Lemme get this straight, as it's that time of the year, Autumn in full swing, it's 2004, you're sitting in the evening in front of your older's brother computer playing this ABSOLUTE BANGER - nothing else matters. It was the first one to introduce the open world, no stupid teleports, no fast travel, just driving and exploration. The customization was top notch and keep in mind that NFSU2 allowed the players to DYNO TUNE their cars! Once I got the hang of it it simply made my cars drive better. The race types were pretty standard (circuit, sprint, drift and drag) tho there were some that stood out like Street X (when you're driving on the dirt/drift courses with no nitro available),URLs (which while while seemed like regular circuits, they made you feel like you're climbing those underground racing league ranks) and of course the OUTRUN. Who doesn't love the outrun, am I right? Additionally the game was taking place at night without any stupid police, and while the police was a big thing in the successor of it, that is Most Wanted which I also played and loved, I prefer not to bothered by some cop cars giving me a headache when I'm cruising down the streets. Overall it's my favourite Need For Speed game, this is how PEAK looks like.
Gameplay's great, driving model's great, customization's great, open world is great and there are things to explore, music's great (I still listen to Rise Against after over 20 years), climate's great.
GOAT 10/10