Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit

Reviewer: Richard Greenhill

http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/reviews/pc/oct98/nfs3.html

The third part of the sequence of one of the most exciting car simulators is finally a reality. This third sequel has a new look, enhanced engine, beautiful graphics, excellent sound, realistic gameplay and above all an armada of the latest dream cars. To be more specific take a big breath and read: Aston Martin DB7, Chevrolet Corvette, Ferrari 355 F1 Spider, Ferrari 550 Maranello, Italdesign Scighera, Jaguar XK8, Lamborghini Countach, Lamborghini Diablo SV and last but not least Mercedes SL 600. Furthermore, there are three bonus cars: El Nino, Jaguar XJR-15 and finally the best car of the game to my opinion Mercedes CLK-GTR.

The graphics of the game are the most realistic I have seen in car simulators. The game is full of special effects that add a lot to the realistic part. The streets have a photographic quality. Whenever your car/s wheels are touching the ground, a puff of dust is raising and whirling behind them. Similar effects take place whenever you drive over gravel, leaves or snow. As far as the later is concerned, there is an indication about the existence of snow on your wheels, something that is not at all pleasant. But the most impressive part in the graphics area is the reflection of the surroundings on the cars sides. I have never seen anything similar. We are talking about a UNIQUE experience. It makes you believe that you are driving a crystal car and the light, the trees, the tunnels are reflected on it... After all you are driving a brand new car. The various parts of the game are designed by people that seem to love their job. All of them, are full of beautiful colors, natural or artificial light beams, rocks, lakes, rivers, houses along with every landscape that you can imagine.

The music part of NFS3 is AMAZING. Rave parts are playing throughout most of the game raising the levels of your adrenaline. Set the volume to the maximum and prepare for a great experience. The beat is really high and if the neighbors don/t complain then you will really enjoy it. The sound effects on the other hand is ok for such a game. After all the sound of an accelerating Ferrari engine is enough to raise your mood. There are horns either from drivers on your back demanding to pull over and let them pass (imagine someone passing you while driving a Ferrari) or from drivers trying to warn you that you are driving on the wrong side of the road. In special levels, you will be able to listen to police alarms chasing you. Moreover, you can activate a help option of the game, thus hearing a clear voice warning you about the next turn.

As far as the interface is concerned, I believe that it/s time to buy a steering wheel. Using the cursor keys apart from being tiring, does not give you full control over the car. Imagine the following case. Your speed is set at the acceptable levels of 200-250 Km/h when suddenly you meet a turn out of nowhere. If you can/t control your steering then you should either use your brakes, something that will most probably send you towards the opposite wall or will you slow down so much that you will need binoculars to get a glimpse of your rivals. The response of most of the cars, as far as I can imagine, is realistic. If you wait for a couple of centuries for me to buy a Ferrari and test it, I will be able to tell you more. The support of a force feedback steering wheel makes things even tougher. Why bother with weight lifting all you need to workout is to maintain control of a Diablo after using your brakes in a steep turn.

The gameplay has been enhanced with new elements. Apart from the classic race with 7 opponents, you can run in tournaments collecting points, knockout races where the last one is disqualified till one is left and a completely new element in this version that is called Hot Pursuit. Here you will run one on one in roads with normal traffic and police cars chasing you or setting blocks for you whenever you are speeding (am I mistaken or there is some Test Drive flavor here?) What is completely new is the fact that you can be the police car driver chasing speeding cars!!! Moreover, you can drive under rain (and you can kiss your brand new Mercedes goodbye), run in reversed-turn roads or drive during midnight where you will enjoy the way that streets are lighted. For the perfectionists there is also the option to set the various engine properties: engine propensity, brakes and steering wheel sensitivity, acceleration, suspension, air-dynamics, tires.

Every car is a completely different experience. And I am not talking about acceleration and top speeds. The response of cars is different when you are turning or reducing speed.This fact raises the gameplay and the reusability of the game since you can play the game again and again with a different car each time. This may last a few months. After that maybe a new release will be announced. Leaving out the technical details this release is better than the previous one. It is definitely more realistic. Just a single miscalculation while running at top speed may through you out of the road. The cars are not thrown in the air so easily so you can try everything in the beginning. In tournaments though, you should be careful and relaxed. Remember that binocular case? Anyway, you have to practice a lot before you can challenge the tournament drivers.

The distances that you should cover are quite "fast", even the ones that have a lot of turns. On the other hand the fastest car is not always the best car. For example you may be driving a Diablo (the fastest car of the game) which does not respond that good while turning and after a km of turns don/t be surprised if a Mercedes (a much slower car) leaves you behind. Here I must note the absence of a Porsche from the car selection.

Due to the realistic engine of the game, I would say that the gameplay misses some points, the most important being that it does not let you do stupid things in order to have fun. You should be careful drivers, and reduce the pressure on the accelerator now and then. You should learn how to turn, when to use the brakes and above all to practice every single stage with all available cars until you find the best one. NFS3 is not Carmageddon. After all running on a road with 300+ Km/h I think is enough.

The major disadvantage of the game is the documentation. I would say that people in EA where too excited to release the game instead of waiting one more week to prepare a descent manual. All you get is an 8-page card that may remind computer literate people of the reference cards you get with various compilers or interpreters. Of course you can find all you need in a compressed format but I would certainly prefer a manual with references to the cars and the stages. Maybe a magazine-like manual with car presentation and tests would be something to consider for the next release.

Concluding, NFS3 has all that a successful game needs. Top graphics, cool audio, excellent gameplay, long stages, competition and all the elements that are needed to keep you busy. There are of course some disadvantages as far as the difficulty is concerned but who cares. After all you don't get the chance to drive such cars every day (even virtually). So, raise the volume, sit in front of your monitor and let the rest eat your dust.


Graphics . . . .
10
Sound . . . .
10
Gameplay . . . .
9
Interface . . . .
9
Docs . . . .
3
A.I/Difficulty . . . .
10


Overall : 90


Reviewed by:Costas Barakitis

Good game :) I played it for many many hours before I got GT3 :rolleyes:

So if you played so many hours on Need For Speed III then why did you stop if it's such a good game. GT3 is not that good

Nfs3 is sweet, It was the last version i brought of the nfs series. But its still good after all these years, i just wish there were more tracks.

So does anyone know where i can download more tracks from??

sarujin

i want to paly this game soo badly, but i dont have it so i cant

for the fastest car in the game type in ROCKET for your name

i played it 3 years ago and now it's OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!
man start playing nfs6.......

Originally posted by Ando_Rules
i want to paly this game soo badly, but i dont have it so i cant

i can give it to you if you want so much........

Yeah its old thats for sure, but its ok to play it once in awile