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Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit

aka: NFS 3, Over Drivin' III: Hot Pursuit

Description official descriptions

In the third major installment of Electronic Arts' Arcade racing series, there are several modes of play available. You have the standard race, with one big difference - now there are traffic cops out to ticket you for your excessive speed. Alternatively, you can take your turn with the radar gun and attempt to pull over speeding computer or human racers.

Returning to the flavour of the original Need for Speed, this adds a new Pursuit mode, where you must out run the cops through fast, open area tracks, while also out-lasting the rest of the pack. Another new mode is knockout, where you race through all the tracks, and whoever is last after each race is knocked out. The winner is, of course, the one that lasts the distance. Almost every course in the game has one or more shortcuts.

The cars include Ferrari 550 Maranello, Ferrari 355 F1 Spider, Italdesign Scighera, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Lamborghini Countach, Jaguar XJR-15, Jaguar XK8, Aston Martin DB7, '98 Corvette C5, Mercedes SL600 and the Mercedes CLK GTR.

Spellings

  • 极品飞车III: 闪电追踪 - Simplified Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

204 People (151 developers, 53 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Trivia

Cars

Perhaps because Ferrari & Mercedes were concerned about their image, EA wasn't allowed to use their cars in the Hot Pursuit mode. However, there exists a patch/hack on the Internet that changes this and let's you escape the cops in all the Ferrari & Mercedes models.

Editor

The tool to create the cars in the game are actually included on the CD. This lead to a huge number of fan-created add-on cars, some with impossible performance levels. Four new cars, made by Electronic Arts, could be downloaded from the official website. These cars are: the Jaguar XKR, the Lister Storm, the Spectre R42 and the Ferrari 456M GT.

References

  • The Atlantica track has its own Electronic Arts office. If the cops follow in the proximity of that office you will, for example, hear them say: " Unit 15 in pursuit of a yellow Diablo near the EA building, he's doing more than 120!"
  • In the credits section of the options menu you can view a (phony) driver's license with picture and personal info for each of the developers. There are also some 360 degree panorama shots showing several groups of developers.

Statistics

When you turn on the Best Line option in the driving assist menu, two lines of traffic cones appear, indicating the optimal driving path. During a race the game will not only keep track of the percentage of time you spend between those two lines, but also the number of traffic cones hit.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 1999 (Issue #177) – Best Driving Game of the Year

Information also contributed by Roedie

Related Games

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
Released 2002 on PlayStation 2
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Released 2005 on PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox...
Need for Speed II
Released 1997 on Windows, PlayStation
Need for Speed: Underground
Released 2003 on Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Limited Edition)
Released 2010 on Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Released 2004 on Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox
The Need for Speed
Released 1995 on DOS, 1996 on SEGA Saturn, PlayStation
Need for Speed: Carbon
Released 2006 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows...
Need for Speed: High Stakes
Released 1999 on Windows, PlayStation

Related Sites +

  • Game Audio Player
    Game Audio Player can rip the music out of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, as well as many other CD-based games where the music data is compressed and stored on the CD.
  • NFS3 Strategy Guide
    The ONLY Strategy Guide for NFS3 out there, covers cars, shortcuts on each track, and more!
  • Wikipedia: Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
    Information about Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit at Wikipedia

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 636

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Aquaman.

PlayStation added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Kasey Chang, Kirschsaft, //dbz:, CaesarZX, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger.

Last modified March 8th, 2023.