Great Game.
Graphics and sound are really good. Some crappy slowdowns on the PS2 version when the big cop chases come, nothing too bad though its bareable and dosn't really take away from the game all that much, and the racing enviroments are really big which is really nice to drive around a city.
Another thing is, in the black list race, if you use a car without noss then the black list race wont use noss, if you use a slow car, they will drive slower, and (obviously) if you use a really fast car they will also blow you away with fast speed. Im not sure if EA did this because if you get your car inpounded and you only have a slow car you sorta still have a chance to win the races.
They have a nice variety of body kits and paint for your car, sorta like how the underground games went but just not as much, but still a really impressive number for a game like this, have too much to pick from is a pain having to go through it all and mix and match, but in this the body kit is all together as one which is a really good feature.
I hear the Xbox version has online play, and the Ps2 version dosent. I really don't think online is really going to make the difference of what system you will get this for because the game is still great either way. Any need for speed die hard or someone new to the series will definetly enjoy this game greatly. This is a must buy for any race fans that wasnt a neat twist.