punctures from a spike strip which is only deployed on one side of the road. The player may also listen to police radio chatter on the pursuits' statuses, revealing to them the current locations of racers, police cars, as well as roadblocks and spike strips. The radio chatter also reveals reactions to specific events, such as a racer's collision with a parked police car, as well as referencing the racer's passing speed and the occurrence of the race itself ("It looks like the cars are racing!"). Furthermore, if a computer-controlled racer's driving conduct proves to be more dangerous (also chosen by the player) than that of the racer's, the police may relent their pursuit of the player and chase the AI instead. Reception The PlayStation version of Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit received "favorable" reviews, just two points shy of "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Next Generations July 1998 issue called the same console version "an excellent racer for both novice and expert enthusiasts. Hopefully EA will continue to improve the engine so that NFSIV offers a great two-player experience as well." Five issues later, the magazine said of the PC version, "Add the fine 3D-accelerated graphics, lightning-fast response to the controller, incredible weather effects, and impressively valued terrain, and you've got a winner." James Price of Official UK PlayStation Magazine gave the PlayStation version seven out of ten, saying, "While certainly accomplished, Need for Speed 3 is hamstrung – in a direct head-to-head with Gran Turismo, EA's title just can't compete. It's a great shame because it's one of the most playable racing games released in the past year." In Japan, where the same PlayStation version was ported for release under the name on September 23, 1998, Famitsu gave it a score of 29 out of 40. AllGame gave the PlayStation and PC versions each four-and-a-half stars out of five, with Shawn Sackenheim saying of the former, "All things considered, Need for Speed 3 is a blast! A bit hard at first in the tournaments but the hot pursuit and two player modes will have you racing well into the night for weeks on end"; and Jonathan Sutyak calling the latter "a great game because of the ability to play as the police and take part in multiplayer games. Take away those two modes and you have a basic racing game with great graphics."