NEED FOR SPEED : HOT PURSUIT (2010)

PLATFORMS: PS3, XBOX360, PC, Wii, iPHONE, AND iPAD

GENRE: RACING

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Operating system: Windows XP (SP3) / Windows Vista / Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 ® 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 + or better
Memory: 1.5 GB Windows ® XP / 2 GB Windows Vista ® - Windows ® 7
Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 GT or ATI Radeon HD 4700 (or better)
Hard Disk: 8.0 GB

Like all the best video game locations, Seacrest County is a completely ridiculous place. The roads are universally pristine and peppered with awesome shortcuts. The national parks are gloriously free of gigantic RVs. And when people decide to break traffic laws, they do it at 200mph in exotic supercars. If that sounds like a slice of heaven pie to you, then you're going to want to check out Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, a reboot of Electronic Arts' cops-and-speeders driving series from veteran developer Criterion Games. 

 The concept of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit could have been dreamed up at a middle-school boy's sleepover party. What if there was a place where both cops and the illegal street racers drove Lamborghinis, Mercedes, Bentleys, Porches and other drool-worthy marques around a gigantic network of roads at supremely high rates of speed? Oh, and wouldn't it be sweet if they could crash into each other and drop spike strips and call in helicopters and run each other off the road? And when you crash into someone, it should drop into ultra-slow motion and give you a ton of points! 

You can play as a cop or a racer, and you increase your rank or wanted level as you run people off the road, drift around corners, drive into oncoming traffic (as a racer), and generally behave like a motoring maniac. Along the way, you'll earn Bounty to unlock new cars, expand your arsenal of weapons/gadgets and open new sections of the Seacrest County map. The more you drive, crash, smash and win, the more cool stuff you get. It's simple, and it works. 

    Criterion has created a racing landscape that feels alive. Traffic (all licensed vehicles) comes and goes, aircraft fly by as you're driving, weather effects are realistic and dramatic, and the buildings along the roads just seem, well, real. Hop into Freedrive mode, and you can hop into any car you've unlocked and just tool around the entirety of Seacrest County. As you motor along, weather will come and go, the sun will rise and set, and the world will just sort of roll along. 

     Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is pure over-the-top driving entertainment. The cars and environments are gorgeous, the crashes are spectacular, and the new Autolog feature breathes new life into the time-honored tradition of video game competition among friends. The single-player races can become somewhat repetitive and there are some presentation issues, but overall, Hot Pursuit is a blast. If you’re looking for a high-octane racer that grabs on tight but doesn’t take itself too seriously, give this one a shot.