Better than I expected given the reviews!!
Overview:
In summary an offroad racing game with the largest (to date) free roam area, a good selection of vehicles and vehicle types and a wide array of races and challenges. The "story" is post "world war 3 - mad max type" barren landscape scenario. Winning races gives you fuel to buy more vehicles and stars to unlock more races. The map is divided into "camps" and a certain number of stars are needed to unlock the next camp etc.
Graphics:
Good - not superb but good. Vehicles are well rendered and the landscape has a good level of detail in it.
Soundtrack/effects:
None to speak in terms of decent music and the sound effects are a little repetitive to say the least.
Gameplay:
For me one of the plus points is that you DON'T have to free roam to progress through the races and this is a big plus in my book (I don't have hours and hours to spend driving round looking for events to participate in) so being able to select the next event from a menu is ideal. There are some benefits to driving round in the free roam mode as some items are there to be found as are some of the trophies. However career progression can occur without - so a big plus for me.
So, pick your race, one of your vehicles in the correct class for the race and off you go. Races are mainly checkpoint driven and no points (well fuel) for second place. The GPS helps in most races and there is a mini-map avaialble at all times. Not the best mini-map in the world but it does ok.
Another big plus in my book is that there is no single point of failure - i.e. you won't get stuck on a single race blocking career progression. The next camp (and sometimes 2) is/are unlocked before all races are completed in the current one allowing "problem" events to be left to be tried again another day without having to turn the game off. This plus the challenge events that earn you fuel but no stars allow you to jump from event to event at will!
Each race has 3 difficulty setting and you earn 1 star at the easiest level up to 3 on the hardest setting. Equally you earn 3 times as much fuel on the hardest setting. The difficulty is a bit inconsistant (I play a lot of racing games but am by no means an expert) and I found that on the middle level I would win one event by miles and then come a poor last on the next. (maybe I just need some more practice but....)
Online:
I haven't tried it yet so am unable to comment.
Rating:
I was torn between 7.5 and 8 - ideally would have gone for 7.8 but went to an 8 based on the fact I am enjoying it more than I expected.
To sum up:
Will absolutly be going on my list for a purchase once the rental copy goes back - somewhat to my surprise!
Thanks for reading and tell me whether it was helpful or not please!