I want to preface this by saying I'm not much of a racing guy. With the exception of NFS: Underground through Undercover I've never really had much interest in racing games. But this was one of those deep-childhood games that I first played before NFSU, so I was interested to revisit it. Just keep in mind that I have little frame of reference when it comes to this genre.

The presentation in this game is easily the best thing about it. Music is amazing, graphics are gorgeous, every track has its own personality and creative quirks, even the visual effects like smoke from burning tires or splashes from the water are reminiscent of the best movie chases.

When it comes to the gameplay, I feel like the same things that make this game great are the things that make it bad. Contrary to how the later games would function, Hot Pursuit 2 feels much realer. There's no rubber-banding, tracks are very intricate with many shortcuts that can either be helpful or harmful, just like it would be in the real life. This means that paying close attention to the road ahead and the mini-map is very important. So is making quick decisions on the fly and memorizing the track on your first lap to avoid making mistakes on the second. This is a game where your skill is genuinely rewarded... Well, for the most part. In my experience, I felt that choosing the right car can make a radical difference (as in coming first vs. coming last kind of difference). It seems like every event has its best car option, and you have to figure out which one through trial and error. Again this does kinda add to that sense of realism, as every car handles differently and has a different speed. Also, the cops are not as much a mechanic (as it would be in MW), as real genuine opponents. And the only way to win against them is to outsmart and outdrive them. Trying to ram them would usually only harm you.

Which brings us to probably the worst aspect of the game: the collision model. This thing can send your car flying and spinning for missing the turn by one millimeter. And this is why I said earlier that the same things that make this game great are the things that make it bad. It means that all those things I mentioned earlier like no rubber-banding, varied shortcuts, etc. can make the game insanely difficult.

The game has two modes: Hot Pursuit and World Championship. The former has cops and traffic, and is thus more fun. The latter is just normal racing. I beat the first one with relative ease and most of the second one, but then the penultimate event on the right branch there was a tournament, and it was FUCKING BRUTAL. I must've spent an hour just trying to beat that tournament. I somehow managed to finish 3rd on the first race, which means a Bronze medal. Which I took, having replayed it like 5 times to just get that. But the second race I just could not beat. I must've replayed it like 10 times or so with different cars (Murcielago is clearly the best option there), and I couldn't finish in the top 3 even once. It's like the game expects you to not make a single major mistake here. What I mean by major mistake is when you hit something in such a way that your car spins or goes flying. Do that once, you might still have a chance of getting Bronze, but do it again and you're done. And the track is very difficult to maneuver. The only time I managed to get a near-flawless run was with weaker cars, like Aston Martin or Lamborghini Diablo, but all those Carreras and Murcielagos would crush me every time simply on the account of they're faster. Eventually I just gave up. I'm not a kid anymore, I really cannot devote much time to just sitting there and "getting gud" at a game by replaying the same section a hundred times.

In conclusion, great game, but pretty unbalanced. It kinda feels like the line between winning and losing is very thin, and you're gonna be crossing it constantly unless you're an expert driver. Which I am not. I'm marking this as "abandoned", but that mostly regards the campaign. Otherwise this is a solid racer, which I might still come back to every now and then for single races.

P.S. There's also the mode where you can play as a cop, but I did not play that because I have no interest in being a cop. I was planning to give it a try just to see how it plays, but then that frustrating tournament I couldn't beat made me rage-quit, and I don't feel like going back.

people talk about this game like it's some groundbreaking, breathtaking, wonderful pinnacle of video games and i really wish i understood that. this game feels really nice to move around in, its visuals are really appealing and its score is pretty cute. but there's not much of a real narrative (or writing at all), no memorable characters, no cool side-quests, no dungeons, a pitiful lack of enemy variety + almost no bosses, and nothing that made exploring feel worthwhile. most of it feels like filler check-list fluff (towers, shrines, koroks). the world is well-designed but there's not much substance inside of it beyond its sandbox elements. i genuinely feel like, insane for not liking this the way people talk about it but i just do not see it personally. it's just okay!

so i feel like i have to justify my rating to this game because everyone always questions it.

so breath of the wild. "the definitive open world experience."

so some positives before i shit all over this game. the art style is nice, looking at the large empty fields of this game is made more tolerable by the nice artstyle. you have a lot of choices in how you approach situations, which is always great. anyway,

the fact that you have this option means nothing when the most viable option is almost ALWAYS to do it normally. sure, there's a lot of imagination you can have but the problem with not building scenarios out of imagination itself rather than leaving them open, is that you really don't encourage people to take the time to do something interesting when it's always a blank slate with the most convenient option is to do the same exact shit every time. i see people compare this game to mgs V all the time and i dont really think thats fair, because in mgs V the worst option is almost always the most convenient and easy to think of one, actively making you think "ok how could i creatively do this faster."

the open world is extremely empty, with the only real things filling it being meaningless side quests, stupid korok puzzles and boring shrines. lets talk about side quests first.

so the thing about the side quests is that minus the one where you build a town they're all boring fetch quests where you get extremely subpar rewards. you aren't encouraged to do them because there aren't any real upgrades you can get from them. often time the reward is just ruppees or something else stupid. so you never really feel encouraged to do any of them.

the korok seeds basically all boil down to "oooooo out of place rock?!??!!??!" i dont feel like i need to explain myself here because i feel like this is something most people already know.

the shrines are probably the most defendable parts of the game. there are plenty of interesting ones, like the twin shrines, or the ones with really elaborate, out of the box puzzles. however most of the shrines aren't like this, and are either "duplicate shrine of another shrine but HARDER" or "puzzles where you use one of your abilities twice." rarely do you actually have to use your brain for these puzzles because they're all so obvious on how to solve them.

so if the world is empty, the engagements are uncreative, what about the main story?

well, the main story is probably one of the worst parts about the game. actually doing the quests before the divine beast you're currently going for can be interesting. however, the divine beasts themselves are literally the same dungeon repeated 4 times with the same art style as every other shrine in the game. the story itself is bland and forgettable, especially compared to the wild creativity of other Zelda games. actually beating the game gives you nothing. the ending is weak and pathetic.

i hope ive given a somewhat decent summary on why i despise this game. anyway if you disagree with me you're wrong and fuuuck you.