Gamecube - Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 review

| GAME FEATURES |	Developer - Electronic Arts
A.) Get Chased down by cop cars	Developer - Electronic Arts Canada
B.) Play 25 tracks including all the cop cars you love to hate.	Released on October 01, 2002
C.) Earn money by placing 1st and buy faster cars	Type - One on One Racing

This game was developed for consoles because it officially would be the sequel to the greatest Need for Speed game of all time, Need for Speed III. The design couldn't match the design that of NFS III. I don't know, it was just better. Only released on the PC, NFS3 offered many tracks to race on. The controls were well executed and the Internet provided 3 dozen fast cars. I never got into the racing genre on the pc. You had a option of using the keyboard, but the prefered way was to use a 6 button joystick. Now 3 years after NFS3 was released, Hot Persuit 2 brings updates from the prequel. The consoles have pre-set controls. I played the rental and the Gamecube version sucks. Unfortunely, EA didn't have a separate developer handy to do the improvements. Here's why : The control is loose and it is very easy to do a 360 on the ground. Which in a car chaise is exactly what's not needed. Yep, EA Games is definably exaggerating when they put you up against 3 cop cars after the 2nd lap of your race.

So what NFS : HP2 is left with is a straight port of the Playstation 2 version. The game is clearly not cleaned up. A game running in medium resolution with some trees, a tunnel here and there, but mostly road and flat backgrounds. It's not exceptable in today's games. Reminds me of Crusin USA for Nintendo 64. They are pretty much the same. Need for Speed VII has average control at best. Cop cars can swap you around like flies. If you are looking at the best version of this game, look for the PC version. With the right equipment, the game should look better and play much better. Some recommendations would be Extreme G III. XGIII has better control then other racing titles. This game would make a good rental. If graphics are what your looking for, XGIII looks better then Need for Speed VII. I give this game (overall 6.0/10) Now that I know NFS on Gamecube isn't very good, I would like to try NASCAR THUNDER 2003. In times like this, I really thought Uri Soft should ported Speed Devils to Gamecube. In fact I'm interested in what this Racer game is for Gamecube. Perhaps another Speed Devils. If it were, I'm going to get it. (posted February 24, 2003 6:45PM)