2 words....AWE . . SOME.
My 2 peeves about this game are.....
"no quick way to restart/retry a race"
Yup, if you fail to take first place (theres no points for second) then you have to drive all the way back to the intersection the race starts from. Annoying
"Crash mode is now Showtime and not really an event per se". You get to roll around blowing up other cars but it's less of an "event" than it used to be in past burnout iterations. Some will like it, others will go "heyyyy, wha happen?" o.O So if your not doing so hot and are feeling a little frustrated during a race just look for a decent amount of oncoming traffic and L2+R2 will send you off on a rampage that would make any insurance agent crap their pants.
There are a couple "newish" events that are really a lot of fun IMHO.
"Marked Man", Everyone is out to take you down, survive to the finish of this race without being totaled and you win.
"Stunt Run", Create long combo's of stunts and land big moves which add multipliers to your score.
"Burning Route", Complete this car-specific race under the time alloted and win a new car.
The controls are spot on, the visuals in this game are excellent, the feeling of speed is perfect. The best way to describe it at times is controlled chaos. In my opinion this is the first great next gen racer for the PS3. The damage effects and wrecks are stupendous. Theres only one visual gripe I have so far, actually, it's my wifes complaint lol, and thats the burnouts. I did a burnout away from an intersection because I (she) was hoping to see some billowing smoke. There was some smoke but not billowing, this could have been done better but hey, it would just end up being a novelty that would be cool to watch once in a while anyway so who cares. Most of the game is played at 200mph anyway :)
BUY . . THIS . . GAME!!!
There is so much more I could go into with the features and gameplay but I must simply get back to it.....