[meglamaniac]

Get it. Seriously.
If you liked any of the Underground series and the concept of the older Hot Persuit series (the execution was terrible), then you're in luck. They've finally taken the best bits from all of them and put them into one great game.

Highlights:
- Police chases (more below)
- Finally, daylight is back. No more permanent nightime like in Underground
- All the car customisation from Underground, improved with better cars and visuals
- The race types from Underground plus a couple of extra innovations
- You can find races by driving round the map or by the menus if you just want to get on with it

So the police chase bit. This was a great idea in the Hot Persuit series, but was somewhat spoilt by the fact that the gameplay was utterly crap.
Not so this time, thankfully.
A chase can start at ANY time. You could just be cruising around the map between races, or if you're unlucky enough the police will spot your race and start trying to bring you down while it's still in progress. Different circuits/events have different chances of being patrolled so you have to make a careful choice.
On top of this, the police will remember you. The more they chase you in your current car, the more they will in future, as the heat against you rises. To reduce the heat, you can park up the car and use a different one (if you own one of course), while the heat on the parked car slowly goes down. You can also change the appearance of the car to reduce the heat.

The chase idea itself is superbly done. When you're spotted, there's a "matrix-esque" moment as the action pauses and the camera swings round to show you where the cop car is - this also gives you time for a quick think about what to do before all hell breaks loose. The police AI is actually pretty smart. They won't bother you too much when they don't know you much, so you might have just one car chasing you which you can shake off easily. Once they know who you are, you have up to 7 cars after you (max i've had so far), spike strips, rolling roadblocks, and attempts to spin you to deal with. Just for maximum effect, they've also put in the sort of music you get on police chase shows in the US, which kicks in as soon as you're spotted.
And the incentive? If they catch you, your car gets impounded - so you REALLY need to be careful.

All in all, I think it's a pretty good evolution of the series.