Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is the 6th game in the Need for Speed series. It is the sequel to Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit and also has a large focus on pursuits. EA Black Box developed the PlayStation 2 release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 whilst EA Seattle developed the PC, Xbox, and GameCube releases.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Awesome CGI intro cutscene.
 * 2) 12/15 different racing courses spanning across 4/5 different environments.
 * 3) 24 licensed vehicles, each with a NFS Edition variant with improved performance.
 * 4) The game features two racing modes; Hot Pursuit mode where cops try to take you down, and World Racing mode where you race across the track without cops.
 * 5) Intense police chases that are not only fun but also quite challenging the longer the chase lasts.
 * 6) You can play as the cops in Be The Cop mode where you take down other speeders. Spike strips and helicopters can be called in at any time during the chase, giving you a whole arsenal at your disposal.
 * 7) Each track has lots of shortcuts and alternative paths to help give you an advantage in almost any racing situation.
 * 8) EA Trax makes its debut for the first time in the series, bringing in licensed rock music from artists such as Bush, Hot Action Cop, Course of Nature, and The Buzzhorn. Some old NFS composers like Rom Di Prisco & Matt Ragan also lent their talents for the soundtrack.

EA Black Box Version

 * 1) The physics of this version are more tighter and stable. A massive improvement over EA Seattle's wonky and floaty physics that cause the car to spin like a Beyblade upon minor scrapes.
 * 2) *This version also comes with a very useful 'kinetic pullout' system, where double-tapping the gas will give you a temporary acceleration boost after you've built up some momentum while driving.
 * 3) This version has a better, more 'fixed' sense of progression. You will unlock all the cars & tracks upon fulfilling certain requirements, while in EA Seattle's version you will have to farm points to buy each of them.
 * 4) Cops are much more active and brutal in this version. It makes evading them very rewarding. Also because of this, you will get three strikes for each race instead of only one strike in EA Seattle's version.
 * 5) The NFS edition cars offer significantly better performance and have 'fancier' liveries.
 * 6) You can actually race in cop cars in this version. In Hot Pursuit mode, cops will refer to them as stolen police vehicles.
 * 7) There is an additional set of desert-themed courses for this version.
 * 8) You can edit the in-game soundtrack and even choose to be a female driver in the options menu.
 * 9) It has an exclusive CGI outro cutscene once you've fully completed all of the event trees, something not included in the Seattle version.

EA Seattle Version

 * 1) A very active and promising modding community.
 * 2) This version offers more police vehicles, compared to the Black Box version, which only offers five.
 * 3) The Xbox version allows a fully custom soundtrack from music stored in the console's hard drive.
 * 4) Busted cutscenes are more entertaining in this version.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It's the first game in the series to introduce cheap rubberband AI. (even worse in Black Box's version if you're playing on the PCSX2 emulator with the 60 FPS patch active, the rubberbanding gets ramped up like crazy) Police AI is also affected by this, causing them to catch up very quickly even when very far behind. The worst part is that they'll tend to swarm the player most of the time while ignoring the other AI racers. Cops also have difficulty performing PIT maneuvers as a result of this and will wind up just grinding with racers.
 * 2) The Course Select screen has one or two misleading maps in both versions.
 * 3) *In the Seattle version, the Alpine Trail's course select map is taken from the Black Box version of Fall Winds, and has no resemblance to the actual map.
 * 4) *The Rocky Canyons course in Black Box's version is depicted as a giant circuit course on the selection screen. However, it is actually just an extended Point-to-Point version of Outback with only one-third of Desert Heat's course.
 * 5) *The Tropical Sunset course in EA Seattle's version is not even connected properly like circuit tracks (doesn't affect gameplay though), while the PlayStation 2 version just cuts the course short. In Black Box's course select screen, it uses the map layout from Seattle's version, despite the fact that, like Rocky Canyons, it's just a slightly extended Point-to-Point version of a circuit course. In this case, it's Palm City Island.
 * 6) Event trees can be tedious and extremely repetitive, especially when they involve Tournaments or Knockouts.
 * 7) Similar to EA Canada era NFS games, sometimes a race can take up to over 10 or even 15 minutes. Combining with the aforementioned rubberband AI & how brutal the cops are in this game, finishing a race can be very exhausting.
 * 8) Most NFS edition cars in EA Seattle's version are merely recolors, with little to no recognizable performance improvements.
 * 9) No NFS editions of the two BMW cars. This is due to BMW not letting EA modify their cars.
 * 10) *However, files of these two cars can be found in PlayStation 2 version.
 * 11) The PC, Xbox, and GameCube version, being developed by EA Seattle instead of Black Box, is inferior in almost every way compared to PlayStation 2 version. As a result, EA Seattle was shut down very soon after they finished this game.

Reception
The PS2 version for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 was critically acclaimed, while the PC, GameCube, and Xbox versions received lesser reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 2 version 88.01% and 89/100, the Xbox version 80.04% and 75/100, the PC version 72.77% and 73/100, and the GameCube version 72.05% and 68/100.

Maxim gave the PS2 version a perfect ten and stated that it "not only gives you the keys to more than 20 exotic cars, it also gives you the unsurpassed joy of leaving traffic cops in the dust." Entertainment Weekly gave the game a B+ and stated, "Killer aerial shots, intense chases, and a rock-infused soundtrack make for a heart-pounding ride." BBC Sport gave the GameCube version a score of 80% and stated that "With plenty of racing challenges it should have a decent amount of longevity but their repetitive nature might grate for some." AllGame also gave the PS2 version a score of four stars out of five and said that it "offers a[n] impressive amount of arcade-style fun bolstered by the number and variety of courses, challenging Hot Pursuit mode, and excellent lineup of vehicles."

The Xbox, Gamecube & PC ports were given lower scores for being inferior to the PS2 version. With slower car pacing, lack of major features and dumber AI receiving criticism in particular. However, they did praise some of the graphical improvements.