Sorry, Hot Pursuit, the honeymoon is over.

I hate falling in love with a game.  Oh sure, Hot Pursuit and I had our differences (random crashes to the desktop, weird clipping and lag issues), but all-in-all, we were a happy couple.  And then, EA and/or Criterion Games changed after the wedding was over.  It didn't take long.

XBOX and Playstation users (and probably Wii as well) have access to a cool add-on called the "Super Sports Pack" that adds new vehicles, tracks and racing modes to those systems.  Those of us with PCs, however, have been left out of that one.

If that weren't enough, they've released a PC Patch #2 for the PC users.  It fixes the random crash problem (at least for me, and for now) as well as adds.... wait for it, you will NOT believe it... LOUDER engines.  Yes, that's right.  Whoopdie doo.  Seriously?  The volume of the engines was such a big deal that it required inclusion in an update??  Stupid.

Here is the real problem: both of these additions/changes make playing games much harder because when one tries to join, often there is a "CANNOT JOIN BECAUSE OF INCOMPATIBLE VERSION" message that pops up. 

Thanks to these moves on EA's part, they have turned a game open to just about anyone and everyone with any kind of system to play against each other into a game that requires TONS more time finding "COMPATIBLE" games.

I've trolled through the various needforspeed forums and have found many folks that have sworn off EA permanently (or at least they claim it, anyway).  The console-only downloadable content started the furor, but the 102MB "update" seems to have really tipped the scales.

I'm still playing because when I do find folks to race against, it is still a TON of fun.  But, getting in brings the ol' blood pressure up for sure.

As a side note: I suppose there are always those who like to spoil the fun for folks.  I met up with one today.  This person was out to get me, even if we were both cops (or both were racers).  I guess every online game has "friendly fire" that one has to contend with.  Oh well, as best I could, I gave it right back to him/her.  That's all well and good, but it really takes away from the fun of teaming up with a fellow cop to take down a particular racer.