Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit

Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit is a 1998 racing video game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It is the third major title in the Need for Speed series, significantly returning police pursuits as a major part of gameplay. Hot Pursuit remains focused in racing using exotic sports cars, but features races that primarily take place in locations within North America, including varied settings and climates. In addition, police AI is significantly improved over its predecessor, utilizing several tactics to stop both the player and opponent, the game was released for Playstation in March of 1998 and later received a Enhanced port for Microsoft Windows in September of 1998.

The game title's suffix, "hot pursuit," is a term for a police pursuit.

Gameplay

With police pursuits reintegrated into the game, Hot Pursuit's gameplay now consists of two categories. The first encompasses standard racing, as it has been in its predecessors, The Need for Speed and Need for Speed II, in which the player is allowed to race against one (including split-screen races) or seven other racers in normal circuit racers, knockouts, or tournaments (which allow the player to unlock bonus vehicles and a bonus track). The second category is dubbed the "Hot Pursuit," where police pursuits are included in races; the mode allows the player to select a standard sports car to race against a single opponent in a police-scattered track, and in the PC version only select a police variation of a sports car to pursue and stop all six racers before they complete their race. Completing both Hot Pursuit challenges in the PC version on every track of the game unlocks additional police sports cars.

Two modes were introduced in the game. The two-player split-screen mode allows two players to race using the same computer, while the "knockout" mode consists of 7 races with 8 racers on randomly chosen tracks, and conditions by the game, according to the selected difficulty, the player have chosen before starting the race-series. (Beginner or Expert) Each race consists of two laps, where the driver, who finish racing on the last place will be eliminated from the knockout. All other drivers are advanced to the next round, and carry on with the battle, until there is only one player left, who technically wins the knockout competition. The game also supports network play through a serial port, modem or IPX,TCP protocols, and internet gaming through TCP/IP protocol.

Pursuit system

Hot Pursuit's pursuit system significantly improved in terms of AI and police tactics over the first Need for Speed. The game now requires that the racer only stop near a pursuing police car to be ticketed or arrested by a police, as opposed to being overtaken by a police car, forcing the racer to pull over for the same punishments. Accordingly, police cars are now programmed with the ability to block a racer's car in an attempt to halt the racer's car. In addition, whereas the original Need for Speed would only have a single police car chasing a racer in each pursuit, Hot Pursuit allows more police cars to pursue a racer, opening up the opportunity for them to collectively stop the racer's car. The police are only playable in the PC version whereas the PSX version lacks playable police. However the police cars can only be playable in the PSX version through hacking with a GameShark and the player must select a car depending if its available in Hot Pursuit mode expect for the Ferarris which the police cars that replace them can only be acessed outside of Hot Pursuit mode and the CLK-GTR and El Nińo aren't replaced either. Once a car is selected when the race starts the player car is replaced with one of the police cars. Even when driving as a police car the cops can still arrest the player.

Tactical aspects of the police pursuits have also been improved. The police have the ability to deploy roadblocks (which simply consists of lining up police cars across the road) and spike strips (which puncture the tires of a racer's car than runs over the strip, and halts the car). Both tactics present weaknesses, specifically, gaps in the blockade that can be used by a racer to avoid collisions with police cars or tire punctures from a spike strip. The player may also listen to police radio chatter on the pursuits' statuses, revealing to them the current locations of racers, police cars, as well as roadblocks and spike strips. The radio chatter also reveal reactions to specific events, such as a racer's collision with a parked police car, as well as referencing the racer's passing speed and the occurrence of the race itself ("It looks like the cars are racing!").

Each track setting features unique police cars, including three sedan-based squad cars, a hatchback and two suvs. The Chevrolet Caprice Classic (for Hometown and Country Woods and sometimes also appears on the Redrock Ridge and Lost Caynons tracks in the PSX version only) Ford Crown Victoria (for Hometown, Country Woods, and Empire City in PC version and Atlantica and Aquatica and sometimes also appears on the Rocky Pass and Summit Tracks for the PSX version), Eagle Talon (for Lost Canyons and Redrock Ridge for the PC version and Empire City in the PSX version), Ford Falcon (for Altanica and Aquatic in the PC version only), Lamborghini LM002 (For Rocky Pass and Summit in the PSX version only) and Land Rover Discovery (for Rocky Pass and Summit in the PC version and Lost Canyons and Redrock Ridge in the PSX version). In addition to standard police cars, a handful of Chevrolet Corvette C5, Lamborghini Diablo, and EA El Nińo-based police cars (PC version only) are also included in each track, more equipped to engage in high-speed pursuits and capable of outperforming normal police cars.

Community

The Need For Speed enthusiast community has created add-on cars and modified tracks for Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit, as well as other installments of the Need For Speed series.

Graphics

It supports Direct3D Graphics cards and 3dfx glide Graphics Cards.

The 3dfx Graphics cards have some benefits which doesn't exist in Direct3D Graphics cards:

• Supports higher resolutions to be selected in game, up to 1600x1200.
• Supports fog effects in the game (especially when weather is on).
• Supports better horizon background and better sky (especially when weather is on).
• Supports light effects at front of car headlights (especially when weather is on).
• Supports More bright screen.

Glide wrappers are also available for non-Voodoo graphics cards to run the game with 3dfx hardware-acceleration such as zeckensack's Glide wrapper which emulate glide calls to Graphics cards which supports OpenGL.

PC version

Soundtrack

Race Music

1. Little Sweaty Sow
2. Hydrus 606
3. Snorkeling Cactus Weasels
4. Cetus 808
5. Rear Flutterblast #19
6. Aquilla 303
7. Snow Bags
8. Knossos
9. Flimsy
10. Warped

Menu Music

1. Whacked
2. Romulus 3
3. Minotaur
4. Pi
5. Triton
6. Monster
7. Whipped

Notes and references

External links

• Download free demo at Download.com