Surprisingly good - Best of NFS:Underground and the old NFS police chases
Gameplay - very good, though they have taken out NFS:U and NFS:U2's awesome drift modes - that looses one point, and the slight repetition looses another point. Other than these niggles, this is as good an arcade racer as you can get.
Graphics - good, very good. This is a high-quality game, and though the motion blur is slightly overdone at times you get the feeling that there was a lot of effort put into the graphics. The only quibble could be that the ground-plane shows a very slight pixellation, yet when you're going at 120mph you don't really notice it.
Sound - easily the best bit of the game. Different vehicles sound differently, and as a Subaru afficionado, I can say that the WRX STi sounds very authentic; something many of the previous editions failed at reproducing so well. Then, too, there is the cops radio chatter. It comes to something when you can spend 30 minutes being chased by the police with almost constant radio chatter, and not feel that there is excessive repetition. The sheer number of phrases that the police have in their vocabulary is phenomenal - and totally necessary, as a large part of this game is going to be you, running from the police.
Value - Pretty good, I got it for £20 (UK) from online stores (Check out froogle.google.co.uk or froogle.google.com for the best price near you). The game is long, and there are excellent online options too.
Tilt - Why did I give this 10? Because I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am still thoroughly enjoying it now. It's actually pulled me away from World of Warcraft, and that's possibly the best accolade I can give.
Final word: If you like arcade racing games, and aren't bothered by the lack of physics realism in this game, buy it, and prepare to enjoy it for a long time to come.