First, let's look at what NFS: HP2 brings to the table. 49 unlockable cars. Full traffic to dodge and weave out of. Tenacious, borderline-insane police chases. Great graphics and an outstanding sense of speed. Plus, the tracks. Oh my, the tracks. They steal the show, with a wide array to choose from and so many twists, turns, multiple routes and shortcuts that you'll be discovering new paths for ages to come. The track design in NFS: HP2 rivals some of the best full-fledged arcade racers, never mind other console racing games. My personal favourite is Island Outskirts - whipping down a highway with palm trees and beautiful clear skies, then rounding the bend and realizing that you're racing around an smoldering volcano put a grin on my face from ear to ear. Heeding the cries of fans, the developers have brought back segmented - or as they're referred to here, point to point - tracks. Racing around in circles got old quick, and wasn't very realistic. Why on earth would there be traffic on a lapped track? Well, point to point racing is racing as it was meant to be, and it makes a welcome return in NFS: HP2. The tracks are long and present an amazing sense of scale and grandeur, especially the Mediterranean tracks. There is a lot of eye-candy that you can miss while whizzing past at illegal speeds, and the attention to detail is breathtaking. Wonderfully crafted car models reflect the track backgrounds...at least until you smash them your car all to hell. Broken windshields, scratches, dents, smoke pouring out of the engine...convincing the manufacturers to allow the representation of damage was an excellent coup by EA, and is something the series has needed since day one.

The difference between vehicles is palpable. Weight, handling and speed all contribute to a great racing experience. The controls are great on PS2 and Xbox, allowing you to slide through corners and steer with ease. The PS2 version gives an extra handling option that the others don't have - "extreme", which makes things even more loosey-goosey and arcadey. You can earn points to unlock cars and tracks through challenges. The better you perform, obviously, the more points you accumulate. Crashes aren't that impressive, unfortunately, it's far too bouncy and forgiving. It's easy to use the ability to crash off the rails to maintain your position in a race, as opposed to it presenting real consequences to your position. Head on crashes will slow you down for a moment, but that's about it. Penalizing the player for lousy driving should have been a greater priority. NFS: HP2 does supports the Logitech Steering Wheel, which makes a great game even greater, crashes or no.

Personalize your racer by name and gender, tailor the HUD to your liking, and then save those settings. Your in-game driver will shift, steer, look behind him/her - tons of little animations that make the driver more like a real person. Nice touch. What wasn't so nice, though, was the removal of the ability to really create your own driver. A name is nice, but after having the option to choose a racer's ethnicity was a nice, inclusive touch that has been removed from Hot Pursuit 2. Why is that, EA?

Fighting the police is the epitome of a tension-filled, exciting time. The cops will ride you. Hard. They go all out to force you off the road, make use of turbos to catch up to you - although I couldn't tell if it was limited turbo or not - ram you repeatedly and make use of the angles to stop you. Roadblocks go up in difficulty, from just a couple of cop cars across the road, to cop cars with barrels, to cop cars with spike strips. Keep away from Johnny Law long enough and they'll release the helicopters, who drop explosive barrels and shoot missiles (!) at you fast and furious types. While dropping explosive barrels on busy highways doesn't exactly seem like responsible police enforcement policy, who cares? It's hilarious to see your opponents, or better yet, a cop, overshoot you and plow into a barrel, flying high into the air. One disappointment with the cops, however, is the lack of localized chatter that was in the previous NFS. Apparently no matter where you go in the world, all cops speak English and use North American sirens. This was a real disappointment, and surprising considering all of the other little touches that made it into the game.

Sound effects are great. Engines sound loud and throaty, tires squeal with alarm as they're pushed past their limits, crashes sound violent...good stuff. A serious problem rears its head, however, with the inclusion of EA's latest marketing gimmick, EA Trax. Not so much the music itself - that's a matter of personal taste and some of the songs are quite good. What is an absolute pain in the ass, however, is the bizarre decision to include POP-UPS ON MY SCREEN every time a musical track changes. It's jarring, it's irritating, and whoever the "genius" was who thought this was a great idea needs to be taken out back behind the woodshed. Hey EA, we can't stand pop-ups on the internet - what on earth makes you think we want them in our games? Unfortunately, there's no way to download Pop-Up Stopper on consoles, so the only way to get around this on your PS2 or GameCube is to turn off the music entirely. A real shame. Xbox does support custom soundtracks which means you don't have to put up with the EA Trax pop-up crap, thankfully.

If you have a GameCube or Xbox, however...prepare for some disappointment. For whatever reason, these two versions feel washed-out in comparison to the PS2 rev. The feeling of real speed that is so joyous and evident on PS2 is noticeably slower on the other two versions, and the GameCube control doesn't feel as dialed in as Xbox and PS2. This drastically affects the fun of the title, as the whole point of the game is its sense of speed The graphics on the Xbox version are brighter and sharper, but the lighting effects don't seem as polished. The GameCube version's tracks aren't as vibrant as PS2 or Xbox, and this is a bit of a puzzle. Blurry backgrounds hurt Nintendo's offering severely, but not as bad as the chuggy, sluggish framerate.

Straight up - Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is an outstanding arcade racer. It's fun, accessible, and you won't find anything better on the PS2...or GameCube for that matter. If you own an Xbox, however, Project Gotham Racing and Sega GT 2002 take advantage of the hardware's capabilities far better than NFS: HP2, so I'd recommend renting EA's title before a purchase to compare for yourself. If you don't own a PS2, you'd probably be happy if you didn't know that a superior version was available....but you're reading this review, and I'd be remiss if I didn't draw attention to this inequality between versions. Still, the PS2 version of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 is the new standard-bearer for arcade racing titles on consoles. Miss it at your peril.

Xbox Grade: B-
GameCube Grade: C+