Australian Gamer Review :: Project Gotham Racing 3

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Project Gotham Racing 3

Reviewed on: Xbox 360
Available on: Xbox 360

The latest in the series now launches on the Xbox 360, and although it's one of the prettiest games on the system, is the gameplay just as good?

Players: 1 - 2 Players (8 via XboxLive)
Genre:
Release: 2006-03-02

Developer: Bizarre Creations
Distributor: Microsoft

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Project Gotham Racing 3 is one of Microsoft?s flagship titles that returns to help launch their brand new shiny console, just as the original did with the first Xbox. Actually, shiny is a fantastic word to use to describe the game itself, as you will initially spend a lot of time drooling over the reflections on the cars. Next Gen has arrived.

I got right into the first Project Gotham Racing game on the original Xbox, since it was the only racing title on the system at launch, and was initially compared to the likes of Gran Tursimo on the Playstation 2. This was, and still is, ridiculous, and if you ever were or still are trying to compare the two, just give up right now.

For the uninitiated, the Project Gotham games have been all about driving around in realistic cars with realistic physics as fast and stylishly as possible. Most of your offline time will be spent in the Career mode, where you have 23 Championship Series to play through. Each Championship has multiple events, consisting of timed events, racing events, and style events.

Project Gotham Racing 3 gives you two methods of incentive and progression, and they are credits and kudos. Credits should be fairly straightforward: you complete a race or objective and you get credits for it depending on how well you did and what goal you were aiming for. You buy cars with credits, so for anyone with a ?gotta collect em all? mentality, you?ll be playing for quite some time. Kudos on the other hand, you get for performing stylish manoeuvres during a race, such as power slides, drifting, getting air, etc. You have 2 seconds after you perform a kudos worthy move to do another one, effectively linking them together, and creating larger combos. The downside to this is that if you crash into a wall at any point during the combo, you will loose all the Kudos points you had accumulated. The more Kudos you get, the higher your overall ranking progresses and you will get access to some cool concept cars.

Its unfortunate then, that instead of encouraging you to try cool moves and get higher Kudos combos, the game tends to penalise you for any of the stylish moves that earn you Kudos points in the first place. Nowhere is this more apparent then in the racing modes, where power sliding or drifting around a corner takes more time than just slowing down as you approach the corner and driving around it carefully. Whereas a game such as Burnout encourages you to take risks, Project Gotham encourages you to drive safely and responsibly, but as fast as you can, making the whole Kudos system a bit of a joke.

The only real events that encourage you to try to earn Kudos are the cone challenge and drift challenge, both of which will usually require a lot of restarting because it?s way to easy to knock over one little cone or tap the side of a wall to ruin any Kudos combo you may have built up.

On the flip side, when you focus purely on just racing, the game shines as a great example of what a racing game that?s had 3 goes to get things right should feel like. The racing events range from single laps where you have to try to get the best lap time, street races against one or multiple opponents, timed checkpoint races, eliminator races, overtake challenges, and the surprisingly clever Time vs. Kudos event.

The races are probably helped by the fact that every car you have access to is a car of true desire. The slogan ?Life begins at 170mph? that was used in marketing this game holds true, as every car in the game meets the minimum requirement of being able to reach speeds of 170mph (which is about 273kph for us Aussies). Initially, the fact that you can be driving a high performance Lamborghini or Ferrari almost immediately is an appealing one, and personally I was so impressed that when I went looking for a car to buy, I actually took multiple cars for runs around a test track first to see the difference in handling and speed.

After awhile though, it becomes a bit too easy to earn credits, and a lot of the high performance cars just start to feel the same. Seriously, if you?ve ever have played Burnout, then nothing in this game will give the same sense of speed, and because of that I found myself eventually not caring much about the cars in the game. Not to mention the fact that I?d never heard of a lot of the manufacturers or the cars themselves before.

That doesn?t make them any less shiny though. The level of detail on each car is amazing, and you can tell that there have been no expenses spared when it comes to the graphical tweaks and effects. This can be seen in every aspect of the game, from the amazingly detailed levels that whiz past, the smooth and glossy reflections on the cars, to the way everything is initially overexposed and bright as you drive out from a tunnel. There is also a ?blur? effect when you start to build up speed, and although some people have complained about it (others have said it?s an effect of HD-TV?s, however it?s not), I personally had no problem with it, and after a few hours of playing I had completely forgotten it was even there.

Also worth pointing out is the music and sound effects. Perhaps it?s because my 360 setup is different from that of a normal TV, but the sound of the car engines was extremely impressive, truly giving you the feeling of being in control of a powerful vehicle. The music selections for the game are definitely worth noting however, as they range from alternative rock (queens of the stone age), electronica (chemical brothers), hip hop (the streets) and classical music. I?m not used to hearing something as epic as Verdi?s ?Requiem ? Dies lrae? play as I?m racing cars, but it worked surprisingly well.

Although the sense of speed can?t match that of Burnout, there is still a thrill to be had in driving at high speeds, knowing that the slightest movement could send you spinning out of control. The thing is, if you screw up in a level, take a corner too wide, crash into a wall, drift out too far, or make any kind of mistake, you always know the reason was because of you, and the more you play and practice, the better you become. It is this kind of detail that actually makes Project Gotham so appealing and addictive, the fact that your skills DO improve the more you play.

This is why the online component is such an important part of the game. I never played much Project Gotham Racing 2, so I had never really experienced the series online before. It should be noted then, that Project Gotham Racing 3 is one of the smoothest, most streamlined, and most enjoyable games to play on Xbox Live on the 360.

Once you enter the Online Career mode, you can choose to race in any of the multiple event types against opponents of a similar skill level. A system called TrueSkill is used to determine your ranking among other Xbox Live racers. It tracks your performances and achievements and is designed to give a true measure of your driving skills, and it?s nice to be eased into the online experience with people who have the same amount of experience as you do.

The quality of people you play against varies of course, but on the whole I found most of the people I played against to be friendly. I never experienced any lag either, and apart from an initially router issue trying to connect to games hosted by people on my Xbox Live friends list, it all works just as it should. The only gripe I have is that an online game can pretty much be determined by the first corner after the starting line. Because in theory, you should slow down as you approach a corner, if you are in front, I found that people who were behind wouldn?t slow down, but would actually speed up in order to knock you out of the way as you are turning, and therefore put themselves in a better position. Now multiply that by 8 people going around one tight corner, and it?s not hard to loose control of your car while the people who survived streak ahead. Perhaps if there was a bit more accountability, or if damage to your car actually affected the way it performed, then this sort of thing might not happen.

There are also a bunch of other features to keep you interested in the game long after you reasonably should be, such as a custom track builder, a VERY detailed photography mode, replays that you can share with friends, and the ability to be a spectator during online races and watch some of the best players compete via Gotham TV. Overall, there are a lot of extra features to keep you busy.

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AJ's Comments

Project Gotham is very nearly an awesome game. It is unfortunate that the things that are wrong about it really drop it off the ?top games? list.

There aren?t enough locations, regardless of them advertising 100 Million tracks? its 100 Million boring repetitive tracks, with pain in the ass transparent walls! Collecting cars is pointless. Buy the Ultima as your first car, it?s the only one you?ll need.

Finally, leaderboards based on Kudos? What about my freakin lap time dammit!?!?

Final Verdict

It has its flaws, such as the Kudos system being completely useless, but the XboxLive features, solid gameplay, and stunning graphics make it hard not to recommend to any racing fans

Pros
Stunning graphics, solid control scheme, wide selection of expensive cars, varied music is great, cars sound meaty, online play is challenging and addictive, online stats motivates you, Gotham TV
Cons
Kudos system is flawed, you just can?t beat Burnout for the sense of speed, can be unforgiving at times, expensive cars don?t have much ?worth? because there are no crap cars