Yeah, NFS Most Wanted was also cool that I missed mentioning. Granted, some races were frustrating, mosty drag races where racing "rails" intersected with competitors even though they shouldn't. But other than that, it was pretty cool. Good graphics, really nice world, tons of cool cars, amazing police chases and the story was pretty good. I mean it's a racing game we are talking about and it had me really engaged. Hell, it might sound weird or stupid, but the twist at the end caught me off guard. I genuinely didn't expect it the way it turned out. Also the way they presented story using in-game world with live actors gave it that special hard to describe feel. And I think actors did pretty well. I think I fell in love with Mia (Josie Maran) a bit back then
For me, give me tons of awesome cars, tons of awesome tracks that are thematically different and have huge elevation changes and cars with good handling like in NFS HP 2010 and I'm sold. Oh and it needs cops that annoy you during the races. If the game has time score boards that can be compared with friends on Steam/Origin, I'm hooked, because you can compete with friends for milliseconds even if you can't actually get to race together due to time zones or other limitations. It's why NFS HP 2010 got me hooked with its Autolog for so long. I was in constant competition on every login. I had to beat that sucker who beat my time. I had to. I had to be the 1st among friends/others on Autolog. I miss that more in racing games where time is everything.
For me, give me tons of awesome cars, tons of awesome tracks that are thematically different and have huge elevation changes and cars with good handling like in NFS HP 2010 and I'm sold. Oh and it needs cops that annoy you during the races. If the game has time score boards that can be compared with friends on Steam/Origin, I'm hooked, because you can compete with friends for milliseconds even if you can't actually get to race together due to time zones or other limitations. It's why NFS HP 2010 got me hooked with its Autolog for so long. I was in constant competition on every login. I had to beat that sucker who beat my time. I had to. I had to be the 1st among friends/others on Autolog. I miss that more in racing games where time is everything.