a reasonably good sim/game
pros:
-pretty good physics, better than GT4 in general.
-unlike tokyo xtreme racer drift 2 & GT4, stock cars don't always come with a fixed tcs, abs, etc. they are most true to life
-easy to initiate drifting, which i'm a fan of
-the fictional tracks are ok, particularily dragon range
cons
-AI sucks like your typical pre GT5 AI
-lack of tuning and inability to downgrade certain specs makes it less fun. I don't neccessarily mean make a regular car go 200mph, but just options to select things like brake balance, abs, LSD strength, etc. Cars lvl up by themselves. lvl 1 tires on a lvl 5 engine & weight reduction would have made some fun drifting. cars either come with abs/tcs or don't. you cannot change it
-races aren't really exciting since the cars always end up so far away from each other that there are no close races.
-only 2 real life tracks
-instead of selecting a course, then night, reverse, etc. They are treated as completely different tracks, which makes finding the right one time consuming
-career mode is just confusing
-music isn't really good
-lacks content compared to GT4 and TXRD2
-physics arent anywhere near Live for speed quality. TXRD2 managed to put in a lot of things elements missing.
-eventhough drifting is quite easy in this game, because of the oversteery physics, you don't really get to any reward for it since theres no drift mode. It's still an accomplishment when you can drift the whole track and win.
overall, eventhough my list of cons are longer than the pros, i did enjoy certain aspects of this game on occasion and it's not a bad deal at all for it's price. GT4 is a better game in terms of content and soundtrack. TXRD2 would just be the superior game if you liked dragon range from this game.