THE best racer on the PS3, and one of the all-time best racers. It's really that good!
First off, this game is not easy! It's not your average arcade racer that you can throw all over the place, and it's not a game you can just pick up and win races with. No! From the start you'll realise that you have to learn how to drive, how to break, when to use hand-break and how to straighten up to take the bends. This game is a car-sim-racers dream, that is undoubtably the greatest car game ever made.
Once you learn how to drive (the tutorial is a must!) then the game take's place over various stages on 16 different world class tracks. It's broken up into different theatres, and when you eventually are good enough to place top 3, you start to unlock various tracks that were only playable in challenge mode and various cars and top-trump-style-gaming-cards. It's all great fun, and the tension when driving through the packs is amazing.
The car AI is the best I have ever seen in a game. It actually feels like there are humans driving the computer cars. They will sense which parts of the tracks you normally use to overtake, and try and stop you. They really do learn how you drive, so it makes the game unbelievably nerve-racing when you're trying to overtake cars.
Graphically, the game is top notch, with probably the best rain effects ever seen in a game. Sonically the game delivers too. Everything about the game is a winner.
One warning though, if you're just an arcade-racing kinda guy, then this game may feel a little hard to you, and you WILL have to put in time to learn the tracks and how to drive the car.
It's fun, its more than challenging, it's a winner in every way!
:) Mark