==GRAPHICS==
Where as the 2 previous NFS games were all based at night, this time around they have deiced to set it all in the day time which I think was a great idea as the graphics look stunning in the game. Every thing looking crisp and slick, the cars, glass, signs and other metal objects have this shiny glare of them reflecting the sun’s light. There’s even rain that pours down in races although this does not effect your handling that I’ve noticed, another cool effect is when you are driving out of a tunnel – there’s this bright beam of light at the end as if it was a wall of light to give you the effect of your eyes adjusting to the sunlight as you leave the darkness.

Ones again the city is open to drive around in that’s very well designed from curved roads and straights throw the city with short cuts along the way to take advantage from when racing. There are also wide big open roads and highways that are great to test out the top speeds of your rides.

The cars are of course the stars of the game, with each and every car very well detailed with kits on or as standard. The reflections off the cars are on par even with the Gran Turismo games. Only down side of the graphics is the traffic it self with them being quite plane and dull.

The cut scenes this time around are worth watching as not only they are extremely top quality but also follows a good storyline.

==SOUND/MUSIC==
The soundtrack contains about 25 songs from rock, hip-hip and techno, with none of the songs I’ve hear before and very few groups/singers I’ve heard of but still has some good tracks but more importantly then fit in to this racing scene.

The sound as all ways it excellent with the roaring of the engines and the dump values and turbo going as you change gear. The voice acting is pretty well done also with many characters through the game where as only one would come close to being called famous being to woman that helps you out through the game acted by Josie Maran who has been a model since aged 17 that have also stared in films like “Van Helsing” and “The Aviator”.

==CONTROLS==
The controls are pretty much the same as another other racing game but where as you have to use the analogue stick to control the steering as the d-pad is used to access map, shops and the phone. The one thing that I notice about the controls is did not respond correctly at times when changing the gears manually or using the special slow-mo turning ability and the only way around this was to press on the button a bit harder instead of a quick press.

Another thing that annoyed me was that there was no button to change the view from which you drive from, instead you had to go into the options when paused. As I prefer the inside view where you can only see the bonnet, I sometimes would like to change view just to check out my ride and would have been better if they added this to the pad.

==GAMEPLAY==
Like I said before it’s an open city where you can drive around freely and enter any race you feel like. To challenge each of the blacklist racers you most first complete a number of races as well as milestones.

The races include the Lap and point 2 point races known as circuit and sprint, then there’s the drag race. There are another 2 type of races that are brand new to the series which as called Speed Trap and Tollbooth. In the Speed Trap race you most race through a number of speed camera at the fastest speed you can, the winner is the one with the highest totally cumulative score. Tollbooth is the only race where its just you vs the time, you are given a time limit to get to the each tollbooth where as getting the them will give you extra time, this one may sound boring to some of you but this one was my favorites as it’s usually set on the highways which really lets you test out your speed as you fly pass everything in a blurry.

The Milestones that you most complete is to do with police pursuits that they have brought back in. Racing around the city at high speed will of course attracted attention from the police where they chase you down and try and stop you which if court you will have to pay fines. The more heat you get from them a bar will rise and at points will get harder in the form of FBI cars and racing version cops and even roadblocks, spike traps and latter on helicopters. The milestones you need to complete are things like ram 10 police cars, escape in less than 2 minutes, last for 4minutes or long, dodge at least 5 roadblocks and so on.

These milestones do get harder as you progress as well as do the races. The Police pursuits are fun to do and are chance from just racing all the time. Along with escape in from them you can also your own type of rock blocks, dotted around the place are destructive buildings and scene indicated by red arrows to show which part you most drive into for the structure to fall down on top of the following vehicles behind you to damage and stop them dead in the tracks.

Onto the customization now of the cars, after defeating each of the blacklist racers you unlock not only new cars to buy but also body kits, performance parts and visual. Like the cars themselves the body kits are very detailed and make them look much better, although I found some of the rear of the kits look to odd and the problem is the kit goes on as a whole one, where previous NFS games and other racing games lets you add bumpers, side skirts separately. The spoilers and bonnets have a very large amount to buy from which is great as you can really personalize it to your way.

==REPLAY VALUE==
Replay value varies depending on how much you really enjoy the racing, as ones you completed the main game there is no more items to unlock by playing it again.

I started it a second time as I wanted to try out some more of the cars, although there’s only 32 cars in the game, they are pretty good ones. Only complaint about the cars is that some don’t really fit into street racing games really like Aston Martin, Corvette, Lamborghini and Porsche. I guess it nice to see a few different cars compared to more usual standard cars but I think they gone over the top a bit by having too many from the same make. Where as there’s 5 Porsche’s , 4 Mercedes and 3 Lamborghini’s, as they pretty much look similar I would have been best cut some out and have more other makes and cars which will add more Varity to the section.

What also adds to the replay value are the 2 player modes that include all the types of races as well as being able to use your career cars to race with. If you looking for value other than 2 player and playing career mode again there’s the challenge mode where you have to complete races and milestones just like the ones seen in the main game but your given car to race in. Complete each one of this unlocks a few more to compete in and finally successfully completing all 64 challenges will unlock another 2 cars.

The career mode should take between 1 and 2 weeks to do. Although the PS2 version has dropped the online play but you still can have 2 player modes and challenges will extend to many more happy days of racing.

==BUY OR NOT TO BUY==
Myself not being a fan of NFS games I really enjoyed this one and is the best one I’ve played (note: I’ve not played NFS: Carbon). Great racing, stunning cars and the return of the police chases are funny. A must buy game if you like street racing games.

Graphics, stunning cars and realistic looking reflections.