Well I've been playing World lately, and here's my opinion:
The game looks good for a BETA, there aren't that many bugs and so far the game haven't crashed/lagged for me once. The traffic is what seems to be more bugged lol, they drive really fast (even when cornering), they spin out of control, crash head on into walls and other cars, even do some crazy tricks like using only two wheels (yeah I saw that). It's funny to watch the traffic, but of course they will fix that.
The whole concept of World is interesting and they did a good job joining the cities of Carbon and Most Wanted. Even though you can recognize almost all places, they re-textured everything and eve redo some parts with new buildings and roads to connect both cities. The graphics look good, but the cars seem a bit low detailed at the moment, especially the traffic cars. I hope they improve that. One thing you notice related to graphics is the lack of smoke.
The HUD looks nice, but can be a little confusing at first. There are still some improvements to be made here IMO, for example in race/sprint it would be useful to have the time that your opponents are from you, like pretty much all racing games have. The overall UI system is also good, not far from that what we have seen lately in SHIFT.
As for the handling, well I was secretly hoping they would use the same handling as in Most Wanted, which I simply loved. It's not the case, the handling seems to be borrowed from Carbon and tweaked a bit. It's fun to play, that's for sure, but it's a bit too easy and it "forgives" most mistakes. They could have done something a bit more harder, but ok.
The vinyl system is indeed very good, there are tons of vinyls in the BETA, and the fact that you can use the mouse to adjust the vinyls is a great addition. There is also the mirror option. I just didn't know about the layer limit, and that's really bad. I hope they increase it...
I have to disagree with you guys about the power ups. I think they are a nice addition, even though I wasn't expecting them. The traffic magnet might sound stupid but it's fun, and once you get used to it, it's easy to dodge the traffic. The "add 1 more lap" is also interesting, especially if you're not in 1st place. It might sound unfair at first, but I like it, it makes things more interesting. Pretty much anyone can grab a car and start wining races, so this makes things more difficult.
And that's my opinion about Need for Speed World. Let's see what will they bring in the next BETA session, but so far so good.
So you're saying that the different classes ARE distinguished in World when you say the muscles feel heavy, tuners handle great and exotics are fun to drive?
