Criterion's Need for Speed Hot Pursuit won't have any story elements slowing down gamers who want to get right into the action come this November. Criterion Senior Producer, Matt Webster confirms this when he spoke to VG247 in London last week.

"We didn’t really think it was necessary to include a story. If you’re a cop, the aim is to go up the ranks, while a racer’s aim is to get to the highest rank they can."

Many of the more recent Need for Speed titles to include cop chases have had some  story, most notably Most Wanted, Carbon and Undercover. The acting in these games for the most part fell flat and with some titles the gameplay followed suit. Recently EA admitted the lack of quality in these games were due to them overworking their developers and sending them on what they call a "death march," making them work 24 hour days.

It looks like EA has learned the error of its ways and has given Criterion "the most amount of creative freedom" it can, says Webster. Instead of following the model created by past developers of the franchise, Criterion seems to be creating a Need for Speed in their image of what an awesome racing title should be. After experiencing what they did with Burnout Paradise, I am truly excited to get my hands on this title later this fall.

If that's not enough to get you pumped for this game, Webster goes on to express how concerned the competition should be once they launch:

"Yeah I think it's going to be huge. It's fun, it presses all the buttons. If I was a competitor I'd be f***ing worried. This is the biggest driving game."

Sounds as if they're setting out to create the Modern Warfare of racing games, a task I hope they succeed at.

Ranters, judging from the comments of past articles, I already know a lot of you are excited for this title. What I want to know is, which platform are you planning on picking this up for? I need to plan accordingly for my competition, and you also get limited edition cars when you pre-order, so let us know in the comments.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit ships November 16 for PC, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Source: CVG, VG247