Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, released in Japan as Over Drivin' III: Hot Pursuit, and released in France as Need for Speed III: Poursuite Infernale, is the third game in the Need for Speed series and significantly incorporates police pursuits as a major part of gameplay. Hot Pursuit remains focused in racing using exotic sports cars, but features races that primarily take place in locations within North America, including various settings and climates. In addition, police Al is significantly improved over its predecessor, utilizing several tactics to stop both the player and the opponent. The game was released for PlayStation in March 1998 and later received an enhanced port for Microsoft Windows in September 1998. A PlayStation 2 version was in development but was cancelled.
Hot Pursuit - Players can race and get into pursuits on nine circuit tracks with 2, 4, or 8 laps.
Knockout - The last positioned racer is eliminated after each event. The last knockout race consists of a duel between the two finalists.
Single Race - Each track is fully customizable allowing players change daylight settings, traffic amount, the number of opponents (up to 7), difficulty, weather, and have the option to drive in a mirrored version of the circuit. Players are also able to drive by themselves.
Tournament - Similar to Knockout except players compete in every race track in the game. Each participant earns points based on their finishing position at the end of the race. The racer with the most points by the end of the last race wins the tournament.
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit is the first game in the series to let players drive police vehicles (PC version only) and chase racers. Players can only race against one rival. The police force in this game use tactics such as ramming the racers, Roadblocks, and Spike Strips. Players will receive a warning if they get caught by the police. Earning too many warnings will cause the player to be arrested and allow their opponent to win the event. Players taking on the role of a cop have a primary task of arresting every racer within a race. Al drivers are only allowed to earn a single warning before being arrested. This only applies when the player is a cop; otherwise they can receive the same amount of warnings as the player.
