The streets of Gotham are safe Batman! Let's race! (Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360))

Member Name: Stunt 101

Product:	Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)
Date:	04/02/08 (157 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic gameplay, terrific visuals, lots of content, stellar sound, tight control.

Disadvantages: It was hard to find competition online, steep learning curve, bikes are disappointing.

The simulation of racing has pretty much succeeded in the world of gaming. Back in the days of the old Playstation and N64, there was Gran Turismo. When the PS2 generation came around, Gran Turismo still reigned. But it's had some hefty rivalry like Collin McRae's games, Toca Racer Driver, Forza Motorsport 2 and more. But probably the most famous series has been Bizzare Creations' Project Gotham Racing series on the Xbox and Xbox 360. These series have been all about Kudos, which was a system introduced by Bizzare's punishing Metropolis Street Racing, where style gets you Kudos. It played too much of a factor in MSR, but it has become much easier since then. Now, we have the fourth game in the series, PGR4. With new weather effects and the inclusion of motorbikes, is this latest game in the series the most stylish, or does it lack kudos to make a name for itself?

-(The Controls)-
The controls in PGR4 are spot on. You drive with the right trigger, brake with the left trigger, E-brake with the A button, Taunt with the B button, shift up with the Y button, shift down with the X button, change the music with the D-Pad, move the camera with the right analog stick, change the camera perspective with the left bumper and toggle the other driver's name highlights with the right bumper. The handling in PGR4 is great. It's a mix of the approachability of an Arcade racer with the depth of a simulation. If you don't slow down before getting to a corner, you'll probably crash but if you slow down before you get to the corner, then you should be fine. Bikes do control a little looser, but they still are easy to handle. Overall, the controls in PGR4 are great and easy to learn too.

-(The Gameplay)-
The gameplay in PGR4 is outstanding. The handling, as I said before, is a mix of arcade and simulation, and it succeeds. The game itself definitely has a learning curve to it. One of those reasons is that the A.I. is so aggressive, cutting you off when you come to corners, ramming into you on occasions and being quite vicious overall. This means it can be hard to get a lead, something you must do in PGR4 and keep. If you can't get a lead quickly, you probably won't win. Also, crashing into walls is something you should avoid at all costs, because if you crash it takes a while for your car to get back into the speed it was in, which means the other people can catch up. It's about slowing down before corners and going through slowly, then speeding back up until another corner comes.

The Kudos system from the previous games is still here. On track, you can earn Kudos for drifting around corners, getting into a position in the race, not crashing into the wall for a section of the race and more. Earning Kudos during a race is helpful, but you can only earn a few thousand during a race, meaning that you need to earn more by winning. You get Kudos for earning positions in a race, for example if you come first you can win up to 15,000 kudos. So, if you can earn the maximum amount of kudos during a race, as well as come in first place, you'll truly earn Kudos. You can spend Kudos you've earned in the shop, where you can buy cars, races, multiplayer modes, clothes to customize your character and even a special gamer picture that costs 1,000,000. I managed to buy that, by the way, so I have the Kudos.

There are lots of cars in PGR4. You'll be able to drive exotics, muscle cars, decade old F1 cars and, for the first time in the series, Bikes. Bikes are one of the big new additions in PGR4, where you can now drive Motorbikes like the Buell RR 1200 and the MV Augusta F4 Senna. Unfortunately, Bikes are a little disappointing. For one thing, they are overpowered. When you start the race, they seem to get a boost off the starting line, and if you're a good driver, you can be the first back there. It's also disappointing that they seem to weigh a ton, as it takes a lot to knock a biker of their ride. This means that if you're riding a bike, don't expect a lot of challenge. It's a shame really, as it does make the game slightly unbalanced.

What don't disappoint are the new weather effects. Get ready to drive in not only sunshine, but also rain, snow, fog and storms. Weather effects are not only visually stunning (as rain dripping from your windshield looks incredible, as does the snow that paints your car) but they actually AFFECT gameplay. Rain leaves multiple puddles which if you proceed to drive through will cause you not be able to brake before a corner, and boy Bizarre are picky with where they place it. They have to put it right in front of the corner, don't they? The snow is a cause of slipping and sliding too, as patches of snow will cause your handling to go loose. Fog is probably the most effective effect. Basically, the fog can be so dense that you can't see much ahead. This means you can't see corners and it could mean you'll go slamming into a wall you didn't see. The weather effects are excellent, because they actually affect gameplay.

The main meat of PGR4 comes from the Gotham Career Mode. This mode gives you a calendar, going from September to January, and each month has events and races to complete. There are two types of events. There are Championships and Majors, where the game throws a series of races at you that you earn Kudos from getting in higher places. The person with the most Kudos at the end of the tourney will win. Majors are more important as they will give you more ranking points and are the biggest events. The other is Invitational, where you are given a race to complete, and if you win you get a car, but no Kudos or ranking points. Ranking points will increase your rankings on a big leader board. You need to get to number 1, which is not easy feat. The mode is great fun if you know how to play. Though the difficulty levels are a little iffy, as Easy can be a breeze, whereas Normal is a touch too hard. And hard is just crazy.

Once you've completed the career mode, there are time attacks available, as well as Arcade mode where you must complete six events, each with both a bike and a car, and getting medals. What medal you get depends on what difficulty you have. There's Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. There are a couple of arcade chapters where you only have to use Cars or Bikes, but there are only a couple. Overall, the arcade mode succeeds because it feels 'Old School'. It's like playing a racing game from the PS1, with a tough difficulty and great rewards. You can also set up custom matches, where you can change how many enemies you face, what the weather is like, what track you're racing on and more.

The race types available are diverse. You have your standard street race, but then you have more interesting modes. Eliminator is when the person in last place when time runs out is taken out of the race, and the last man standing wins. Time vs. Kudos is when you must complete a lap quickly, and you can freeze the timer by doing moves to earn Kudos. There's also a mode where you must earn Kudos by doing certain moves. Cone challenge is where you must drive through the cones in a certain amount of time without missing cones or going through them. There are plenty more too, and they all are great fun.

When you're finished with the single player options, there is also online play via split-screen, system link or Xbox Live. On system link and Xbox Live, up to eight people can play in a variety of events. There are standard street racing events where is all against all, as well as a championship where there are a series of events, but you can also do this in a team fashion. If you have friends on Xbox Live, you can play with them as a team against other people. Team event works like the single player, except your scores during the race are all added together and the winner is the team with the most points. It's a great way to play. There's also PGR on Demand to mess about with, where you can take pictures during races and upload replays of races to PGR on Demand, as well as rate your friends races and pictures. It's great fun taking funny photos and watching funny races. The trouble is that the online community is a bit sparse. I sometimes had to wait up to fifteen minutes because there wasn't anyone online, which is a shame as this game is great fun online. There was also little lag too.

The game is rated 3+, which isn't surprising. There's no violence, unless you count the vehicles bashing into each other and when the biker falls off their bike. There's no language, sexual references, drug references or anything to offend here really. That said, the game has a learning curve so youngers may struggle with the game because of it's difficulty, but aside from that anyone could play the game really.

-(The Graphics)-
Forza 2 had amazing car models, but the environments in the game were bland and lifeless. PGR4 has the amazing car models, but the environments are completely opposite of bland. You'll travel through three locales which are Europe, North America and China. When you're in Vegas, it feels like Vegas thanks to all the bright lights and beautiful casinos. China is filled with bright lights and tall buildings, and Europe is the one that lacks the bright lights, but has beautiful countryside settings. Car models look almost real, character modes of the fans in the bleachers look great and the environments have great textures. While cars might not break up completely, you'll see windows cracked and car paint swapped. Weather effects look stunning, with rain dripping from your car, snow painting your front hood, and fog completely blocking sight. While there is some slowdown, it's pretty rare and infrequent.

-(The Sound)-
The sound is outstanding. The soundtrack is highly varied, as you get classical music from the likes of Mozart, Alternate Rock from the likes of Bloc Party, and funky Techno from artists including Prodigy. While some songs by themselves might be weak, the quality of the songs put together really makes the soundtrack shine. But really, that's not an important part of a racing game. The important thing is that the car effects sound good, and they do. The effects change depending on which car you're driving and what camera view you're looking from. It really does add to the sound experience. There's also the odd sound of your window cracking when you hit a wall, as well as the sound of paint swapping.

-(The Replay Value)-
Value is the name of the game here. There's plenty here to keep you going for months. The Career mode will take you about 15 hours, which is quite long. The Arcade mode will take you about ten hours. And then the online play will last you, well, as long as you want it to. There's also lots of cars, bikes, racing types and other modes to keep you busy until you've realised you've wasted months on this game. It's as deep as Gran Turismo or Forza, even if it doesn't have a car customization option. The achievements are good too. You'll get achievements for progressing and completing the career mode, completing the arcade mode, doing things like performing your first stunt on a bike and some online achievements like get the most points for your team in a team race. There are also three puzzle achievements, which if you don't look up on a cheat site can be impossible to figure out what they are. There are no clues to help you, so good luck finding them out without using cheats.

-(The Score)-
Controls=9
Gameplay=9
Graphics=9
Sound=9
Replay Value=9
Overall Score=9.0

-(The Ending Comments)-
PGR4 is an outstanding game from top to bottom. It has outstanding gameplay, fantastic control, terrific visuals, excellent sound and tons of content to mess around with. The online play is excellent, the new weather effects are great and the motorbikes are nicely done. Plus, while you can't customize your car, there's plenty of depth here, meaning fans of the previous games will love it, and even people like me who have never experienced a PGR game before will love it too. I sure did. Whether you're nailing endos on your motorbike, drifting around corners on your car or doing both, PGR4 will be an excellent time. With Bizarre being signed over to Activision, it's a wonder where this series will go from here. Let's hope it continues its amazing racing legacy.

-(The Extra Info)-
This was published by Microsoft and developed by Bizzare Creations
This was released on October 12th, and is only on Xbox 360.
This is available from Amazon for £34.96

Thanks for reading. Stunt 101

Summary: One of the best racing games on the system.