[bigdoc85]

Good points --Here are my initial observations after 1 quick race at Daytona:

1. I do agree that visuals seem to be a downgrade - that was disappointing.

2. I put the AI at 35% and the AI pretty much ran as a pack the entire race.

3. I do agree that the feel is a bit better and maybe easier to control the car.

Quote: Originally Posted by brandon27

I ran two quick races over my lunch break. One at Michigan, one at Vegas, with the stock "setups" the game provides. Here's some impressions from me: - AI seemed better to race with. I didn't notice any issues with brake checking etc. while in the pack at Michigan. - As mentioned earlier, player handling is different. I like the feel better as well. - If you played the last version of this title, this one will look almost identical in the menu's and such aside from some color changes etc. It's eerily similar which I guess has become the norm for most sports titles. - The visuals/graphics to me... seem like theyve been downgraded. I was playing NTGIL a few nights ago, and it looked great on my TV using the picture settings I normally watch TV with. I play most other games that way as well. This one... looked awful. Just awful, the colors were bad, things were blurry. So, I flipped my tv over to "game mode" and it looked better, much better, but still nowhere near as nice as the previous version did. To say I'm disappointed in that, would be a big understatement. One of the thigns that made even the poor previous versions of this title enjoyable to me were the visuals, now, not so much. Using a 60" Samsung LED here... I'm going to try the game out on my 52" plasma later tonight and see if its the TV, but I'm doubting that, because like I said, I was playing NTGIL the other night and it looked fantastic. Something is going on here... - Didn't get a chance to dig into career, season, or anything like that though. Just had time for two quickies at Michigan and Vegas, the racing seemed improved. - That being said... I didn't use any tire wear either, not enough time to really play with it, so I'm not sure how the AI handles pitting etc. etc. - I found it extremely hard to trigger a caution though. I could get AI cars loose by hitting them if I wanted to, but they'd typically just slide around, hit the wall, and keep going with no caution, or complete spin, just this weird almost like side to side slide until it hit the wall. Disappointed a bit there, but... hard to judge based on two quick races. Those are some initial thoughts of mine.. .