Hands-On: Need For Speed – Hot Pursuit


James is at Eurogamer Expo 2010 in London, and while he’s trying to enjoy himself at his first games showcase, he’s also trying to work and get some hands-on time. This is the first of several previews of games featured at this year’s event.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit definitely checks all expected boxes – and then some. Being developed by Criterion, naturally everyone expected it to play a little bit like Burnout. And it does. A lot.

Controls are pretty standard for the new era of driving games, with the triggers acting as your accelerator and brakes, X/A being your nitrous, and the D-Pad for weapons.

Weapons? In Need For Speed? Well, yes actually. A few weapons I got to try out in the games I’ve played were spike strips, usable by both cops and racers, an extra emergency boost for racers and the ability to call in helicopters and road blocks as the police. There is an EMP available to police as well but I haven’t seen it in action.

This is pretty much a game I’ve wanted to see on consoles again for a while now because unlike Most Wanted when you were just running from the cops, now you are the cops. I’m largely impressed with it so far and definitely see myself picking it up when it retails on November 19th.

By James Henderson

James grew up with a Commodore 64 at the tender age of 3, and has practically had a controller of some description stapled to his hands ever since. He also enjoys watching sports in his spare time, which makes him PXOD's de facto sports guy. He's been with Press X Or Die since June 2010.