Ug, had to dig for this to fill out the response.
Ok, played Arcade Stage which apparently is called Project D in the USA, so I guess that explains that. On the whole I was really impressed. Though I only played it in automatic transmission mode, the physics seemed good, not to terribly hard to control either. Really it was a lot like a weater down version of the show (watered down controls that is, otherwise we'd all crash
). Only played as the Trueno Sprinter AE86 and the Skyline GTR R32 though. But the cool thing is not only does it have all the cars from every stage (it has the pic of the character by the car when you select it) but it also has other similar models that are newer. IE more evos, and I think the R33 or something was there too.
The maps that I played were Myogi (Easy level), Akina (Hard level), and Happagohara (Expert).
Myogi was too easy and uninteresting with very wide turns, not really much fun. Akina had a lot of good turns but I tended to hit the wall a lot. I accidentaly selected Happagohara ;P That map is brutal. Suffice it to say I never got near the bridges
And yes, for those who have seen Initial D, it has those insane 90 degree turns followed by the straight away on the downhill.
On the whole, the maps looked VERY close to what I remember them looking like. I really loved playing the game and god I hope it makes a debut on the PS2 in the US. Once I get money, I'm so getting a PS2 (mostly for games like FF9 and 10, Xenogears and Xeno saga, and other RPGs). I want this game soooooo badly.
-Karrde-