Yes, I've done it, I cracked the 10,000 post mark here at Gamespot! It's been around 4.5 years since I joined this site, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. Made a ton of friends, learned about several games from here, reviewed many games, joined unions, etc. I'd like to take a brief moment and thank a few of my better friends, because without their communication with me, I'd probably still be back around 5,000 posts, lol:
cornerback3 - I know him from the 007 Nightfire boards, and he's also on the CoD4 boards occasionally as far as I know. Constant, nonsensical chatter has boosted both of our post counts by at least a 1,000 I'd say. Wouldn't you, cornerback? :P
MudkipMaster30 - I know him from the Crash Team Racing boards, and he's also the leader of the Twisted Metal Union if I remember correctly. We generally keep each other up to date on our gaming schedules and we also discuss random topics from time to time. A really nice guy.
HP2 Board - This is a multi-inclusive one here. I'm including all of the users who used to visit the now-a-ghost-town forumsof Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. JBear427, Off_da_Border, Munky321, Renegade_Zero...I enjoyed talking to all of them for the insanely long while that we did. And by "talking", I mean discussing completely random topics that hardly ever related to NFS, playing hurt-&-heal games, and bickering. They were good times...
And finally, I want to thank all my other friends as well.You guys are all great and I enjoy talking and, if we do, playing together. But this blog isn't just about the 10,000 post mark. I also told everybody that I'd be posting a review of the just-released demo for NFS Hot Pursuit, and that's exactly what I'm about to do. I've played quite a decent bit of it, despite the fact that it's pretty short, and I've gotten a good feel for the game. So here goes:
NFS: HP Demo Review -
You'll start off by seeing a pretty cool trailer that was previously released before the demo came out, but it also helps to tell you what to expect. You'll be taken to the main menu next, which has all the options you want and very little extras. It's nicely organized and easy to navigate, though all the in-game text is a tad small and hard to see, especially if you don't have an HD TV (and I don't). A few options are locked, such as the photo section and the NFS Store and online races (yes, it's true, the demo is all offline). I want to note though, that based on the options screen, it appears as if custom sountracks will be included in the full game, and that's great news because the soundtrack included by Criterion isn't too wonderful. Controls are also customizable (yay).
Click the career option and you'll get a brief explanation by a narrator regarding Seacrest County and its police force, and then you're taken to a map of SC itself, where you will see two events available...one for a cop, and one for a racer. The cop event, "Dark Horse", has you attempting to shut down a street race before the racers can reach the finish line. You have access to spike strips and roadblocks to help you,but choppers and EMPs are not available. You can choose between a standard Crown Vic or a Nissan 370Z (if I recall correctly) as your vehicle, and I generally found myself preferring the Vic because the handling is a bit looser. Either car you choose, you can listen to a nice rundown of all its technical features before you officiallyselect it, just like inthe classic NFS games.
Gameplay itself as a cop is pretty much what you'd expect, and it's great fun. You've got to hit the racers in order to damage their car enough to bring them to a halt (which often occurs in spectacular, car-flipping fashion), or blow their tires with your spike strips, or box them in for a set amount of time before they're busted...but the latter option rarely happens, and only happened to me because I boxed aracer in after he hit a roadblock. You've got nitrous boost to help you as well, and it comes in very short bursts. It's helpful for right before you make contact with a racer, to add a bit of extra "oomph", or when you need to power through a drift. Spikes are dropped right behind your car, and almost instantly deploy, so if you find a racer right on your tail a simple press of the d-padcan bust him quickly. Thankfully this doesn't occur that frequently, and the AI is smart enough to see when you're trying to set up a spike attempt. Roadblocks can be called in and they deploy only a short way up the road, and it's quite hard actually to find a way around them, because they stretch almost across the entire length of the road itself. It's best just to follow behind a racer when approaching one; if he makes it through, so will you, and if he crashes, you'll be right there to finish him off with a smash to the rear-end of his vehicle. It's interesting to note that you can turn your headlights on and off, and change the sound of your sirens as well.
The second event is "Roadsters Reborn", and it's a racers event. No cops, just racers. The funny thing about this event is that it remains locked until somebody on your friends list downloads and plays the demo...I suppose that's EA and Criterion's way of forcing people who might not normally play the demo to give it a shot. Once the race is unlocked though, you'll find a selection of either a Boxter Spyder, 370Z, or BMW Z4, all of which are convertibles. Just like the cop cars, you'll get a description of these as well when you select them. My favorite was the Boxter, because it seemed to have a slight speed advantage in the event and the handling was comparatively good. Unlike the cop cars, you can select from about seven choices of paint color for your car, but that's as far as customization goes (so be quiet, Underground tuner-fans).
Playing as a racer feels almost the same as playing as a cop, though your nitrous boostis quite improved and can last for a longer duration than that of the police. It's not hard to get a handle of the control of the cars just as with the cops, and I won the race the first time I played it, and the other times after that too. The track is really nice, mixing some forested regions with a coastline feel. Think National Forest from Hot Pursuit 2, if you've played that game, or Calypso Coast. There are also some shortcuts to be found, as with Dark Horse, but there seem to be more in this track. Unlike during the hot pursuits, where some really cool instrumental music plays, the game's licensed soundtrack will play during the races. The demo appears to include two songs...one by 30 Seconds to Mars (I believe it played at the end of the first trailer released for the game)and some other song that I'm not familiar with. They're okay and fit the racing action nicely, but I really doubt the game's other songs will keep up that feat. If you can get a custom soundtrack in the full game, you'll probably want to. May I recommend the soundtrack from NFS3? It would be epic to hear those tunes in this game, I must say.
You'll also get to mess around a slight bit with Autolog in the demo, in the form of posting "speedwall" updates to your friends about your preformances on the events. It's pretty cool and I can see myself taking advantage of it in the full game.
In summary, the demo is very good, though a little short. It has good replay value however, because you can play the events over and over again to test out the controls and the cars and such. The demo took 3 hours to download for me, and some others have complained about the download time as well, but don't let that deter you from trying it out. If you like arcade racing, the Burnout series, or classic NFS games, you will enjoy this demo and probably the full game.
End of Demo Review
Whew...that was long, lol. Anyway, to wrap up this blog, I'll explain about the "ace" part in the title. Not too long ago I went to play golf with my dad and brother down at a little 9-hole course (Terrace Hill Golf Course)that isn't far from where we live. We've played that course alot over the years, ever since I started playing golf when I was about 10, and my best was 31 (par for the course is 30). Coming down to the last hole, I thought that I had 29, and I jokingly made the comment "I can still make par with a hole-in-one!". So I hit my tee shot (which was a pitching wedge because it was only around 100 yards), and watched as the ball flew right for the flag. It took one hop on the green before I heard a "plunk" and lost sight of the ball. Sure enough, it went in the hole. My first ace! It was pretty exciting, but as it turned out, I had miscalculated and in reality did not end up with a 30, but rather another 31. :( Still...it's a hole-in-one, lol.
I hope you've enjoyed the blog. Here's to another 10,000 posts, eh? Lol...actually, if I ever end up with 20,000, I think it would be wise for me to start reconsidering how much time I spend on this site. Still, I enjoyed the first 10K, and I enjoyed having everyone on my friends list along for the ride. Take care, God bless, and please comment. :)