Characters meh, got over them in the chinese restaurant. Hated the reload times also but loved the game.
Its nice sitting down with the one car and having a high speed road-trip. I know people didn't like the fact that garages weren't common so you could change your car but its a race, you don't get to waste time swapping cars. Personally If it were up 2 me you would only swap cars after those horrible quick time beasts.
My ignore list: n/a
Probably need to be online, dont like games much if they do not have LAN capabilities.