Not a great game, but I can't help having fun with it.
Pros:
Somehow, something in this game is just really fun.
Very desirable cars, and even though I know this is 2010 (at least right now it is), the cars don't look too bad graphics-wise.
Autosculpt is a good feature, and lets you do quite a bit with the looks of the car.
Cons:
The handling? What handling? You feel like you're driving a car on a road covered with marbles.
There aren't many cars, and there are middle/lower class ones that you'll never drive.
Crews are annoying to race with, and are hard to find useful.
Crew options are bad.
Terrible acting. (Note: this could be a pro, for comedic reasons)
The soundtrack is rubbish.
Racing will often become repetitive, but not too bad.
There are more pros, and more cons, but I'm nailing the most prominent ones in my opinion.
Alright, I'll start with the bad news first: the cars are brutal to handle. It feels like instead of wheels, your car drives on a bed of marbles... Also, it feels like the road is made of marbles. But, thankfully (or maybe unthankfully), it is very unbalanced. Some cars like the Lamborghini Gallardo will barely ever drift. In fact, 90% of the time the Gallardo will wind up under-steering, and get passed by those over-steering hooligans in their souped-up gangster cars.
I think that back in the day, crews were advertised as being one of the selling points of NFS: Carbon... The idea was good, but when you're out on the streets going at 200 MPH, you're going to be thinking more about beating your crew mate than having him/her help you win (even though you will still get the cash for a win if they win it for you). For the most part, you are able to win by yourself, if your crew mate doesn't beat you. You see, your crew mate will often go 300 MPH around sharp bends and all just to catch up with you when he/she crashed, or something. And, yes, you are only allowed to bring 1 crew mate to a race, even though the opponents seem to have 3 or 4 crew mates.
And, yes, the crew options are, for the most part, useless. Basically, all you're gonna do is hire and fire people because this person will give you a 10% discount on all the cars, whereas this other person adds $200 with every won race. You COULD make your crew have their own logo and paint job, but that would mean having to put the paint and vinyls on each crew members' car individually.
Now, the acting is a real joke. I mean, it was just totally over-acted. There are few words that can really describe how bad the performance was. The green screen effects aren't very good either, but it isn't too amateur when it comes to that.
I'm not a fan of rap or hip-hop. To be brutally frank, I hate those genres. So, I just mute the game sound, and turn on Windows Media Player and listen to that music.
Alright, lemme talk about why I actually like this game.
First of all, it is just fun. I don't know what it is about the game, but there should be a new word in the English Dictionary that describes this. Maybe it's the sound of the engine, or maybe it's the hilarious acting, but something just makes me come back wanting more. This is definitely the reason that I gave this game a 7.5 rather than a 4.5.
I know that in 90% of racing games, you'll always get great cars. But, the fact of it is, racing in a Lamborghini or that Mitsubishi Evo never gets old. I love the cars in this game, even though there aren't too many. The graphics on them look pretty nice, even though it's a pretty old game. Not very comparable to todays' almost photo realistic graphics, but it's not bad.
The autosculpt is an option that lets you adjust little things on the car, like the size of the intakes on the hood, or the roof scoop, and how low your car rides. Maybe you'd like to lower the hood, too. Well, you can do that as well. I've never been into making the car look all gangster-like, and souped up. But, if YOU do, it's a pretty nice option, although the sculpting you do isn't as noticeable as one may like.
Would I recommend this game? Well, yes, and no. Yes, because I really like it, and I feel sort of like I'm betraying this game that's given me so much pleasure if I don't. But the 'no' is more prominent, because there are better, shinier, newer racing games out there, and the game does have quite a few detracting issues.
Anyway, it's 2:30 AM right now, and I gotta get to bed, so I hope I've been helpful. Good morning, good night, and good bye!