I like the environment, and free burning was fun. I just didn't like how it affected the gameplay, since everything was obviously built around the concept of racing in an open environment. Only having 8 finish lines and about 30 or so start points dotted around meant things got samey pretty fast. Especially since no new events were ever unlocked. They were all open from the start, and when you advanced a rank your win record was deleted so could (that is, eventually had to) do the events again.
The other events such as stunt run and burning routes I never bothered with. Road Rage did benefit from the open environment though, since you could just drive across the whole city smashing the shit out of everything.
I did like the game when I first started playing, but to me there was very little sense of progression or achievement. 10 hours in and I was still in the same place, doing the same things I did at the start. Never got that feeling with Burnout 3 or Revenge.