The actual racing doesn't do much to salvage the game. The one thing you can't complain about are the controls, which handle reasonably well. There are some issues with drifts spinning out, even when you aren't really traveling all that fast, and the collision detection is random, to say the least. But otherwise, the cars handle fine. The most obnoxious thing about races involves the blatantly obvious rubber-band artificial intelligence. It actually works both ways, though. If you're way behind, the game will let you catch up to your opponents...to a degree. It will stop you, however, just when it seems like you're within reach of them. You can speed up whenever you hit your nitro, though, but you're basically blockaded from the lead. On the flip side, if you manage to hit the lead, your main opponent will always be just behind you, waiting for you to slip up. The most hysterical thing is that other cars will actually go out of their ways to bump you, just to make sure you don't beat the main opponent. To say this is frustrating would be an understatement.
The tracks are thoroughly dull as well. All the races take place in something of an open-ended city, but there's such a limited number of paths to take. Apart from a few bouts with big jumps, it's just long straightaway, hairpin turn, 90-degree turn, another long straightaway, slight curve, another hairpin, and so on. It all becomes predictable and boring very quickly. There's a free ride mode in the adventure mode, but that's even duller, since there's absolutely nothing to do in the city save for earning some more fame and finding occasional shortcuts (of which there are few).
Apart from the fact that Top Gear isn't really broken in any way, there's not really anything nice to say about it.
Top Gear won't wow you with its graphics or sound, either. The game is decidedly lacking in flash or style of any kind. The main cars you drive are the most polished, but even they look sort of chunky and jaggy. The other cars that make up the random traffic and police, however, are altogether unbelievable. They actually look half-finished, at most, and they feature blatantly missing textures all over the place. The city you drive around has a decent amount of traffic, but everything just looks bland and low-res. Even attempts at silly little visual effects, like motion blur when you hit your nitrous oxide boost, just seem cheaply done. Now, factor in that there's only one camera angle available (and it's way too close behind your car) and that frame rate issues pop up frequently, and you have a pretty low-rent-looking game. The audio is just as mediocre. Voice acting is predictably forced and awful, the engine noises sound tinny, the crashes are exceedingly underwhelming, and the music is basically the same obnoxious techno loop over and over and over and over again.
The Xbox is not exactly a platform that's hurting for quality racing games or, specifically, quality street racing games. Sure, Top Gear is a measly $20, but when you consider that practically every other street racer on the market pretty much destroys it in terms of features--be they gameplay, modes, or presentation--it's utterly impossible to recommend Top Gear RPM Tuning to anyone.
