Only had this since Monday night, but have had a few go's already.
I'd say it's way better than Most Wanted, but plays the same as Underground/Underground 2.
There's a few new features which include the Rivalry System. Which instead of playing like in Most Wanted where you battle to the top of the Most Wanted List, you battle it out with certain Gangs across Town, where if you piss off a Leader enough, he/She'll challenge you to a race (or series of races). If you win, you get their "turf".
Havent gotten into too much of that yet, still getting the grips of what to do.
You have your own Crew as such, where you start out with 1 guy (a Blocker). There's 4 types of Crew Members, Blockers, Scouts, and another 2, (1 includes a Drifter where you get in their slip stream and shoot passed them). - I just can't think of the details.
You can race with either Manual or Auto cars (simple change in the Menu). But while driving an Auto, you can manually change Gears just by knocking the Right Stick up or down! It's a sweet invention in my opinion.
So far, I love the looks, and feel, much better than Most Wanted (I thought that title was rushed, and lacked initiative).