Electronic arts has always been one of my favorite brands for game making and they seem to have a knack for making games that you just can't stop playing. EA has to be one of the most talented designers, and it is shown in this game and in many other recent releases. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is a game you will hear about for a while. So let's get down to business.

G R A P H I C S
Well, like I said before, the graphics help the game a lot. They definitely know the GCN is powerful in this sense, and they know how to use it very well. The minute you put the game in the system, it loads right up and you can tell it is going to be an incredible game from the beginning intro video. It has some of the most realistic graphics I've seen to date on the GCN system. I thought it was real footage at times. The color is amazing and the trees actually look pretty real, unlike in most games. The cars look incredibly real; they obviously spent a lot of time to make this as realistic as possible. The background is very nice looking and the sun can be blinding... annoying at times, but hey, you're going 170 mph, the sun blinding you is something you'd expect, making it all more real. The movement of all the different cars at once, and corresponding with each other is amazing, never looking sketchy. So I say the graphics are great, period. And what I say stays.

G A M E P L A Y
One word cannot explain the game play. It has to be the most fun racing game I have ever played. The Menu screen is easy to maneuver through and the game loads very fast. The Main menu is composed of "Hot Pursuit," "Championship," "Single Challenge," "Options," and "Quick Race." There is also (what I like to call) an Info Bar, which scrolls text across mid-screen during most menu sections which tells what the highlighted option is. This is helpful for starting the game. I started in "Hot Pursuit" mode which when opened brings up a "web" of challenges which open each other when you pass them. The challenges range from quota, in which you, act as a cop and stop the speeders. Race, where you simply race. Tournament, where you race in 3-6 races and work toward a gold. Delivery, where you have to deliver a car from point A to point B... sounds simple, right? For the most part it is, except that the police make it a bit tough, with use of spike stripes, roadblocks, helicopter assistance, extra cruiser assistance, and tactical moves they use. There is also knock out which has the same laps as cars that are racing, and the thing that happens is if you are the last to arrive to the lap (start/finish) line you are knocked out of the race and you lose. You must come in first on the final lap which can be difficult. I also checked out "Challenge" mode, which has many of the same things as hot pursuit, but a few missing and a few different challenges are included. These include Time Trial (self-explanatory) and a few of the challenges in "Hot Pursuit" mode except without Police in them. In "Single Challenge" mode you can pick whatever type of challenge you want and you get to pick the level, number of racers, and a boatload of other things. "Options" let you pick what best fits you and your TV. And finally there is "Quick Race" mode where the game randomly puts you in a random car, random level, with a random amount of racers and cops either on or off. All in all the game is set up well. I especially like how you get to be the cop and fell life from the other side. The game has so many types of challenges you can play. I feel like I got about 10 games in one. The game is addicting, you always just want to get further in the game. One problem though, if you work on just the "Hot Pursuit" challenges and you complete most of them and then later try the "Challenge" mode, you have become very good from the "Hot Pursuit" challenges and the "Challenge" mode challenges seem very easy. Very simple to fix however, just switch off every challenge you do or every few you complete. The Crashes also are kind of odd when you get hit very hard or hit something extremely hard and you seem to spin more then you would in real life, but I doesn't happen too much. I like the fact that some of the cars can go high speeds (240 mph+). Things fly by and you hug the turns. The car is traveling at speeds that blow your mind. The slow motion when you get air in the car is cool, also if you get enough air there is a 360 camera which spins around the car, giving a Matrix movie effect. When it slows down you can see every thing that is happening and you get a good look at the car and how you hit the jump. Has to be one of the best games I've played in general.

C O N T R O L
You right away get used to the game controls, and having the X (hand brake) and B (foot brake) buttons so close to the A (acceleration) button make it very easy to Skid Turn/Brake. The steering in the game is very accurate, and as you speed up it becomes harder to turn. The "B" button is placed well for slowing down just a little, and being a different shape then the rest of the buttons it is very easy to find.One small fault, to look in reverse you must press C down and having to let go of "A" can be a bad choice. Also when a cop you must use the "D pad" to call for assistance and you must let go of the steering stick for a moment. The control is not a big factor in the game since it's mostly accelerate or slow down, but is for obvious reasons very important to the game play, and they work excruciatingly well.

S O U N D
The sound in the game makes it a lot better, and to test I tried to play on mute and it was less fun. The music in the game is EA trax (included in many EA sport or EA sport like games) which are usually Ok-good songs, and in this case good songs for racing (mostly). The cars all sound different and very real which is so cool. The cars also sound very cool when crashing, like tearing metal. The sound of the car speeding up, shifting and skidding all sound so real. I would have to say this is one of the things that really brings you into the game. The sound is extravagant (fancy word).

- I N - B R E I F -
Graphics - 9.5
Gameplay - 9.6
Control - 9.0
Sound - 9.3
Overall - 9.4