"Highly anticipated game that lost potential upon release"

Single player is short and sweet. This game is designed predominantly for the ONLINE multiplayer aspect.

Handling/Physics Model in this game is atrocious, terrible, horrendous (insert any negative word here). I'm sorry but this aspect of the game strips it from ever being anywhere near attaining a place in racing game hall of FAME, perhaps SHAME.

Multiplayer lag : EXCELLENT PING TIMES (for me). I haven't noticed any lag or adverse effects in game. Ocassionally I am disconnected from the game server, ''cannot connect to lobby'' message appears but that is a minor nuisance. Havin'g to retype your password after being disconnect however is a pain in the butt. But for the most part I stay connected for well over an hour at a time.

Graphics : I like them, something different. Kudos to the artists and 3d modelers.

Sound : I liked the sounds too, most cars that I know of sound the same as in game.

Music : The music was OKAY but what made me decide that the BGM volume MUST BE SET TO ZERO is the ANNOYING VOICE between races and menu selections. A person can only hear, ''keep rocking baby'' etc for so long before it gets annoying. I give props to the game developers for allowing the voice to be turned off at least by muting the music.

Ergonomics : In the online mode the time it takes to get from main multiplayer screen to another race room adds up. The developers should have opted to make you go back to at least the lobby after the race is over... what do you think we want to race mountain, city, circuit and rotate after every race? Possible yes, but most people usually play one type of race for a majority of their session.

Major Flaws : Wall bouncing, this is the major flaw in single player as well as ONLINE multiplayer competition. Wall bouncing is the bar-none fastest way to complete a race. This is due to the physics/handling model used in the game engine. Boost exploit, why OH why did you developers decide that the lap times attained in a game with BOOST ON are counted???? where is the reasoning in that??????????

The drift : Many people are getting into what is considered a new thing in the US, drifting. This game has no drift as far as I am concerned. The handling/physics model used in this game simply doesn't allow for drifting at all. Try it and you'll see that you end up spinning out or losing all speed. There is no drift, v_v

The minor flaws such as disconnections, the ill conceived idea of booting you to the frontend after a multiplay race pale in comparison to the boost exploit and wall abuse that prevails in multiplayer games. In its current and most likely permanant state I can only rate this game 3/10. If there is some way to make the handling much like GT3 to allow and promote drifting around specific corners (that actually benefit from drift) and got rid of the boost exploit then this game would receive a 10/10 no problem.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/03, Updated 04/02/03