Summary
In a word... stunning.
The Good
A friend of mine with a hot PC came round one day and said, "Steve, you have to see this." So I saw it. One word springs to mind. Breathtaking. This game actually took my breath away. I was stunned by the quality and the smootheness of the graphics.
Behind that lies a damn fine racing game. The cars look and feel realistic, and the controls work very well. It does a good job supporting steering wheels, but feels a little lifeless. The tracks are still circuit like, as with NFS2, but considerably more thought has gone into them, and they are a lot of fun to drive on.
Best of all though, is the return of cops (missing from NFS2). Driving Cop Corvettes they can prove to be real handful, esepcially when they set up road blocks and spike strips. Even better is that you can play the cops, driving a Cop Corvette and doing your best to stop the speeders. You can even request road blocks and drop spike strips. Wonderful stuff.
The range of cars in the game is pretty good, and there are cheat codes to enable other vehicles, which is pointless, but does provide a minor diversion. Once again the game is networkable, and plays very well, blasting round the tracks taking your mates out.
The Bad
Once again, the cars can't be damaged, and there's still an invisible wall preventing you from leaving the track. There's not much else wrong with this game.
The Bottom Line
The inclusion of the cops gives this game a degree of longevity, but I must admit to getting tired of it after a while. Although it may be a fun arcade racer, it just doesn't stand the test of time too well. It's better than its predecessors by a long way, and while it's still not a classic, it is damn close.
