ace3502's Full Review: Project Gotham Racing 4 for Xbox 360
Let me start off by saying I haven't played any of the previous versions of Project Gotham Racing (PGR) at all. PGR 4 was my first experience with this series of games and I was relatively entertained by it. Made by Microsoft this game is rated E for everyone and has no violence whatsoever, it is purely a racing game. The game has numerous multiplayer modes and can carry up to 8 players online and 4 on an individual console. Lets start by breaking the game's overall modes down.
Overview PGR 4 is pretty straight forward and clean cut, its a racing game plain and simple. What makes it different is the modes of play and the add ons that the develops created to help maintain interest and playability. One of the main extras they added is a point accumulation system in which the points you earn, called Kudos points, can be used to unlock or "buy" various things throughout the game. These items you can unlock are mostly various types or groups of cars or motorcycles, but in some cases are hidden tracks you can race on once unlocked, hidden multiplayer modes, and the ability to take 3D pictures in picture mode while racing. The points are pretty cool and relatively easy to earn. You can earn them in any race through a various list of ways such as doing a handbrake drift, popping a wheelie or doing an endo on a motorcycle, drifting in a car or going up on two wheels, and going airborne. In most of the modes in the game you can earn various amounts of Kudos by coming in certain places in a race with 1st place being the most obviously with anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 Kudos points. Unlocking or "buying" the various items in the PGR Shop range anywhere from 10,000 to 250,000. One item is higher than 250,000 and that is the 1,000,000 Kudos which you also get an achievement for unlocking.
Gameplay - 9 / 10 The game has 3 modes of play, Arcade, Career, and Multiplayer, all three of which are entertaining in their own way. Some are a little tougher than others, some are more entertaining and have longevity, and others are a little tougher or incorporate online opponents through Xbox Live which can be very difficult. Within all of these modes of play there is a feature unique to most racing games, the weather. That's right, you can go through and customize during your races what conditions you wish to race in, and in the modes you go through in the game, you encounter all different types of weather on all different tracks that significantly affect your driving in more ways than one. Puddles while its raining slow you down, ice during snow storms will have you slipping and sliding if you're not careful, and fog clouds up the road ahead so keep on your toes.
Arcade Mode Arcade mode is a focused way of honing your skills within the game. Starting out easy with simple short track races it allows you to pick your level of difficult from Very Easy up to Professional. Each chapter in the arcade mode focuses on different aspects of the game. Some angle more on control of the automobile or motorcycle where others are pushing the limit and speeding through tracks, while others help build your ability to earn Kudos and utilize the various ways to earn them. Basically the arcade mode is an interactive and purposeful tutorial without feeling like one. It helps build skills and get a user familiar with the game in an entertaining way. Not only does the user race in normal races but the arcade mode also serves as an introduction to some of the different multiplayer modes such as elimination races where the driver in last place, at the end of 30 second increments, is eliminated. There are also trial modes which are what I was referring to when saying this mode almost serves as a tutorial and walks the user through the handling of the cars. There are a few different aspects of this such as: Speed Trials: where you have to hit a certain combined speed after going through 4 speed cameras (for example hit 200 MPH total after going through 4 cameras), Time Trials: where the user has to race through the course in under the posted time, Time Vs. Kudos: Where the user stops the clock by earning Kudos points and has to use that to their advantage as they race through the course in an overall time much lower than the normal racing time would be (i.e. you have to do the kudos to stop the clock in order to come in under the allotted time because racing through normally you will not have enough time to make it), and Cone Race: a very precise driving challenge where you have to drive in between sets of cones through an entire course in under an allotted time, without hitting or missing any cone gates (which accumulate time penalties). These are just naming a few of the different styles of arcade mode but I would absolutely direct a new driver here before starting up a career mode or multiplayer mode, in order to get themselves familiar with the gameplay.
Career Mode Career mode, from what I understand, is new to the PGR series. Career mode is just as it sounds, you follow a schedule and race either in the U.S.A. and Canada, Europe, or Asia at various tracks and courses that vary in difficulty. For my driving skills, it appears that the North American series is the easiest where some of the tracks in the Asia series are the hardest. When you start the career mode you can select your difficulty but the nice aspect is you can change the difficulty at any time while in career mode under that menu. This is a large majority of where one can earn most of the Kudos needed to unlock or "buy" things in the PGR Shop. Depending on the difficulty level you earn 5,000 or more Kudos per first place finish plus any Kudos you earn throughout the race. The more you earn the higher you rank. The person ranked the highest after the end of each series of races (anywhere from 3 to 6 races) gains points which propel you up the computerized leader board in the overall standings eventually leading to first place and one of the more valuable achievements in the game worth 50 Gamer Points.
Multiplayer Mode On The Console The multiplayer mode is really the bread and butter of the game. There are so many different options both playing on one console and through Xbox Live. Lets start off with the console. The console can support up to 4 players at once dividing the screen into reasonably sized even squares. Obviously the bigger the television the bigger the squares but it isn't too hard to navigate on a normal sized screen. The majority of multiplayer modes that you can play on the console with up to 4 players, you can also play online with up to 8 players, so I will discuss them at length below.
Multiplayer Mode On Xbox Live The different modes of multiplayer are where the real entertainment begins and through Xbox Live you can have up to 8 other players racing around with you. There are numerous styles of multiplayer such as the simple street race or elimination race (person in last place is eliminated every 30 seconds). Proceeding on, there are more elaborate modes of play such as bulldog, which is essentially a fox and hound chase through different maps. One person starts out as the "hound" (if you will) and has to use the radar on the screen (which only points arrows in vague directions) to find the opponents and hit their cars. Once he hits them, they become part of your team and now have to help you chase down the others. The person left standing the longest wins the most Kudos points. Another version is cat and mouse which can be very fun and frustrating at the same time. Cat and mouse divides two teams of four up (it can be played with fewer than 8 players but the more players the more entertaining). On the team of four, one person is the mouse and the other three members are cats. It is the mouse's job to get across the finish line in a street race before the other team's mouse does. It is the cat's duty to either help their teams mouse along and try to push him through the race as the other team is trying to block or hinder his passage, or they can try to block the other teams mouse from gaining ground so their team's mouse can surge ahead. This mode is really quite fun and I'd certainly say is a highlight of the multiplayer. There is a similar version of this called cat and mouse open where there is no race to finish but the other teams cats are trying to tag yours by ramming their car into the mouse and gaining points by doing so. Also a fun mode to try. There are also team championships where you go into Xbox Live and it puts you on a team with similarly skilled members and has you race against another team (all even numbers on both teams) for the best positions. Or if you prefer solo play you can do a championship mode with everyone racing as an individual, it's entirely up to you.
Graphics - 8.5 / 10 Graphics are a tough thing for me to gauge in a racing game. It is very difficult to impress me with this style of game because of the redundancy of the race tracks and the fact that you hardly see all of the surroundings as you are rocketing through the streets. PGR 4, however, did a great job with keeping me satisfied with new scenery and different tracks. Not only that but the tracks they do have are based in real cities like New York, Las Vegas, and Tokyo. I have to say I was certainly impressed while driving through Vegas and seeing the Luxor, MGM Grand, and Imperial Palace whizzing past me. There are numerous different modes in which you can race such as with the camera in the driver seat, above the car, on the hood, and more. The ability to pause during any race and have full 360 degree rotation around your vehicle to take any type of snapshot you can think of. You have full zoom capabilities and aerial shots as well. If you happen to have 3D glasses around you can also make the picture 3 dimensional and view it that way. Any pictures you take are saved in the game and you have the option of uploading them to Xbox Live and voting for it or any other favorites you find along your journey through the game. As I said racing games are tough to impress with me with graphics but this did a pretty good job.
Sound - 9 / 10 Sound is another area where they really stepped it up in the game. The intricacies of what you hear throughout are really impressive. From rain hitting the windshield to the mist kicked up from your back tires they really covered all bases here. I'm always wary of racing games because they always focus so much on the engines that they overpower the rest of the sound in the game. Not so in this case, not to mention if you do feel that is the case you can go to the options menu and adjust the different sound components yourself. Because we all realize the same music playing over and over again during a game can be monotonous, they creators basically built a juke box into the game. With a very impressive soundtrack with numerous artists and different styles of music, not only do they have a great array but you can turn on or off different genres you like or don't like, and can even turn on or off specific songs under each genre which I thought was a nice touch.
Achievements - 7.5 / 10 I am big on achievements so I always dedicate a section of my Xbox game reviews to this topic. The achievements in PGR 4 are relatively straightforward, you have 60 Achievements worth a possible 1250 Gamer Points. I am one who always goes well above and beyond to try and get every achievement for each game I've played and I have come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to get every achievement for this game. In the Arcade mode there are three achievements you have available to earn by going through it on Silver Gold and Platinum levels. To be very honest with you, and I feel most others will feel the same way, Silver is hard enough and Platinum is without a doubt out of reach for me. I think this will be the case for most gamers. I just do not have the stress level to handle going through the same races over and over and over again without any changes trying to simply finish in a higher place each time. Furthermore there are three achievements worth 170 points that you need to purchase the Platinum Challenge pack for the game in order to achieve. I really thought this was sneaky of the developers to do because these achievements show up with the rest when you buy the game, unlike most expansions where they only show up if you purchase the download. It wasn't very expensive, 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live but for me it is the principal of the matter, I bought the game, give me what I paid for and don't make me pay more to unlock achievements that are in the standard version of the game. If you are going to do that then charge more for the initial purchase. They loose big points for that, in addition to the, in my opinion, almost unachievable platinum and platinum plus achievements in the game. Now some may call me a crybaby or say I may just be bad at the game, but I urge you to rent it or buy it and try for yourself, see how you do then come back to me.
Downsides The game is entertaining and keeps you coming back with great replay value but it does have one very big down side for me. Because all of the scores you accumulate at the end of each race or mode of play can be posted online, the game as an error if you disconnect from Xbox Live. For example, I was in the middle of a race where I was trying to finish first in order to progress towards an achievement. It is a very difficult race and I had been aggravated with it for over an hour trying to finish this one 8 minute race. I was very close to FINALLY finishing in first place, maybe 45 or so seconds away from the finish, and my console lost the connection to the internet, therefore it disconnected me from Xbox Live. Once this happened, the game immediately, in the middle of my race, went into a loading screen and kicked me out of the race to show me a screen that says your scores will not be posted online because you are no longer connected to Xbox Live. Extremely frustrating. I don't really care about posting them online so from now on if I am in an important race, I intentionally disconnect Xbox Live before I start the game, in order to avoid this type of thing happening again.
Overall - 8.5 / 10 As I said it is an entertaining game and is great for anyone with no violence whatsoever. There are countless different modes both single player and multiplayer to keep you entertained, in addition to a plethora of tracks that will be sure to keep you coming back for more.
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