Gamernode: Reviews - Project Gotham Racing 4

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• Project Gotham Racing 4
• Xbox 360
• Bizarre Creations
• Microsoft Games
• October 02nd, 2007

Changing things up a bit, PGR4 decided to throw motorcycles into the racing formula, which is a big step since there was a previous four-wheels-only rule. Surprisingly enough, you have the ability to choose whether or not you'd like to pilot a car or a bike before the race. One would think that this would offer a big imbalance since cars and cycles have drastically different driving properties, but everything is smoothed out rather well. The fact that bikes typically have a higher acceleration and easier steering is balanced with how losing control can cause the rider to dismantle from the seat, costing precious seconds in a race. (Though in most cases the riders would be dead in real life.) It's a pretty simple formula; cars are vast and fast, bikes are agile and fragile.

Another major difference between PGR4 and its past renditions is the inclusion of a career mode. Essentially, you're a struggling racer who starts out at the bottom and has to slowly work his way up the ladder, race by race. When you start your season, an event pops up and you can choose from a few different types of races. The system is time-based, so you follow a calendar of events and race on the days it allows. Once you complete a race there's no option to retry, so if you take third place, you take third place. You can, however, retry during a race, but if you're ever in the final stretch and you think you might have it won, but you're just a split second too late, tough cookies. The career mode is topped off with invitational races to directly win cars, and your own personal garage, where you can view some of the sick rides you've earned. (Also, it's where you play the new Geometry Wars, but more on that later.)

Of course, the arcade mode is a lot different from its career counterpart. In arcade mode, you have the option of choosing any race you want at any time, and you unlock new ones by completing previous races. Competing in challenging events on the most difficult setting will earn you heavy kudos, making arcade a great mode to play if you want to unlock cars quickly. Unlike career mode, you can choose the same races over and over again, and even continue to earn the same number of kudos each time.

While the single player modes of PGR4 are great, I know you don't just want to sit at home and play with yourself all day. Thankfully, Project Gotham is celebrated as one of the best multiplayer racers available on the Xbox consoles. Your options are either to play split-screen with an immediate friend or jump on Xbox Live for some online races. In both you're able to play a handful of different modes, but it usually boils down to standard racing. As expected, playing on Live is silky smooth. It did take me a while to find other opponents in even a random match, but I expect that's because most gamers are still playing Halo 3.

One specific feature that always has impressed me with the PGR series is the aesthetic quality brought to every game, and the fourth installment is no different. Seriously, the graphics are just beautiful in PGR4. Granted they're not leaps and bounds ahead of PGR3, but even that game still looks good. Everything from the car models to the gorgeous cities to the incredible real-time weather effects are fantastic to look at. I've easily spent over 2 hours just in photo mode taking shots of the Vegas sights. The game runs at a smooth 60 frames per second at all times, with the exception of during thunderstorms where it dips a bit below the desired framerate. During cold races, you can see the snow slowly casting a white overlay on the track below, and in wet climates the rain will let puddles form and grow right on the track. It'd be nice to have some updated lighting and shadow effects in the next PGR, but as of now, it's still much easier to look at than other racing games, like Forza 2.

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