Some random thoughts:
Still going to beat Twisted difficulty on first playthrough. Went back and easily cleared the racing level after having a better understanding of boosting. The Brothers Grimm at first seemed like a cool boss fight (though it is dumb you can't really consistently dodge the waves from behind), but then I reached the 2nd part and I basically ragequit after several tries. Man, what am I doing wrong? This game does not control that precisely for this shit to make sense to me. I'm not particularly good at sacrificing faction leaders with moving launchers in Nuke, but this seems way harder. I was warming up to Twisted difficulty, but this is stopping me dead in my tracks.
Hunted blows. Just makes me hate the aiming mechanics. It is a complete clusterfuck. As far as I am concerned this game is all about Death Match in a handful of maps (not including the amount when broken up). Suislide of New York is my favorite map I think.
Juggernaut seems to be at a significant advantage. I'm not sure if it is overpowered, but certainly far more powerful than other cars. Way too much health. My "strategy" against them is to run away from them unless their health is very, very low and I have a bunch of weapons. Reapers get points so fast. I destroy them with Meat Wagon, but I have to work my ass off to even keep up in score. Talon is annoying and probably should have less health or maybe have to fly low in order to use certain weapons.
Playing ranked makes me want to sell this game. Unranked is way more fun. It is too bad everyone is sucked into the grinding vortex so they can get their unlocks. Ranked matches outnumber unranked by a large margin and unranked doesn't give you exp so that isn't likely to change. Disconnecting from a ranked match is like watching hours go to waste. I hope it wasn't Jaffe's decision because it would make him quite the hypocrite for dissing progression mechanics in multiplayer games on Giant Bomb's e3 podcast. Those comments sold me on this game. (This is way worse than a Call of Duty progression for example).
Playing with infinite ammo/weapons + Sweet Tooth = LOL. I got booted from a game that way.
Well the unlocks can be a bit of a disappointment, but you really have a equal fighting chance with every vehicle. Juggernaut/Talon have limited spawns in certain game modes. Like in Nuke you are only allowed one juggernaut. If that Juggernaut gets destroyed you can no longer spawn as Juggernaut. And that applies to the entire team. And considering how large of a vehicle he is. You have a higher successful rate of landing an attack. Talon is really weak, but I doubt many people use "Free Look 2" or even pay attention to Talon at all. And is especially is a pain to try and kill a Talon player when they just break line of sight over and over and over and over. If more than one player decides to focus on Talon that vehicle is dead honestly. Talon is annoying because players are not paying attention. If you have several people taking notice Talon is dead. This is really a issue of the skill threshold and not so much balance.
But the special upgrades like absorption shield, super mine, reverse freeze are neat. Stuff like Turbo boost really is only effective with bigger vehicles. And the only time I have ever used Turbo Boost with a smaller vehicle is to break line of sight with a sniper or just breaking line of sight in general. But I wish it was available at the start. The Kill streaks bonus could be toned down a little. But if its a team match and you are well coordinated you will learn to focus fire down the player with those streaks.
I would also like to bring up the point that when you do rank up your rewarded with something that is actually effective immediately. I hated ranking up in games where you would get a bunch of filler perks/talents that rarely helped you. And it wasn't until you got near the last few ranks when you would unlock stuff that was useful. Also you encounter the issue of balance. Thus everyone chooses the same 2 or 3 weapons/perks/talents because the rest are underpowered or just not as potent. Everything you can unlock can have equal potential and there is a check and balance to everything. You have the potential to be deadly with death warrant as much as sweet tooth.
I am not saying I prefer the unlockable/ranked method. But in comparison to what is out there at least what you do unlock is effective and not just filler.
Depending on the map I would say it is easier to use some vehicles compared to others. Some Like Diesel City is good for Reaper because you have a lot of places to break line of sight. Sweet Tooth works well with this map as well because the alt special makes it really easier to traverse the map. While stuff Like Sunsprings and Waytkins Harbor work well with Darkside, Road Kill, Outlaw. Gives you plenty of room to pummel your enemy with damage overtime specials because of the very flat terrain.
Also when it comes to controls I think people are still not understanding how accelerate/quick turn works. The longer you hold down quick turn the longer you vehicle with slide in that direction. I normally will face my vehicle directly towards a pick-up then slide into it. So when I grab the weapon I am already facing the direction I want to go next. And your accelerate acts like your grip. When you are facing the direction you want to be you want to immediately let go of the quick turn and slam on the turbo. You vehicle will pull straight forward and stop sliding. This game is very punishing/rewarding depending on your ability to multi-task. Turning/boosting/jumping/shooting all simultaneously. I would also go as far to say most people right now still don't understand the full potential of each weapon.
The only legitimate complaint I can see with the single player campaign is that all the AI is targeting you. When this happens you are going to be bouncing around like crazy. I remember flipping literally upside so many times when I was playing the single player. The lighter the vehicle to more prone it is to bounce. And this is obviously frustrating because you can't even attempt to get away in this state. And your shield ability is meant to give you very brief protection. Being bombard non-stop makes using the shield null and void most of the time. And weapons where you have to stay aiming at your target to keep the damage going (like crimson fury special). Being bounced around makes that special really useless because even if you can control that car perfectly you will just get bounced around and do zero damage.