Project Gotham 4 Impressions
One of the hidden gems that has not gotten nearly enough press this
fall has to be Project Gotham 4 for the Xbox 360. The Project Gotham
series had been the primer racing game for the Xbox and was one of the
best launch titles for the Xbox 360 but recently has seen darker
times. The development studio was a 2nd part deal with Microsoft so
they developed PGR exclusively for Microsoft and Microsoft own the
brand but the developers where independent. That was until Activision
bought the development team and announced they would no longer be
making PGR games. So this great racing game is getting very little
marketing and has already been discounted at some stores.
Still, PGR4 is a very fun arcade style racing game that will allow you to race across the world on city streets and one F1 course. There are three racing options from the start: Arcade, Career and Multiplayer. The arcade mode has you compete in events attempting to win medals. These events range from typical street race, to purposely knocking down cones, to avoiding cones and more. The arcade portion of the game is traditional PRG we have seen before. The career mode is a better form of circuit styled racing. This option allows you to compete at different levels, allows driver promotion and follows a calendar. Some have complained you can't retry events like you can in Arcade mode but I think this feels more like how a career mode should. Getting endless reties takes away from the importance of each race and forces you to drive smarter. Knowing you can just stop a race and retry after you've screwed up doesn't force you to be a better racer.
So far I've progressed to Professional in the career mode and am having a blast. PGR4 is an excellent racer that should be in any racing fans library. It is amazing to see how much the game has changed from 3 to 4 over a two year period. PGR3 was a launch 360 game and it looked incredible but now PGR4 looks even better and has amazing lighting effects (much better than Forza 2). I'm really happy I got this game and hope people will give it a try. You can download the free demo from Xbox Live marketplace so there is no reason not to give it a try.
Still, PGR4 is a very fun arcade style racing game that will allow you to race across the world on city streets and one F1 course. There are three racing options from the start: Arcade, Career and Multiplayer. The arcade mode has you compete in events attempting to win medals. These events range from typical street race, to purposely knocking down cones, to avoiding cones and more. The arcade portion of the game is traditional PRG we have seen before. The career mode is a better form of circuit styled racing. This option allows you to compete at different levels, allows driver promotion and follows a calendar. Some have complained you can't retry events like you can in Arcade mode but I think this feels more like how a career mode should. Getting endless reties takes away from the importance of each race and forces you to drive smarter. Knowing you can just stop a race and retry after you've screwed up doesn't force you to be a better racer.
So far I've progressed to Professional in the career mode and am having a blast. PGR4 is an excellent racer that should be in any racing fans library. It is amazing to see how much the game has changed from 3 to 4 over a two year period. PGR3 was a launch 360 game and it looked incredible but now PGR4 looks even better and has amazing lighting effects (much better than Forza 2). I'm really happy I got this game and hope people will give it a try. You can download the free demo from Xbox Live marketplace so there is no reason not to give it a try.
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