I wasn't able to find that thread but my problem with Citta Nouva wasn't with how hard it was to navigate (though it wasn't exactly easy!). My problem was that the AI went mental on it. I felt that, in the single races, it didn't matter so much how well you raced it, but how lucky you were with what the enemies hit you with. And I got no pleasure from eventually getting through it with luck.

Unfortunately, last night, I found the same thing on two tracks in Pulse in the higher classes - Platinum Rush and Outpost 7. Bugged the hell out of me. Even in Citta Nouva I survived longer (though still lost every race when I got hit with the Disruptor - which is now thankfully gone). Though I realised part of that was me hitting walls and losing more shield than I should. So I do need to get better at those tracks. Still, my deaths felt entirely random and that was frustrating.

I'm on Platinum Grid 2 now and have got every gold except one. That one is the 12 race tournament of death on Rapier.

It does have me wondering though - in Pure, one of the things I felt personally (and it took me a long time to realise this) is that the game punished you too hard for being hit by weapons but not hard enough in terms of time for hitting a wall. If anything, Pulse takes that further - I'm seeing little or no punishment in time for hitting a wall (though of course there is shield damage) and massive punishment for being the victim of a plamsa/quake combo. I was hoping it would go the opposite way to get it back more to the racing ability and remove the blind luck aspect of Citta Nouva.

But back on topic, the more I play it the more two tracks really stand out as being wonderful - Moa Therma and the Amphiseum. I love that loop section in Amphiseum that feels like a plain ol' racetrack. It's fantastic. And at Phantom, playing Moa Therma is a dream. It's an easy track in terms of layout but still not so easy at Phantom to present no challenge and the AI aren't crazy on it.