Can’t quite remember when this was launched or when i got it to be honest, but here are my views on the game!

Graphics

Visually, the game is stunning, not quite what the pre-release “screenshots” showed but it is still pretty good. The best thing is the map. When you bring the map up, the camera pans to the top of your car and zooms all the way out to view the whole city, then you can do the usual zooming in and out, moving around, then when you hit B, the camera moves towards your car whilst zooming in and getting behind the car rather than on top of it, really cool! All the mods on the cars seem to work quite well, unlike in previous versions of both Midnight Club and Need For Speed where some parts didn’t fit certain cars properly or parts of the kit just disappeared behind others.

Audio

Yet another game with rap brap brap music, turned it off straight away and started streaming my own music from my iMac. The sounds from the cars are quite good, and certainly change between mods. Upgrading the engine and supercharging it definately makes a lot nicer sound than a stock one, including the simply awesome sound of the air being rammed through the engine :D The sounds from the crashes go a bit strange when topping 140mp/h and you are going so fast you just bounce off the lamp posts rather than stopping dead like usual.

Gameplay

Very difficult to get used to, but there hasn’t been any decent racing games out for a while so i’m very used to playing FIFA 09 at the moment, which is why i suppose it was difficult to get used to. Once you get the feel of the way the cars drive, it gets pretty easy, don’t overspend on visuals and upgrade the engine, suspension and brakes as much as you can and you pretty much can’t lose, but its fun nonetheless. I haven’t played online properly yet, but i have done a “quick cruise” with my brother which was quite fun, something i hear the new Need For Speed is also bringing.

Overall

The game is pretty good, if you like your racing/modding games i’d advise to buy it. The only thing that lets it down is the crap music but its pretty easy to overcome that problem with your own, or just turn it off completely and listen to the engines :P To finish off, here are pics of the two cars i have thus far :D