The graphics are spectacular (the sound is pretty good, too), even if the
tuner mods are about as tasteful as Liberace's last Eldo. I was immediately
put off by the controller routines: impossible to select and calibrate, and
the steering-lag rates right up there with a curved-dash Oldsmobile. The
physics model (or lack of it) is a complete joke; why is it that each
succesive iteration of the franchise (this is actually NfS7) is worse than
the one before? That said, the game play is fun--if moronic--especially the
drag race (no quarter-mile here; it slices thru about a mile of downtown
traffic). It owes more to 2Fast 2Furious than Gran Turismo 3...which is
probably a mistake.
Speaking of which, I see there's a book about it ("The Cars of Gran
Turismo") in the latest issue of the Motorbooks International catalog. I
dunno abt. you, but I suspect there's more action in the book than any
racing game from EA.
--Steve Smith