Digital Foundry posted a video mash-up yesterday of Star Wars Battlefront versus Return of the Jedi, splicing together sections of Speeder Bike footage from both game and film such that it was hard to tell the difference.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Spotlight
VideoNFS: Hot Pursuit's new trio of DLC trailer
Lamborghini! Porsche! Armed & Dangerous!
VideoGet free cars for NFS: Hot Pursuit
Details on game's website, apparently.
VideoNFS:HP Super Sports Pack revealed
New vehicles, events, achievements.
VideoNeed For Speed: HP launch trailer
Drive your friends crazy.
Key events
3rd February 2014
27th July 2011
4th April 2011
21st March 2011
2nd March 2011
17th February 2011
17th February 2011
16th February 2011
26th November 2010
26th November 2010
25th November 2010
20th November 2010
20th November 2010
20th November 2010
18th November 2010
9th November 2010
3rd November 2010
27th October 2010
24th September 2010
15th September 2010
15th June 2010
Last night's Superbowl has gifted us another look at the upcoming Need for Speed movie, as introduced by Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul.
The trailer's opening shots remind us of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit's Seacrest County - as do the quick flashes of cops vs. racers action.
But the film itself focuses on a personal rivalry - between Aaron Paul and fellow racer Dominic Cooper (spoilers: he's the bad guy). The plot is a revenge story and... oh, who cares. Look - shiny cars! tyre smoke! a helicopter!
Founders leave Burnout and NFS: Hot Pursuit studio Criterion
UPDATE: Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry to form new studio.
UPDATE: Alex Ward has revealed that he and Fiona Sperry left Criterion to "start afresh and form a new games company". He'll also apparently write a column for trade magazine Develop.
Criterion boss: "After over a decade of making racing games it's time to make something new"
"I am proud of all of the Burnout games. When it feels right we will make another one."
The boss of Criterion Games has indicated the studio is moving away from racing games.
Criterion staffing up for Vita title
Handheld Need For Speed incoming?
Seasoned racing game specialist Criterion is working on a new Vita title, according to a recruitment call from the Guildford-based studio.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2 outed by retailer
Notorious South African shop at it again.
The next entry in EA's annual Need for Speed franchise will be a sequel to 2005 game Need for Speed: Most Wanted, according to leak-prone South African retailer BTGames.
EA pursuing Hollywood Need for Speed movie
Tyred dashboard.
A Need for Speed movie may become A Thing, Variety is reporting.
Burnout, Need for Speed dev Criterion opens its doors to students
Win work experience for the summer.
The studio behind Burnout and Need for Speed will open its doors to game developer students in April - and offer a lucky few the chance to win work experience in the summer.
PS2 Classics Virtua Fighter 4, NFS on EU PlayStation Store
Starhawk beta! Splinter Cell savings! Final Fantasy costumes!
Sony has released another batch of PS2 Classics on the EU PlayStation Store, including Need For Speed Most Wanted, Sonic Heroes and Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution.
GAME outs new Medal of Honor, Need for Speed 13
Shown by EA during confidential presentation.
Retailer GAME has let slip the contents of a confidential EA meeting on Twitter.
Xbox Live EA sale deals detailed
Dead Space 2! Mass Effect 2! Dragon Age 2! NFS!
Third party behemoth EA has discounted dozens of games and game add-ons this week on Xbox Live.
Criterion hiring for open world racer
And work on "new platforms".
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit developer Criterion Games is looking for staff to work on an open world racing game.
EU PlayStation Store update 27th July
Annihilation! NFS sale! LA Noire DLC!
New Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack Annihilation headlines this week's massive PlayStation Store update.
Xbox 360 owners have had it exclusively for the past month. Available from tomorrow on PS3, its five new maps will cost you £11.49.
Looking for something a bit cheaper? Sony's massive summer sale reaches Europe this week, with more than 30 downloadable titles discounted over the next seven days. Highlights include Popcap's Peggle, Hothead's Swarm and Telltale's Sam & Max and Back to the Future.
EA: Criterion won't make a game a year
They'd "burn out".
EA has promised it won't force Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit developer Criterion Games to make a game every year.
NFS: Hot Pursuit PC patch 1.04 released
23% of "known" crash bugs remain.
Criterion has released patch 1.04 for the PC version of super-duper racing game Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
The file can be downloaded from the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit website.
Fixed are a further 30 per cent of game-crashing bugs. Criterion noted that only 23 per cent of "known" game-crashing bugs now remain.
NFS Hot Pursuit PC patch 1.03 released
Crash eradication! Free cars! Exhausting.
Toot your horns and go bananas because a patch for the PC version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has been released.
Update 1.03 eradicates crashes caused by ATI and embedded Intel graphics cards. The patch also rectifies problems caused by alt-tabbing and by using steering wheel controllers.
What's more, EA and developer Criterion are chucking three free cars in: a Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible, a Lamborghini Murciélago LP 650-4 Roadster and the Dodge Viper SRT10 Convertible Final Edition.
EU PlayStation Store update 2nd March
Black Ops demo, maps; PixelJunk Shooter 2.
A 1.3GB single-player demo for Call of Duty: Black Ops can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store today. It coincides with arrival of the Black Ops First Strike Map Pack (locked until tomorrow), which costs £11.49 and measures 1.4GB.
PixelJunk Shooter 2 also arrives today (7/10 Eurogamer), as does old PSone game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
There's a lorry-load of DLC to bolster your games with, as revealed by the EU PlayStation Blog, even some for Dragon Age II, which isn't out until next Friday.
VideoNFS: Hot Pursuit's new trio of DLC trailer
Lamborghini! Porsche! Armed & Dangerous!
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit DLC confirmed
Three packs in the works.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit developer Criterion will launch three DLC packs for the blistering racer over the next month, it's announced.
Armed and Dangerous, due out 22nd February, introduces two new game modes. Most Wanted is an open world battle where cops try to bust a specific racer while the racers try to protect them. Arms Race is free-for-all racing. Three new achievements and trophies feature.
On 1st March Lamborghini Untamed will launch. It adds Cop and Racer versions of the legendary Lamborghini Diablo, Countach and Sesto Elemento. 10 new events and four new Achievements and Trophies are also included.
NFS Hot Pursuit patch 1.02 suggests DLC
Porsche vs. Lamborghini on the way.
Update: Hero of the hour, Streetmagix, has now unearthed the Xbox 360 Achievements for this Porsche vs. Lamborghini Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit DLC.
Mentioned in the Achievements are a Lamborghini Diablo, Porsche 911 Turbo, Porsche 959, Porsche 911 Speedster, Lamborghini Countach and Lamborghini Sesto Elemento.
Original story: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit may be about to welcome a Porsche vs. Lamborghini Pack.
BAFTA GAME Award shortlist revealed
Vote for your top title of 2010.
The 10-game shortlist for this year's public vote prize at the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards was announced this morning.
DiRT 3 dev talks "grindy" Gran Turismo 5
"The game on the disc isn't the final game."
Another racing game developer has criticised Polyphony Digital's PlayStation 3 exclusive sim Gran Turismo 5 for its "grindy levelling up".
Five 2010 EA games sold over 5m units
Can you name them?
Five games Electronic Arts launched last year sold over five million copies.
FeatureGames of 2010: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Cops and slobbers.
Need for Speed is the Britney Spears of video game brands, a cipher to front whichever hot producer or fashionable trend its owner, EA, wants to hand creative duties to on any given year. As a result, its games may provide a consistent financial yield, but they are also the hardest to pick out from a line-up, flitting from arcade slang street-racer one year to straight-talking sim the next. Who is Need for Speed? It's whoever's driving the development at any given time.
Free NFS cars despite YouTube video fail
"Oh, so close!"
The community has failed Criterion - the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit trailer was not watched one million times. In fact, it was only watched 658,764 at the time of writing.
PC Need for Speed denied paid DLC
EA's Criterion "constrained by resources".
Criterion has delivered a crushing blow to PC owners of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit: there will be scarcely any premium DLC for you - mostly bug fixes.
Kinect bundles outsell Move bundles 5-1
Plus: GT5, Donkey Kong sales figures.
Xbox 360 Kinect bundles outsold PlayStation 3 Move bundles by a factor of more than five to one in the US last month, according to a retail analyst.
Need for Speed's Super Sports pack
New cars, Trophies and Achievements.
Criterion's announced Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit's first premium downloadable content pack.
VideoGet free cars for NFS: Hot Pursuit
Details on game's website, apparently.
Details on game's website, apparently.
VideoNFS:HP Super Sports Pack revealed
New vehicles, events, achievements.
New vehicles, events, achievements.
Watch the launch trailer, get these cars.
Watch the launch trailer, get these cars.
VideoNeed For Speed: HP launch trailer
Drive your friends crazy.
Watch a NFS trailer, get free cars
But there's a catch.
Criterion will release three cars for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit as a Christmas gift for fans, but only after the game's launch trailer is viewed one million times.
Three super car convertibles: the Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible; Lamborghini Murciélago LP 650-4 Roadster; and the Dodge Viper SRT10 Convertible Final Edition, will be sent down the virtual pipes as a holiday gift only if the launch trailer gets the views the Guildford studio demands.
What launch trailer? The one below. At the time of writing it had just over 141,000 views on YouTube.
NFS:HP PC patch set for early next week
Multi-core CPU users saved.
A patch for the PC version of wicked arcade racer Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will release early next week, developer Criterion's said.
It fixes problems relating to multi-core CPUs, missing rain and snow effects and other bits and bobs. The fixes are detailed in a forum post.
"Thanks to all the players who helped us track down and identify the problem," said the Guildford developer. "We'll detail exactly when the patch will be available as soon as we can. As I said, it's likely to be early next week, but we need to go through the testing and certification systems that are in place prior to release."
Pay for Hot Pursuit car unlocks
Need for Speed DLC cuts corners.
Thank goodness we don't have to unlock all of the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit cars ourselves; thank goodness for the new corner-cutting downloadable content.
UK chart: COD blops Creed from top
Need for Speed in hot pursuit.
Call of Duty: Black Ops has denied Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit a top spot in the UK all-formats chart.
Digital FoundryHot Pursuit cuts pad lag to new lows
Is NFS the most responsive game this gen?
"So, 30Hz... it'll be really interesting to see what your latency measurements come out as. We think latency is pretty good... We think we might be 83ms... or 100ms."
Digital FoundryFace-Off: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Law and order it now?
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Disc Size
Digital FoundryNFS: Hot Pursuit Triple-Format Face-Off
PS3, 360 and PC versions compared.
Digital FoundryNFS: Hot Pursuit PS3/360 Face-Off
Criterion's latest cross-platform masterpiece.
Digital FoundryNFS: Hot Pursuit input latency tests
PC and Xbox 360 versions put to the test.
PC and Xbox 360 versions put to the test.
VideoNFS Hot Pursuit: Pagani vs Lambo
Out today, in case you'd forgotten.
Out today, in case you'd forgotten.
Digital FoundryNFS: Hot Pursuit PS3/360 performance analysis
Effectively identical cross-platform action.
VideoBen Collins vs. Need for Speed's Autolog
More from NFS' social suggestion system.
More from NFS' social suggestion system.
EA hails NFS: Hot Pursuit demo
Two million downloads in two weeks.
The demo of Criterion's superb racing game Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was downloaded more than two million times within two weeks, EA's shouted from the rooftops.
VideoNFS: HP Race Shutdown mode
Exclusive law and disorder.
Exclusive law and disorder.
VideoNFS: HP Blacklisted footage
Bramwell goes on the run.
Bramwell goes on the run.
VideoEx-Stig Ben Collins pretends he's in NFS
No crash mode for Hammond.
No crash mode for Hammond.
VideoNFS:HP stunts and tricks teaser
In-game and real-life hot pursuits.
In-game and real-life hot pursuits.
VideoFinal day of NFS:HP demo tomorrow
Two million downloads lapped up so far.
Two million downloads lapped up so far.
Protect and swerve.
How do you define Need for Speed? A perennial stocking filler for Electronic Arts' long-suffering investors? A neon love letter to Vin Diesel and Paul Walker's The Fast and The Furious? After last year's Shift, perhaps it's just the latest addition to a long line of challengers in a field previously dominated by Bizarre Creations?
Nonsense, says Criterion. It's about going really f***ing fast.
If Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is remembered for one thing, it will be for putting the "speed" back in Need for Speed. Even the lowliest cars (themselves things like RX-8s and Boxters) scorch the tarmac of fictional Seacrest County with their absurd velocity, but as you advance through the rankings either as a cop or a racer and start burning your way around in Lamborghinis, Maseratis and Ford GTs, the sense of raw pace is beyond anything we've seen since the Nürburgring sprints of Project Gotham Racing 3.
VideoNew NFS: Hot Pursuit trailer
Welcome to Seacrest County.
Black Box behind Nov 2011 Need for Speed
EA does a COD with alternating dev strategy.
EA's vision for the Need for Speed franchise involves alternating the developers behind every November release in a similar way Infinity Ward and Treyarch alternate development of Call of Duty games.
FeatureThe future of Need for Speed revealed
Plus! EA on Burnout, Battlefield 3 and MOH.
Patrick Soderlund is a busy man. He's in charge of EA's driving and shooting games. Think about that workload for a second.
VideoNFS: Hot Pursuit goes to Hollywood
Entourage duo shill EA racer.
Entourage duo shill EA racer.
Digital FoundryNFS: Hot Pursuit PS3/360 demo cop performance
Hot Pursuit mode tested on both consoles.
Hot Pursuit mode tested on both consoles.
Digital FoundryNFS: Hot Pursuit PS3/360 demo performance
The racer level analysed on both HD consoles.
The racer level analysed on both HD consoles.
Digital FoundryHot Pursuit PS3/360 demo showdown
Pixel perfect.
Yesterday's release of Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit demo serves to remind us that when it comes to cross-platform development, the Guildford-based studio is in a class of its own. Everything about the demo suggests that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the new racer are almost totally identical.
NFS! Ken's Rage! Majin! Time Crisis!
You can try four new games for free on the PlayStation Store today.
VideoNeed For Speed: HP demo gameplay
A taste of Criterion's take on NFS.
NFS: Hot Pursuit demo tomorrow
And on Wednesday for PS3.
EA is set to release a Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit demo this week. Xbox 360 owners can play from tomorrow and PS3 owners the day after.
VideoNFS: Hot Pursuit Interceptor footage
Demo available from tomorrow.
Demo available from tomorrow.
VideoCriterion explains NFS autolog system
Hot Pursuit's "Facebook for the game."
Hot Pursuit's "Facebook for the game."
VideoNeed for Speed: Hot Pursuit uncovered
The fuzz and the furious.
The fuzz and the furious.
VideoWashing your car in NFS:HP
Sponge at the ready.
Sponge at the ready.
The drift shift.
I tap the brake and pump the throttle and the sleek McLaren's headlights swing to the inside of the broad, sweeping bend. The British supercar seemed a little nervy to begin with, but once you have a feel for its delicate balance, you can tip it into gloriously pliant 150mph drifts.
Criterion keeps things simple.
Unlike EA's recent Need For Speed outings, the forthcoming Hot Pursuit will feature no narrative in the single player mode, developer Criterion has revealed.
VideoNFS Hot Pursuit gameplay trailer
Unarrested development.
VideoExclusive NFS: Hot Pursuit footage
Criterion show off Arms Race mode.
Hot Pursuit will dwarf Burnout Paradise
Criterion reckons it's 400 per cent larger.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit's playing area is four times as large as Burnout Paradise's, creator of both games Criterion claims.
VideoNeed for Speed: Hot Pursuit limited edition
Order now to unlock extra content.
Order now to unlock extra content.
EA big hitters at Eurogamer Expo
MOH! FIFA 11! Crysis 2! NFS! Dead Space 2!
A raft of upcoming EA games will be playable ahead of their release at the Eurogamer Expo this October.
VideoBurnout dev releases more NfS footage
Criterion bring you sun, sand and supercars.
Criterion bring you sun, sand and supercars.
VideoNfS Hot Pursuit off-screen footage
Gameplay fresh from gamescom.
Gameplay fresh from gamescom.
VideoNFS: Hot Pursuit challenge mode
Drive your mates crazy.
Drive your mates crazy.
VideoNeed For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Limited Edition trailer from gamescom.
Limited Edition trailer from gamescom.
Social network king.
Top Gear, season 14, episode one. Clarkson, May and Hammond traverse Romania in a range of hyper-expensive grand tourers in search of the Transfăgărăşan: 90km of high-altitude tarmac that just happens to be one of the exciting, environmentally spectacular driving routes in the world. This is the experience that sums up the new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - a celebration of driving some of the hottest cars in the world on the most exciting routes to emerge from the designers at Burnout studio Criterion Games.
Digital FoundryTech Interview: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Digital Foundry visits the tech leads in Guildford for the inside story.
The circle is now complete. Just over a year ago, Digital Foundry kicked off its extensive range of tech interviews with the leading lights in game development by talking to Criterion technical director Richard Parr and senior engineer Alex Fry. Last week, we visited the Guildford-based developer to take a look at the new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and took the opportunity to meet up with Parr and Fry once more to discuss the latest technological innovations for their new game.
Racers race, cops chase.
The Criterion developers demoing Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on EA's E3 booth say that the new game shares a subtitle with 1998's Need for Speed III for the simple reason that it sounds really cool. Also, creative director Craig Sullivan explains how considering those two words makes his job easier.
VideoNeed For Speed: Hot Pursuit E3 trailer
Criterion's series reboot revealed.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is back
Out November, Criterion developing.
EA has revealed Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and announced a 16th November 2010 release date. No formats were mentioned.