Go as fast as you like, as fast as you can, as fast as you dare. (Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360))

Member Name: paulhanton

Product:	Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)
Date:	22/04/08 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great racing game, realistic cars.

Disadvantages: Very, very addictive.

Project Gotham Racing 4 (PGR4) is, surprise, surprise, number 4 in a very successful series of racing games, first seen on the original Xbox, now Xbox 360.

I was desperate to play this game having played previous PGR's (1 & 2, but not 3), and having never really liked any other racing games, I am somewhat loyal to this series.

Basically it is a game that consists of numerous ways and types of racing with over a hundred different types of cars and now motorbikes. There are vintage and 'slow' cars as well as standard road cars, hot hatches, street racers, supercars and concept cars.

The main types of 'races' are:
Street race, where one races other drivers around streets of the world including London, New York, Tokyo, Quebec, St Petersburg; all in all well over a hundered different tracks.

Kudos challenge, where one 'earns kudos' (points) by doing certain things, such as wheelies on bikes or handbrake turns.

Cone sprints: where one has to demonstrate precision driving through cones at speed, very tricky, penalties are given for hitting cones.

Time versus kudos:
Where speed round any given track is of the essence, but extra time is gained by performing kudos earning moves such as drifts.

Speed checkpoint:
Where one has to travel fast through checkpoints with speed cameras to gain an aggregate time, very unlike real life where we all slow down coming to cameras, lol.

Eliminator:
Where one has to not be last at given points or be eliminated.
Overtake, where one has a given tme to overtake a certain amount of cars/bikes.

Throughout the game you can play as either single or multiplayer, the multiplayer being in split screen either at home with people or on Xbox live, an online server. I have played once online, not that impressed, but I am not a great fan of online play anyway.

Multiplayer at home with my son is such a laugh, he likes the motorbikes and I do my best to knock him off, we played for 6 hours straight the other night, laughing the whole time.

The single player mode consists of:

Arcade mode, where there are various medals to be earned, which unlock new vehicles and tracks, with the categories pretty much the same as described earlier. You can play this on different levels according to your ability, which of course increases as the game goes on.

The career mode, is the other single player option and is fantastic. It is set around a calender of different races in different parts of the world, including 'invitationals', 'Masters' series and one off championships. As one moves up the career ladder one earns 'kudos' to be spent in a shop on things like customising the vehicles or unlocking new tracks and cars and other aspects of the game. The aim of course is to rise up the ranking ladder.

A very neat couple of features are 'my garage' where you can walk around a nice house perusing your cars and trophys, and my personal favourite 'My Michelin test track', where you can take any vehicle that you own and gun it, oops, practice sensibly around a test track to check out it's handling, braking, speed etc, before using it in a race.

The graphics and sound are amongs the best on any game that I have played, ever. As usual, I turn off the music whilst playing, it bugs me in any game, the sounds of the engines are sampled from the genuine vehicles so are just awesome, to drive a Ferrari, stick your foot down and hear the noise is pretty pant wetting.

The crashes, skids, bumps etc are pretty realistic to an extent, you never actually write a vehicle off, or die.

The graphics as I've said, are superb, if you choose a place you know, say London, you recognise landmarks, and there are some very cute visuals too, so get too near to the barriers and the crowd moves back and runs away, use the 'trick' button and your bike rider may give a one finger in the air to the riders behind.

I also particularly like the different driving views, from slightly above and behind (following) to sitting behind the wheel.

The controls are pretty easy after about 15 minutes of playing, and the game itself only takes about the same time to 'work out'
Although Xbox 360 games are expensive new (£40), there is no doubt that just to complete the game (let alone all the multiplayer you can play) would take weeks; bring in challenges, multiplayer etc, this game could last years, so, in my opinion, is great value for money. You can now pick this game up at about £30 in many stores.

If you have an Xbox 360, get this game, it rocks.

Updated version of a review I posted on Ciao. Paul Hanton.

Summary: PGR4 for Xbox 360.