This would have been a great car or game night game for teams if not for the annoying loud music and sounds
597851
I would have liked this game had the music and noises  not been so loud and annoying.  Also, it did not come with batteries, but not all electronic game/toys come with batteries.

 It's a shame as it would have been a great car game or game night with teams, if not for the noise and there is no volume control.
1208267
I liked NFS Most Wanted and Carbon, and this one is more or less in between. If you don't know anything about NFS you may find this game a lot of fun, but if you know the racing franchise then you may be disappointed.

I don't want to repeat all the things that other reviewers have written, but if I may, I'd like to cite at least THE MOST annoying things happening in the game on a PC.

- the story line kind of blows because you have the boss lady telling you what to do and when, and if it would make sense I would have no problems with that, but all of the sudden she tells you to infiltrate a new team of racers as an undercover cop but you don't even know why.

- the voice messages you get during game play may be totally inappropriate, as there is sometimes either a delay, or some comments are just plain not part of that mission (you can tell if you played several times)

- the game is ARCADE, yes, you got me: ARCADE. The car are seldom totaled, (besides in a highway battle) otherwise you do the craziest moves on your wheels and you're still going full speed ahead!

- cop cars, as well as other cars, sometimes drop on the street from the sky!!! Also, maybe to make the game more difficult, some random drivers change lane abruptly right in front of you, just to slow you down.

- even if you drive a super car, like a McLaren F1 or a Bugatti Veyron, and you're doing 250 MPH, you have stupid cop's SUV going FASTER than you! What the hell?

- The most annoying thing ever: CUT-SCENES! During cop chases, you can drop the cops by breaking stuff. The chase breakers are accompanied by a cutscene DURING WHICH YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER YOUR CAR, and if you're unlucky a road block with spikes is put right ahead of you and after the cut scene is over, you have no way to avoid the spikes!!!

- At the end of a long chase with the cops, as you're about to be done, a helicopter shows up right in front of your nose out of no where, forcing you to replay the mission if you want the 'domination' award

- sometimes, objects like concrete walls and fences THAT YOU CANNOT BREAK are not visible on the road but you will crash on them anyway

- While you are playing, especially when you get a really fast car, the scene is not drawn fast enough (even with a super fast computer or lowering game quality to medium) and the road ahead of you is not shown, when the game finally get its sh** together again you find yourself with a short time lag of no control and you may crash

- sometimes while you're customizing your car (aftermarket stuff) the game freezes for no reason!

If you think you can cope with all this, and the fact that EA has not yet released a patch to fix all these things, then go ahead and buy the game. Otherwise...

The Good things about it:
- The in game music is IMHO really good. That's just me.
- Cars are really well drawn, all details really well done.
- The Tri City is kind of cool, giving you a SoCal city kind of feeling.
- The open space is not so open, you can quickly get a hold of where you are and where to go.

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My setup: DELL 24" monitor, X-Telstar ATX case, Corsair 650W PSU, ASUS M3N72 Mobo, nVidia 750a SLI chipset, G-Skill 2x2Gb DDR2-1066, Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition, EVGA GTX260 core 216 superclocked and 2x500Gb WD 7200 rpm and Logitech Z5500 5.1 surround sound system
1593127
It's way too quiet I truned up the mic volume and no one can hear me that well but the game sound is very clear and nice, although I got this mostly for talking to my friends so I'm giving it a 2 star, I wish for them to fix this.
4593289
So loud and annoying. My son refuses to play with it. It is too bright and very over stimulating. It will go off in the middle of night. You will hear it in your dreams, baby monitor, echos. It is horrible. Buy this for someone you don't really like but need to get their kid a gift. It's terrible!
2777776
Loud but they have a Japanese car horn sound, not a deep American horn sound.
1008384
We have two of these for our sons' rooms (one 6, one 3), and as CD players and radios, they work great. Unfortunately, we've had to remove them from both boys' rooms because the engine revving key effect goes off randomly, even in the middle of the night. After several nights of one or both boys ending up in our bed because they were awakened at 3 AM by the INCREDIBLY LOUD sound of "it's a great day for racing, vroom vroom!" as the boombox randomly went off for no apparent reason. There's no way to disable this feature at all, and it's a glaring design feature--if it were only one unit I'd chalk it up as defective or a short or something, but clearly it's a systemic problem with the model, because BOTH of them do it.

Aside from that fatal flaw, they're great, affordable CD radios; they even play MP3 discs which is awesome. Unfortunately I can't have something in preschool kids' rooms that randomly blares a strange man's voice and car sounds randomly at all hours.
110375
The children loves it,but the grown ups including me were annoyed it's too loud and repetious!
4927445
My son got this for a Christmas present, it's a cool idea but beware it is sooo annoying. These a little basketball that goes with it and when he shoots hoops there is a loud bang every time he score a shot
549117
My daughter loves this toy - as she does the discovery house that leap frog makes. That's really what counts here. However, this toy is annoying. Most of the sound elements are songs or animal noises. My child will often press one button over and over and over. It grates on your nerves after a while. Happy baby. Headache mommy.
2630261
DIGITAL SOUND QUALITY REVIEW

the sound balancing is totally whack. Public areas/festivals are excruciatingly loud, but conversations are barely perceptible. I like movies loud, but this was ridiculous. I couldn't hear some of the conversations but then had to cut volume in half to endure the festival scenes.

Side note: If you have a fear of shark attack while in an inland pool . . . you may have acquired it from thunderball!
1517126
The interior finish is well constructed and easy to keep clean. The issue I have is the sound when it runs. It's loud and annoying...
4802515
Great idea for my 2006 Toyota Sienna, and was easy to set up and use. Unfortunately, the incredible amount of background buzz and hissing noises when playing music via bluetooth ruined the experience for me. Returned.
888304
Too loud. Makes noises that sound like they do not belong on a toy truck. Like show tunes.
2871118
Bought this for my nephew because I wanted him to have something loud and annoying, LOL.  It went with the police uniform I got him.  Yes, it's loud, almost deafening.  Be sure to buy the kid earplugs to go with it.
1516925
Our boys love this & it's well built.
Overall it's worth it.

We do like the fun music & turn signals.

These are the negatives. If the company were to improve these we would buy the new product.

- REVERSE! The beeping is beyond horrible!
- The pillow is floppy & awkward
-  The road is a little town on which the car cannot stay. Our kids would have more fun with it if the track were just a straight road with lines so the car can stay even close to on course.
- No volume control.
580517
The headset looks stylish and feels very comfortable, however, the audio sounds muffled and the microphone picks up quiet sounds, resulting in the lobby hearing breathing and other annoying sounds.
3599358
The toy has decent educational value and is entertaining enough for a young child who is learning alphabet and numbers.  But, it is so ridiculously loud, it can be heard throughout the entire house.  And there appears to be NO volume control!  It is so loud, it makes it uncomfortable for anyone in the room (or the next room for that matter) making it completely worthless.  It's hard to play with something that causes you pain. . .