Underground 2 and Most Wanted were the better games in the more recent iterations.
Carbon has a better customization system (especially the paint colors), and the class system is pretty interesting, but the cop chases are bad. MW made it fun to be chased by the cops and they were required to get to the 15 boss races (which were challenging), while Carbon makes it feel like a chore and they are no longer necessary. The canyon duels are really cool but there are only 4 boss races, which is a bummer. Also, because of the tiers system, certain cars are worthless because they are in a lower tier, whereas in MW as long as you could afford it, you could upgrade it it to the max and compete with any other car.
I never got to play Pro Street, but it's back to racing tracks instead of an open world environment in that game, which is a good and bad thing.
Undercover is kind of disappointing, and I'm considering trading it in to get Shift instead. Low draw distance means there's texture pop-in, the environments aren't anything to write home about, car details aren't an improvement, weak story, odd steering physics, bad collision detection, no pedestrians and not a lot of traffic except for the highways make the game feel devoid of human life, and so on...
Shift, however, looks incredible. EA's handed the development over to a completely different company and it looks fantastic. IGN gave it a 9 while Undercover got a 4, and I generally agree with their reviews for all of the games I have with some exceptions, like Prince of Persia. I borrowed that game from a friend and it's... overrated. It's nowhere near as good as the old PoP games. Sands of Time is awesome and I'm considering picking up the other two in that series (Two Thrones and Warrior Within) because they're cheap.
