This game is more racer than a cops & street racer game and while it does look gorgeous, it's not what you expect.
How can you not expect great things? Burnout Paradise played like a dream and looked good. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit looks even better. The graphical detail of the cars is drool worthy and the scenery is so absolutely gorgeous that it takes your breath away. If this game was a game where you went around driving for fun and looked at the amazing beautiful scenery then it'd be half way to being a successful game. This game just looks phenomenal, the graphics are wonderful.
Hot Pursuit doesn't handle nearly as well as Burnout Paradise--the various cars handle differently often either too tight or too loose. The engine running this game changes up the way the cars feel and how you control them. I can't put my finger on what's different or why it doesn't feel right, but they're not as easy to control as burnout paradise. There's no adjustment on controls sensitivity that I could find, and that hurt my overall rating of this title.
I've read some people complaining about the music. You can play your own playlists from your own music collection on your PS3, so if you don't like the music simply put on some music from your own collection.
It should be noted that I don't have any online friends, so I was unable to benefit from the autolog and competitive online friends features that seem to drive Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. I'm sure that hurt my opinion of the game, but I'm not a huge online multiplayer-more of a single player person.
But my biggest complaint with this game is that is simply lacks in that cops and street racers feel to it. Ok, don't get me wrong, there are cops and racers in this game and that's what this game advertises to be all about. But nearly half the events are a sort of time trial whether you're a racer or a police officer. Even when you're a racer you don't always run into the police cars during races. When you race a time trial as a cop even if you bump even the slightest part of the wall the game penalizes you. If you don't manage to find the right short cuts and never crash into anything, you'll never have a chance at even a silver on these time trial events.
Even when you do run into opposition, it often feels lame, the Police barricades have a huge hole in the middle of them, the spike strips (which seems effective in concept) are hard to release properly but can be difficult to miss when you're the victim of one. The other weapons are ok, but not great and not exciting.
These various things add up to a rather disappointing need for speed game unless you're looking for another predictable albeit beautiful arcade racer with cop pursuit elements tossed in an over-the-top fun fashion. But be prepared to slug through so many time trials that you will want to go back to Burnout Paradise.