PGR 2 Paris Booster: The Tracks
There is a slim chance that we’ve exchanged paint via XboxLive®, but we’ve probably never met. Still, I know you.
You’re a freak for Project Gotham Racing® 2. Your Xbox Live PGR™ 2 rating is in the mid-20s. Your favorite cars are the Mini (for Cat and Mouse) and the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 (even though you haven’t unlocked it … yet). You’ve probably lost track of the hours you’ve spent speeding over PGR 2’s planet-spanning network of courses, but I’ll bet your significant other hasn’t.
Let me hazard a guess: You’re still enthralled with PGR 2, but something about the game has been bothering you lately. Feeling a bit, shall we say, confined? I mean, you can only slide your way around St. Basil’s Square a certain number of times before going batty.
Say bon jour to the new Paris track!
Well, my friend, you’re suffering a bout of Island Fever, PGR 2-style. But, don’t despair. There is a cure, and it’s headed your way in the form of new downloadable content that will set you loose on seven new PGR 2courses, laid out on the wide tree-lined streets and boulevards of Paris—Europe’s famed City of Lights. And, your driving experience will be enhanced by the eight new cars included in the game’s new content offering.
The Paris Booster Pack, which should be available in mid-May, is the first of two Premium content offerings for PGR 2. Another, which will feature a city on America’s West Coast, will be available this summer. Both will sell for $4.95 via Xbox Live.
The cars in the Paris Booster Pack range from the Porsche 356 A Carrera Speedster to the Chevrolet Corvette C6 Z51 to the ultra-hot TVR Cerbera Speed 12 (which comes in a color that wasn’t available when the game originally shipped). Best of all, you won’t have to complete the Kudos World Series at the Platinum level to claim the Speed 12. All you do is purchase the Paris Download Pack … and off you go!
If you don’t purchase the Paris Booster Pack, you’ll still be able to see the new cars—as they fly past you on the virtual street of Xbox Live. However, if a host selects a Paris-based circuit, players who have not purchased the new content will be left in the lobby.
Race through the City of Lights.
Paris’ historic monuments and major attractions, like the Eiffel Tower and the L’Arc de Triomphe, are displayed in incredible detail. For those of you keeping score at home, here are the names of the new courses (although these names will be much more meaningful after you’ve driven them):
- Le Circuit Complet
- Les Deux Ponts
- Elysees Challenge
- Les Monuments Celebres
- L’Arc de Triomphe
- Avenue D’Ilena
- Circuit Interieur
In this article, I’ll focus on just one of the new layouts: Circuit Interieur. It’s a relatively short track (about one mile in length), but it’s a total high-speed blast to drive. Imagine a simple little U.S.-style stock car track (all the turns are lefties) plopped down, smack in the middle of super-sophisticated Paris. That’s the essence of Circuit Interieur. It emphasizes speed, with three straight-aways interrupted by three turns of varying sharpness.
The key to posting fast lap times is getting through the corners cleanly. Driving the powerful and fast Speed 12, I was able to get around Circuit Interieur in just under 31 seconds. But, I’m much prouder of the lap I turned in the Subaru Impreza 22B—36.232 seconds—because I didn’t bang it off the walls, like I did with the Speed 12.
Great triumph stop: beneath L’Arc de Triomphe.
The final turn, which comes at the end of the longest straightaway, is the hardest to negotiate. To get through it, you have to slow down to a crawl, which almost completely kills your momentum. (Unless you’d rather use the guardrail to turn the car, as I did to complete my fastest lap around the circuit in the Speed 12. Sure, it was a good time, but I wasted an opportunity to score Kudos for style.)
Like I said at the beginning, I know you. And, I know you are going to love the new tracks and cars. The new content freshens thePGR 2 experience, just like lowering the top of a convertible. It’s the same car, but it just feels different.
By Keith Procter
