Equipment: PS3, 46in 1080p Bravia, and Logitech G25 Steering Wheel.
Graphics: To first begin, the graphics in this game is amazing, especially since it fully supports 1080p. The track detail and cars are extremely great to look at and contain in-car views. While stuff like trees and grass have no where near as much detail, there is really no point. When racing you will not have time to look at the grass or the crowds. The game does have a few alias problems with a few cars while some cars show no where near as many flaws.
Physics: The physics in this game is amazing, main reason I can say this is because I use a G25. I can not give you a review on how this game plays with a controller because I haven't used a controller in a racing game in a long time. Each of the cars have their lifelike attributes that translate well into how real life cars drive. For example, try driving the Elise around the track and you will notice that when you lift off the throttle, the rear end wants to swing out. This is the same attribute MR cars tend to have. For the forcefeedback, it helps big time especially when pulling top time time trails. You can feel when the car is balanced, oversteering, or understeering just from the forcefeedback. This game also fully supports the clutch and 6-speed shifter available on the G25 giving it an even better realistic feel to the game.
Gameplay: For single player events, there is not much there. You have ranks C through S to complete the game as well as a few dealership races. Unfortunetly some of the races involve a lot of time saving up money to buy a certain car just to finish a certain race. Other things you can do in single player is an arcade mode. Arcade contains a race mode, where you can race against the AI; a time trial mode, where you a forced to use certain tires, stock settings, and full penalties, and try to set top times for each track on a online leaderboard; and a drift mode, where you can go against other on an online leaderboard for best scores. Last there is an online events section that contains events that usually change every couple weeks. The online events can contain races from begineer, intermediate, and expert races (where you can gain lots of money). The online events also can involve only racers in your region to racers in other countries in international events. Online events is also the best and most fun way to earn money to gain more cars in the game.
Conclusion: Basically the best racer I have played to date (and half of my games I own are racers) and I can't wait for the full version. Though the game is only a prologue to what is to come but I expect the full game to get a full 5 stars from me.
