The game is perplexing. It's a bit of a flawed masterpiece (hey it's the TMP of the racing game world!)
I look on it now as a bit of a work in progress still. It has some great things about it - the driving model is top notch (second only to one or two of the serious driving simulators on the PC) and the graphical detail on the premium cars is amazing. Apparently the driving model is even more impressive when you own one of the force feedback wheels.
Unfortunately this is tempered by some negatives. Some of the tracks are a bit meh, The load times are a bit of a strain at times (even after the 50 min install) and the menus can be a chore to navigate. More importantly, though the premium cars themselves look amazing, some of the off-track details are primordial - there is a LOT of copy and pasting of textures and any trees you see will be cross-polygon ones, for instance.
Having 1000 cars is nice, but some of the details on the non-premium cars is a bit rough. Some of the choices are a bit odd too - do we really need 15 different types of Honda Civics, or 15 different Nissan Skylines? Perhaps it would have been better to have quality over quantity?
It's nice to have the Top Gear Test Track (I'm still searching the used car dealer for the 'Reasonably Priced Car' !), however that Special Event with the Top Gear track is mind numbingly dull and pointless. You start off in last place on a perfectly even field, in a VW Kombi. Nothing against the Kombi, it's a fine vehicle and every hippie's dream car, but it's got as much grunt as a shopping trolley and there are 12 of them (including yours) which are all absolutely identical. You start in 12th place, and through some miracle, you are expected to rise to 1st place in only 3 laps? Ludicrous.
Some of the other Special Events are great though. I thoroughly recommend the Go Karts and the NASCAR events.
The B spec mode is puzzling to say the least. I think I heard someone once describe it as 'Slightly more engaging than Replay Mode', and that's probably about right I think. You get to issue all of 4 commands to your driver (speed up, slow down, maintain pace & overtake) and it's easy credits basically, though the pain is, of course, you can't speed up time so you are forced to sit through the whole thing. To say I felt detached is an understatement.
Photo mode? WTF? The cars look great here, but really, is this art appreciation class? I don't see the point at all, and it's just another of those tacked-on bits I think we could have done without.
I have yet to try multiplayer. I hear it's a bit of a chore to get a game up and running, but once you do it's apparently stable. There is the potential for a good time here, as human opponents + realistic physics model (should) = huge amounts of fun.
Apparently the damage modeling is unlocked at level 40. I'm not sure why they tucked it away until the last stages of the game, but at least it's there.
There is a lot to like about this game, but ultimately I think it falls a bit flat. Hopefully some of these issues will be addressed via patching in future.
