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Project Gotham Racing 2 Review

Chris Leyton

18/11/2003

PGR2 has to be the best Xbox Live! game to date and an excellent racer to rival Gran Turismo...

Microsoft rightfully sees âProject Gotham Racingâ as the pinnacle racing series on the Xbox and has deemed it to be the answer to Sonyâs masterful âGran Turismoâ. With precious little else on offer this Christmas period, itâs up to âProject Gotham Racing 2â to shine the light and hopefully address some of the issues of the original.

However letâs back up a little and take a look at how âProject Gotham Racing 2â came to be. Bizarre Creations originally started work on a street racing title for the SEGA Dreamcast originally named âMetropolis Street Racerâ; subsequent delays and the cancellation of the format meant that the game didnât reach the audience it deserved, however that wasnât to stop Microsoft from nabbing a good franchise when the opportunity arose.

Recognising the need for a decent racing title to launch with the Xbox, Bizarre Creations got underway to bring an enhanced version of âMSRâ to the Xbox. Whilst âProject Gotham Racingâ was an improvement upon the Dreamcast original it certainly wasnât the best that we could have wished for, leaving hopes high for the impending sequel.

Once again the game challenges you not only to driving fast, but how well you drive. To this extent players earn Kudos points from their actions in the race, which are calculated towards the end and used to buy new vehicles and move up the rankings.

Unlike âPGRâ, the sequel has been entirely built from the ground up offering one of the most exciting racing experiences to date and perhaps the most refined Xbox Live! title ever created.

Xbox Live! functionality has been built into âPGR2â from the beginning and boy does it benefit. Whereas Xbox Live! features feel slightly detached in virtually every Xbox Live! title to date; the online aspect has been fundamentally built into âProject Gotham Racing 2â. As such players can sign into Xbox Live! at the beginning then simply select from single or multiplayer modes to get started.

You see âPGR2â doesnât just offer 8 Player no-lag gaming, oh no, by selecting the âSingle Playerâ mode youâll be able to access a variety of weekly/monthly/all-time leaderboards - the results of which are all neatly displayed on the main page whenever you begin the game and are logged into Xbox Live!. Players simply download the Ghost of whoever is leading the particular challenge and then compete against this to beat it; successfully doing so will upload your statistics to the central server for others to download and try to beat.

The standard offline âSingle Playerâ mode challenges players to move through the rankings, taking on a variety of different vehicles and embarking on a wide range of different challenges. The variety of these is certainly one of âPGR2â strongest points and one reason why the game offers so much compared to the more generic racing titles on offer. Players are challenged to compete in standard âStreet Racesâ, âOne-on-Oneâ and âOvertakeâ challenges, to the sheer genius of âCone Challengeâ and other such notable ones as the âSpeed Cameraâ - guaranteed to please all the drivers out there.

Competing in these require a range of different driving skills from the player, whilst challenges such as âStreet Racesâ and âOne-on-Oneâ require out and out speed, such challenges as the âCone Challengeâ reward players by showing their tricks. In fact the âCone Challengeâ has to be one of the finest features weâve ever seen in a racing game, playing like the classic SEGA Saturn title âNights: Into Dreamsâ on a racing circuit.

The Kudos system has been refined since the previous outing, making it more accessible to newcomers but thankfully not at the sacrifice of depth. Players are rewarded points by carrying out any of the 15 different tricks on offer such as powersliding around a corner or successfully overtaking an opponent. Thereâs a wide range of these and the sheer genius is in the ability to combo these to build up the bigger scores; so itâs entirely possible to handbrake around a corner, get the correct racing line and overtake an opponent on it to gain a big score. Hitting a barrier or careering into a car is enough to stop your chain, however âPGR2â is much more forgivable then its predecessor only wiping out the multiplier if youâve got one going. The improved system deducts points on a sliding scale according to the severity of mishaps; so whilst scraping along a railing will only deduct a few points, smashing headlong into a wall could wipe all your points away.

In keeping with this is the new reward structure that awaits players and makes massive improvements upon the flawed systems in previous outings. Players are free to choose the difficulty of each challenge, with the harder challenges naturally offering far greater rewards. Completing these grant you Kudos Points in addition to those scored on the track, collect enough of these and youâll move up a Kudos Ranking and be given Kudos Tokens to use on purchasing new cars. The game features 14 different tiers or classes for players to compete each offering around 8 different challenges. The classes are each based on a type of vehicle, i.e. Compact Sports, American Muscle, Classics and total a massive 102 different cars to unlock and race in as you progress through the game.

The cities of London, San Francisco and Tokyo that featured in both âMSRâ and âPGRâ have been completely removed and replaced by an impressive roster including Edinburgh, Moscow, Barcelona, Washington D.C, Chicago, Nurburgring, Florence, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Yokohama, Sydney and Nuremberg. Once again the game offers multiple tracks through each city, ensuring that this game wonât get tired too quickly.

On to the track and âPGR2â continues to amaze. The game continues its predecessorâs trend for creating a heavy sensation behind each car, whilst the control system makes brilliant use of the Xbox shoulder buttons to allow you to perfectly drift the car around the track. It takes awhile to master however thereâs definitely a technique to master in âPGR2â, eventually youâll find yourself masterfully drifting into corners, clipping the corners and accelerating out of the straight. Itâs certainly not the most realistic racer on offer, however itâs definitely one of the most satisfying weâve ever played.

The AI of your opponents youâll race against naturally depends on the difficulty that youâre racing at; suffice to say those labelled âHardâ are not because of their difficulty but because they are in fact hard as nails, showing no worries about clipping your back to send you into a spin or nudging you into a crash barrier. Although experienced âPGRâ fans will find themselves moving through the first few tiers quickly, the latter challenges are certainly enough to tax even those who unlocked everything in the first game.

Perhaps the only complaint weâve had at this stage is that the game feels a little too polished for itâs own good, the slick menu screens and visual presentation certainly look impressive but at the cost of charisma. Those who donât know too much about the series may find themselves a little off-put to begin with; certainly weâve not seen that many newcomers attempt to pick up the pad and offer a challenge.

Visually itâs great to see to see another fantastic Xbox title; for the last few months weâve had to put up with admittedly good looking titles that have left us moaning that very little has touched the limits set out by the likes of âHaloâ and âProject Gotham Racingâ over two years ago. Although âPGR2â is locked at 30fps youâd be hard pressed to notice, the game moves at an astonishing pace and never suffers from any stutters in the frame department. The gameâs environments have benefited immensely from the new graphics engine, whereas âPGRâ featured flat building facades that were an offshoot from âMSRâ, the sequel adds far more detail such as archways and recessed shop doorways and windows to improve the realism. If we had to complain weâd say that the interaction between the car and the track doesnât look as convincing as it should, however itâs only a small gripe and one that doesnât impede the overall enjoyment from the game.