What does pretentious mean any way? Most fun I've had in a long time.
There is a garage where you can trick out your ride with the money youve earned by racing, and a home base thingy where you can park to lose the police and to accept some challenges. For most of them you must ride out to seek your opponents. When you are out on the streets you can be a good little boy or girl, (who wants to do that?) or wreak total havoc and have a civillian call the cops. MOOHOOHAHAHAH!
when you are being chased there are levels of the chase. On certain levels (like 4) in which there are spikes, road blocks, and police squads sometimes a helicopter, it gets tougher, but on levels 1-2 its pretty easy to lose em. There are little "safe zones" where you can hide, but most of the time youve gotta hide in a parking garage or something whie the chase "cools down" on a little meter. Its also realy amusing to count on the map how many cops are after you. In the unlikelyhood that you get busted there is a little movie which show you resisting and then the cops "subdeuing" you. There is a realy amusing one in which a woman cop comes out and you try and swing a punch but she blocks, punches you, knees you in the gut, and then flips you on your back where you make no resistance to her handcuffing you. Then you get fined, lose your car, and can bail out, (or restart the game Heh heh.) At the end of a police chase it shows your stats: how much damage youve caused, how many spikes youve dodged, how many roadblocks youve busted, how many cop cars youve lost, how many cop cars youve totalled, how man cool moves (in which there are automatic slow-mo sequences) youve triggered and such.
All in all, whether you love Need For Speed or not, this is a must have. if you love narrow escapes, unlimited replay value, cool cars, nice slowmo effects and overall sick car chases, you NEEEEEED this game.
Verdict: 8.9!
GREAT!