Burnout packs a huge punch in the way of gameplay, but has shockingly bad longevity problems.
So where does it go wrong then? The answer lies almost solely in the longevity. The main mode features only a few races, and, with the games being so hard and long, one crash can end your hopes, and, after three of these, you have to repeat the whole tournament. This is very frustrating, but the hope remains that at least there will be a multiplayer mode to give it some longevity. There is, but it suffers from grainy graphics and framerate issues, bringing you back down earth with a bump when you suddenly slow down and have trouble seeing. It's kind of like bullet-time, but unintentional.
Overall, then, a superb racer than is pure gameplay, but is severely let down by a plethora of dampeners on the game.