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 orcheat 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 Requirement)
Processor= 550MHz
RAM= 128MB
Graphics= 16MB
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