mycouponz's Full Review: Project Gotham Racing 2 for Xbox for Xbox
Once upon a time, I was thrilled to be able to play Metropolis Street Racer(MSR) on my Sega Dreamcast. Once I got ahold of Test Drive Le Mans for the same system, I found that MSR's graphics weren't quite up to the par,but the gameplay certainly was. A few years later,Project Gotham Racing was born for the Xbox,and MSR paled in comparison. The first PGR didn't disappoint - if anything it exceeded my expectations. The graphics were great,the cars looked real and the replays were fantastic. Now comes Project Gotham Racing 2. After years of anticipation, PGR 2 is simply amazing. Even after playing the game for over 50 hours(more than 2 days!!!!) I still get an appetite to play once in awhile. Not daily as I used to,mind you, but once or twice a week. Again,the developers have far exceeded my expectations,and I will never look at video games, racing games, or cars the same way again (for more on that,see my Mazda 3 review ---> http://www.epinions.com/content_138621390468
First off I'd like to list a few gripes I have with the game. Firstly,unlike the first PGR, PGR 2 hasn't got any hills. In the original, many tracks in San Francisco had steep inclines and declines, and when both were combined (uphill,followed by a very small peak,and then downhill) it made for very challenging results. It also showed the power of PGR's physics engine. Another minor quibble I have is that any damage done to the cars while racing does not affect their performance. I've read that in Toca Race Driver 2, once you start crashing a car it won't perform as well. I assume that the developers of TOCA 2 didn't spend nearly as much time as those of PGR 2 making their game, so the lack of any damage-effect on the cars is somewhat disappointing. Further, relative to other games (such as TOCA 2 and the upcoming Gran Turismo 4), PGR 2 doesn't have that many cars to choose from. I believe PGR 2 has approximately 100 cars ,whereas Gran Turismo 4 is reported to have around 500! Another imperfection is the difficulty. In the Kudos World Series,for each challenge successfully completed you are awarded a medal - bronze,silver,gold and platinum(there's one other below bronze that I forget). I've found it very difficult on some challenges to get any higher than a silver medal, and it frustrates me to no end. Even when I'm using the fastest car in a specific class, I find I sometimes 'hit the wall' - I get a certain medal and no matter what I do cannot get a higher one. Without a doubt, PGR 2 requires a lot of practice, and a lot of time to perfect. To quote Othello(the board-game) - a minute to learn, a lifetime to master.
Now for stuff I like about the game. The first great feature is that all the cars are realistically mapped - from all of the cars' curves to their rear-view mirrors, bumpers and exhaust pipes, cars in the game look VERY authentic. There are lots of cities and individual tracks within those cities to choose from. Countries such as Russia, Australia, Italy and Scotland are represented, among others. My favorite part of this game is the Kudos system. Every time you draft behind other cars, powerslide around corners, overtake other cars, maneuver between pylons,etc. the game gives you Kudos/points for doing so. In turn, you can use these Kudos to buy other cars of your choosing in each class. The Kudos Challenge part of the game keeps it addictive and full of variety. For example, in the kudos challenges, you may be asked to overtake a certain number of cars within a time limit, have a one-on-one race, build up combos of kudos in the cone challenges and more. Although I haven't had a chance to experience it first-hand, I've read that PGR 2 has the best Xbox-live capabilities of any game out there. Bizarre Creations has also announced that they are going to issue game update packages, which feature several new cars and a new city with each release. They just released their first package a few weeks ago, it includes the new Corvette among other cars and Paris, France as the new city. The update is selling for $5 on Xbox Live.
Soundtrack
There is a massive selection of songs on PGR 2's soundtrack. I'm guessing there are about 100 different songs from several genres, including rap, electronica, rock and pop. I haven't heard of most of the artists - there are some asian artists as well as north-american ones - but several caught my eye : Bif Naked, Uncle Kracker, Sir-Mix-A-Lot and Tyrese. You can also organize your own soundtrack by adding songs that are already on your Xbox harddrive and combining them with those already on PGR 2. After several months of playing the game (and over 50 hours of logged time), I still have not heard all of the songs in PGR 2's soundtrack. Believe it!!
Zoom-Zoom
Since the cover-art of this game is displayed above, you probably already know that one of the cars you can drive in this game is the Ferrari Enzo. If you haven't met her, you will as soon as the game loads up. Let me introduce you : she sells for over $600,000; features a 650 horsepower V12 engine and cruises from 0-60mph in just over 3 seconds. WHAT A BEAST! As you accelerate with any of the cars, you'll hear the unique engine rumble of each - I'm happy to admit that some of them are very sexy indeed. :)
A few of the other cars included in the game : Ferrari Modena, Mini Cooper, Lotus Elise, Porsche Cayenne, Noble M12, Bentley Continental, Aston Martin Vanquish, Dodge Viper, Nissan Skyline plus plenty of Audis, BMWs and Porsches. Unfortunately, if you want to find out the specs of any of the cars in the game, you'll have to use the internet or other means. Although the cars are assigned respective ratings for their top speed, acceleration, powersliding and handling, you will not find any information about torque, horsepower or other info in the game.
Grafix
The in-game lighting is generally good. Some tracks are especially dark, but that is exactly how the locations are in real life. The street signs are good, clear and visible from a distance. When you crash your car in the game, you'll notice sparks fly, tire marks appear on the road and grilles, bumpers and headlights all take damage.
As previously mentioned, all the cars look great. After playing the game for awhile, I realized how cartoon-like the graphics are in PGR 2(especially the cars). Further, all the tracks look very realistic, and monuments and storefronts(from the real-life locations) are in most of the tracks.
Controls
During the game, you can also look at your car while you're driving from different angles using the right thumbstick. Speaking of which, the controller layout is fantastic. At any point during a race or challenge,you can change the radio track using the left-thumbstick. I think that that is quite revolutionary for a video game - that you can change the radio station without having to pause the game and go through the options menu. I'm sure one day video game developers will have a separate button to operate the windshield wipers!!! The vibration feedback from the Xbox controllers I've tested with PGR 2 is good, although I wouldn't say it's as good as PGR. For one thing, there are no tram-tracks to be found, or other obstacles which cause the controller to rumble. Also,even if you select to drive an automatic car, every car also has a manual mode(aka. tiptronic) - within reason. For each car you can shift up a gear once the RPMs reach 6,000 , and you can also downshift at any time. The game comes with four pre-chosen controller configurations. Unfortunately, you cannot configure the controls manually - you have to choose one of the four pre-designated options. There are also special settings for specific types of racing wheels and you can turn vibration on and off. Overall, the menu system in PGR 2 is easy to use and understand.
In Conclusion...
You MUST, MUST, MUST play this game. It's a benchmark for racing video games, and it is the best game out there at the moment. Gran Turismo 4 may come out with a greater selection of cars, but I doubt it'll be able to compete graphically, or that it'll be even half as addictive.
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