Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
Encyclopedia
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, released in Japan as Over Drivin' 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 incorporating 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 1998 and later received an enhanced port for Microsoft Windows in September 1998. A PlayStation 2
version was developed. It was canceled, however. The game title's suffix, "Hot Pursuit
", is a term for a police pursuit.
, 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. The "Knockout" mode consists of 7 races with 8 racers on randomly chosen tracks, in which conditions such as selected difficulty, weather, and so on that the player has chosen before starting the race-series will apply. Each race consists of two laps where the driver who finishes last will be eliminated from the race lineup. All other drivers advance 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
, and internet gaming through TCP/IP protocol. It also allowed spawn installation
s of itself to be installed on other machines.
Racing tracks are greatly varied, with settings ranging from wide desert canyons to homely countryside villages, as well as snow-capped mountain ranges. A particular track in the game is even host to a modern and intricate structure identified as the Electronic Arts development office. Most tracks contain one or more secret shortcuts which can dramatically alter the outcome of a race.
The game also boasts some fairly impressive graphics support for its time, allowing up to 1152 x 864 pixel x 16bit in-game resolution, wide screen support, car chrome effects, and slider settings for car detail and view distance. Motion-sensored controllers receive support as well, granting the players a more thorough gameplay experience by actually allowing them to "drive" the cars.
Car tuning is also introduced, allowing any car's handling to be customized by adjusting low or high end properties for Engine Tuning and Gear Ratios, front or back Brake Balance, slow or fast Braking Speed, soft or stiff Suspension, low or high Aerodynamics as well as Rain or Racing tires. Any of these options can be modified via sliders to offer a digit-sensitive, percentage-based effect to the selected car's overall performance. Higher-end engine and gear tuning, for example, will compromise acceleration for better tops speeds. Rear-based brake balance and slow braking speeds make for wider, drifting turns, and aerodynamics provide even higher speeds at the loss of handling.
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 the 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 them. 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 ambush the racer's car. The police are only playable in the PC version. However, the police cars can be played in the PS1 version, through hacking with a GameShark
. The player must select a car in Hot Pursuit mode, which will then be replaced by a police car when the race starts. CLK-GTR, and El Niño cannot be replaced. Even when driving as a police car, the cops can still arrest the player.
,_police_pursuit.jpg)
Tactical aspects of the police pursuits have also been improved. The police have the ability to deploy roadblock
s which has computer-controlled cop cars form a wall across the road, and spike strip
s which puncture the tires of a racer's car, bringing it to a halt. 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 which is only deployed on one side of the road. 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 reveals 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!"). Furthermore, if a computer-controlled racer's driving conduct proves to be more dangerous than that of the racer's, the cops may relent their pursuit of the player and chase the AI instead.
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 Canyons tracks in the PS1 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 PS1 version), Eagle Talon
(for Lost Canyons and Redrock Ridge for the PC version and Empire City in the PS1 version), Ford Falcon
(for Atlantica and Aquatica in the PC version only), Lamborghini LM002
(For Rocky Pass and Summit in the PS1 version only) and Land Rover Discovery
(for Rocky Pass and Summit in the PC version and Lost Canyons and Redrock Ridge in the PS1 version). In addition to standard police cars, a handful of Chevrolet Corvette C5 police cars are also included in each track, more equipped to engage in high-speed pursuits and capable of outperforming normal police cars. In the PS1 version, Lamborghini Diablo pursuit vehicles replace the Corvettes if Expert difficulty is selected.
1998 in video gaming
-Events:*Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo to the AIAS Hall of Fame*British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 1st annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards...
racing
Racing game
A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
video game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada
EA Canada
EA Canada is a video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened in January 1983 and is EA's largest and oldest studio...
and published by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. It is the third major title in the Need for Speed series
Need for Speed
Need for Speed is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts and developed by several studios including Canadian-based company EA Black Box and British-based Criterion Games...
, significantly incorporating police pursuits
Car chase
A car chase is the vehicular pursuit of a suspect by law enforcement officers. Car chases are often captured on film and broadcast due to the availability of video footage recorded by police cars and police and media helicopters participating in the chase...
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
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
is significantly improved over its predecessor, utilizing several tactics to stop both the player and opponent. The game was released for PlayStation in March 1998 and later received an enhanced port for Microsoft Windows in September 1998. A PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
version was developed. It was canceled, however. The game title's suffix, "Hot Pursuit
Car chase
A car chase is the vehicular pursuit of a suspect by law enforcement officers. Car chases are often captured on film and broadcast due to the availability of video footage recorded by police cars and police and media helicopters participating in the chase...
", is a term for a police pursuit.
Gameplay
With police pursuits reintegrated into the game, Hot Pursuits 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 IINeed for Speed II
Need for Speed II, released in Japan as Over Drivin' II, is a 1997 racing video game, developed by Electronic Arts Canada and published by Electronic Arts...
, 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
Car chase
A car chase is the vehicular pursuit of a suspect by law enforcement officers. Car chases are often captured on film and broadcast due to the availability of video footage recorded by police cars and police and media helicopters participating in the chase...
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
Split screen (computer graphics)
Split screen is a display technique in computer graphics that consists of dividing graphics and/or text into non-movable adjacent parts, typically two or four rectangular areas. This is done in order to allow the simultaneous presentation of related graphical and textual information on a computer...
mode allows two players to race using the same computer. The "Knockout" mode consists of 7 races with 8 racers on randomly chosen tracks, in which conditions such as selected difficulty, weather, and so on that the player has chosen before starting the race-series will apply. Each race consists of two laps where the driver who finishes last will be eliminated from the race lineup. All other drivers advance 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
Serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time...
, modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
, or IPX
IPX
Internetwork Packet Exchange is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol stack.The IPX/SPXM protocol stack is supported by Novell's NetWare network operating system. Because of Netware's popularity through the late 1980s into the mid 1990s, IPX became a popular internetworking...
, and internet gaming through TCP/IP protocol. It also allowed spawn installation
Spawn installation
In personal computer games, a spawn installation is an installed copy of a game that may only be used to play in multiplayer mode, or otherwise limits the amount of single-player content accessible to the user. Additionally, some spawn implementations only allow the user to join games hosted by the...
s of itself to be installed on other machines.
Racing tracks are greatly varied, with settings ranging from wide desert canyons to homely countryside villages, as well as snow-capped mountain ranges. A particular track in the game is even host to a modern and intricate structure identified as the Electronic Arts development office. Most tracks contain one or more secret shortcuts which can dramatically alter the outcome of a race.
The game also boasts some fairly impressive graphics support for its time, allowing up to 1152 x 864 pixel x 16bit in-game resolution, wide screen support, car chrome effects, and slider settings for car detail and view distance. Motion-sensored controllers receive support as well, granting the players a more thorough gameplay experience by actually allowing them to "drive" the cars.
Car tuning is also introduced, allowing any car's handling to be customized by adjusting low or high end properties for Engine Tuning and Gear Ratios, front or back Brake Balance, slow or fast Braking Speed, soft or stiff Suspension, low or high Aerodynamics as well as Rain or Racing tires. Any of these options can be modified via sliders to offer a digit-sensitive, percentage-based effect to the selected car's overall performance. Higher-end engine and gear tuning, for example, will compromise acceleration for better tops speeds. Rear-based brake balance and slow braking speeds make for wider, drifting turns, and aerodynamics provide even higher speeds at the loss of handling.
Pursuit system
Hot Pursuits pursuit system has been significantly improved in terms of AIArtificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and police tactics over the first Need for Speed
The Need for Speed (video game)
Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed, released in Japan as Road & Track Presents: Over Drivin', is a 1994 racing video game first released on the 3DO and ported to other systems, developed by Electronic Arts Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first title released in the Need...
. The game now requires that the racer only stop near a pursuing police car to be ticketed
Traffic ticket
A traffic ticket is a notice issued by a law enforcement official to a motorist or other road user, accusing violation of traffic laws. Traffic tickets generally come in two forms, citing a moving violation, such as exceeding the speed limit, or a non-moving violation, such as a parking violation,...
or arrested by the 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 them. 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 ambush the racer's car. The police are only playable in the PC version. However, the police cars can be played in the PS1 version, through hacking with a GameShark
GameShark
GameShark is the brand name of a line of video game cheat cartridges and other products for a variety of console video game systems and Windows based computers. Currently, the brand name is owned by Mad Catz, who actively markets GameShark products for the PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and Sega game...
. The player must select a car in Hot Pursuit mode, which will then be replaced by a police car when the race starts. CLK-GTR, and El Niño cannot be replaced. Even when driving as a police car, the cops can still arrest the player.
Roadblock
A roadblock is a temporary installation set up to control or block traffic along a road. The reasons for one could be:*Roadworks*Temporary road closure during special events*Police chase*Robbery*Sobriety checkpoint...
s which has computer-controlled cop cars form a wall across the road, and spike strip
Spike strip
A spike strip is a device used to impede or stop the movement of wheeled vehicles by puncturing their tires...
s which puncture the tires of a racer's car, bringing it to a halt. 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 which is only deployed on one side of the road. 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 reveals 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!"). Furthermore, if a computer-controlled racer's driving conduct proves to be more dangerous than that of the racer's, the cops may relent their pursuit of the player and chase the AI instead.
Each track setting features unique police cars, including three sedan-based squad cars, a hatchback and two SUVs. The Chevrolet Caprice Classic
Chevrolet Caprice
The Chevrolet Caprice is a full-sized automobile produced by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors in North America for the 1965 through 1996 model years. Full-size Chevrolet sales peaked in 1965 with over a million sold. It was the most popular American car in the sixties and early seventies....
(for Hometown and Country Woods and sometimes also appears on the Redrock Ridge and Lost Canyons tracks in the PS1 version only) Ford Crown Victoria
Ford Crown Victoria
-1992–1994:Released in March 1991 as an early 1992 model, the Crown Victoria sedan was completely redesigned with a rounder, eight-window roofline . The redesign reduced the coefficient of drag from 0.42 to 0.34; the suspension setup was also heavily revised...
(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 PS1 version), Eagle Talon
Eagle Talon
The Eagle Talon was one of three model names given to a sports coupe that was manufactured between 1990 and 1999 and sold by the then Chrysler Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors of Japan in a joint 50/50 corporate venture known as Diamond-Star Motors...
(for Lost Canyons and Redrock Ridge for the PC version and Empire City in the PS1 version), Ford Falcon
Ford EL Falcon
The Ford EL Falcon is a full-size car that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company of Australia between 1996 and 1998. The EL Falcon served as the final chapter of the fifth generation "E-series" architecture, which began with the EA of 1988. Ford discontinued the car in 1998, and replaced it...
(for Atlantica and Aquatica in the PC version only), Lamborghini LM002
Lamborghini LM002
The Lamborghini LM002 is an SUV that was built by the Lamborghini automobile company between 1986 and 1993. The LM002 was an unusual departure for Lamborghini which, at the time, was primarily known for high-performance grand tourers and sports cars...
(For Rocky Pass and Summit in the PS1 version only) and Land Rover Discovery
Land Rover Discovery
The Discovery was introduced into the United Kingdom in 1989. The company code-named the vehicle "Project Jay". The new model was based on the chassis and drivetrain of the more upmarket Range Rover, but with a lower price aimed at a larger market segment and intended to compete with Japanese...
(for Rocky Pass and Summit in the PC version and Lost Canyons and Redrock Ridge in the PS1 version). In addition to standard police cars, a handful of Chevrolet Corvette C5 police cars are also included in each track, more equipped to engage in high-speed pursuits and capable of outperforming normal police cars. In the PS1 version, Lamborghini Diablo pursuit vehicles replace the Corvettes if Expert difficulty is selected.