So who's playing this?
My impressions so far...
Physics/Controls
Feels a lot like Dirt2 really, the only thing that is new is tyre deformation (i can definately feel it, it's also possible to see it in replays actually... not as good as LFS, but it's there). Feels slightly arcade sometimes (i think the cars still rotate around a center axis). Nevertheless, cars handle well and are responsive to your input. Feel of weight could be better, it's not bad tho, better than GT5 or FM3 at least. It's not a sim, but close enough to be very enjoyable.
I regret it a little that i've decided for the xbox version, since people on PS3 are reporting the game to handle quite nicely with a G25/G27.
Gameplay/Content/Career
They said this one would focus much more on classic rally stages again... which isn't really true. There's only four countries for rallying and quite often you're driving parts of the same stages. Needs more countries with different stages urgently!
I'd say it's almost an even mix of classic rally stages, Trailblazer, Raid, Rallycross and Gymkhana. If you're hoping for a lot of rally stages, you'll be left disappointed. Also, roads are still far to wide for a rally game...
Gymkhana is a great addition tho, it's a lot of fun!!
Car selection is nice! There's some good variety from modern WRC cars to good old classics (going back as far as 1960 even).
Difficulty is good for me. There's a setting you can adjust going from 1-6 (6 being the hardest setting). If you play it on "pro", difficulty is set to 5 and so far i didn't feel like raising it to 6... if i do a very good run, i usually finish with a lead of about two seconds at best.
I had to restart some events a few times because of minor mistakes. Gymkhana events are actually pretty hard to master perfectly... there's always bronze, silver and gold to win, which are easy... but then there's also platinum which can be very hard to reach (replayed a single event for four hours yesterday until i got it right!). Definately feels rewarding IMO!
The career is ok for me since i'm trying to win everything and get all platinum medals, which requires lots of restarts for the difficulty i chose (and my driving skills). However, if you are either REALLY fast, or don't care about platinum medals or finishing 2nd in a few rally stages... i guess it could be way too short for some people.
IMO it's a fun game to play with a nice mix of events and cars.
Graphics
Again, pretty much like Dirt2. I feel like water splash effects looked a little nicer in Dirt2 actually... otherwise i couldn't really see a big difference.
For an xbox game it looks very nice. A little too much blur/glow/etc for my taste, but then again, this seems to be a big trend nowadays...
Haven't seen any glitches or "ugly" things so far. It all looks pretty good to my eyes (again, for an xbox game that is).
Online
Haven't played it online yet to be honest. The new modes should be quite entertaining (capture the flag with cars in a gymkhana arena for example)!
If it's anything like Dirt2, i know i'll have a lot of fun!