Flash looking but repetitive.
This game has a some of the best visuals you will see on the xbox. Replays and changing the views while driving can make this game have a real movie style atmosphere. But the visuals are not the main aspect of this game, the main focus is teh missions. They are varied the first few times, but tend to repeat and feel monotonous when you reach the latter levels. Driving from A to B, destroying some cars, beating other cars and some clever, albeit frustrating variations on these.
On the side there is the free driving option to cruise the streets and here you can find bonus track or street style races that add more depth to the experience. The city`s are big, but not overwhelmingly so and you will become familiar with the short cuts after time.
The game is online enabled, but I had a hard time finding people to play with online and had to arrange with some of my Japanese friends to do so. With the huge variety of cars on offer from the small and light to the outrageously bulk and huge (to the point where in the out of car view it is impossible to see anything but the vehicle, hence making driving and avoiding cars nigh on impossible!)
Overall a nice looking game, that shows how well the Xbox can do visually, there is depth in here if you are interested in exploring and doing everything, but it really gets tedious after the initial buzz.