Well finaly got it today(PS3 version), hit it for a solid 6 hours on pro mode AI on hard all assists off using the DF-GT. Currently on Tier 2 driver level 12 with 36 stars precision driver. 2 cars, escort cosworth and the old nisan GTR.
First thing I thought was.....oh no this is bad......then slowly I got my head around the game and now it's a classic, took about 5 hours to get to that point though LOL
I won't pour over every aspect as that's been done to death over the past few days (and much apriciated it was) I'll just point out a few of my own opinions and findings. First up...this isn't GT5, It's not even trying to be! It's carved a niche in the market all for itself, that of a "racing sim" it's what grid should have been if it had sim physics! Now this isn't a bad thing, it's not ment as a derogitory comment! It's actualy a very very good thing, it aims to imerse the player in the feeling of a race, not of imersing a player in the feeling of driving a car. The difference I would say is GT5p = SOCOM NFSS = COD4 It isn't an arcade racer it's definatly a sim it just focuses on racing rather than focusing on the cars.
Right dead zone.....I'm using the DF-GT with the settings prety much standard, theres been alot of talk about deadzones ranging from a few degrees to some which are so huge it's undrivable? Well I have got possibley a "deadzone" of 1 or 2 degrees which varies depending on the car I'm in but....it's not actualy a deadzone, more a FFB deadzone. the car still changes direction depending on your imput in this small "deadzone" you just dont get any FFB try it and see down a long straight, once you get used to it you can be very acurate with your steering and placing the car where you want it, it kind of highlights the speed down the straights more and makes you use really controled smooth inputs.
Ok bugs, had the "car no on grid marker properly and girl with flag standing in the back of the car" a couple of times and I had the "no volume at all" once, and thats all I've had.
Cars.....oh those cars! right love the tuning and the upgrade system and for those who have modded up a tiere 1 car to nith degree without the works package on it, you may find the cars a bit of a handful or bounces around alot....thats because a ford escort or the like really isn't desighned to carry 400bhp, you CAN tune these cars TOO FAR! and as a result your not going to be that competertive against a similary powered supercar. Use the works package if you want to make a silk purse out of a sows ear LOL
And just a quick one, nitrous, don't knock it. If F1 cars can have kerrs you can have nitrous, it's not hollywood but it will get you cleanly round a few cars during a race, but remember it's a trde off, you vehicles performance index goes up with nitrous and it's only actualy usable for 10 seconds (basic one) in a whole race which really isn't that long and it really only gives you a few mph more, it really isn't hollywood nos
.
Ok online, I've had a few races online now, hosted a few against Jambo at spa where we took out the cozzies and then hit nurenburgh, all good clean fun. I then went and tried some random online games and found myself in a few 8 player 6.0 performance limited races all of them were very smooth didn't see one instance of lag. OK the performance limit you'll find online wil inevitubley have you desighning cars to meet there constraints. This is excellent. You really need to work at this and I can see many many hours just getting a group of cars to fit into each group and of course you'll need at least 2 cars for each group, one for the open speed cuircuits and another for the tight technical ones.
Final word from me is this game is very very good, a classic if your will, it certainly puts NFS back on the map! Don't aproach it as a rival for GT5 or Forza 3, you'll be disapointed.....it's actualy THE NEW TOCA! But you really need to give it time as the physics are subtle, there very intricate but you need to adjust so you can get a feel for them which takes quite a long time, but when it dose click it's more than worth the effort!
I love the physics in this game, but this was really excessive, "can't keep the car on the track" bouncing.
Not all of it, but you can at least keep it on the track. Now this is just with the GT3RS Porsche at Road America, but I'm guessing it will work for most other cars as well. I know this doesn't sound right, as maximizing the rebound would seem to make it worse 
but it worked for me. I got so frustrated with the bouncing, I just stopped working on levelling up and sat here for the past 1.5 hours and have been tinkering around. Some of you tuners out there (NLxAROSA, etc.) try this out and see what you think 👍 I suck at tuning, so maybe you can improve on this.
