I used to love the NFS franchise back in the early days of Need for Speed Underground and Need for Speed Underground 2. But the franchise seems to have gone off the rails with this release.
Pros: Good selection of cars and pursuit tech. The race environment is open world with a lot of variety from wide open highways to winding mountain roads. Jumps and side-streets galore.
Cons: No way to pause a race! The menu screen sometimes takes a very long time to load. The frequent switching from one server to another in the middle of a race?! And some tracks just freeze for no apparent reason despite a PC that is every bit superior to the recommended requirements.
Overall: No way can I recommend this even at bargain bin prices.