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Project Gotham Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Conceived on the Dreamcast, Project Gotham Racing is what Bizarre Creations had originally intended.
Project Gotham Racing is arguably the greatest racer around, some will argue with that, however the range of different driving tasks and skills required combined with lavish presentation values ensures this is a racer youâll keep coming back to.
You can tell from the outset, that PGR is the racer that Bizarre Creations wanted when they developed Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast, which it is itself based on. Essentially itâs the same range of driving challenges across four different cities; New York has now joined London, San Francisco and Tokyo as a venue, however Bizarre Creations have applied so much polish that the end result feels like a new game.
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Most apparent are the benefits that âMoneybags Microsoftâ has brought, whilst the cars featured in MSR were impressive street racers, theyâre now joined by the likes of Ferrariâs and Porsches⦠The cars also sport realistic damage models, regrettably this rarely results in any real penalty other then lost time, but at least it looks good.
The innovative radio station system featured in MSR has been enhanced for the Xbox, featuring real-life djâs from three different locations. On top of this is a number of licensed tracks, from artists such as Gorrilaz, Iggy Pop and the Stereo MCâs. The ability to create your own custom lists thanks to the HDD is well implemented and most welcomeâ¦
The Kudos system has been completely reworked, resulting in a system that provides instant feedback from every corner and manoeuvre that you perform, rather than at the end of each race. The new system is based upon a combo approach, where swerving around a corner into a line of traffic cones and overtaking the leader, will link up and result in big scores⦠Of course this would have been useless if the handling hadnât been up to scratch, but fortunately Gothamâs is one of the best, probably only being beaten by GT3. You get a great sense of driving on different surfaces, whilst skidding around corners has a great weighty feeling and is a lot of fun. Each of the 30 cars also handle very differently, youâll soon find your favourites as you set about the task of opening them all up.
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Strange omissions and quirks from the Dreamcast version have been ironed out, such as instant replays finally making the cut, as well as a reworked front-end that makes everything much more accessible to the casual user. One cool aspect of the Dreamcast version was racing around the real-time clock, which influenced whether your race took place at day or night. This has been removed from the Xbox version, youâll still get to race at day and night and with a variety of weather conditions, however everything is now static.
However itâs the sheer diversity of challenges that makes Project Gotham Racing a joy to play, and play again. In one heat youâll be up against the clock, in another youâll be bumper-to-bumper in a street race. Each of the challenges are designed to test your racing style to the max, and whilst some have complained about the course designs, they are designed in such a way to accentuate the style of challenge on each one, i.e. races on longer courses, kudos challenges on the shorter ones.
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Visually the game is something of a mixed bag, the cities have benefited from increased textures, however you canât help but get the feeling that theyâve been ported from the Dreamcast. Thereâs a very empty feeling to each one, and the architecture of buildings and surrounding objects seem more simple then they should be. However the cars look fantastic, sporting amazing environmental mapping, and a generous polygon count that helps with the implementation of damage. In the end, itâs the little effects such as the subtle bump-mapping on the road surfaces, and particle effects to recreate the spray of water on tyres, that help to make Gotham one of the better looking racers out there, just not the best.
