EA Flicks on Sirens for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

By Nick Mokey Published January 17, 2011

Proving the timeless concept of cops and robbers never wears itself thin – or at least hoping so – EA will return to the Smokey and the Bandit concept for the latest iteration of the Need for Speed franchise: Hot Pursuit.

Sound familiar? That’s because NFS already covered this ground in 1998 with Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit and again in 2003 with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. This version will stray from those dated versions of the franchise with a focus on online play.

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The Need for Speed Autolog will serve as a matchmaker for prospective cops and bandits looking to set up chasing, plus catalog stats on individual racers. The online aspect of the game should be helped along by a developer with a proven online pedigree – Criterion Games –which developed Burnout Paradise.

“Our goal has been to create cops vs. racers pursuits that are so fun, fast and exciting it really brings to life the adrenaline and intensity of the high speed cop pursuit experience with your friends,” said the game’s creative director, Craig Sullivan, in a statement.

Hot Pursuit will hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on November 16 in the US, and November 18 and 19 in Europe. A Wii version developed by Exient will follow later on.

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