Addictive but ultimatly rubbish!!
The AI is lazy. If you are behind, they go slower, if you are in front they go ridiculously quick. I had a disaster of a race which i finished 2nd, only 1 second behind first so went back and done that race again, came first a full 20seconds faster and guess what, 2nd was all of a second behind!
The timed races are boring, frustrating and difficult, especially if your a cop as the slightest skimming of a wall knocks 2 seconds of your time, so i found myself constantly restarting these races.
When playing as a cop (or even as a racer) the weapons are almost pointless, all apart from the spike strip, which even if you use it and send the AI opponent rolling 2 corners later and he's back on your tail... or over taking you at a speed beyond his cars maximum. The helicopter is almost always ineffective. The EMP just knocks their car a little and then they are off again, and every time you use it you get a cut scene which when you return to your car almost always causes you a problem, be it crashing into a wall, other car or in fact finding yourself in front of the car your trying to ram off the road. The road block is nice, but hardly ever effective, in fact you find yourself crashing into it more often than not.
The only good point is the graphics, they are superb, and with the licences its lovely to see these cars so well crafted.
People have mentioned the sound as being amazing, i dont hear it, most cars sound the same. Play forza 3 and your'll hear some wonderful car sounds not the repetitive rasping on here, for example, the subaru has a boxer engine, so has a unique sound, not on this game it doesnt.
Overall i found this game extremely disappointing and essentially rather boring, I for one hope the next game in the series goes back to the format of underground, with a nice city to roam around and if the cops see you speeding they give chase and there are other racers to flash and race against. Oh that reminds me, the free roam on this... WHAT IS THE POINT?? you drive about with nothing to do except hit top speed and crash, oh and the crashes are poor also, few triangles fly about then your back on the road moving at over 100MPH again.
All in all, not worth the time, money or effort!