Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) - total addiction for racers

Five years ago I was sucked into a black hole by 'Burnout Paradise' from Criterion games. The culmination of their 'Burnout' franchise, it offered a true open seamless world of racing and stunts and crashes. Fast forward to fall 2012 and EA releases Need For Speed: Most Wanted. The game itself is Burnout Paradise 2, for all practical purposes. The main difference is the inclusion of Need For Speed's stable of 'real' cars - the whole gamut from Chevy to Lamborghini is there. Graphics are gorgeous, sound effects are awesome, the bass on impacts is really deep and visceral.

I'm playing on a DIY HTPC based on an Asus P8Z68-V mobo with an i5 2500K CPU 3.3ghz and an NVIDIA Gforce GTX-550Ti card connected to a Vizio 55" razor 3D TV. It can be a potent combo visually, but sadly 3D conversion does not look great in NFSMW. My copy is a download from Origin. Anybody know if anything is sacrificed with a download version vs. a disc? Seems like a small file for such a big game.

I'm not really reviewing the game, I'm just interested if anyone else is playing. The only glitch I have found it that in online mode, it's impossible to get the Powershot Pro nitrous upgrade because online the game doesn't seem to recognize nitrous-powered takedowns. However the first update appears to be out, I just checked while typing this. Hopefully it's fixed!

You'll find the map is similar in size. I wished it was larger but with 100 hours into the game I'm only becoming really comfortable now. Hopefully this game sees a proper expansion pack, I want to keep my cars. If I was allowed to dream, they would release a 'Motorstorm Apocalypse' type expansion... bring the explosions floods and quakes, I say.