22 out of 22 people found this review helpful.
An Improvement over PGR 3
Date of Review: Oct 30, 2007
The Bottom Line: Bizarre Creations has improved upon PGR3. With double the tracks, great weather effects/physics and 50% more cars, this game deserves a racing fans attention.
Gameplay (25%): 8
Graphics (15%): 9.5
Sound (15%): 6
Controls (20%): 10
Longevity (25%): 8
Overall: 83% (4 stars/Above Average)
Bizarre Creations last iteration
Believe it or not, this iteration of Project Gotham Racing will be the last for Bizarre Creations. The reason falls on the simple fact that Bizarre is no longer an independent studios, as they have been bought out by no other than Activision Studios. As a result, due to Microsoft owning the Innovative Product (IP) the next iteration will likely be created by someone that is very much in house to Microsoft. I'll leave the speculation to you.
What has improved over PGR 3? (Gameplay - 7)
Every iteration of Project Gotham Racing has been about pushing the envelope graphically or perhaps somewhere else on the XBox or XBox360. Upon release on the XBox360, Project Gotham Racing 3 was all about demonstrating what the system was capable of and how much of a graphical powerhouse the system could be. It was also a demonstration of what XBox Live was capable of doing through the use of Gotham TV and through all of the races that it could demonstrate online.
This time the envelope has been pushed in all directions to determine what the XBox360 is capable of, and whether this system is a beast or really a worked over mass of computer junk. Thankfully for us system owners, at least for a fair portion of the time, it is the former rather than the latter. Let's go over the list of improvements and see if what Bizarre Creations has put into the game this time is worth our money, or whether we should simply consider renting this game just for a few moments of joy (and gamerpoints).
The first set of improvements that will surely stick out is the amount of weather options you have available to race. This game will have you race in such treacherous conditions such as near zero visibility fog in London, to snowy and icy conditions on the Nurburgring race track. Now whether it is believable that one would want to tackle the latter whilst driving at 240 km/hr (140 mph) is a completely different story in real life, but hey, this is the video game world and it definitely is fun while doing it. What is impressive about all of these weather conditions are the different responses of the vehicles (or motorcycles) when traveling at these blinding speeds. You would be well advised not to take an icy and snowy curve doing breakneck speeds, otherwise your racing options will narrow down to one quick destination towards a waiting wall. There will be much more on the visuals of this later.
The addition of motorcycles (amongst other cars) is new to the series of Project Gotham Racing. The total, with motorcycles, raises the number of vehicles that are selectable by over 50% from PGR 3 (80 to well over 120). The question, though, is whether your tastes lie in allowing races where cars and motorcycles mix. Where some of the problems lie is how the motorcycles have been balanced. These motorcycles feel more like cars at times (in weight) more often than they should and it is far easier to obtain kudos, the game's demonstration of driving prowess, through the use of motorcycles than cars. Furthermore, when it is necessary for you to have quick acceleration and to win in a tight squeeze, motorcycles will do that more often than not. Hence, the suggestion by some online (and in game selection) that prefer car only races and motorcycle only races as opposed to have them mixed.
Back to the vehicle selection. The amount of vehicles that can be selected are no longer limited to the super fast dream cars like in PGR 3. However, much like in PGR 3, you will want to pick those superfast cars if you have any chance in winning. The reason is due to the fact that there are no upgrades (nevermind any tuning) that will allow any of the slower cars a chance to win against any of the dream cars. Though it is realized that Bizarre Creations preferred not to stray towards the extreme hardcore racers such as Gran Turismo 5 or Forza Motorsports 2, it would have been nice to allow an upgrade option (without tuning) just to allow those lesser cars a chance.
The last noticeable improvement over PGR3 is the number of tracks available for your racing pleasure. With the returning five of Tokyo, New York, the Nurburgring, London and Las Vegas comes the new tracks within the cities/tracks of Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Quebec City, Macau and the Michelin Test Track. This effectively doubles the amount of tracks that are available for you to race on and easily increases the amount of time that you will spend in this game.
Near Photorealism realized (Graphics - 9.5)
The Project Gotham Racing series has always been about pushing the graphical envelope. This iteration is no less about doing the same, while in fact pushing it even more. Primarily speaking, the game is still set to 30 frames a second. Though some will howl and moan about this setting, others have noted the wisdom in doing so when compared against the graphics of Forza Motorsports 2 (set at 60 frames a second). This allows the developers to put more detail into the game at every step, which has been noticed no matter what kind of weather you are using.
Ah yes, the weather. While other racing games are still thinking about the idea or merely throwing in some mud, PGR 4 goes all out with every type of weather that we are accustomed to during races. This game simply has one of the most believable graphics when rain beads up on your vehicle of choice before,during and after a race. Simply staring at your vehicle, whether it be inside or up close, while racing in the rain may make you wonder at times how this is simply being done. Taking a picture of the game in photograph mode has fooled some of my friends at times when I showed them a picture of a car on the Las Vegas strip...while it is raining up close. You'll be surprised how real the graphics can look.
Please...TURN OFF THE MUSIC! (Sounds - 6)
While the graphics are excellent, once more the music took a back seat in development. I do not know where, how or who does the music direction at Bizarre Creations... but like Turn 10's Forza Motorsports 2, what in the hell do these people listen to?! Thankfully, you can simply rip your own soundtracks onto the XBox360 and listen to your own music while playing the game because that will be a VAST improvement over what the producers have placed into this one.
Otherwise, the sounds of the vehicles are reasonable. The sounds of the V8 engines and the Ducatis sound much like their counterparts should. Now, if only we could get those video game developers to realize that some other music exists...
Smooth and responsive controls (Controls - 10)
When the weather is on, the physics are quite brutal. When the weather is off, the game's controls and your car/motorcycle's response feels arcadey. This has been the staple of the PGR series and I feel no reason to deduct points for it. Through the use of a wheel, the game responds quite well through force feedback. Depending on your flavor of the day (or week), both types of controls respond favorably well and no delays or frustrations were observed.
Longevity - 8
Great strives are observed in the improvement of the single player mode. There is a much lengthier single player career mode, whereupon a calender is determined on when you race. On the default difficulty (normal), you should be able to win the career mode in roughly 15 to 20 hours or approximately 3 calender years. This is up from 8 to 10 hours in PGR 3, which felt woefully short in my books.
The support over XBox Live was great in PGR 3 and is improved in this iteration. Of course, the most compelling is that the game is nearly lag free. Nearly in that the exceptions include when there are pileups in curves or when there are nearly all the players on screen at once. Otherwise, all the racing modes of PGR 3 return (i.e. single and team events, cat and dog modes, etc.) with a new bulldog event mode in this iteration. Other modes include the ability to modify the paint job on your car, though not as extensive as Forza 2, and the ability to upload your photographs online. All of these new abilities help improve an already great online support service.
Conclusions
Project Gotham Racing 4 has seen definite improvements over the last iteration. The question that always lingers is whether these improvements are worth the price of admission ($59.99). In this case, I will say yes as a compliment to a racing addict or to a person who is looking to get into racing games. Otherwise, I would at least give this one a rent to determine if this game would make a good addition to your library.
