Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)

With 2005's Project Gotham Racing 3, Bizarre Creations ushered in a new era of racing on the Xbox 360 with a game that continued the long-standing quality of its Project Gotham series with amazing graphics and extensive online options. Here we are, two years later, and Bizarre has turned in the fourth game in the PGR series, one that opens up the vehicles list a bit and adds to the online fun, yet still follows the tried-and-true PGR formula. In short, Project Gotham Racing 4 continues the series' tradition of brilliant visuals and fun gameplay, and adds to the list with new rides and weather effects that must be driven to be believed.

The fastest cars in the game will typically be quicker than the bikes but, in our experience, if you can grab an early lead in PGR 4 on two wheels and can maintain some consistency in your laps, you'll be awfully tough to beat. Bikes have their control quirks; for instance, when coming out of a turn, you'll want to let go of the analog stick in order to bring yourself back up smoothly, as manually bringing your rider upright can result in serious overcorrection errors. But for the most part bikes aren't much of a challenge and, as a result, aren't really as fun as we were hoping.

The weather effect system, unlike the bikes, is a major feature of Project Gotham Racing 4 regardless if your love affair is with cars or bikes. The dynamic weather affects each and every machine- whether two wheel or four- which makes for an ever-changing physics lesson, not to mention constantly varying wheel-to-wheel racing difficulty. It makes sense in a racer too. For instance, all-wheel-drive cars are nearly always heavier than their two-wheel-drive counterparts, which normally gives the advantage in the dry to the latter. But throw in rainy (or better yet) snowy conditions, and the advanced AWD systems of these tanks more than makes up for their weight (this also allows AWD cars to drift, which we all know equals Kudos) This is even more evident with the bikes. How many bikes do you see driving around on ice and snow? There’s a reason, and it can be played out in Project Gotham Racing 4 without risking serious

If you know the PGR series then you know that the Arcade and Career (revised for a more interactive experience) modes are all about acquiring Kudos in order to progress through the locked areas and gain access to better tracks and cars. Project Gotham Racing 4 gives us more of the same, but a revised Kudos system makes the experience a bit more tolerable. Those that don’t like to slide all over the track or aren’t looking to make a YouTube video of successive 360’s will enjoy the fact that technical road racing skills will be rewarded handsomely as well. Techniques such as acquiring the fastest lap, drafting, completing a section cleanly, maintaining a target speed or even hitting an apex can result in mad Kudos. Of course you’ll still have to do feint and power drifts, catch some air and use that e-brake all of the time if you want to progress as planned through Project Gotham Racing 4. In addition to normal racing events, the Cone, Time vs. Kudos and Speed Challenge events are back for flashy Kudos collection. The dynamic weather makes this sometimes-monotonous task of Kudos collection more fun and tougher to master, and the new gathering system devised by Bizarre helps a bit too. There are separate Kudos to earn for bikes, which can be interesting at times as well

OVERALL 8.8
A MUST BUY

PGR4 is a good game, but there are a few things holding it back from being a great one.

[+]
Excellent graphics
Great sense of speed
Kudos system makes every turn count in some fashion
Motorcycles are fun and easy to control
Easy to pick up and play
Works great with xbox steering wheel
Good customization

[-]
Not nearly as many vehicle options as in Forza 2
Motorcycles can make the game almost too easy
For an arcade style sim, cars still tend to spin out of control a lot

Overall, I recommend PGR4 only behind Forza 2 as far as the racing experience on the xbox 360 goes. If you're looking for an arcade style, jump in the saddle and play type of racer, you can't go wrong with PGR4, but if you want the answer to Sony's Gran Turismo on your 360, get Forza 2.