Need for Speed III!

Need for Speed III: Hot Pusuit!

by Fuse!

Ever since playing the demo version of Need for Speed 3, the wait for the final release has been very intense. I knew this would be the game that Electronic Arts was to release that would almost redeem their incompetence for the last 5 years, maybe longer.

To start off with, we'll discuss the cars. It has more than enough, and as we all know you can download extras off of the internet. That's all fun and that's all dandy but I had a real blast just playing with the Corvette. But even if you aren't a Chevy lover, there are cars from all over the world to play with.

Last place in knockout mode will end your game pretty quickly.

The fun doesn't end with the multitude of cars, either. There is also some gameplay variety. Unlike previous Need for Speed games, this game isn't just a bad Test Drive clone. Besides having a Chase Mode, where you can play as the cop or the chased, you also have a Tournament mode and a Knockoutmode. In Knockout Mode, you race through each of the game's levels trying to place anywhere but last, with the loser being eliminated from the bunch. This is easier in the first few levels, where there are 7 other racers, but in later levels when it's down to just a few cars, or just one other, the race can be pretty intense.

The crop duster isn't one of the cars you can play, at least, not that I've found yet.

Chase Mode is a little harder than you would think. Not only do you apaprently have to pick your victim before hand, you also have to make him stop afterwards, something he's not all too willing to do.

Taking a look at the game from a technical stand point, the game appears to be well coded. It's never actually crashed on me and actually managed to come back after putting my system in it's ATX Sleep mode. I'm not sure if that's a merit to the stablity of my motherboard or the game, but in either case, everything I tried in an attempt to crash the game failed except for ... well, let's just say I was really trying when I crashed it that time.

The graphics are very nice, as most games are getting to be these days, but they are also very compatible. Running nearly flawlessly on an ATI Rage Pro, a Rendition V2100, and a Riva TNT, it even ran very well in software mode on an ATI Rage II+. The game was coded by either gods or 15 year olds who have been locked in a closet and prevented from discovering women.

The sound takes full advantage of 3D Sound Hardware, though the immediate benifit of this isn't as noticable as the thrill you are going to get out of the quality of the music alone. After sorting through the menu and selecting your preference (either a Classic Rock sound or a Bland Techno-Beat typical of Console Racing games) you'll quickly learn that the level's music has been carefully thought out. Either that or someone sifted through tons of tuns to find ones that were most fitting.

Lastly, the controls are fairly responsive. Keyboard is usable, but I found that there was a lot of fun to be had using both the Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro and the Gravis XTerminator. The Freestyle can be held upright like a Steering Wheel, and Need For Speed III allows setting of Dead Zones so that your car won't be all over the road. For a more comfortable play, though, the Xterminator was wonderful. Standard digital mode on the Freestyle, as well as with the regular Sidewinder Game Pad was also more than usable.

If this were Carmageddon, not only would you see the Mayor, but you could also write your name on the pavement with his blood and a Badyear Radial Tire. But alas, no Pedestrians or car damage in this game.

The only real gripe I have about this game is not exactly bad, but it just brings the game a little away from what I like to see in a racer. The cars, no matter how hard they hit or how fast they go never take any damage. A head-on with a cop can possibly send him air-born only to land on his wheels and come right after you. Sureal and a bit fun, but the physics in the game is too realistic to be tainted with such an obvious drawback.

Still, since the object of this game is Speed with some Style, I almost completely understand why the cars take no damage. I mean, who wants to wreck a perfectly good Farrari 355 F1 Spider? I mean if I had a Corvette I'd absolutely shit if I got a scratch on it, so I'm sure my bowls couldn't handle the stress of owning a Lamborghini Diablo.

So to conclude this writing so I can hop in my Camaro and pretend I'm playing Carmageddon, Need for Speed III sucks. Heheheheh. Nah, really, It's certainly worth the $34 the Wal-Mart here in town was selling it for, and maybe a few bucks more. And it's definatly hours of fun, now if I could only get a chance to try out it's network play....

Total: 9 of 10

Other Opinions

Chuck	With a Joypad, with a Steering Wheel, With a Joystick, with a ... uh... Round-Xterminator-Thingie, no matter how you play it the game is just plain FUN! Can't afford a real sports car to get you laid? Then invite the chicks over to play Need for Speed III, and when that doesn't work you'll be all alone and nobody can disturb you. This game just plain ROCKS! -Chuck
Fuse!	Having just bought a brand new 1999 Z28, I can definately say I've been having a lot of fun driving in reality. Though certainly pale by comparison, when I'm out of gas money and have no place to go, NFS3 not only gives me things I can't have in real life (such as a Diablo), but it's also a whole lot safer than doing 155 down I24. -Fuse!
Noxious?	(Noxious has played the game, but his comment has yet to be written.) -Noxious?
Annex	(Annex has played the game and was all smiles and bimbo giggles over it, however, as neat as the idea is, we have no official bimbo-giggle rating and for now her opinion will just have to wait.)