that is not yet on a store shelf and still in development. Tool.

  • doomed51

    Posted Nov 29, 2005 5:08 pm PT

    looks like a good game, lets see how it turns out

  • Basinboy

    Posted Nov 29, 2005 4:45 pm PT

    Hopefully it turns out well. The psp is a disaster at the moment. The more games you can feed it the better.

  • blackIceJoe

    Posted Nov 29, 2005 4:36 pm PT

    Sounds like a good game to have but you can never judge a book or in this case a game by what it sounds like.
    It sounds nice but it could turn around and be a real bad game hoping it will be a nice one.

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