As a series need for speed is exhausting. When you pick up one of these games you never know what you are going to get. Games like Most Wanted are street racing and battling rivals. Shift went more down the simulation route. The Run introduced some weird giant race mechanic. Rivals is the last game released on the 360 and one of the better ones in my opinion. The game seems to follow on from the Hot Pursuit series, mixing up some underground gangs and police chases. You have two parts of the game, the police side and the gang side, both offer slightly different gameplay. You are dropped into a decently sized and quite pretty open world map and given 3 different sets of challenges. You work your way through the ranks, completing these tasks in any way you choose, and leveling up unlocking different cars and gadgets. The tasks are quite nicely varied and the cars handle well and are fun to drive, but its nothing particularly special. Perhaps I am jaded from playing too many crappy NFS games, but as I had such low expectation I was almost able to ignore the shortcomings of this game. At the heart of it, it is Hot Pursuit 2. All of the criticisms that I levelled against that game are even more relevant here. It is everything a bland modern racer stands for and sticks far too closely to the standard set up of many racing games of this era, making it very forgettable. However, it is still a fun fast paced arcade racer. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but fans of simple arcade racers will enjoy it.