Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010. News digest.

Today I visited the site Need For Speed (the moderator position obliges me to) and was horrified: there's quite a lot of news, so we'll have to wade through all of it.

Let's clear things up with "Top Gear", the news about which keeps popping up in the launcher Need For Speed World The guys are lousy at Photoshop, aren't they?

Essentially, this is another contest from the Need For Speedteam, in honor of the launch of the project Top Gear on the HISTORY™channel, with the goal of giving away valuable prizes to players. The contest will run from November 8 to November 15. The winners will receive an Alienware M11x or one of the Apple iPad 64Gbunits. The prizes will be handed out to the winners. First place gets the laptop (or netbook, which is what this Alienware actually is)and second and third place get an iPad each.
Now for the bad news: since the HISTORY™ channel is North American, the prizes will only be given to residents of North America. Central and South America, as well as Europe and the CIS countries, are "out of luck". On top of that, they introduced an age restriction - 18 years old. With that move they immediately cut off about 70% of participants, if not more. If you SUDDENLY turn out to be a resident of North America and you're 18 or older, then here are the participation rules and other event mathfor you, read them in your spare time, maybe you'll find it interesting.

SEMA 2010

SEMA is one of the many car shows, but it is one of the most popular (if not the most popular) tuned car shows.

Here's a specimen of scientific thought from the racing team Team Need For Speed standing in the South Hall

As the Need For Speed folks themselves write, this is the car of racer Chris Rado, a Scion tC in the second-to-last body style, built for Time Attack series racing in the Unlimited Class.
The car looks "extreme", as the Need For Speed folks put it, but I'd say the car looks imposing. In the photos we see two large wings (front and rear), as well as a far-from-small splitter on the front bumper. This is done not only for an imposing appearance, but also to increase downforce. The engine in this contraption is a tuned 1100-horsepower 2.4-liter inline "four" with a "huge" (again, according to the Need For Speed folks) turbocharger, which is what gives this Scion such power. The entire car is made of carbon, which makes it light. If you consider the car's weight and its engine power, the need for such large wings and a splitter becomes clear.
The car bears the vinyl of the Team Need For Speedteam, which the original news mentions twice. People love themselves, there's nothing to be done about it =D.

Payment by SMS

The third news item for today is about the possibility of buying SpeedBoost via SMS. But even here there's a catch. For now, the option to pay for SpeedBoostvia SMS has only appeared in the following countries:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Denmark
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Ireland
- Holland (Netherlands)
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Spain
- Sweden
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
It was also said that new payment methods will appear soon and new countries will be added to the list. Russia will only be included after electronic wallets like QIWI and the like are added to the list of payment methods, but that's just my personal opinion.

Kevin and Jerry. Valets. Tough American valets

What job can be called a complete disappointment? If you're a fan of Need For Speedthen the job of a valet should be at the top of your list. These guys work as valets at a prestigious hotel. They park the fastest and most beautiful cars in the world just a few dozen meters from their starting position at speeds of no more than 5 miles per hour. So they play Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit to quench their thirst for speed.
I'll add on my own behalf: pretty funny clips. Worth watching, so far three clips have been made: Intro, Officer Douche and You Park It.

Two more videos

A person from the development team with the nickname "The Professor" showed two races. In one he was a cop, and in the other - a racer. During the race he gives useful tips on getting through the tracks. Very interesting and useful videos.

Track Dark Horse. Playing as a cop:




Track Roadsters Reborn. Playing as a racer:

Summing up

In this video the Criterion Games team sums up the interim statistics. Also a very interesting video. The only annoying thing is the call to "download and play before it's too late!".

That's all. I hope you enjoyed it.
I sat down to write at 15:10 and only finished just now. Maxtron beat me to it with one video, but I wrote more evil mocking laughter.