I got it on Friday 25th March )was lucky to get it a bit early).
I have played through the Fesitbal and started online playing.
My thoughts, at first I didnt like it as much as Pacific Rift (only other MS I had played). But getting further into it it grew on me and I began to fall in love with it.
Some of the courses are mental (at the start they werent that much different) as you get further in there are truley amazing things going on during the race. My two favorite are one with the Tornado whizzing by as you race, causing all sorts of destruction, tossing boats onto the beach to avoid and all sorts. And then theres an Upper Bohemian track with Earthquakes going off causing the road to literally rip apart before your eyes.
These events arent just for show either, changing the track as the race goes on a route you were able to take on lap one may later be blocked off as the road rips apart during latter laps.
My main negative would be the cars feel very light weight, even the big rigs and monster trucks and I find you can be rammed out far too easily (particulary from behind as someone rams your rear) and can be very frustrating. Im undecided if I like the new ram ability you can use in all vehicles.
I also found to be competitive online you have to play with the behind the car view. To many that probably isnt a problem, but for me I always played racing games with bumper or in car view. Switching to the 3rd person view im finding a difficult change to come to terms with. But you need to use this view as then you can see when someone is coming up behind you and try to avoid being rammed, or if another car is beside and going to ram you. Also you need this view to ram others out. Using a bumper view is a very big hinderence, as you cant see if anyone is at your side or rear bumper, making its impossible to avoid being rammed or to ram someone yourself, and its a pretty big part of the game now.
The vehicle customisation is a bit limited. You can only pick items from a default selection.
The online seems to work very well, I havent experienced any lag so far at all. I have only been disconnected once, which isnt bad per say. But part of playing online to level up you place bets against another driver (pick a driver and bet you will beat him, you get money if you do). Winning bets allows you to bet your winnings and gain multipliers, so you want to keep the chain going before cashing in to gain more cash. I got to a 6 mulitplier doing this only to get disconnected on the next race losing it all from all the previous races. Which was annoying.
Its a very fun game though, my favorite racing game to date on this generation of consoles. Its like a cross between the old Motorstorms and Split Second (only unlike Split Second you dont control the destruction of the tracks).
If I had to give it a score, I would probably give it an 8/10 :)
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
Ernest Hemmingway
