Didn't expect this one to be as interesting as it was and I didn't expect to play it for a lot more than FM8, but I'm still a lil disappointed by this one. It's a visual step up from TC2 and Grand Race is a phenomenally fun game mode but I'm waiting for it to break out of this "vanilla" stage. Everything just feels so similar to TC2 structurally and a lot of the features I didn't like return here -- you still can't pause your game without it timing out and you can't sell your cars -- while new gripes make their debut: the avatar models are kinda ass, the lack of houses makes the game less immersive, and some of the inner workings of the career mode make no sense. Tbh tho I know this game is one or two major expansions away from blossoming into something crazy. Still holding out hope for that Japan expansion.

The multiplayer can be fun but the idea of this game needing more than 5 years in the oven is laughable. In an age post Assetto, this game should've offered so much more or at the very least things that the first few games had that made them so revolutionary but nah. They played it super safe here and gave us a competent game with padded content.

Also, tell me why the "practice" rounds we have to do in career mode now before the race couldn't just have been a qualifying session? Instead here we have to use this weird betting system to get our position and it's just...so dumb.