Believe it or not, the title of this article is entirely true. EA’s Marketing Vice President Keith Munro explained during an interview printed in the latest issue of EDGE Magazine that the upcoming addition to the Need for Speed series was, in part, inspired by the Bad Company and Call of Duty franchises.

Munro commented:

"We've also taken inspiration from shooters - Bad Company and Call of Duty, for example. That really inspired the in-cockpit action you saw in Shift, to make people feel what the real driving experience is like. We talked about it being first-person driving instead of first-person shooting - the impact you feel in a race car is not dissimilar to taking a bullet in Battlefield. That inspired the in-cockpit action; it's violent and aggressive.

Another thing we took away from Battlefield and CoD is how smart and addictive the online play is. You'll see a lot of that in Hot Pursuit - a big focus of that game is social connection. Hot Pursuit is [Criterion Games’] interpretation of what the best NFS game would be."

You can get your hands on Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from November 16th in the US, and November 18th in the EU - providing the five month wait doesn't kill you first, of course. If you missed my post earlier in the week, here’s the thrilling E3 teaser trailer again to whet your appetite.