Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 Screenshots screens taken from www.need4speed.com.au The Final Say! Gameplay 8.6 Graphics 8.7 Sound 7.9 Value 8.6 Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2  - reviewed by Tory Favro Review Date: 06 November 2002 Review Score: 8.75/10  Distributor: Electronic Arts

The car game with the most is back in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 on Nintendo GameCube. This is the first in the series for this console and EA have pulled out all stops to ensure that this title looks and feels as good as the rest of this awesome series.   Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 Features 2 Players Simultaneous Memory Card (Uses 7 Blocks) Dolby Surround Pro Logic II Skill Level - Beginner to Advanced Game Type: Racing   Looking like a dream and being given the ability to drive over 20 of the world's most exotic and expensive road vehicles, Hot Pursuit 2 is a fantastic arcade racer for Cube owners. For those of you who haven't played any of the series before (shame on you!), the game's objectives are very simple and we like it that way. Step one, get a dream car. Step two, drive as fast as you can in it and avoid the law or you will be taken down.   I am going to spend about two seconds on the only real faults that I could find with this game and they are not anything major.. On occasion, I did find that the framerate dropped quite a bit and it was noticeable. It didn't affect gameplay to the point of being unenjoyable but it is very unlike a GameCube game to suffer from frame drops as the system is known to be rock solid.   It only occurred three times, the whole time I was reviewing the game and seemed to be mainly when there were multiple cars on screen when taking a corner. As I have said though, it happened only three times the whole time, but that's enough for me to warrant commenting on it.   Audio on the game sounds great with different engine sounds and tires squealing. Environmental sounds were good and helped with the general fast paced atmosphere of the game. Musically the game rocks with some well known names adding their talent to the title to make you race just that little bit faster.   The sound of metal impacting upon metal was awesome and considering the types of cars that are being driven, it was enough to make you shudder when crashing them. Even the cop cars are souped up monsters that are more than capable of hunting down speeding racers and taking them out of the game. I found that I was ever alert to the sounds of cars approaching from behind to work out if I had some police to avoid or not. A cool item when driving with automatic transmission was that with a flick of the C stick, I was able to take a peek behind me.

One thing to note about audio however was that I don't think it fully took advantage of Prologic II surround. It's there but not to the extend that one might expect. All sounds are recorded very well and there were no moments that sound let the game down other than by not utilising surround as much as it might.

The number of game modes for Hot Pursuit 2 is staggering and should ensure that you are playing it for some time. Tracks are absolutely huge and the attention to detail on each is amazing. Tracks feature all sorts of elements from the standard roads to racing around active volcanos. Some of the earlier levels also featured some fantastic fog details that shrouded trees and almost looked like something alive in it's own right, sort of like a forest first thing in the morning.

The game's AI is very canny and the police will work together to bring you undone. Tactics range from a straight out roadblock to knocking your tail and sending you into a spin. Later the cops get even more devious and will try to get you to run over a series of tire spikes in an effort to get you to stop. Fortunately your car has a police scanner that will alert you to this and give you the chance to avoid these dangers.

Want a change of pace though? How about being the cop? Hot Pursuit lets you do this and much more. I must admit I did find it a lot of fun being the fuzz and trying to fill an arrest quota. It was also cool being able to call in assistance from the police AI and even assigning a helicopter to a speeding vehicle. With the reverse in gameplay it was neat to approach the title from this unique angle and stop the racers at all costs.

Two player mode is supported and lets you race head to head against your mates. I did wish that you could chase each other in the cop cars as per the normal game, however this was not included unfortunately.

Last but not least is the nice touch for Australian players with the inclusion of the Ford Tickford and the HSV GTS Coupe V8's for a bit of local flavour. These gems certainly pack some punch and I must admit it was certainly nice to get to take these babies out on the road for a high speed spin.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is a great game for the GameCube. It's arcade approach to racing is refreshing and easy to pick up. Bear in mind that some of the cars will handle a little bit heavily like their real life counterparts and you should be fine. I do recommend this title for fans of car racing.

- Tory Favro