When its generous number of brilliant systems collide properly, this is pure ecstasy like no other. But its AI is so atrocious that you can win a race and still go to bed furious...for a game ostensibly about risk and reward, it seems odd to force caution like this does at the end of a race, having had a perfect 2.9 laps and still being forced to contend with a teleporting car breathing down your tailpipe. There should've been a full congressional inquiry into how rigged the Face Off events are. Still, all other elements -- the perfectly paced dripfeed of events, the tight controls, and the manic core gameplay -- bring this far closer to perfection than the score and my frustrations imply