Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit
Developer: Electronic Arts.
Need for Speed website: www.needforspeed.com
(doesn't have NFS3 any more)
Electronic Arts must be making good money from their Need for Speed series - this edition even got its own TV ad campaign here in New Zealand. It is a substantial advancement over Need for Speed 2 in many areas, and different versions of it are marketed around the world. I have the Asia/Pacific version, which gives you the chance to drive a Ford Falcon and a Holden Commodore.
Ford vs. Holden
Some of the key features of Need for Speed 3:
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 "Sure. It's five miles up the road, second on your left..." 
The Spectre R42, a new car released via the internet |
If you've played any of the previous Need for Speed games, probably the first thing that you'll notice when you first see NFS3 is the dramatic improvements in the graphics. Image and graphics seem to be what sells racing games, and Electronic Arts have gone to some trouble..
A casualty of this is the frame rate; my p133 ran NFS2 fine but it can only generate a NFS3 slide-show. A 3d accelerator card is required to make the game look its best, but the screenshots on this page are captured from the software-only version unless specified.
 Part of the traditional 'multimedia showcase' which has always accompanied Need for Speed cars |
 Shot from the graphics accelerator version, showing dust and reflection effects |
 (3Dfx) This is the part of town the cops call "The Business District" |
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My continuing gripe with the Need for Speed series, though, is that they put graphics first to sell the game. People are probably supposed to think that if Electronic Arts put in enough effort to model little things like swirling leaves and reflections in your car, they'd certainly have refined the gameplay.
But this doesn't seem to be the case.
The computer cars shift from side to side, giving their driving a very unnatural look, and they don't slow down as much as you when going uphill or over jumps. The same computer car will drive much better or worse depending on the game mode - on 'knockout' and 'tournament' modes they're fast, but on 'hot pursuit' mode they're awfully slow. Infact, if you get into editing the game, you find the speed at which the computer drives each car is defined separately from the performance characteristics of that car. You can go and give the computer high numbers, and watch that car shift left and right and burn off into the sunset, leaving your model of the same car creeping along feebly after it.
When you put these things together, it's hard to feel involved in a race. It's more like you're either taking a drive through the scenery, with other cars who happen to be there as well, or you're driving a shopping trolley in a race of sportscars with much more power than you.
 Racing against a pre-recorded ghost. You can only pick the same car type as the one you recorded the ghost drive in, which is rather unhelpful. |
Even though you'll only get limited fun out of standard racing, there are still other sides to NFS3. In Hot Pursuit mode you can still have a fun race against cheating coppers.. Laugh at their pathetic roadblocks and stupid spikestrip placements, and grin when their radio chatter shows how astounded they were you managed to evade them. Curse when they catch up to you and use their cheating cop powers (called 'push factor' if you're editing the pursuit cars) to push you into the wall with ease. Hold down your horn as they ticket you to show you're not listening. Cackle with glee and burn your tires just after the copper has told you "..and DON'T do it again!"
"Twenny nine to County, duhI've found 'im. Joining pursuit of the black Jag-war. He's doing MORE than ONE HUNDRED FORTY!"
"Bet your a** I am, pig sucker!"
You'll even feel a bit sorry for them when they say so sadly: "Twenny to County. I'm in the ditch, and am unable to continue pursuit. Requesting a wrecker.."
You can play as the cops yourself, but that's not as much fun. The computer cars give up too easily. You'll have to play this mode, though, because you have to win everything the game has to offer to unlock all the different secrets. If you're playing as the cops, though, all you have to do is choose the best pursuit car, the worst computer cars and the maximum number of laps. It's still counted as a win. =|
Options are one of the strong points in NFS3. You can choose your driving conditions, your opponents driving style (useless or useless-but-angry), the car class you race in, the music (style or specific songs), the graphic detail, you can tune your car (but not in tournaments and knockouts where it'd be useful), you can pick all kinds of driving assists, set up all aspects of your racing view (even how you want the tachometer to look) and so on.
The menu system is snazzy, but slightly slow and confusing to use. There's so much in it that it needs either a clearer structure or its own roadmap.
Some of the most fun I've had playing NFS3 has been in two player mode running from the cops. You choose custom jalopies that you've made yourself or modified from ones downloaded off the net, soup up the cop cars so they have a chance, and play on a track with lots of tricks like Atlantica. You can have all kinds of fun with the editors available for this game. People have put a lot of effort into crafting all kinds of cars, such as this gullwing Mercedes:
(3Dfx) Exhaustively built Gullwing races Jeep Wrangler
I even made my own Toyota Corolla (junkheap edition) by photographing an old rustbucket parked by the side of the road and using it for texture mapping. I have photos of my friend's family car that had to go to the wrecker, and when I get the time it will be immortalised in NFS3 form.
One of the things some people may find annoying about NFS3 is that it seems determined to keep your speed down. You hardly have the power to out-drive your handling, and there are no tracks where you can get up to your top speed. There are often nastily-placed obstacles or skinny roads (hard to drive at night), and every track is a circuit. You don't feel like you're going satisfyingly fast, you just keep trying to get the most power and speed out of your car. The tyres skid so much at low speeds that it's hard to get going again, but this is one of those games where you have to change down gears to get up the hills. No wonder most of the cars on the net seem to centre around giving you 300mph cheatmobiles..
