LockeProposal's Big Day Out

+ Quality of music selection was decent, and complemented the game's atmosphere+ You can play around with your vehicles' accessories, such as deployable roofs, turn signals, and windows; not at all functional, but it is the little attention to detail that I appreciate+ Fast travel is available for discovered points of interest, stripping away some of the monotony of driving from waypoint to waypoint+ Healthy variation in biomes and terrain types+ Absolutely massive traversible maps (Even better when you unlock Hawaii)+ Reasonable variety of cars available in-game, and your choice of starter vehicles can actually remain viable alternatives for much of the early-mid game+ Off-road tracks are some of the most fun in the game, and could be very creative in design and technical challenge+ Funds are not too hard to come-by, reducing chances you will get bogged down and find yourself in a rut+ Cars, character, and homes are shockingly customizable+ Social aspects are both well-implemented and go a long way to improving potential replay value; being able to drive up to other players in real-time and challenge them to a race by flashing my headlights is a lot of fun, and I felt that it really added to the experience+ Licenses are required to unlock different types of races and challenges; this expanded a feeling of progression- Some of the requirements for leveling up are not adequately explained- Despite the quality of many (not all) of the songs, the overall soundtrack is severely limited; there are only two available radio stations, and they cycle between, perhaps, 14 total tracks- NPC drivers boast fairly awful AI, and prove far too easy to overcome- Occasional, disappointing framerate stutters and other visual bugs that I had expected to be ironed out- Invasive, time-consuming, unnecessary DRM; requires additional downloads and the creation of a third-party account (hosted on a poorly designed and barely function Web site, no less)- Character animations, models, and voice-acting are rock-bottom abysmal- Some game progress (such as requirements found under the 'social' category) requires getting large numbers of human-controlled players on your friends list and in-game, playing with you; simply put, however, this game doesn't appear to boast the player population to warrant this, and it will make these hurdles difficult to overcome