Why have I heard so much about it? Did everybody played this with their eyes shut?
Lets talk about the graphics first. According to the tech requirements of this game, expectations naturally rise before you go for buying it. The game seriously lacks 'today's' technologies of advanced graphics.
The fires through the exhausts during gear shifting are 2D textures! There are no pixel shaders as well. The tracks equipped with poor details of service crew and a few branches of trees. You'll really feel like playing an ancient game like Need for Speed 2 SE or so. There's more of it. The screenshots of this game are not as bad as I may sound. The trick is there; the vehicles are med-low polygoned ones with Hi-res textures. As the environments require extremely low texture memory, the bulk goes for the vehicle.
Movements, of the cars are not well detailed either. Talking about simulations; F1 Career Challenge is a good example. And when you turn in the curves, the cockpit view is of no use, because the hood keeps on rattling ur nerves, distracting your attention from the actual way the car behaves.
I have played difficult games before, this is certainly not one of them. Its not a piece of good product at all.
Still, if you think of playing the game from rather a chase cam; the camera is not well positioned either. In the whole game the only interesting thing was the TV cam mode. And surely you wont be able to play like that.
The huge time it requires to load a track is very surprising.. because NFS 2 didnt require more than a second!
Do not go for buying this game. It'll be a complete waste. If you still buy one... you'll agree with me then.