I skipped needforspeed undercover, last one I bought was NFS pro-street, and had some issues getting it to work, but finally was able to configure the graphics "lower settings" to keep from having texture issues.. I read that they added a controller input settings page on SHIFT; to set the deadzones and sensitivity.. This was one of my biggest issues with pro-street, I couldn't get the controls setup to use my analog game pad or wheel/pedals combo.. I had to use the gamepad, with driver assists on, and difficulty set to LOW, to even be competative in the races.. Anything else would result in the steering input going from dead center to full lock, acting like brakes, even using the keyboard and tapping technique wasn't suitable for competition.. There was some good suggestions for setting controller input/deadzones and sensitivity for analog game pads, this was one reason I got the demo.. I wanted to see if they delt with the input issues for the PC version.. I have read through some of the suggestions to fixing the audio stuttering, most of which are to disable direct sound, some of the graphics issues require editing an xml file, and running the game as administrator, with some other less secure software settings in XP... I don't want to have to compramise my computers security, or disable hardware audio, or reduce the graphics settings, for a pair of 8800gts graphics cards... They really need to work out the issues on PC hardware that meets and exceedes the minimum specs, so that we can run the game out of the box.. As it stands, it appears to be an Unmarketable, defective product that was not properly tested for use on standard/current PC gaming hardware. The one thing I noticed in the minimum PC specs is a requirement to have windows XP service pack 3.. I can't find any technical white papers discribing exactly why service pack 3 is needed and I don't see any major differences in Direct-x or D3D that would be effected by having either service pack 3 or 2.. I don't have service pack 3, but I see that people who DO have service pack 3 installed, are still having the same issues, including stuttering audio, black screens, and crashes with memory read exceptions.