Alright, so this is a game that a few people have really been bragging about. I've even heard a few say that they were considering buying a PS3 just so they could get this game (It's a PSN exclusive). To actually consider buying a $400 (although soon to be $300) system just to play one $20 game...? Can it really be that good? Needless to say, this got me curious.

After a little thought and research, I decided "What the hell?" and dished out the $20 to buy the game. The download was a little under 1GB, and there was one update to install after it was done. I'm assuming the update was just to add trophy support, though.

All of that out of the way, I started it up and played it a few times. It looked "ok", but it didn't really grab me and pull me in. A few days later, I realized that I had just kinda decided "What the hell?" (again) and played it for no real reason. Of course it won't grab my atttention if I'm feeling that way. Today, I sat down with the intention of actually playing it. My hope was that this would make me enjoy the game more. It worked.

While somewhat confusing at first, I got the hang of it. I must say, it is a pretty cool game. The native-1080p graphics are also extremely bad-ass. That engine has got to be on par with most of the other modern gaming engines and it shows a flawless 60fps rendering of some really awesome graphics. I'm itching to take this up to my uncle's house to play it on a bigger 1080p tv (I have a 40", my uncle has something like a 56"). Visually, this game is bad-ass.

As for the gameplay, it does have semi-awkward controls, but it didn't take very long to get used to. I'm playing through it on the "novice" level, so it's not very hard. I can only imagine that the other two are a lot more challenging, though. "Novice", while not very hard, is also not very easy. It still took a good hour for me to officially nail it.

The racing element is also pretty good. The tracks are laid-out in a very simple manor. It was very easy for me to tell where I needed to go. There is no map, and there's no need for one. I can ignore the terrain and focus on other things like the racers around me and power-ups on the track. A lot of racing games don't have that. Some people might say that they prefer difficult tracks since it's "more challenging", but it's hard enough with just trying to hit the damn turbo-pads. It's not hard to control those vehicles, but you have to be right on the pad in order to get the turbo. That part is not easy.

The trophies that can be earned are also a good combination of easy and hard. A lot of games have very simple trophies like "pick up a gun and successfully fire it" or something along those lines. That describes most of the trophies with the occasional one that requires some actual effort. This one, however, has only a few of those simple trophies. The rest are very well balanced between the three trophy levels (bronze, silver, and gold). It actually takes a lot of effort to get a silver trophy in comparison to a bronze.

Overall, while I haven't tried everything, I'm liking this game. I only paid $20 (+ tax) for it, and it looks worth it, so far. I'm enjoying it, if nothing else. I haven't had it long enough to say that this is a "must buy for all PS3 owners!" or anything like that, but it really does looks like a good game. The mediocre reviews that it got don't seem to match the experience I'm getting, so far.