[Ænima]

Okay, so I just got the game and I've been playing for a few hours offline. Difficulty is... ehh. On Hard at Daytona I could pull away without a drafting partner. On Very Hard at Bristol I couldn't keep up with Todd Bodine for 42nd place.

I'm hoping you can adjust the difficulty from race to race in career mode when I settle on a real driver (probably a custom one).

However, I want to stress that online is BROKEN right now. I'm not talking about buggy, I'm talking broken. Here is what just happened in my first race:

Eight players, most of us driving the 24 or the 88 (lol). That didn't bother me. As soon as it loads into the track (Talladega), I am upside down skidding across the pavement. Other people are also spinning, flipping or parked backwards as the race goes green. We have no control as this is happening. As we gain control, my car rights itself and I drive through the spinning and the smoke to find myself in second place. The leader is the only car that wasn't flipping and spinning at the start. He is probably four or five seconds ahead of me.

I am one lap down.

Over the next five laps, I chase him down and pass him to unlap myself. Nevermind that HE NEVER LAPPED ME. Although I am gaining on him as we actually drive, scoring shows me (and everyone else) continuing to LOSE LAPS.

He finishes the 9 lap race while I am on lap 5. I finish second, four laps down, despite winning the race (despite flipping around like the other seven drivers behind him, I caught him and passed him on track, finishing ahead of his car).

Online is BROKEN. Someone in the lobby suggested that this bug has something to do with players who are playing without the patch because they haven't booted out and booted back in since the patch went live this morning. That seems reasonable.

If you're waiting to get home and go right online to race, temper your enthusiasm and show some patience. Or, at least, bring your sense of humor.

For what it is worth, I was laughing the whole time. I always wanted to play in a Beta. :P