After reading various reviews of this game, I felt compelled to add my 2 cents. I've never played a Midnight Club game before, but have always loved earlier versions of Need For Speed. Until the travesty that was Need For Speed Pro Racer - ugh! So I've always thought the next-gen consoles were lacking a truly great arcade racer (I don't class the awesome PGR4 as an arcade racer).
i took a chance on this as it was so cheap - the fact that it was based on the GTA4 graphics engine also seemed to appeal. Once I'd found a camera view to suit (I still veer between the "classic" view and the in-car view), I drove around for a few minutes. I was struck by how great the graphics were, the sense of speed, the lack of any graphical slowdown. Then I entered a few races. Within about 5 minutes I realised this was the arcade racer I wanted Need For Speed to be (but isn't). The handling is perfect - to make a difficult corner, all you need to do is slow down slightly.
Another thing that impressed me was the navigation system. Burnout Paradise was unplayable for me, as I never knew which sodding way I was supposed to go!! The navigation on this game, however, is nigh-on perfect. You cannot miss where you are supposed to go (apart from some later races where you might miss the odd tricky corner). Switching between objectives is also a breeze.
Lastly, as with many games, it gets better as you go on, unlocking better cars. The garage in this game strangely gives you the opportunity to test-drive the best models, so stright away you get a feeling of what it's like to drive the very fastest models.
In a nutsehll, I would urge any racing game fan to buy this. It hasn't got the advertising clout that EA has, with their (now defunkt) Need For Speed series. What it has got is a game that is developed, clearly, by very clever people. It looks as good as GTA4. The cars handle brilliantly. The game mechanism is so user-friendly. Most importantly, this game is pure FUN.