Well, it hasbeen a while since my last blog entry...mostly because I don't like using blogs much, but anyway, here is my newest. For anybody who's interested in the "Need for Speed" racing game series, listen up: A bunch of NFS fans, who call themselves "Old School" fans, have made a petition to send to EA in an attempt to get them to produce at least one more "Hot Pursuit"-like NFS game...that is, a NFS game that more resembles games in the series before it made the shift to Underground street racing. I am a member of this group of "Old School" fans. And right now, althoughit isgoing rather slowly and often off-topic, we have set up camp in the "Hot Pursuit 2" boards here at Gamespot (PS2 version), and anybody is welcome to go there to share their own personal opinions on the NFS series.

As I am posting this blog, the latest entry in the NFS series is "Need for Speed: Shift", being released for the major consoles (PS3, Xbox 360). It is a NFS game that is moving away from both "Old School", Hot Pursuit-like racing and "New School", Underground-like racing. Instead, it is going for a racing-sim game that resembles, in part, the poorly received "Need for Speed: Pro Street". Shift is a game that looks to be just aboutas far away from Hot Pursuit as you can get, and so us "Old School" fans will still not be satisfied with it...I can tell you that right now.

I should also mention that two other NFS games are being released along with Shift, but for different consoles..."Need for Speed: Nitro" and "Need for Speed: Open World". Both of these NFS games have Cops, yet they both still do not retain the flare of the older Hot Pursuit-like NFS games.

Now, more about the petition. Currently, as I am writing this, the petition is at 462 signatures. This is not even close to what we would need it to have before we send it to EA. So I urge you all to please sign the petiton. It will only take a few mintues, and it potentially could help in saving what is arguably the best racing franchise on the market from going into complete destruction. Seriously.

The petition can be found by using this link: http://www.petitiononline.com/nd4spd/petition.html

Lastly...thank you all for reading my latest blog, and please check out my game reviews. I try to be lengthy and descriptive in all of them, and I think they really will help you in deciding on whether or not to buy a particular game.

Sincerely, RedHawk4.

Have you ever played the Need for Speed racing series? If you have, you've probably raced down snowy mountains, sliced through desert tracks, and dodged Police pursuit. No doubt this was very fun, and in my opinion it made NFS the best racing series on the market. The release of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 marked the first NFS gameto be released for the PS2, and thus the first graphically advanced NFS. After the immense success of that game, myself and many others awaited the next NFS with high hopes. But sadly, NFS took a new direction. Illegal street racing. After HP2, EA (the makers ofNFS) released Need for Speed: Underground, a game basedupon tuning your "ride" and building your "rep", and not on pure racing. Granted, lots of people liked this game. But lots of people didn't. However, EA continued to release street racing games, corrupting the series into full street racing. They then released Underground 2, followed by a game called 'Most Wanted', then a game called 'Carbon'. Finally, EA is soon releasing the latest game of the series, called NFS Pro Street. This game ditches the street racing and turns to racing onclosed tracks. But for all I can see, tuning is still there. A lack of Cops is still there. And a lack of true, old NFS flare. That is why a group of "Old School" fans have made a petition to be sent to EA in an attempt to save NFS, and hopefully get anothertrue Need for Speed title. That is why I urge you to use the link I will provide below and sign the petition. The fate of quite possibly the best racing series could depend on this.

Here is that link: http://www.petitiononline.com/nd4spd/petition.html