cars and bikes

I have played several racing games... everything from amazing simulations like Grand Turismo 3 A-Spec, less realistic yet all the more exciting games like the Midnight Club Racing series, and of course... the downright horrible games, like Supercar Street Racing. That having been said, I don't think I can pinpoint one other game that offers the pinnacle of all around action packed gaming pleasure that Need for Speed Hot Pursuit II offers.
There are several play modes, from conventional challenges and a championship series, to more exciting and difficult races in which you have not only the other racers to contend with, but also the boys in blue... and their roadblocks, spike-strips, and barrel-dropping helicopters.
Gameplay is fantastic, thanks to an amazing driving engine, incredible graphics, and (real) jaw-dropping supercars. Unlike some games, here you have your pick from a wide variety (49 total) cars from high end manufacturers like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Aston Martin... even McLaren, as opposed to most other games in which the cars are made-up or limited to one or two manufacturers.
The progression is worth noting as well, and lends itself to a lengthy and enjoyable experience, with infinite customization possibilities even after you have beaten the game and unlocked all of the cars.
Overall, I would consider this to be by far the best all-around racing game out there if you are looking for excitement and jaw-dropping gameplay with a variety of obstacles to spice things up.
My only gripe? After beating the game, I thought that just MAYBE it was a little bit too easy. I only had to play the last championship races once to win, and throughout the entire championship series I won every event on the first attempt save for maybe one race. Still, it was a lengthy and enjoyable experience and the game still has plenty of replay value once you have mastered all of the events! A definite MUST-HAVE for any PS2 owner.

Oh... little *tip* - to boost your points (unlock cars faster), during the race, while passing the finish line after a lap (but not the last lap), press L2 to do a camera rotation while your rear wheels are ON the checkered starting line stripe. GOOD TIMING IS OBVIOUSLY NECESSARY... if you can manage to do a camera rotation showing your car passing the starting line with rear tires on the black/white stripe, you will receive about 180,000 points (finishing an average race without doing this trick yields about 9,000-15,000 points, so this is a major boost)

this game is by far one of the best racers ever. i loved the first hot pursuit. i liked how you earned money to fix/upgrade your car after winning a race. this did not return for the second hot pursuit game, but they kept everything else good about the game. there are great graphics, especially if you played the computer version first. much better version on the ps2. the cars are great, and the cops are ruthless. while this game is very well made, they could have added more to it to make it more intertaining, like maybe more speech from the police, you know, commical stuff. you will get many hours of sheer joy playing this game. the gameplay itself is very good. you can plan to take a shortcut or other way to get around roadblocks and completely through the police off. the slowmotion on jumps and crashes are also very intertaining. in my opinion the ps2 has the two best racing games, this one and gran turismo 3.

This game is responsible for single handedly sparking my affection for both racing games, and real life exotics. For most of us average joe gamers, this is the closest we will ever get to actually driving all of these beuaties. The game has awesome graphics for its time, featuring plenty of shiny reflections off the car, as well as puddles down the road. There really is no feeling like behind the wheel of the McLaren F1, only about 10 still exist to this day in the entire world! If you like to feel like a bad ass, and get an unbelievable adrenaline surge at the same time, look no further, outstanding!