Route Creator

It's simply not enough for a developer to release a pretty game, no matter what genre it falls into. Gamers—whether casual or hardcore—want depth. They want the most bang for their buck. For racing fans, customization is just as important a feature as realistic physics and shiny car models. Bizarre Creations, developer of the immensely popular Project Gotham Racing® series, understands this.

Packed into every copy of Project Gotham Racing 3 is the Route Creator, which allows wannabe track designers to stitch together over two million possible tracks from across the globe.

Create your own custom tracks.

I tinkered with the course editor two months prior to the game's launch. Here's a sample of what you can do with it.

Take a World Tour
The Route Creator is conveniently accessed with a few button presses from the main menu of PGR™ 3. The pre-release build gave me four cities on three separate continents to choose from. A former New Yorker, I jumped on the chance to play around with the Big Apple as my race course to see just how authentic a job the artists at Bizarre did in recreating the look and feel of the "city that never sleeps."

This feature alone will undoubtedly
give racing fans something to cheer about.

An overhead map view of Manhattan displayed on the screen; the streets were peppered with tiny boxes and circles that indicated possible start/finish points and optional turns. Using the left thumbstick, I selected a location on the lower east side.

By moving the pointer over specific checkpoints, I systematically chose a winding path that led to the north and east, crossing over what appeared to be the Manhattan Bridge (if memory serves me correctly). Not content to end the race in Brooklyn, I headed south, then west and crossed the river again, this time via what looked like the Brooklyn Bridge, back into Manhattan.

A few button presses later and I saved the course to the hard drive (complete with a unique name) and prepared to take a spin on the streets of NYC.

Race Day
Once I completed the track, I chose a suitable ride to break it in. A few moments later and I was idling at the start line. To get the full effect, I switched to the in-car view by tapping the left shoulder button. I mashed the accelerator and peeled out, staining the pavement in my wake. I didn't get very far before the first turn crept up on me, so I downshifted and took the curve at high speed.

Craft your own masterpiece.

My only opponent to beat was the clock, but I decided to take it slow so I could check out the scenery. Miraculously, I was cruising past buildings and landmarks that looked authentic. As I crossed the first bridge, I turned my view to the side to marvel at the level of detail of the girders and tension cables.

Immediately I felt as if I was driving on familiar turf (without the usual sulfur smell and panhandlers, of course). It was readily apparent the folks at Bizarre did their homework when they scouted the Big Apple.

Millions of Choices
According to Bizarre, you can craft over two million track variations with the Route Creator. Whether you decide to keep these masterpieces to yourself or share them with your buddies online, you'll be hard-pressed to run out of options. This feature alone will undoubtedly give racing fans something to cheer about, as you can expect a healthy amount of user-made courses to spring up on Xbox Live® after the game launches this November.

Keep your eyes peeled for more coverage on PGR 3 as we dig deeper into its gameplay, race courses, and online features.

Article by Franklin Beans