Tag Archives: Frost Magazine

This Month's Magazines; Jennifer Lopez Believes in Love, 9/11 Anniversary.

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Note: Magazines come out a month in advance. September’s magazines are Augusts.

The September issue of Vogue is out and the advertisers have made the issue heavy enough to use as a dumbbell. No complaints from me.

It is the International Collections special and there are lots of clothes to fawn over, Labels and trends to be urban cool, and accessories that make a difference in Vogue’s Big Fashion Issue.

There is a brilliant article on the history of Gucci, Paloma Picasso revisits Venice and talks about her journey to becoming a jewellery designer, Dries Van Noten gives a guide to his Antwerp, up-coming actress, producer and writer Brit Marling is interviewed (Frost loves her), Rifat Ozbek is doing Robin Birley’s new club, Ruperts; Good two page article.

Olivia Wilde talks Haiti and Childhood, there are a lot of autumn clothes that all look too hot, it’s 30c in London at the moment!, Miss V has her excellent social diary, there is a 9 page spread on the turbulent life of John Galliano, Tom Ford on his new cosmetic line and an article on the new David Bailey film. I noticed afterward that in the shops you get a free fashion DVD. However, I did not get this as a subscriber. Bad form.

Emily Mortimer is on the cover of this month’s Tatler and there is an interview inside.

There is a free gift but not for subscribers, grr.

There is a moving tribute to Tatler senior editor John Graham, Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark, A guide to nightclubs, An article on what it is like to stay on Abramovich’s yacht and the Royal Family residences, who sits where at White’s, Secret Cinema, Kate Middleton joins Competitive Princessing, Sir Michael Sorrell, What to wear: looking posh on less dosh, Legendary Lotharios, Rich Kids, a good 6 page spread on Tina Brown.

Guy Pelly, Astrid Harbord and Jake Warren have a new club, 37 year old Sam Leith goes back to school, Diana Von Furstenberg tells all about what she loves.

There is also lots of Travel and the Bystander (the social diary). Kate Middleton makes an appearance at the Derby with William, as does Elton John’s annual White Tie & Tiara Ball.

Frost has been complain that Marie Claire has not been giving its subscribers free gifts because of ‘cost’, and this month’s issue came with a free gift. It would seem someone listened but, alas, no. In the shops you get a free nail polish and a conditioner. I just got a conditioner.

Anne Hathaway is on the cover and interviewed inside. There is a good article on what to wear to fashion week (which I will be listening to!), an interview with Mulberry bag designer Emma Hill, an interview with Katie Holmes, how to get French style, what the New York fashion pack wear, China’s fashion, what men won’t tell you until the third date, Should you move abroad?, 9/11 Anniversary, A good three page article on Stella McCartney, The X Factor, Beyonce, Oh Land, a One Day Special; article on the book and interviews with cast and lots & lots of fashion and beauty.

Vanity Fair has Jennifer Lopez on the cover and her first interview since her divorce inside. She says she is “an eternal optimist about love…it’s still my biggest dream.”

L’Wren Scott gives us the low-down on her stuff, in Fairground there is a lot of lovely picture of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Hollywood attending the BAFTA party.

Also articles on Michael Buble, Private Eye’s 50th anniversary, Agnes B, how the US failed to stop 9/11, Hackers, The 2011 Best Dressed List; Tilda Swinton, The Duchess of Cambridge, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Andrea Dellal, Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis and Arpad Busson all feature, There is a celebrity portraits of Angelina Jolie amongst others, Michael Lewis investigates German attitudes towards money, the actors who play the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are photographed and interviewed for Madonna’s new film W.E, Designers and their muse, John Currin.

Glamour has Mila Kunis on the cover and she is interviewed inside.

How to be a Cavalli Girl, Feminism, Fall in love with your job again, How to eat well if you have £15 until pay day, 9/11 Anniversary article, Career rules rewritten, What sex feels like, Jim Sturgess interview, Are you Destroying your own love life?, Comedian Jack Whitehall, Why do women want to be WAGs?, Fashion’s Hot 100, How to have a great hair month, How to get more energy.

Phew!

Red has Laura Bailey on the cover and has a free bodywash. Laura is interviewed inside. There is a good article on no kids and no regrets, the original supermodels and what they are doing now, an article on people’s on/off duty wardrobes,

My City, My shopping guide, The looks that sum up a city. Anjum Anand show Red around her life, 8 Lessons in love and loss, four women reveal the moment they found their dream property, Dominic Cooper, Adele, Tom Ellis, Will Young, Colin Farrell, Fiona Neill, Jo Whiley’s Festival Guide, 4 ways to update your face, How to get radiance, there are a lot of good recipes, cooking with in season vegetables , paella, home made curry, global shopping guide, find your health/life balance, what is causing your breast pain and Audrey Tautou tells all about the best things in life.

[This page will get updates as more magazines come out. Thank you.]

Richard Wright is On Tanget

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As the great Willie Nelson once told us “on the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again”. That man spoke a lot of sense in that song but he also smoked a lot of cannabis apparently, so take anything he says with a slight pinch of salt. I know I do. Why am I quoting him? This makes no sense. Which would be fine if I was high but I don’t smoke weed. So anyway the confusion is back at Frost Magazine. For those of you who don’t know, cause let’s face it as Staind said; it has, in fact, been a while, I used to write a lot of nonsense on various things right here at Frost Magazine. And now due an underwhelming lack of public interest in those articles I am back to do some more. No need to thank me I know you didn’t ask me too. So let’s get down do it and do something America can’t do and raise the ceiling! That joke works better if it’s raise the roof but it’s not called the Debt Roof. If it was then the debt roof really is on fire. The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. Anywho….

Let me introduce this little idea of mine. It’s called “on tangent” and basically I like to wander aimlessly wherever my mind takes me at that moment. There is never a moment when I can truly stay on topic. For example writing this now I have had to avoid slipping into a few lines on the topic chocolate bar. You see I will never be on topic and don’t go looking for a topic because there’s isn’t one. However I can promise that I can stay on tangent. There is to the best of my knowledge no chocolate bar called tangent. There is one in Sweden called Plop but none called Tangent. Plop is actually quite a tasty bit of confectionary. You see my issue. So here I present the first ever on tangent – I’ll keep these brief there is only so long you can read them before they become intolerable.

I thought we could start with something deep. The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. Unless, of course, you’re a surgeon in which case that’s just not true at all. What I would like to talk with you about today is something that I believe is an important topic that deserves deep consideration. Why does Alexander Armstrong look quite so much like a Toby Jug? That’s not it but it just struck me, and I felt I should share.

Admittedly saying that was a tad pointless. Oh yes that’s right he shoots and he scores. Thank you thank you no need to applaud. I do quite like that quiz though it’s quite a good tea time watch. I wouldn’t mind going on pointless because I wouldn’t win and it would be pointless. I think we can all see the circularity in that. It would be the purest form of the quiz and I would have embraced the totality of the nature of naming the quiz pointless. Because my being on the show would be pointless and therefore that would surely make the lords of quiz naming happy. Although I have a feeling the name was initially rejected as the title for a Katie Price reality show. Or even just as the tagline to her life. I mean that would be a more honest title for one of those shows. Speaking of honest advertising here is a few potential company slogans if the companies involved decided to be a bit more honest about themselves:

1.We’re not ethical but you knew that – NewsCorp
2.We do terrible things but aren’t your trainers comfortable? – Nike
3.Evil vs tasty? Tasty wins – Nestle
4. Want to look like you care without trying too hard? Cadburys Dairy Milk
5. At this point we could probably sell you anything – Apple
6. Come on you don’t even watch Panorama – Primark
7.You don’t really understand it but everyone is else is doing it – Twitter

Speaking of advertising one of the adverts I saw for the new Alpha Romeo Mito made me angrily confused. Now car adverts is one of the places were rhetoric and the use of over the top language is common place and I can accept that for what it is. A ford focus won’t give you more focus. But this? Sorry Alpha this is lying! It runs on Adrenaline? It clearly won’t that’s so over the top stupid I can’t wrap my head around who said that was OK! It’s beyond my tiny mind and maybe that’s why I don’t understand it. But as the weeks role by here at Frost Magazine you’ll soon discover there are many things I don’t understand. And that’s ok. There is nothing wrong with saying I don’t understand. Nick Clegg says it every day when he looks in the mirror. And I can help Nick it’s called standing by your beliefs. Talk to Paddy Ashdown about it he might be able to help you out. You remember him right Nick?

So that’s all for this particular peculiar but always molecular edition of On tangent. I am aware that last sentence makes about as much sense as going to Lycos to do a search for Google but, you know, when you’re the type of person who does go to Lycos and type in Google you run with whatever you can think of. When I went to Lycos and typed in Google I just wanted it to link to a picture of a dog crying with the text “why do you mock me like this? It’s not right. You know where Google is. Why do you have to remind me things aren’t as good as we planned? I hate Google!” Thanks for reading until next time please occasionally use Lycos it will make its little tail wag.

PS – If Lycos had become the world powerhouse instead of Google would the popular phrase for doing an internet search have been “fetching”? It would have been better then “dogging it”

This Month's Magazines; Kate Middleton and Getting in Shape Lead.

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This is the first of Frost magazine’s new monthly magazine round-up. Here at Frost we are addicted to magazines and our guess is that you like them too, so, here goes….

Vanity Fair has the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the cover. The world has gone crazy for Kate Middleton and there is 16 pages on the new couple, including the interesting fact that Kate has never been to America before and is ‘beyond excited’.

Horrible fact of the month comes from Christopher Hitchen’s column, which is on Pakistan: in Pakistan not only is rape not illegal, it’s a punishment. Mark Shand tells Nick Haslam about the Elephant Family, Stieg Larsson’s girlfriend tells of their life together and there is good articles on Justin Timberlake, Silvio Berlusconi and the Falcons.

Marie Claire (who are in my bad books, as they do not send the subscribers the free gifts that come with the magazine. This month it’s a choice of eyeliner or eye-shadow, last month a Body Shop moisturiser, not nice way to treat those who are most loyal) Jennifer Lawrence is on the cover, and has a very good interview inside where she says that she tells director she won’t lose more weight and was initially scared of fame.

Emily Eavis, daughter of Michael, talks about growing up as part of the world’s greatest music festival, there is lots of fashion and a summer’s sandals piece that I enjoyed, there is a low down on the Russian invasion of Chelsea; lead by Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova, Writer Natasha Green writes about choosing between her husband and her lover and 5 friends, who all went to university and did a performing arts degree, meet up to discuss where they are 10 years later. Marie Claire also have an exclusive interview with Aung San Suu Kyi. Other good article are dating advice you don’t need from your friends, a good piece on Jean Paul Gaultier and a brilliant article on the life of Princess Diana, very apt.

It’s Elle’s body issue, Elle always give there subscribers the free gift, as do RED and Glamour, Rosie Huntington-Whitley is on the cover and interviewed inside, and there is a free vest top my Kate Middleton fav Reiss.

Celia Walden ponders over why we fawn over the famous, the impossibly stylish Ines De La Fressange is in Elle edits, my personal style crush tells us about her philosophy on life, House of Holland are this month’s Style Spy, make up artist Lisa Eldridge gives a peak inside her closet and Debbie Harry tells is what books changed her life. Rob Lowe is interviewed and there are a lot of great articles on how to get in shape and be happy with how you look. Of course, there is also lots of great fashion. Lorraine Candy is temporarily stepping down from the Elle editorship to have her fourth baby.

Tatler has Romola Garai on the cover, she is interviewed inside and talks about her “ordinary body” and her desire for people to find her sexy. Kate Reardon has been the new editor for a few months now and is doing a good job, though I couldn’t find an editor’s letter.

Royal Wedding photographer Hugo Burnand talks about photographing the biggest wedding in decades, there are other articles on the top 10 poshest ghosts, Clive Anderson writes about losing his cool, there is lots of gossip, A very good guide to the Murdoch dynasty, an article on how the rich buy life (a very good read), some property porn as Belvoir Castle is featured by it’s owners the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.

There is also an article on (the last taboo!) woman’s facial hair and how to get rid of it, Alice Temperley also spills on all of her beauty secrets. If you buy it form the news-stand you get a free pair of sunglasses, but Tatler doesn’t give free gifts to it’s subscribers.

Vogue has Vanessa Paradis on the cover, she talks about staying on the move and being comfortable with your body, Stella Tennant models (can you believe she is in her 40’s!)

I really like the article by Carol Woolton on the lost world of legendary balls, including the jewellery that Elizabeth Taylor wore to the 1971 Rothschild Proust Ball, lots on the Royal wedding and who wore what, editor Alexandra Shulman was one of the guests and gives a good account. The rise of folk (as in music) gets a good spread and supermodel Arizona Muse keeps a diary for Vogue.

I also love the inspirational women who feature in Vogue’s Wonder Women piece, scientists and theatre directors alike. There is also an editorial on fashion dynasties, if you love glamour the way I do you will love reading about the Guinnesses, Dellals, Agnellis/Brandolinis and the Jaggers.

Donna Karen also does a wonderful interview and writer Vicky Ward talks about her divorce; “the equivalent of undergoing heart surgery without anesthetic.” There is also a brilliant free beauty supplement with lots of celebrities and models giving their beauty and health routines, tips and hints.

Glamour has a free Benefit beauty product (I got the Benetint) Karl Lagerfield on fashion do’s, celebrity couples you forgot about, how to find a man anywhere, the rise of gold and fame digging men, why is friendship so hard?, how the Glamour staff got their job, a very good, and slightly depressing article on female war reporters; read about the same time I saw Channel 4’s Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, you think women are equal and safe….

There is interviews with the Glamour women of the year awards, including the brilliant Adele, who is on the cover. There is lots of brilliant fashion and beauty, a very good article on why we should all see Bridesmaids by Zoe Williams, there is a number of articles on how to fake tan well and I really enjoyed the piece on Get a Blockbuster body, what Blake Lively, Jennifer Lawrence and Rosie Huntington-Whitley did to get in shape for their films. There is also a good article on the secret to good health in 100 words or less.

So, until next month!

Lady Gaga Aplogises For Slur

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Lady Gaga and Hundreds of Others Apologise for Slur

During an interview with the British music magazine NME, American pop icon Lady Gaga called recent accusations of plagiarism “retarded.”

Ms. Gaga, an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, has since apologized, acknowledging that her use of the word undermines the social causes with which she frequently associates.

“I consider it part of my life’s work and music to push the boundaries of love and acceptance,” said Gaga in a statement released through celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. “To anyone that was hurt, please know that it was furiously unintentional.”

She continued: “Whether life’s disabilities left you outcast, bullied or teased, rejoice and love yourself today.”

Gaga’s flippant use of “retard” is indicative of how casually the word exists in the English language. To measure how frequently it’s used would be nearly impossible, but TheSocialChallenge.org has been using one particular platform to track its use: Twitter.

Visitors to the site can see the live stream of tweets containing the word, and can send messages asking the tweeters to reconsider their choice of words in the future.

TheSocialChallenge.org has demonstrated that when engaged, like Lady Gaga, users of the word “retard” are likely to apologize.

“It’s really unfortunate when someone with as much influence as Lady Gaga uses that word,” said Holly Roos, an advocate for TheSocialChallenge.org, and a mother of two children with Fragile-X syndrome.

“But through The Social Challenge, in just over a month, we’ve actually had hundreds of people tweet back with apologies, pledging not to use the word in the future. It’s a great opportunity to make a difference, and I’m really glad to see that Lady Gaga thought better of her words, too.”

This month Gaga was an attendee at an event in Paris for the Best Buddies Association, an international nonprofit advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities.

TheSocialChallenge.org is a project that believes all people deserve the same rights and freedoms; that all individuals with developmental disabilities can be best served in the community with the right supports and services; and that advocacy can change lives.

SOURCE TheSocialChallenge.org

Doctor Who's Elisabeth Sladen – A Tribute

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By Jack Bowman

Last night was a terrible shock. I came out of the tube, switched on signal, checked the Twitter feed and saw the news, over and over, that honestly you wouldn’t have believed you were due to read for many years to come.

“Lis Sladen, our Sarah Jane. RIP.”

Elisabeth Sladen, most famous for being the definitive Doctor Who companion, had passed on, aged 63, after battling cancer. The news didn’t – and still doesn’t – sit right; from the very start of her career as an assistant stage manager at the Liverpool Playhouse, to the very end as a children’s TV lead playing a character she gave life to just shy of five decades, Lis was a hard-working, strong, modesty, energetic individual. If anyone would beat this, it would have been her. It should have been her.

They often say the “Doctor Who girl” falls into two categories, the screamers and the fighters. Sometimes though, you get something else – an actress able to bring depth and beauty to the role. A lot of people credited Billie Piper for doing this when the BBC took a gamble and brought back the show in 2005. However, Billie had big shoes to fill as Lis Sladen was the one who absolutely did it first, back in 1973. Not only was she a phenomenally actress who made the companion role in Who an equal to the star and a lead role like none before her – not an easy task when working with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker – she was also a wonderful, wonderful person.

I was lucky enough to first meet Lis when I was asked to step in at the last minute and do some panel interviews for a convention in Newcastle in 2001. Admittedly Lis was a little wary of being interviewed by someone she’d never met, as we all are as actors, yet within seconds that wariness gave way to a natural warmth, generosity, charm and effortless grace that lead brilliantly fun hour of conversation about her career to date. It also lead to an on-off friendship that lasted many interviews – she was gracious enough to always be complimentary and ask me back for her panels – and the next few years with occasional phone calls, always asking after myself and the then-house mate, about my career, what was new, always offering an ear and advice.

We lost touch in 2005, just as BBC Wales were making overtures to bring her back for what was then to be a one-off appearance opposite David Tennant in the episode School Reunion. And it was heart-warming to see her back on prime-time BBC One. And then punch-the-air-brilliant to see her get a long-overdue spin-off, which became The Sarah Jane Adventures. And every year the SJAs were recommissioned, like others I’m sure, the heart would swell a little with pride at her continued success. And then came the awards, which not only were much deserved, also felt long-overdue for such a brilliant, natural, talented screen actress.

I had hoped that even though we’d drifted, one day our paths would cross again and she’d make me laugh with her stories and give that unbeatable smile across a room once. Sadly, it is not meant to be, and all we can do is take our memories of her and offer our thoughts to her husband, Brian and daughter, Sadie in these desperate sad times.

Possibly the greatest tragedy in her death is that she would have been thoroughly bemused, by natural modesty, about the out-pouring of affection, love and tributes across Twitter, Facebook, the Internet and the national and international press, from her youngest fans to those who remembered her first time. If anyone had said to Lis back in 2005 the exciting crescendo her career would reach by 2011, she would never have believed you due to that trademark modesty. Yet that, with her ferocious acting talent, is why she deserved it. And here we are talking about her passing at no age at all. The country and the business has lost one of its national treasures.

There are many memories of Lis to share, to many in fact, so I will leave you with one. It’s the one that started the whole adventure and brought Lis into all of our lives: her casting in Doctor Who. She told me that the day of her audition went like this. She came in, and read for the producer, Barry Letts. He was impressed, so took her down to meet Jon Pertwee on the studio floor. While she and Jon got chatting, Barry walked behind her and gave Jon two thumbs up. Jon finished the conversation and Lis turned to Barry, who started another conversation. Then Jon gave Barry another two thumbs up behind her back. That is how a TV legend was born.

It’s said that occasionally, just occasionally, there’s a perfect human being. Elisabeth Sladen was one of those.

Goodbye, our Sarah Jane.

Celebrities prepare to take part Breast Cancer Care’s Pink Ribbonwalk to support people with breast cancer

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High profile celebrities are lacing up their walking boots and preparing to take part in Breast Cancer Care’s Pink Ribbonwalk sponsored by Santander in association with woman&home, at four different UK locations, in May and June 2011.

Each Pink Ribbonwalk event starts and finishes at beautiful and exclusive country manors. The 10 or 20 mile walking routes will take you through some of the most magnificent British countryside including access to private grounds usually closed to the public.

Kaye Adams, is gearing up for the 10 mile walk-a-thon at Scone Palace, Perthshire. Denise Van Outen will be hiking 20 miles at Petworth house, West Sussex. Jessica Fox (who plays Nancy Hayton in Hollyoaks) will lead the charge at the Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire event, and Penny Lancaster-Stewart and Denise Lewis will walk at the Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire Pink Ribbonwalk.

With one person in the UK diagnosed with breast cancer every 10 minutes, sadly most of us will know someone affected by this cruel disease. Why not take part in a Pink Ribbonwalk and show your support for a loved one whilst enjoying a fun filled afternoon walking with friends and family, visit www.pinkribbonwalk.org.uk or call 0870 145 0101.

It costs just £30 to register and walkers are required to raise a minimum of £175 worth of sponsorship to help fund Breast Cancer Care’s vital support services. Put into context that could be a £10 donation from just 18 relatives, colleagues or friends.

Choose from 10 and 20 mile route options at the following locations:
Saturday 14 May 2011 – Scone Palace, Perthshire Pink Ribbonwalk
Saturday 21 May 2011 – Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, Pink Ribbonwalk
Saturday 4 June 2011 – Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire, Pink Ribbonwalk
Saturday 11 June 2011 – Petworth House, West Sussex Pink Ribbonwalk

Enjoy a village fete style celebration when you cross the finish line, including a medal, BBQ, message and entertainment!

Breast Cancer Care’s Ambassador Denise Lewis said:

“I loved walking the 10 mile route at Breast Cancer Care’s Pink Ribbonwalk last year. I took part in memory of my grandmother and it was a really special and uplifting day. Gather your friends, family and colleagues to sign up and make the 2011 events the biggest yet! Breast Cancer Care’s essential information and support services ensure that no one faces a breast cancer diagnosis alone.”

Register now at www.pinkribbonwalk.org.uk or call 0870 145 0101.

All funds raised from the Pink Ribbonwalk sponsored by Santander in association with woman&home enable Breast Cancer Care to fund essential information and support services such as its helpline, discussion forums, local events, one-to-one support sessions and website, so that no one need face a breast cancer diagnosis alone.

Frost Magazine’s Writer of the Year 2010

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It’s been an amazing three quarters of a year and we couldn’t have done it without the passion and hard work of the people that write for us. They each contribute something to Frost Magazine, not only articles but also their personality. The sheer variety of backgrounds, specialisms and styles made it incredibly difficult for us to judge who to award the title of ‘Frost Magazine’s Writer of the Year 2010’ to, however, after much ‘uhhm-ing and ahh-ing’ and analysing of stats we have come to a decision.

We chose the winner based on a combination of statistics and feedback from readers. Our writer of the year showed they had the uncanny ability to consistently pick winning stories. Of the ten most popular posts, four of them were written by our Writer of the Year. With a friendly and very informative writing style it’s clear why their articles are so popular.

So…drumroll please…the Frost Magazine Writer of the Year 2010 is….Junior Smart

Well done to Junior Smart from the entire Frost Team.

Need for Speed – Hot Pursuit {Gaming Review}

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Yes indeed this is fast love…

Playing the original on the Playstation one was a thrilling affair for me years ago, taking me back to a lost youth spending many days on the legendary coin-op machine Chase HQ. It was fun and invigorating but much more so with my friends huddled around my bedroom on the weekend – it was more than a hook up it was ‘an event’. Hearing that Hot Pursuit was to have a makeover by none other than race masters Criterion got me all worked up, it was a bit like hearing Red Rum was going to race at the Grand National.

From the get go when it comes to presentation Hot Pursuit is one hot looking piece of totty. Game developers Criterion pulled out all the stops creating this game. Visually the game stops just short of astounding. Driving the vehicles is every young boy’s dirty dream and delivers a dramatic rush of adrenaline; the environments are just so outstandingly realised, drenched in detailed vistas ranging from mountainous slopes to bridges, towns and waterfalls. Race in the daytime and akin to ‘Burnout’ the lens flare will singe your retinas. Race through the night and you will squint to pick up the road ahead through the illumination of your headlights. Race in the midst of a thundering rainstorm and you will have a hard time keeping your eyes on the road because you want to gaze upon the next crackle of lightning. In case you aren’t getting my point Hot pursuit features some of the most highly detailed graphics I have seen in an age bar the game legend that is Grand Tourismo. So good is the game engine that it not only delivers impeccable detail but it does so with the smoothness of a well whipped ice cream. No matter how fast you go or how many people are on the screen it doesn’t blur or slow down.

Although it is a part of the Need for Speed franchise Hot Pursuit is mercifully without a tedious storyline. Thank heavens too it is also without a free-roaming world. All that nonsense removed means that the entire game is based around providing the finest race and chase experience.

Choose from an incredible array of predefined events spread over Hot Pursuit’s aerial view of ‘Californ-i-a’ alike Seacrest County. Much in the same way you did in Burnout before all the free-roam lunacy took hold, you choose your events – we all know the drill; forge a career, time trials, straight forward races, cop chases, concept and exotic duels, the staple diet of most racing games are all here for the taking. Progress is achieved by finishing in the required place or by gaining the required points via take downs or arrests and as you do so more tracks open and new vehicles and equipment become available. It’s a tried and tested formula, but this time with a twist – in career mode and online Hot Pursuit splits the game play experience between both ‘Cop’ and ‘Racer’ components, meaning that you’ll play on one side or the other depending on the event you chose and build up independent driver profiles for either side of the law. This brings a refreshing variation to the game as you require different skills and tactics dependent on what side of the law you are on. For example cops must work together to shut down racers, while the racers themselves are competing for first place in a ‘dog eat dog world mentality’.

The power-up system is well judged as is the learning curve which is both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. The equipment that you receive for achieving levels of success range from spike strips that can be dropped to pop the tires of pursuers, as well as ‘fast and furious-esque’ EMPs that target vehicles just ahead of you with a system-crashing boost of energy. The power-ups that you gain in this game were never going to be able to compete with the neon fantasy of other racing titles such as ‘Blur’ or the extraordinary explosions of ‘Split-Second’ but lets face it – they weren’t supposed to. For all the fantasy that Hot Pursuit offers it is grounded in reality, and that reality is at its best when cops and weapons are involved.

Here lies my first area of criticism I found the ‘Racer’ side of the career just a little bit…erm redundant. Besides the chase modes, the head to head duels and races were just too stripped to my liking. All you get are racers, nitrous boosts and…well…that’s it, no cops no nothing. I found myself wondering if the cops were at the doughnut shop and whether I should join them because to be honest these type of races are boring compared to the rest of the game and lack any real thrill, worse still they happen far too often and go on for just a tad too long. It would have been so good to have elimination rounds, nitrous boost rounds, something, basically anything to spice these tracks up because to be frank, besides the scenery, after a while they are…well…dull.

Online modes are what takes the game to the next level and at the heart of Hot Pursuit lies a gem in the form of a superbly integrated ‘Autolog’ hub. A very ‘facebook’ like addition to a racing game and built obviously with the aim of reimbursing the social aspect of the original title. Here you can add friends, post images on your wall and set fast times that will show up on your friends logs when they play the game. You can even post news about scores that you’ve just beaten and this adds a huge competitive element to the title. Racing just got a lot more compelling.

Another serious area of criticism to be made is regarding the Artificial Intelligence level especially in the offline modes. Sometimes it goes soooo beyond the call of duty to ensure that every race is nail-bitingly close that it bends conventional rules and even laws of gravity. For example I can recall a number of races where I took competitors out of the competition by slamming them over a cliff or hitting them with a spike strip yet within seconds they were in my rear-view mirror. How does that happen? Are they driving cars designed by ‘Q’ out of James Bond? No it is not good and not possible.

I also got the feeling that this game wasn’t sure what it wanted to be, whether it wanted to be a simulation or an arcade type racer. Certainly with the effort put into the graphics you get the feeling that this was meant to be a world class racer. Compared to ‘Split-Second’ I found the steering to be too overly weighted in comparison and often you need to pull real precision tight racing lines even in the shortcuts to be successful, all this screams ‘Racing Sim’ to me. Yet there is no manual transmission option, there are police on your tail, power drifts, nitrous boosts and spike strips – this seems to say ‘arcade’. In my opinion the game fares worse for not knowing or investing completely in what it is meant to be.

My final verdict? – well don’t get me wrong, for the most part this is a thoroughly enjoyable title, full of adrenaline, action, gorgeous graphics and some show stopping sequences. However is it a 10 out of 10? Hell no, it is more like an 8.7.
In my opinion it just pinches past the post in front of its rivals but not by that much. But it must be said that this title is still a fast love that you will want to spend a lot of time with.

by Junior Smart