Need for Speed 3 Hot Pursuit: Not only is the latest Need for Speed
miles ahead of the last NFS game, but it approaches (and dare I say
surpasses?), the best of the consoles in terms of sheer fun and speed.
I
don't usually play racing games on the PC. Either they're pale
imitations of the arcade and console racers, or they're boring 50-lap
simulations. I mean, why play Need for Speed II and Test Drive 4 on the
PC when I can play Super GT in the arcade and Gran Turismo on the
PlayStation? For ages, I told friends that the PC had nothing on the
arcade, even venerable classics like Daytona and Sega Rally.Well, I
think I'm going to be eating crow for the next few weeks... and loving
it. Not only is the latest Need for Speed miles ahead of the last NFS
game, but it approaches (and dare I say surpasses?), the best of the
consoles in terms of sheer fun and speed.
Need for Speed
III is a great game. It has an exhilarating sense of speed, clean and
beautiful graphics, polished production values, and trackloads of
unadulterated fun. In many ways, Need for Speed III has that same
addictive quality I found in Quake II, Starcraft, and Heroes of Might
and Magic. That's pretty celebrated company, but I don't think it's an
unfounded categorization. Need for Speed III has that same "just one
more turn or just one more deathmatch" quality that the other games
have. And just like in those games, the action in Need for Speed III is so engrossing and rewarding that the next time you come up for air, you'll find that two hours have whizzed by.
While Need for Speed
III shares an addictive quality with those games, it has something of
its own: pure speed. This game is fast and fun. The frame rate is fast
and incredibly clean. I've played my fair share of PC and console racers
where the pop-up was horrible, as cliffs and buildings would suddenly
appear out of thin air, many seconds after you should have seen them on
the horizon. Whether it's the smart track design or the beautiful
engine, the bottom line is that I only saw one or two instances of minor
pop-up. And multiplayer is as fast and fun as the single-player
experience. The sound of your revving engine and the fast frame rate
both combined to create the illusion of breakneck speeds, although the replays didn't look quite as fast I would have liked.
Aside from the speed and addictive quality, Need for Speed III has the requisite list of features that marketers
like to put on boxes, journalists like to list, and consumers always
look for. There are many cars, with subtle differences, and the ability
to tweak more than a few car qualities, such as steering speed,
aerodynamics, and suspension. And, surprisingly, the tweaks will affect
your car noticeably.
In classic Need for Speed
fashion, there are more than a dozen supercars to race, including
several bonus cars that open up with sustained excellent race results or
cheat codes. The range of cars is a fascinating gallery of every car
enthusiast's dream vehicles: Corvettes, Ferraris, Lamborghinis,
Porsches, Jaguars, Mercedes, and an Italdesign prototype car. There are
also roughly ten tracks, including the bonus track, encompassing
several different environments and difficulty levels. You'll race
through a canyon, snowy mountain caps, urban utopia, and forests. You
can race during nighttime and in rain to add further to the track
variety. Visibility takes a huge hit in either condition, making races
on the harder courses incredibly
treacherous. Unfortunately, I didn't experience any noticeable
difference in driving under rain; the road didn't appear any slicker and
handling was pretty much consistent with perfect weapon. If there was a
difference, it was too subtle for me to notice.
The
single-player game modes include a single race, knockoff (where you
eliminate the last place of each race), tournament (where you race
through the entire circuit for points), and hot pursuit. Hot pursuit is
EA's answer to all the critics who lamented the loss of the cops in Need for Speed II. You aren't only trying to outrace an opponent, but also escape the pursuing cops. Three tickets,
and you're out. Or alternatively, you can play the cop in pursuit. The
radio chatter alerting you to the cops' presence and their strategies
(pursuit or roadblock) are nice touches.
The
graphics in the game are pretty amazing. The reflection on the cars is
outstanding, as is the rain, and the leaves and dust that follow in your
wake. The lighting is especially impressive during the night and rain
races. Best of all, everything, including the up to seven competitors,
animating background objects, and your rearview mirror, can be packed on
screen with barely a hint of a performance hit (OK, sometimes, it will
slow down slightly, but not by much). The production values on the track
briefings and the car gallery are also first-rate.
There
are a few problems. For one, the dashboard doesn't light up at night,
and there are no windshield wipers at your disposal during rain. It's
disappointing that there's no damage to your cars. I understand that
none of the car companies want to see their poor little vehicles hurt in
this game, but what's the excuse for not being able to dent the
nonsupercars you crash into? And unlike in the latest Sega arcade
racers, the cars in Need for Speed III, while maintaining an effective illusion
of high-speed driving, sometimes appear too much like they are gliding
on the road rather than actually driving and hugging the road. And why
not just open all the regular cars (not the bonus cars) in hot pursuit,
knockoff, and tournament mode? Still, it's a testament to the game's
addictive fun factor that when I was racing, none of these shortcomings
ever bothered me. While the arcades still have the edge in racing games,
Need for Speed III goes a long way toward giving PC gamers a real taste of exhilarating arcade speed and action.
System Requirements:
Processor= 550MHz
RAM= 128MB
Graphics= 16MB
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