PGR4 is the race of your life!
The early signs are good according to Project Gotham Racing 4’s excellent opening sequence – stylish, hugely cinematic and boomingly accompanied by The Prodigy’s ‘The Shadow’. It does a fantastic job of whetting your appetite and you’ll be itching to get to grips with it immediately. If not sooner...
Dive in and PGR4’s new features soon become apparent. For a kick-off Bizarre Creations has injected character. Players choose a male or female driver, bespoke their outfit, automotive paint-job and, for the first time, pick a nationality. Immediately you’ll see the potential for international rivalries there. The next revelation is the new emphasis on fun. We were thundering around the tracks like seasoned professionals thanks to the slightly widened corners. In a similar vein we’re told that everyone will be able to experience all of PGR4’s features regardless of the difficulty setting chosen – nothing is reserved for experts only. It’s a nicely democratic gesture but purists needn’t worry as it only makes PGR4 more inclusive – and being able to blast at least some of the corners does wonders for your ego too! In any case hardcore gamers still have their racing lines to perfect and will find their match on the harder settings. So what else is new? Well, too much that can be covered here, but the bits you’ll want to know about are the weather effects, the new cities and the motorbikes. Weather first, and the major conditions (varying degrees of dry, rain, fog, snow and ice) do more than just make the game look pretty. For instance fog affects the speed you’re able to drive simply because you can’t see as well, while snow and ice will cause the occasional impromptu skid and so on. Above all the weather affects the racing mood, particularly when clouds amass and a storm breaks halfway through a crucial final lap. In terms of racing locations PGR3’s courses make a return here, albeit altered by corner-widening, weather, time of day etc. New cities include Macau, St. Petersburg, a hilly Quebec and a stunning Bladerunner-esque Shanghai. There’s the Michelin Test Track and a snowbound Nurburgring too. All told it’s double the game for your money. And so to the bikes. We got to grips with two during our preview playtest, both of which were blindingly quick and realistically twitchy when raced in first-person view. But what a laugh they are to ride – wheelies, ‘endos’ and other stunts are eminently possible, which makes for some great pictures in the game’s Photo Mode. So how does it play? Well the basic gameplay mechanics haven’t changed radically, however the slackening of the difficulty curve along with a reworked Kudos system, advanced opponent AI, the host of single and multiplayer options, awesome cars and bikes, dynamic weather and the new human element make the game more open, inviting and downright playable. “Dramatic, thrilling and bold” was Bizarre Creations’ brief and they’ve succeeded brilliantly, as you’ll soon find out. Roll on October, we say! |
