A little harsh, but some valid complaints. The artificiality is sometimes visible because of inconsistency, and that ruins things by turning challenge into frustration.
But it also happens on hot laps, just later in the game. The penultimate is the Venom hotlap. A car that has massive understeer instantly snaps into massive oversteer, corners that have different grip for no reason, different penalty zones, etc. The physics aren't consistent, and it is only done to make it artificially hard. In short, too frustrating to be fun and it leaves a bad taste because it is last part of the game I played.
The lighting complaint is also valid. There were a few times it was hard to make out things and I had to mess with my tv settings.
Still a very good game, and aside from Borderlands2, my most played game this year but I'm done.
Edit: & when you say "waiting for the first decent next gen racer", I take it you've played the two Forza games? How do they compare?
They can. Usually there is one or two cars that speed up un-naturally so that the last lap is intense. It is just hidden rubberbanding and it is cool until it is seen, then frustrating. The best bet is just to drive clean and be in first until the last lap, then drive that lap aggro.
