Project Gotham Racing 3 Review

Microsoft helped us beat the Monday blues. They sent us an Xbox 360 and Project Gotham Racing 3 game to review!

History:

Project Gotham Racing or PGR as it is widely known, first hit the Xbox in 2001 and was followed by a sequel in 2003. Project Gotham Racing 3 has been developed specially for the Xbox 360 platform. The Project Gotham Racing game constructs the ultimate roster of the state-of-the-art supercars in existence, brings them to the high-definition era, and pushes them into an absolutely new gaming world, where style rules the road.

Game:

The first thing that you notice about a game is its graphics, and the developers seem to know this fact very well. When we started the game, the graphics simply made us go bonkers. It made us realize the true potential of a HDTV. While playing the game on a standard TV will still impress, the game practically pops off the screen in high-definition.

Graphics aside, Project Gotham Racing 3 is bound to bring out the speed junkie in everyone who attempts to play this game. The driving locations offer a vast choice to gamers as they cover London, New York City, Las Vegas, Tokyo and Nürburgring. Each location is so precise. While racing in London, you can see the Big Ben looming ahead, as you zoom past the London Eye, just like you would in real life.

If you think the locations are to die for, wait till you see the cars. There are more than 80 cars to choose from spanning companies like Ferrari, Dodge, Chrysler, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Lotus, Clarin, Lamborghini and Toyota. What’s great about this game is that all standard cars will be unlocked and available to use when you are playing online or in any non-Career race.

And if you thought the cars were impressive, just wait till you see the tracks you are going to race them on. Project Gotham Racing 3 does not have as many cities as Project Gotham Racing 2, but it sure does make up for that with loads of tracks of various difficulty. Each of the cities has 12 tracks, except for Nürburgring, which has 13. The option ‘Create your Route’ allows you to actually create your own routes. Based on preset checkpoints around each of the cities, you can create your own routes. There are around 100 million tracks to choose from, so it may actually be quite a while before you create your own routes.

Sound effects are also very accurate and well-timed. It can be noticed that the sound-effects change with the cars. This is also one of those games that accentuate a Dolby Digital 5.1 theater system. You can actually hear cars coming up from behind you, or directly at the side of your car.

Project Gotham Racing 3 has got to be one of the coolest racing games of our time. There is so much to do. There is an option called ‘Gotham TV’, which will keep you in the know on all the record-breaking performances and other newsworthy events. Apparently when you are signed in to Xbox Live, The Gotham TV news-ticker service displays a live feed of all the latest news from the world of PGR 3.

Moving on to the action part of Project Gotham racing 3, there is the ‘Career Mode’, which can be played offline or online. When you just start out, you have the ability to choose a ‘starter car’. But don’t fret, because when you start out you won’t be stuck with low end Class E cars. As you move along and of course win races, you will gather Kudos and credits, which will allow you to purchase a Class A car. Just don’t get too hooked on to this game, or else you may start to think you have a real career as a racer.

Leaderboards keep track of Kudos earned in both the Gotham Career Mode and on Xbox Live. After each race, the Leaderboards are updated automatically, just so that you can see how you compare to the top drivers. Besides, if you finish a race in the top ten, your Ghost (semi-transparent image of a car that races at the same speed as you) will also be automatically updated to the Xbox Live Leaderboards.

You can earn Kudos when you perform super-cool maneuvers during a race. You can prove your worth to all other racers out there. Just think of it as your report card! But seriously, you will need all the Kudos you can get and more to get your greasy hands on the sleek Class A cars.

You can also take a walk into your garage to view your cars. And while you are at it, you can also take a break from your high-speed life and step into space. Confused? Well if you look around your garage you will see two arcade game machines. Here you can play Geometry Wars and Geometry Wars 2. Both these games are 2D arcade games and may not seem that appealing to you after playing in the almost real world. Nonetheless once you start playing Geometry Wars, you are bound to feel more relaxed, less speeded up and ready to play Project Gotham Racing 3 once again!

Our final verdict: Go and get yourself PGR3. We are impatiently waiting for Xbox Live to come to India. Till then do enjoy the graphics and gameplay of the Career Mode. After all, life begins at 170. You will realize this when you start vrooming around in your super cool car in PGR3. Ahh yes, don’t drink and drive!