Need For Speed: The Run

[Chux]

Uh, I also played the demo and am avoiding the FUCK out of it. It doesn't play like Hot Persuit at all. Hot Persuit was fast, and you couldn't just ride the guardrails to win. The sense of speed was dulled, and crashes were subpar.

It's a shame, I wish critereon used the engine from hot persuit and made a cannonball run game like this.

[Geo]

It plays like last year's Hot Pursuit

But it doesn't actually play like Hot Pursuit. The handling of the cars and the racing feels considerably different, for the worse imo. Because of that, I'm no longer interested in this game.

Edit: Hah, Chux already said it.

[GohanX]

I should probably run a few races of Hot Pursuit, it's been a while. It sounds like I need to amend that statement.

[Yoshi]

Those impressions support my denial that EA exists outside of BioWare.

[Diff-chan]

Hot Pursuit with a wider variety of locales (though HP was no slouch), more chase missions, and maybe some crappy story would've been fine.

I also don't know why EA went through all the trouble of using an incomplete and assy console Frostbite 2 when Criterion has all this awesome arcade racing game tech right there for the taking. And you wonder why these companies can't make any money.

[Geo]

Hot Pursuit used the Frostbite "1.0" engine for the environments. I don't think Frostbite 2.0 is the issue, it's Black Box's inferior handling of the cars & racing compared to what Criterion did a year earlier.

Hopefully we see a new Criterion racer next year.

[GohanX]

I played a quick race in Hot Pursuit with a Gallardo, and it feels pretty similar to the Run but the controls are a bit tighter in Hot Pursuit. The presentation and wrecks are a bit better as well. They feel like the same series, but (graphics aside) it feels like Hot Pursuit is the later more refined game. Then again, the Lambo isn't the best handling car in the game, so the new game might feel better with a smaller Porsche or something.

I'm still getting this, it's not like we have a huge amount of arcade racers this gen.

[Yoshi]

Most Wanted, Hot Pursuit, Split/Second, and Paradise are all you need in terms of retail releases... well, and one of the Ridge Racers other than the new abortion coming out.

[Chux]

Seriously. This gen has had the MOST arcade racers. Off the top of my head: Blur, Paradise, HP, S/S, MW, Underground 1/2 (Not my cup of tea, but it's in the genre), The Run, we just got the best port of Daytona ever, etc.

[GohanX]

Excluding ports of previous gen games, that puts us at about one decent racer a year, and one really good racer every several years. That is certainly better than the previous gen, which was basically Need For Speed Hot Pursuit (lol) and Outrun 2.

FWIW Hot Pursuit is the only retail racing game that I've really enjoyed this gen. Split Second and Pure are fun, but not in the same league. Admittedly, it's hard to keep my interest when I have Outrun Online and Daytona sitting on my hard drive ready to play at any time when I need a racing fix.