It's okay, I guess. Haven't played 6 to compare, but the drift handling feels wayyyy too slippery. One small nudge into a car or a wall and you will be sent spinning in circles. The tracks also feel kinda..... flat? I don't know how to properly explain it, but they all feel quite linear. Also, as impressive as the game running at 1080p 60fps was, especially for a launch game, but the scenery looks kinda generic and washed out compared to something like Ridge Racer V, a PS2 launch game that looked absolutely gorgeous at the time.

For 70% of the game, the difficulty doesn't exist. To get under 3rd place you either haven't played the game ever, or are trying to on purpose. The new boosting nitrous mechanic doesn't help either, as it's too easy to gain nitrous and just speeding past your opponents who don't stand a chance against you. The AI in this game are not a competition at all. Doing this through many grand prix(s?) can get boring very quickly.


One thing I love about this game is the customization. It's the second game in the series to give us some freedom with the car parts since Rage Racer, and gaining your own parts by doing (easy af) races around the world is a satisfying thing.
The multiplayer is also another really cool feature of this game. Somehow people are still playing this game today, and playing with people of the same skill level is really fun.

There's a lot more I could say about this game but overall, it's impressive for a PS3 launch title, but kinda disappointing as a Ridge Racer title.