OK: Good driving, but where's the RACING?

I never thought I'd say this, but - this game has good driving. The car control is much more balanced and intuitive than most modern NFS games. You still have to do dumb stuff to go fast, like use boost and drift on every corner, but it's less obnoxious than most NFS. You can actually win by knowing a car's handling, rather than just being stupid aggressive.

My biggest gripe with this game is it locks every activity behind a car/event class system. You wanna use your WRX to haul ass in a street Race or smash a Drift record? Too bad, your WRX is classified as "Offroad" only. Hey, that's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 69' Charger you have! I bet that beast pulls a nice 1/4 mile time - But you wouldn't know, because you can't use it in "Drag" events.

You cannot convert car class. However, you're welcome to buy the exact same car again in another class. What?! This confusing system is ultimately meaningless because you can't tune or mod anything exactly the way you want, anyways - there's no actual car tuning, and all upgrades revolve around a wack-ass card based system. The game takes place in Vegas, but come on!

If you want to beat the game and unlock everything, well then strap in for some tedious stuff. A lot of event types don't feel like actual racing. Instead of a free-flowing driving experience, they are short-sighted trial-and-error runs where you have to micro-manage every move you make in order to meet some minimum score requirement. I'd rather be in an event where crossing the finish line first is what matters, and drive how the **** I want.

The best "mission" moments in this game are where you are racing wheel-to-wheel at high speeds on the open road - Evading and ramming police and thugs into oblivion, triggering real-time cinematic cutscenes. That may sound dumber than the stuff I'm complaining about having to do, but it's 1000 times more satisfying than jumping through repetitive checkpoint hoops in an attempt to rack up points on a clock.

Anyways, this game feels great when it lets you onto the open road - but it's a rare opportunity among race/mission classes that are a total grind, and basically nonexistent performance customization/tuning.

Recommended, as long as it only costs three dollars and you have nothing better to do.

OK: Good driving, but where's the RACING? I never thought I'd say this, but - this game has good driving. The car control is much more balanced and intuitive than most modern NFS games. You still have to do dumb stuff to go fast, like use boost and drift on every corner, but it's less obnoxious than most NFS. You can actually win by knowing a car's handling, rather than just being stupid aggressive. My biggest gripe with this game is it locks every activity behind a car/event class system. You wanna use your WRX to haul ass in a street Race or smash a Drift record? Too bad, your WRX is classified as "Offroad" only. Hey, that's a bitchin 69' Charger you have! I bet that beast pulls a nice 1/4 mile time - But you wouldn't know, because you can't use it in "Drag" events. You cannot convert car class. However, you're welcome to buy the exact same car again in another class. What?! This confusing system is ultimately meaningless because you can't tune or mod anything exactly the way you want, anyways - there's no actual car tuning, and all upgrades revolve around a wack-ass card based system. The game takes place in Vegas, but come on! If you want to beat the game and unlock everything, well then strap in for some tedious stuff. A lot of event types don't feel like actual racing. Instead of a free-flowing driving experience, they are short-sighted trial-and-error runs where you have to micro-manage every move you make in order to meet some minimum score requirement. I'd rather be in an event where crossing the finish line first is what matters, and drive how the **** I want. The best "mission" moments in this game are where you are racing wheel-to-wheel at high speeds on the open road - Evading and ramming police and thugs into oblivion, triggering real-time cinematic cutscenes. That may sound dumber than the stuff I'm complaining about having to do, but it's 1000 times more satisfying than jumping through repetitive checkpoint hoops in an attempt to rack up points on a clock. Anyways, this game feels great when it lets you onto the open road - but it's a rare opportunity among race/mission classes that are a total grind, and basically nonexistent performance customization/tuning. Recommended, as long as it only costs three dollars and you have nothing better to do.