ok i got it and i gotta say, iam impressed
it is alot better than underground 2 in a number of ways, improvements to a few thngs that annoyed me and overall a very different feel.
in some ways its not so good, because a few things have been iam sure what they would call "smoothed out" but i would call dumbing down. for example instead of graphics shop, body shop, performance shop and so on they now have "shop" which is the only place where u go for everything... kinda takes the fun out of exploring... also you dont have to drive to the races any more you select it from your garage... kinda simplified if u ask me, means that i hardly ever free roam except when i need to go to shop [ its like 10 second driving away from your garage anyways] cause all races, all events are accessed through the blacklist menu...
theres also a problem with this game obviously being ported from a console ganme... like mouse isnt used at all, and numbers are used[ where i am sure x, o and so on were used in ps2 version] kinda strange but i havent found any serious glitches or problems with the porting, and the actual playability, it runs quite nice, just thatits obvious and they didnt do much extra to fix it up for pc
now that thats out of the way, i was impressed with how it looked, very smooth, rather nice graphics pretty much what ive wanted to see in a street racing game for awhile[ dont bs me about driv3r, i reckon most wanted looks and plays better] the actual racing is typically need for speed's polished style which although abit unrealistic [ taking sharp corners at 250km etc] i admit is very fun to play...i like it how it blurs abit when u r really ripping along and the speedbreaker feature is really nice [ i only discovered it when i was racing no.13 lol, been so used to underground 2 that i didnt realise it was there or use it] and a fun addition to the game...i love pissing off the cops but they get hard to lose quickly.
the selection of cars is pretty good, but i was expecting a similiar order to udnerground 2 with the cars that they kept... i just won me a supra, but i dont see the celica in the shops which is a car i picked up before supra was available in underground2...speaking of winning, its kinda wierd the system of selecting those markers to try and get a decent prize...pisses me off, especially when iwant pink slips and i dont get it.
so yeah a very nice game,
8.5/10 for me, very good playability [especially how they chucked in online play] but a few flaws stopping it getting the 9