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Burnout Crash review: Accident prevention
As anyone who possesses the required documentation and vehicular means can attest, it is not terribly difficult to crash a car. There are countless laws and infrastructural guidelines designed to keep your automobile from touching anything but the ground beneath it -- ignoring just one is enough to cause a horrific, steel-twisting wreck. If impulse, not reason, guided your hands-on-wheels and feet-on-pedals, then the act of safe driving would be exponentially more difficult than the dangerous variety. Perplexingly, Criterion Games has centered the focus of Burnout Crash on a task that's even more difficult, and more obscure than avoiding collisions with other automotive objects: In Burnout Crash, you must collide with all the other automotive objects. Harsh penalties await for players who let chunks of traffic slip through their grasp, bringing you to a haunting realization: You're not orchestrating symphonies of coordinated property damage, you're committing automotive genocide. %Gallery-132171%
NFS: Hot Pursuit getting three new DLC packs in the next three weeks
After yesterday's discovery of new Achievements arriving in this week's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit patch -- cheevos that hinted at Lamborghini and Porsche DLC -- EA today issued a press releasing detailing three new DLC packs launching over the next three weeks starting on February 22. And wouldn't you know it, two of the packs happen to be themed after the aforementioned luxury car brands; "Lamborghini Untamed" adds three Lambos and 10 new events, while "Porsche Untamed" brings two Porsches and 10 more new events. Kicking the tires on the three weeks of DLC is the "Armed and Dangerous" pack, which adds two modes: "Most Wanted", described as "an open-world battle where the cops are out to bust a specific racer while the racers battle to protect them, making full use of the open world, weaponry and demanding team tactics," and "Arms Race," which EA details as "every man for himself as racers use their full arsenal of weaponry on each other in ruthless races to the finish." Armed and Dangerous arrives next week for $7, with Lamborghini Untamed and Porsche Unleashed launching in subsequent weeks at the same price. As detailed on the Need for Speed Blog, folks interested in snagging the forthcoming DLC will have to download this week's patch (version 1.2) first, which must be manually downloaded on Xbox 360s (via the Marketplace) since the 257MB patch handily exceeds the console's maximum size for an automatic Title Update. The PlayStation 3 update is automatically triggered upon startup.
Steam Holiday Sale discounts Left 4 Dead 2, GTA IV, NFS: Hot Pursuit
The Steam savings keep on coming as today's deals offer up another bevy of digital wares on the cheap. There are plenty to choose from, including Left 4 Dead 2 at a very reasonable $6.79, the GTA IV collection (which includes both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony) for $10, and hefty discounts on Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, Singularity and Transformers: War for Cybertron. Hit the jump for the full list.
Three new supercars pulling into Need for Speed Hot Pursuit DLC
So, you've finally managed to topple the impossibly low track times set by your unlawful friends in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, learning how to handle the game's fastest, most reckless automobiles along the way. The "Super Sports" DLC pack, due out on December 21 on Xbox 360, and December 22 on PSN, will to add 13 new events and three cars to the game: The Porsche 911 GT2 RS, the GUMPERT Apollo S and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. We bet they're as difficult to drive as they are to pronounce. The pack will run you $6.99 USD (560 Microsoft Points), which might seem like a bit much for three new cars and 13 new races. Still, think of the joy you'll get when driving the Bugatti Veyron while playing on the law enforcement team, effectively turning yourself into the world's fanciest cop.
Watch a Need for Speed Hot Pursuit trailer, help unlock free DLC for all
Do you like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit enough to watch a trailer for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit? If so, that moderate, casual fandom could be rewarded with free DLC. EA is offering a free three-pack of downloadable cars, including the Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 650-4 Roadster, and the Dodge Viper SRT10 Convertible Final Edition -- if this latest trailer reaches one million views by December 12. We've embedded it after the break in such a manner as to encourage views. We'll stop short of telling you to Rickroll your friends with it, but if we've accidentally planted the idea in your mind, there's just nothing we can do about that. [Thanks, Alexander] Update: The video has passed the 500,000 mark. You can do it! You can tell people to watch a video!
EA hosts Need for Speed Hot Pursuit launch party in Hollywood
EA hosted a launch party for its new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit game last night at the Avalon nightclub in Hollywood. Among the celebrities and performers Chiddy Bang, we found Criterion Games' creative director Craig Sullivan right before he introduced the game to the audience. "It's been amazing," he said of the response to the game so far. "We're really really happy with it." Sullivan's been a fan of Need for Speed since the original 3DO game, and along with the rest of Criterion, he says he was thrilled to get the chance to make an official title. "When we got our shot at the title, everybody was really up for it and we just kind of went crazy." We asked about DLC for the game, but Sullivan was still mum. "Given the fact that Criterion Games did a year of downloadable content for Burnout Paradise," he admitted, "I would be very surprised if we didn't do any followups or downloadable content for Need for Speed." But when pressed on what that DLC might be, he declined to comment until later on. Still, the party was a good time -- EA invited about 5,000 members of the public to come enjoy the game in a club that only held about 2,000 people. You can see pictures of the event in the gallery below. %Gallery-107597%
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit demo downloaded over two million times
In case the flood of promotional messages from your friends hasn't tipped you off yet, here's some news: a lot of people have checked out the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit demo on Xbox Live and PSN. According to some stats from EA, "more than" two million consoles downloaded the demo within the span of two weeks, making it the most successful demo for the series yet. Throughout their time with the demo, players have raced across 54 million miles of road in Seacrest County, resulting in over 20 million busts by law enforcement. If you were looking to get in on either side of the conflict, we're afraid you can no longer download the demo. But! We've got the next best thing: our review of the game!. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit launches on November 16 for the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Windows PC.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit review: More than satisfies the need
It's been a good year to be a fan of arcade-style racing games, with Blur and Split/Second neck-and-neck in the race to be the year's best. Unfortunately for them, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from Burnout Paradise creator Criterion Games just took first place. For the reboot of this Need for Speed sub-series, which saw two installments across PS1 and PS2, Criterion has created a racer that not only lives up to expectations of thrilling speed and pristine visuals but blows past them with a cops-and-robbers career mode.%Gallery-107062%
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit trailers offer cheeky tips and tricks
What's all this, then? You'd fancy a five minute clip of British actors portraying the events of a Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit race? Brilliant, as EA's just sent one over! Perhaps you don't have a full five to sit around? A more condensed vid is available as well, both found after the break. Spot on!
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit trailer tours Seacrest County
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit wants you to believe Seacrest County is a "driver's paradise," but we feel this latest trailer ignores the best thing Seacrest has to offer: Señor Guapo's Bakery on Alameda boulevard. Seriously, don't visit just to drive around, go have the churro of your life.
There's a lot going on in these Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit commercials
EA has developed one of the most perplexing ad campaigns we've ever seen to promote its upcoming racer, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It's a five-part mini-series following the shenanigans of two valets, one of which is also secretly a renegade cop (?), and one of which is also a street racer (?). Of course, they don't bust fools or drive fast in these ads. They park cars, because they're valets. Sometimes, they don't park the cars, because they're edgy. Oh, and they're played by Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon, whom you may know from the hit television series Entourage, or, if you're not an HBO subscriber, Hotel for Dogs. Check out the first two entries into this commercial series, titled "Officer Douche" and "You Park It," respectively, after the jump. After that, join us in wishing that these ads get their own spin-off television show, Cavemen-style. We'd love to see the complexities of these characters unfold, you know?
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit limited time demo coming Oct. 26
We've got a need -- a need for temporarily available demos of racing games that'll be available publicly in a few weeks, anyway. EA's bringin' it, with a Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit demo that will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network from tomorrow until November 9 (the demo goes live on PSN in Europe on the 27th). The publisher didn't explain the reason for the demo's temporary availability, instead focusing on the details of the forthcoming trial. Both "Dark Horse" and "Roadster's Reborn" game modes will be included. The former is the standard cops and robbers/cat and mouse scenario, while the latter offers ghost car time trials to compete against. The game's "autolog" social networking feature plays heavily into the second game mode, only unlocking after players add friends into their "Need for Speed friends list." We look forward to reevaluating our "friends" once it becomes impossible to beat some of their track times.
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit trailer introduces the Seacrest Police
Though we would have assumed that the Seacrest Police was a force responsible for monitoring and punishing the behavior of a certain American Idol host, the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit trailer posted below is evidence that this assumption was very, very stupid. Like, so stupid.
Dead Space 2, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and more coming to iOS
EA is bringing some of its biggest properties to iOS, the company revealed during a recent presentation at the Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo. Aside from the numerous titles already revealed last week, EA is currently working on ports of Dead Space 2, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, and even an ad-supported, subscription-optional version of Pogo, the company's casual online games portal. There will also be an EA Active presence on Apple's devices, as well as a version of Monopoly. Also, the other properties EA has lined up include an adaptation of the board game Pictureka! and a new racer called Reckless -- formerly known as Deliverace. If you're wondering, "Why the name change?" then clearly you've never spent time on the Cahulawassee River. Nobody wants to be reminded of that "vacation." For images of some of these newly-revealed games, head on over to 4Gamer.
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit dev diary introduces Autolog
In Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, there's an in-game social suite called Autolog. It allows players to compare progress and connect through various features -- actually, the people who created it would do a better job describing it, so head past the break for a brief video overview.
Criterion once pitched 'Need for Speed: Split Second,' worked on Skate or Die remake
In the latest issue of GamesTM, Criterion Games creative director Alex Ward dishes news on a Skate or Die remake that EA offered his studio back in 2002, which was eventually canned by Criterion. This, Ward says, soured relations between the developer and EA for some time, effectively killing Criterion's pitch on a Need for Speed title -- titled "Need for Speed: Split Second," if you can believe it. "We called a meeting with the EA guys, told them we were walking away [from Skate or Die] and they went mad," Ward said. "threatening to sue us, put us out of business ... there was a lot of anger and frustration. Then we got a call from the Need For Speed guys and they said 'we can't work with you guys any more; you just walked away and there's a shame on your company, so we can't talk to you.'" Though the pitch was killed, Criterion instead got to work on developing its Burnout series and is now developing another reboot for EA: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It also appears that the direction in which Skate or Die's remake was going -- a more realistic, simulation-style skateboarding game -- eventually became EA's Skate franchise. "I wanted to explore what it was like to just go out for a skate and have that feeling of just doing whatever you want. There was that experience from when I went skating in real life that just wasn't captured in videogames. I wanted to be able to get off the board," says Criterion dev Craig Sullivan. There are said to be many more interesting tidbits in the issue, which hits newsstands on September 5.
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit gameplay footage will get your heart racing
This freshly released gameplay trailer for Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit from Burnout vets Criterion Games has us in a hot pursuit of a controller with which we can play more of this blistering-fast racer. The footage features cops versus racers in both day and night settings, the latter we're pretty sure was put in the game just to show off the police car lights bathing passing cars and scenery in their red and blue beams. The video begins and ends with a peek at the game's "Autolog" player vs. player challenge system. There are also some shots that'll be familiar with anyone who played Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 in the PS2 era, including roadblocks, spike strips (dropped from helicopters!) and the cops calling in high-performance backup when their cruisers just aren't getting the job done. It looks fast-tastic. Now, if only November 16 could get here faster.
EA taking Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on tour
If you happen to live in one of seven US cities selected by EA, you'll be able to catch Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit in advance of its November 16 release. Taking a cue from The Cannonball Run, the game will wind its way across the country (and back again), making pit stops at "hot local venues" along the route, where it will be playable while "renowned hip hop and rock artists" perform. The tour rolls out on Wednesday, July 14 at the Manhattan Classic Car Club in New York City. Hit the break (not the brakes) for a full list of cities and dates, then visit the official Need for Speed site to sign up for a test drive at one of the venues.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit races to retail November 16
Criterion's Need for Speed has finally been revealed. EA's E3 keynote ripped off the cover on Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, a reboot of the long-running racing series due to launch on November 16. The introductory trailer promises a full campaign mode for both racer and cop and reveals a new feature called Autolog. This will track how you play and will support leaderboards for bragging rights between friends. There are also in-game power-ups (a spike strip for the cops is detailed), which can be utilized through the d-pad. Update: EA just sent a press release revealing a November 19 release for Europe, as well as a Wii port in development at Exient. %Gallery-95184%
Codemasters working on new FPS from creator of Black
Hey, remember Black, the PS2 and Xbox FPS created by Criterion Games before it went all-in on Burnout Paradise? Turns out the name wasn't just short for "black ops" -- the senior designer on the title was Stuart Black, and the vice president of development for Codemasters has now confirmed that he's working on a new game in a new studio for the company. Black will join former game director at Sony London, Tom Gillo, and senior producer Andrew Wilson on an 80-person team working with Codemasters' EGO engine to develop the brand-new IP, which the UK's Official Xbox Magazine seems to be hinting is "the shooter that everybody asked for." We've heard a lot of people ask for a next-gen No One Lives Forever sequel, but that's probably not what they mean. Black did have some nice stylistic twists, however, so while this game is definitely not a direct sequel (Criterion still owns that IP), we'll expect to see Black's ideas assembled in a new form.
