True racing fans only
Also there are some possible spoilers so shield your eyes!
On to the review:
Gameplay: Physics have been "revamped" this year. The cars feel like actual 2.75 ton vehicles, but the team nearly got it wrong with the fact that early in the game, every car u drive will understeer, or not be able to steer as sharp as it normally would, but as you get more money by winning, and you purchase better suspension and brake upgrades, this will balance out. The controls, are again "revamped". EA killed it b/c they have decided to include a separate button for the clutch, and have moved the Shift Up/Down buttons to the R1 and R2 buttons respectively(leaving the handbrake to circle, and placing the clutch on the L2). This cannot be customized, so bear with it. Even after playing longer than 20 hours, i still forget that the handbrake is the circle button, so it really isn't a big issue, except for drag racing.
Graphics: I hope everyone who looks at this review realizes that this is a PS2 game, and last-gen, because the graphics are not good at all. EA probably plucked the engine from the PSP version, b/c these graphics blow. The strange thing is, they don't blow all the time, in menus and movie sequences, the cars look amazing, but as soon as you go to race, it turns to hell. Cars look very jagged and choppy(unless looked at closely), the tracks and environments aren't terrible i guess, but EA killed the graphics package in general.
Sound: Cars sound good, and there are many different engine sounds, and they make good sound effects(like screeching tires, impact with a wall, etc.). The music is a bunch of Junkie XL techno stuff, so don't get your hopes up in that department. The announcers aren't as bad as most people are saying, but they do repeat lines often, especially during the race day main menu. Sound=good.
Game Modes: Bread and butter obviously career, which instead of having you create your own driver with his own name, you are instead Ryan Cooper, an illegal street racer who instead of goin to the streets to possibly die, goes to race days at the track. After dominating the events he enters at his first race day, Showdown king Ryo shows him, up, and now begins your career to try to get to his position of Showdown champ. The race types are pretty much the same things you have been seeing: Grip/Circuit races, Drag, Drift, and the all-new Speed Challenge. Grip is a Circuit race, but there are 2 other variations then just laps(I won't spoil them). Drag is as straightforward as it sounds with either 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile races. Drift is new this year in that it actually takes getting used to. Up until recently, i sucked at it, b/c in the real world, drifters keep their foot planted on the gas throughout the drift, but you can't do that in this game, so it may take some actual practice to get used to. Now the new race type is the Speed challenge, which is set on open roads trying to see how fast you can go throughout the course, the faster the better, but in this race type, it is very easy to flip over and total your car, so handling is just as important as speed. Onto the cars: there are only 46 for the Ps2, while Xbox 360 and PS3 owners get 55, but it isn't really that big of a deal, as u get the Nissan GTR Proto and the brand-new E92 series BMW M3. Only rear wheel drive cars can drift(WOW, just like in real life, what a coincidence!). Arcade for PS2 is pretty useless, unless u have a bunch of gamer friends who own this same game on Ps2 and u come over and play all the time, because the only thing really worth noting is the fact you can create your very own race day to share, i guess, with the friends that come over to play, since there is no online for the PS2 version of the game.
There are things in this review that i have not yet covered, so you must discover them for yourself. All in all, this game is good, in fact, it rocks. Unless u really are picky and a real critic, you won't enjoy this game, but if you can live with it's faults, you can really expose it's strengths.