Split/Second. When speed is not enough, the city is your weapon.
GRAPHICS: Amazing. Truly beautiful scenes. The streets and textures look great. The cars look nice and the sun flashes its immense light on the screen. Explosions are dynamic and quick, and sparks can be seen from collapsing metal. Visuals are fantastic.
GAMEPLAY: You start in episode 1, do races, and gain points, which unlock new cars. The gameplay is very varied. New tracks offer new power plays, shortcuts, and scenery. You use power plays to your advantage, but to use them, you need to build up your power bars. Drifting, drafting, and being in mid air gives you more power. Use this power to activate a power play, which is an explosive obstacle built into the environment which can slow down or even destroy opponents. Wait a little longer, get more power, and you can trigger a level 2 power play, an extreme, dynamic power play that usually causes total annihilation and opens new routes. Sometimes there is lag after a level 2 power play, but it lasts only a second or two and is very minor. Not all events are races. Some have you avoiding trucks that release explosive barrels, some have you destroying hostile choppers. Its sweet, and deserves a spot on every action racer fan's shelf.
AUDIO/SOUNDTRACK: The sountrack is epic, but gets a little repetitive. The sounds are cool, and the explosions sound realistic. I would love to play this with a Bose home theater.
ONLINE: There is online, but sadly, nobody plays it. This game was dominated by NFS: Hot Pursuit, and now nobody plays it. I did manage to play one match, but only with 3 people. Sad.
VALUE:
Buy
OVERALL
Pros: Great track variety, cool cars, devastating explosions, fantastic visuals
Cons: Nobody plays online