That familiarity also means the structure of the game has had to change, too, and it feels a lot more like a conventional racer. Particularly if your morning commute happens to also be between New York and Los Angeles. It's still an impressive achievement and perfectly scaled to evoke the feeling of a road trip as you cruise between cities, but if you spent any significant time with the original, it'll be as familiar as your morning commute. The map of the USA for the sequel is almost exactly the same as the first game. That variety's necessary though, to make up for the areas where the game hasn't changed at all.