NFS Underground

[darkt0aster]

bought it for my bro' for xmas
played it through
beat it, etc
/me now drives a 24 karat golf gti w00t!...not really, but I did make one
the 'go underground' mode...the intro sucked (you drive some awesome looking acura integra, finish the race and then....) it was a freakin dream that lasted for one poorly written up race ("do you belong in underground racing, you newbie?!" or something similar).
the main body of it was filled with lame insults, very linear structure, and I think they give you a little too much money (even doing easy all the time game me over 40k cash left over at the end of the game) and very unprogressive cars (went miata for over 1/2 the game and 0wnt) until you're forced to upgrade to something (I ended up using Miata --> RSX --> RX-7 --> Skyline) because the catchup system in this game is way too much until you happen to drop behind, then the pplz in front race near-flawless.
and then I reached the end. I race the king of the streets BUT WAIT I then get challenged by some car mag cover girl in a crummy nissan 350z for no apparent reason and then it's THE END
...I get some video of that cover girl walking towards me in a bright light and some other lady saying "Is that what your dream is?" (or something to that extent)... (sorry if I ruined this worthwhile and exciting ending--NOTE SARCASM)

A few other things that irked me along the way:
-why are circuts and knockouts so much harder than sprints and drifts?
-why is the handling attribute of a car so worthless?

after beating the game I sat there for a minute or two more with my jaw dropped thinking:
I just gave x many hours of my life to reach THIS when I could have been playing something much more worthwile?
I saved, turned off the system, went to it again the next day, used my l33t rx-7 to unlock EVERYTHING in 3 more drift races worth of style points, then customized my cars. now that I've done everything, the replay value of the game for me just dropped to zero.
Now I'll probably hardly touch the game again, there's nothing more to do but help my brother reach the fabulous let-down that waits for him after 111+ races...(of course there'll be online play, but It'll just be filled with people using nothing but maxed-out skylines and isn't worth moving my ps2 close to my broadband jack)

anybody else have any thoughts on this game?