Let me take you back a bit in my own personal history. It was 2004, my boi's Patrick, Justin, and Miguel and I would often all kick it after school. We would cruise to a little pool hall in Costa Mesa off 19th st & Harbor blvd called Games Plus. (I have a lot of stories from games plus, including that time the officer tried to give me a DUI because my tongue was green even though I passed all of field sobriety tests. Stories for another time.) You can probably surmise the game that we played over and over was the Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 arcade game. Years later, we would eventually own this game and Patrick and I would play it often when we were out of High school. (You can catch Patrick on TTV Twitch.tv/Crimson_Samurai7 He's not affiliate yet, but that doesn't mean we can't surprise him sometime. He's got a good heart, actually SB__1987 & xSwipeyx often remind me of Patrick.)
This game by all means has two steering modes. Arcade mode, like that of the arcade game which is pretty basic control, not too touchy. And Simulation mode, which is a little touchier and can get you more precise driving and turns much better if you know how to play those sticks.
The sound track is bumping, you get to hear a lot of music you haven't heard in awhile. The rides are rad, especially considering this was the first game I personally can recall that allowed you to play as the police or the racer. The pursuit aspect was truly an innovation and even without the fancy car modifications of the later titles in the series.
This game stands on it's own as one of the greatest, all around fun car racing games. Whether you're jamming through the single player portions of the game or crushing it with the unlocked vehicles from single player against your buddies, this games timeless AF. Here is my eBay listing for my copy. http://ebay.us/ypeNG4?cmpnId=5338273189
In my searches, I also came across some other interesting NFS stuff. Here's a neat E3 release trailer for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6ouHWP0KrY
The Music (videos) of NFS:HP2
https://nfssoundtrack.com/hp2/
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