Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit - PS1 - Beginner Tournament (Full Tournament, All Races)

A full playthrough of the beginner tournament in Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. It's eight, four lap races, against seven opponents. It's my first time playing the tournament.

The tracks and car handling are excellent in this 1998 arcade racer, but the opponent AI is brutal. It's very difficult to win races, especially when you're still learning the tracks, like here. Fortunately, you don't need to win every race to come first in the tournament, you just need to have the most points at the end. In fact, after each race, you need to be at least third position in the rankings to progress to the next race.

The AI isn't quite as brutal in the beginner tournament, but that's offset by only having access to the worst cars. Halfway through the tournament better cars become available and winning tournaments unlocks even better ones.

I'm using the default control scheme here, but in the following videos I switch to a custom scheme that allows me to control the cars better. Before race 2 I tried to change cars, but the choice didn't stick because I was in the "compare car" section, so I make the switch properly before race 3.

00:00:00 - Race 1 - Hometown
00:09:17 - Race 2 - Redrock Ridge
00:20:35 - Race 3 - Atlantica
00:31:35 - Race 4 - Rocky Pass
00:46:47 - Race 5 - Country Woods
00:59:34 - Race 6 - Lost Canyons
01:12:42 - Race 7 - Aquatica
01:25:39 - Race 8 - The Summit

Full playlist here    • Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit - PS1 - Fu...  

I'm playing the original disc on a PS3, I'm PAL region so 50Hz display setting might give a smoother experience.