On The Track with Project Gotham Racing 4

Published October 1, 2007

The Project Gotham Racing® series has propelled itself to the elite echelon of games with its blend of style, substance, and an unwavering attention to detail. Unwilling to separate their slick presentation from photorealism and grounded physics, the PGR games represent a rare and satisfying hybrid in racing games.

All hail the classics.

With Project Gotham Racing 4, developer Bizarre Creations has combined a heaping helping of "more is better" along with spectacular new features and additions. From the much anticipated inclusion of motorcycles to iconic cars, dazzling weather effects, a revamped career mode, and online community features, PGR4 delivers on the promise of "next wave."

Two-Wheeled Bliss
Motorcycles will at last grace the PGR experience, and to put one common fear to rest, motorcycle play is not separate from the cars. Two and four wheels alike will do battle through gorgeous cityscapes simultaneously, and the motorcycles on display continue the series' trend of spotlighting the ultimate, high-performance machines. Expect masterpieces from manufacturers like Honda, Ducati, BMW, Kawasaki, and more.

Instead of spending Kudos for individual cars, you acquire packages that include entire themed sets of vehicles, such as The Best of British Pack.

Motorcycle racing in PGR4 provides a refreshing change of pace from the standard car-based racing. They are quicker, nimbler machines capable of squeezing through the narrowest opening, and while mastering them requires a whole new skill set, they're not temperamental or overly fragile. They also offer a whole new way to earn Kudos as you can wheelie, endo, and perform tricks in addition to drifting, drafting, catching air, and all the rest.

Kudos (pun intended) go out to Bizarre Creations as well for recognizing that while a violent tap from a muscle car would send a rider flying in the real world, such hardcore physics would wreak frustration and havoc in-game.

Career Moves
Where the career mode in Project Gotham Racing 3 consisted of a linear set of challenges essentially ticked off a list, PGR4 provides a much less predictable and more dynamic career offering. The career mode is broken down into segments, with each segment typically providing a series of three challenges.

Racing on the edge.

From cone and overtake challenges to standard races, time trials and more, PGR4 keeps you on your toes. What's more, each series is taken as a whole, so in order to gain first place you must prove the worthiest driver/rider throughout the three-event challenge.

Of course, earning Kudos plays as crucial a role as it ever has in both winning events and earning new vehicles. Instead of spending Kudos for individual cars, you acquire packages that include entire themed sets of vehicles, such as The Best of British Pack. You can even spend Kudos to unlock variant tracks across the cities as well.

The Weather Factor
The addition of motorcycles isn't PGR4's only blockbuster feature. The wholly unpredictable and game-changing weather system influences every aspect of the game. Not only can a PGR4 thunderstorm rate among the most exceptional visual treats available on Xbox 360™, but every drop of rain, gust of snow, patch of ice, and dense blanket of fog alters the nature of the track and forces a shift in strategy in order to succeed.

The weather effects are cumulative as well, so while a steady downpour may prove manageable on the first lap, the swiftly growing puddles and standing water create tougher challenges as the race goes on.

Memorable Moments On Demand
Bizarre Creations' natural extension of Gotham TV is Project Gotham On Demand, a service that goes well beyond just live races, and catalogs your favorite replays and photos to live forever on Xbox LIVE®. At any time, you can relive your greatest achievements, peruse On Demand content from folks on your Friends List, or even take a gander at the saved replays and photos of a competitor you just played a match against.

You can almost feel the pelting rain.

Join a Racing Team
In an effort to help foster online community, you can now group up with friends and play team versus team games on Xbox LIVE. Victory is determined not just by how you finish, but how your team fares overall. Suddenly, veering in front of an opponent to block their run at a teammate or calling out an enemy racer's location as they sidle alongside your buddy becomes viable strategy, and crucial for success.

News and Notes
In addition to the aforementioned features and refinements, there remains a bevy of smaller, but still noteworthy tweaks and additions.

• Iconic Cars: Previous Project Gotham Racing games focused mostly on newer, more exotic cars, but PGR4 introduces classic, iconic cars to the series. Look forward to such classics as the nimble Austin Mini Cooper S, the muscle-bound Pontiac Firebird, the DeLorean DMC-12 made famous in Back to the Future, and much more.
• Metropolises: Las Vegas , London, Macau, New York, the Nürburgring, Quebec, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, and Shanghai represent the available cities in PGR4.
• Garage Upgrade: New and fancier garages are now awarded to the player as they increase their status in the single-player career mode.
• Wider Corners: Though it's a small detail, the more forgiving corners in PGR4 really assist in generating massive Kudos combinations.
• Snap Shot: Photo Mode is available at nearly any time, while watching a replay, strolling through your garage, or even in the midst of a single-player race.

Project Gotham Racing 4 continues the series' tradition of high-speed, high-style racing while introducing features that while new and even radical, slot perfectly into the game's established theme. Add a glossy layer of next-gen polish and hardcore fans of the series and newcomers alike will find not just hours, but months of thrilling gameplay ahead of them.

Article by Ryan Treit