We’re excited to announce that for the last year we’ve been working to hard Remastering Need for Speed Hot Pursuit for Xbox One, Xbox One x, Playstation 4, Playstation 4 Pro and Nintendo Switch.

Following on from the Burnout remasters we were able to bring existing expertise to this Criterion favourite and not just remaster this game but significantly increase the quality bar. Weaseltron worked with the developers Stellar Entertainment to bring new and upgraded features such as the following:

• Temporal Antialiasing
• Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
• Chromatic Aberration and sharpness post effect filters
• Car paint shaders
• High detail bloom filters
• PC Scalability
• Terrain shader improvements
• Ultra-Wide monitor support
• CPU and GPU Optimisations
• Performance/Quality Management for Consoles
• Next-gen rendering pipelines
• Platform engineering
• Networking
• Tools building

We’ve had lots of fun bring this classic up to date, we hope you enjoy it. We’ll see you all on Autolog!

https://www.ea.com/games/need-for-speed/need-for-speed-hot-pursuit-remastered

CGMagazine:

“… if you’re looking for a good remaster of a great racing game, you should look no further than here.”

https://www.cgmagonline.com/reviews/need-for-speed-hot-pursuit-remastered-review/

Rock, Paper Shotgun:

“The new and improved version of Criterion’s 2010 racing game comes with cross-platform multiplayer, touched-up visuals and all the main DLCs, as well as 4K and 60fps on PC.”

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/game/need-for-speed-hot-pursuit/

“for PC arcade racing it offers a great deal of pleasure”

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/11/06/need-for-speed-hot-pursuit-remastered-has-arrived/

Digital Foundry:

“the bums do feel good. It’s a fact”

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-10-05-fast-cars-big-bums-and-other-secrets-behind-one-of-the-best-need-for-speed-games-yet

We are extremely proud to help bring Burnout Paradise at 60fps to the Nintendo Switch. Whether it’s in the base game or any of the eight DLCs included in the Remastered version, playing handheld or docked at 60fps looks and feels incredible.

Working with EA/Criterion and the developers, Stellar Entertertainment. Weaseltron Entertainment again provided the programming resources for graphics, systems and optimisation during the development of the Switch conversion of Burnout Paradise using experience from the original development as for the previous remaster for XBox, PS4 and PC.

• Graphics engineering/optimisations
• Audio optimisations
• Multithreading
• Load balancing between docked/handheld.
• I/O Optimisations
• 60fps!

Nintendo Official Store Page:

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Burnout-Paradise-Remastered-1748605.html

EA Official Site:

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/burnout/burnout-paradise-remastered/news/burnout-paradise-remastered-launches-june-19

Kotaku:

“What Do You Know, Burnout Paradise Kicks Arse On The Switch”

“The left side of this image is the recently-released Switch version of Burnout Paradise Remastered. The right side is the same game running on a high-powered gaming PC. The difference? Doesn’t matter. Both are Burnout Paradise. Both are awesome.”

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/06/what-do-you-know-burnout-paradise-kicks-arse-on-the-switch/

Digital Foundry:

“It’s a fully featured, content-complete rendition of a truly classic game playing out in the palm of your hand, and the bottom line is that it’s still one of the greatest racing games ever made.”

“Ultimately, Burnout Paradise Remastered is a success on Switch”

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-burnout-paradise-remastered-switch-tech-review

Polygon:

“Burnout Paradise Remastered on Switch maintains that smooth 60 fps frame rate throughout its many events, both in docked and handheld mode. The game feels nearly perfect on Switch, and being able to play one of the best racing games ever made in handheld mode is a serious treat.”

https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/19/21295738/burnout-paradise-remastered-nintendo-switch-port-impressions-how-does-it-run

Nintendo Enthusiast:

“The incredible port work beautifully translates the blistering gameplay of Burnout Paradise Remastered”

“Burnout Paradise Remastered brings a strong open-world racing playground to Switch. The smart port job means that you can play the game on Switch without any notable technical compromise.”

https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/burnout-paradise-remastered-review/

Burnout Paradise Remastered

We’re pleased to have been involved in the remastering work of Burnout Paradise for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro and XBox One, XBox One X. It has been a pleasure to return to Paradise City after 10 years. We’ve been busy beavering away for the last year converting and upgrading the graphics and systems to remaster the game for modern consoles at 4K resolution for PlayStation Pro and XBox One X at the 60fps that Burnout is known for.

Here’s the details, or follow the link for more information: https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/burnout/burnout-paradise-remastered/features:

“Burnout Paradise Remastered includes the original base game and the eight add-on game packs released during the Year of Paradise*, including the extension to the drivable world with Big Surf Island. Burnout Paradise Remastered also features a range of technical enhancements for greater visual fidelity, including high resolution textures for players to explore Paradise City in 4K with supporting 60FPS on the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X.”

In the meantime, here’s some gallery shots to show the game in all its loveliness:

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A coding blog page has been set up over at blogspot:

http://weaseltrongames.blogspot.co.uk/

The purpose is to have a less formal place to put coding notes, opinions, findings, etc. and to generally engage, educate and inform other like-minded people. The plan is for it to be mainly coding based for now, though that can always change.

The first post is on a personal bug-bear: C++ compile speed which I’ve recently made drastic improvements with the internal WeaselTech library. Some of the changes aren’t revolutionary but I’ve always wondered what impact various changes make and now I (and you) know . Let me know if you find it helpful. Sharing/comments are welcome.

Work has completed on the latest game and the GAMES page has been updated. Many thanks to friends at Codemasters and Red Kite Games as well as the best of luck with the success of this and future projects.