Objectively, i think this is a good racing “sim” i say that in quotation marks because it's dressed up in the need for speed franchise jacket. If you play this game expecting that crazy Need For Speed arcade style fun of the older games (most wanted, underground, etc) you will be very disappointed, very very disappointed.
If you realise that for some reason EA decided to go the sim route with this one, and love forza, this game will be right up your alley. There are nice little touches that simulate the feel of racing around a track ; your heartbeat sound increases during hairy situations, the way your vision blurs when you hit something hard, or the way you get tunnel vision and your dashboard blurs as you get faster simulating the concentration required to keep it together at these speeds.
However if i was being subjective (my own personal view), i think this game is quite horrible. I wanted to pick up an arcade style need for speed, i used to like the open city driving of undercover, now you are limited to circuit racing. I wanted to be able to drive into a corner at ridiculous speeds and still be able to powerslide around it. Not possible with this game, it's just simply not fun (unless of course you like sim type racing games).
If you stripped the need for speed name, you would think this is just another average sim trying to be an arcade game, or an arcade game trying to be a sim (i don't think the game even knows what it's supposed to be).
Conclusion – Sim fans should try the demo first and may decide to purchase this, arcade fans shouldn't even bother (try it and see what i mean if you don't beleive me). This one will be in the bargain bin like the new mortal kombat in 3 to 6 months.
Also beware of the PC version, you need a decent gaming rig to play this smoothly.