Best of 2010 Awards: Racing

7
Racing: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Ribbons of twisty highways offered up the perfect venue for running the world's most desirable high performance cars at speeds well north of 100 miles per hour, and giving chase in exotic police cruisers, in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. No matter how fast mashing the accelerator all the way down gets a car to go, the scenery smoothly streaming by and controls that seem almost second nature urge you on faster, faster. Perfectly taking advantage of the game's addictive speed, its 'Autolog' system made single-player racing social by pitting friends against each other in a running battle of one-upmanship. And completing the package, the basic premise of cops vs. racers also perfectly set up competitive online racing.

Runner-up: Gran Turismo 5

Incredibly ambitious plans and years spent on development left Gran Turismo 5 facing nearly insurmountable expectations. Though it struggled under that weight, from 50 horsepower antiques to 500+ horsepower beasts the driving experience felt uncannily right. And while there are fewer of them than we'd like, the premium cars sport near photo-realistic detail.

Nominees: Blur, Split/Second

[Racing is part of Shacknews Best of 2010 Awards. For more information, including selection methodology, see this introduction.]

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group. 

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 28, 2010 8:23 AM

    Wow. NFS takes out GT5. I only played the demo of NFS but it seemed very shallow compared to GT5. Guess i'll have to check out the full game.

    • reply
      December 28, 2010 8:47 AM

      GT5 is not fun at all, not to mention it feels, looks and plays just like prologue, I agree with this 100%.

      • reply
        December 28, 2010 9:07 AM

        Having very briefly played GT5, I felt as though something was missing under the car. I could feel it sliding out, but only then. It's weird.

    • reply
      December 28, 2010 9:20 AM

      Tons of content != good gameplay.

    • reply
      December 28, 2010 10:57 AM

      I can see it taking out GT5 having put some time into GT5. The racing part is just not there. GT5 has a great driving model but in the first 10 levels that I've gotten all the cars are just driving on a line and will not deviate.

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