At a time when gaming was probably at it's best, EA had a lot of projects on their agenda. This was by far their most memorable project. in a time where there's a new NFS instalment every year (and now they seem to be getting worse and worse) It's time we looked back at NFS III: Hot Pursuit and evaluate it Piece by Piece.
First, The single Race. This was supposed to be the main portion of the game, but most of my memories wern't here. You could pick any course, any car (that was available) and just race against 7 other racers.
Second, There was hot pursuit. Now here's where the game gets awesome, cause most people's memories were from here. There was only one other cop chase game around at the time people talked about - Test Drive 5. and that game's Pursuit engine was primitive (All the cop had to do on the road was pass you and the chase was over) here, things got really complicated for the time (the police would radio headquarters, deploy extra units, Roadblocks and spike strips.) and it usually meant you were hauled away in a cop car. this was the best part of the game, by far.
Third, there was the knockout race. This became a staple for NFS games to come. You race against your opponents, and as long as you wern't the last person to cross the line, you were okay. They might take a long time, but they're challenging and fun.
Those were the 3 most memorable parts of the game. Not having internet or any other cool things at the time I didn't do much multiplayer on the game.
Now, the Visuals...For 1998, they were pretty good. Nowadays, it looks really crappy on a Windows XP or a Vista (if you can run it on one) but Empire City still looks intimidating.
The sounds are where the game truly succeeds. I mentioned Before the Techno in the game sucks...I was being a loser. the techno brings the game an element of awesome. but the rock is by far better. Songs like "Little Sweaty Sow" and "Snorkeling Cactus Weasels" will make you headbang and drive over the limit in nanoseconds of hearing them.
The Gameplay? It's great. You've got wild courses to drive over and top speeds to hit. Just be careful to not be such a lead foot, cause a dramatic crash will be unforgiving.
The cars that are available? You've got cars like the Aston martin Db7, the Chevrolet Corvette, the Ferrari Spider and Maranello, The Lamborghini Countach and the Diablo, and the Alfa Romeo Schigera, a Prototype that didn't see the light of day, and finally, El Nino, a car that EA made up.
Unfortunately, Ferrari does not Approve of their cars being involved in high speed Police pursuits, so you cannot drive a Ferrari in a Police chase.
Overall, I give this game a 9/10, and i strongly suggest that if you haven't played this before, get a copy somewhere.