If you don't own a racing game yet and cant decide on what to buy, I suggest you rent out NFS: HP2. In all the style of the hot pursuit series plus all the years experience EA have making NFS games NFS: HP2 is one of the best Need For Speed games, if not the best yet!

There are loads of levels, all with unique ways to go around them to shake off any cops that are chasing you, and they are very highly detailed in all respects. There are all the cars from the other games in the series, including the Maclaren F1' and new cars are also on the list, like the BMW Z8.

One awesome feature in Single Race is that you can be a Cop and chase after those naughty criminals as you race around a city, or a swamp at 260kph. And it doesn't stop there; there are plenty of police cars to unlock too! But they're not nearly as pricey as the normal cars, which are priced up to $270,000. I think I bought the fastest cop car for around 70 000.

Race through an array of open road environments that come to life with river crossings, waterfalls, beaches, dusty paths, and brush fires. Rush through traffic, conquer multiple racing events, and outrun cops in hot pursuit to become the Champion Road Racer!

NFS: HP2 has every single mode of gameplay that you could wish for in a NFS game. From Championship Mode to Hot Pursuit, this game has 2 types of challenges to work through as you gain up those NFS points to buy new cars and tracks. If you have a lot of points, buy the most expensive car you can in Single Race mode, and enter a quick championship to get a ton more NFS points. This will also gain your experience for in the real Championship Mode.

Hot Pursuit ' This mode is probably the most fun in the game. There are a series of different races that you can be in, all with different levels of difficulty, and different ways of winning. They may involve knock out with 6 cars, and 5 laps. After each lap, the last car is taken out of the race until the final lap when (hopefully) you win. Also there's normal racing, and racing by yourself to beat a time. All Hot Pursuit races have cops out to get you, and the further down the list you get, the more cops will use to try to get you. These involve:

• Extra police cars (backup). I think I got about 4 or 5 chasing me at one time.
• Road Block. Involves 2 police cars blocking the road, and of coarse the chain on the road to pop your tires!
• Helicopter.The chopper throws barrels at you that are on fire. When you hit them your car goes flying up into the air. It's worth hitting it to watch the spectacular scene!

Championship Mode If your roommate or parents or anybody is getting sick of those annoying sirens, then choose Championship Mode for some quality racing without the police. The levels have a same 'unlock' mode as in Hot Pursuit, and you can gain a heap of NFS points for winning. Each championship involves 3 or 4 races and the best racer overall wins the Gold Medal.

Single Race ' This mode is where you can have the fun and set up all the stuff you want for a quality race. It's also where you can play multiplayer! You can be the cop, you can run away from the cops, or you can freelance around the maps. There is a lot to unlock in this section, and you'd need at least a million NFS points to do so, so get to it!

The graphics in NFS: HP2 are very good, but not as good as the leading racing games for Xbox on the market at the moment. It does have a superb frame rate though. I think EA was trying to create a fast game and weren't too fussy overall about how it looks. However, the scenery is great. There is so much detail in each of the maps, and there's a new sight around every corner.

The cars sport some great detail, I love the BMW Z8 and when I saw it in-game, I was very impressed at how real it looked. I must say though that the F50 in Project Gotham Racing looks better. The more expensive cars in this game look very unrealistic though. Overall the graphics are pretty good but plenty more could have been done to exploit the Xbox.

Unfortunately though a lot of the graphical features from the PS2 version are missing from the Xbox version! The lighting in the PS2 version is superior, the volumetric fog is missing and the sandstorms are mysteriously absent as well. Also the cars don't reflect their environments as well as what we saw in PGR. The car damage however is great and you can smash or bend just about every part of the cars.

The Engines at first sound a bit different, but after you get them started they sound great. Every car has a different engine noise. The squeaking in the tires as you go around the corners happens a lot, which is good I guess. When it squeaks though, it leaves a great long skid mark thats visible for the rest of the race.

You can play your own music in this game which I love about any game, and you can play EVERY song in your library. Although it's not random, so they'll play your list in order. The game itself has a great variety of music, and it says what band and what song it is when it plays on the screen. I thought that was a great feature because you get to see what the song is called without having to go to the menu. This is also in Fifa 2003 so maybe its going to become standard for EA to credit all the artists used during their games.