EA held a launch party for their reboot of the Need for Speed franchise in Hollywood. StuffWeLike was in attendance to catch the various stars that showed up and to check out the game.
Need for Speed is an old series that many have seen take a downhill crash since Underground 2. While the sales aren’t too bad the actual games have started to get that “yearly milking” feel to them. With what started as a quest to scratch that ever out of reach itch in gamers, Need for Speed had a good thing going. Until it started having gamers crave what the game would end up lacking, speed.
Most experienced gamers remember the cat and mouse games of the old NFS series on the PC and PS2. Always dodging the spike strips, police blockades and finishing the race before they could take you out. That was what made the game fun. Well, plus the awesomely fast cars at your disposal. EA seems to have gotten their head on straight with this iteration.
Out on the red carpet EA had set up a number of cars to showcase Need For Speed’s launch. One of the most expensive, and probably fastest, police cars sat at the front entrance of the club practically wanting to tear down Vine street. A handful of booth babes lingered around the vehicle and showed off their more “sleek” parts to further accent the kind of company such a game keeps. Soon enough the stars began to arrive.
An actor from “Prayers for Bobby” graced us with a few mugshots before heading inside to try the game. Soon other celebrities from Rob Kardashian to Isaac Mustaffa, or better known as The Old Spice Guy, all showed up to satiate that urge to outrun the cops without permanent consequences. Another surprise guest was Jonathan Goldsmith. You know him right? How about if we said he was The Most Interesting Man in the World? Yeah, we thought so.
Inside EA had let in all manner of people to get a look at the game. Unfortunately that didn’t happen to be us. From what we could see behind the velvet rope was a large dance floor with lit Hot Pursuit logos everywhere along with stations around the outside to try out the game. Hot Pursuit looks to have indeed reached back to its roots and applied what it had learned from Burnout and past failures to make a great game. One feature that is most interesting is Autolog, a system designed to be a more interactive, competitive version of a leaderboard along with a slue of other features. The game is out on the 22nd and look for our full review in the coming weeks.
