By Elias Dounis on December 27th, 2005

Bizarre Creations’ Project Gotham Racing 2 had been one of my favorite racing games for the original Xbox and because of that I was looking forward to playing its next-generation successor as it launched with the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, after spending a great deal of time with the 360’s Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3), I’ve come to believe that the game may not be the sequel fans have been waiting to play. If anything, PGR3 is the same game as its predecessor with a new coat paint and that is hardly a satisfying game to play.

As an Xbox 360 launch title, Project Gotham Racing 3 has gotten a whole lot of attention due the game being one of the most photo-realistic games available for the console at launch. In still images and in replay videos the game looks very impressive, but a tad bit less impressive when actually racing, since you can’t really appreciate the game’s environments and intricate details when everything is zooming past you so quickly. Truth to be told, on a standard TV set PGR3 may not look that much better than the Xbox’s Forza Motorsport. This comparison shouldn’t be taken lightly, however, since Forza Motorsport is one of the most impressive looking racing games ever

One of my favorite PGR2 features had to have been the game’s massive soundtrack. After hours of playtime you were still likely to have heard only a fraction of what the game’s soundtrack had to offer, which featured an incredible variety of music from all across the globe. PGR3 manages to outdo its predecessor in terms of variety and number by including not just rock, hip-pop, and dance music, but also more music from Japan and a large amount of classical music. Overall, I feel the collection of music is much improved over its predecessor and there’s something eerily satisfying when racing to easily recognizable classical music from legendary composers such as Mozart. Although, I have to say that I do miss the fabricated radio stations and DJs from PGR2.

It’s unfortunate that most of the changes made with PGR3 are solely presentational. It’s apparent that most of the time put into the game was too create its "next-gen" graphics, but even with all the work put into the game’s visuals, its menu interface is just horrendous. Load times are everywhere and they are fairly long as well. Even restarting races, which is something that most players would think would take long to load, have unnecessary load times. I swear, this game made me wish that cartridges were once again the dominating format for games because if that were the case I wouldn’t have to be tortured by PGR3’s load times. So, even with the graphical overhaul, Bizarre Creations can’t create a user-friendly interface.

The gameplay of the PGR series hasn’t changed or been "enhanced" much in this next-gen sequel, if at all. However, for those who have yet to play a game in the series, I’ll elaborate on what kind of racer Project Gotham Racing 3 is....

Project Gotham Racing 3 is an arcade racer that isn’t sure about its identity. The game is supposed to be a mixture of both arcade and simulation racing gameplay types, but it feels more like a simulation racer than an arcade racer such as Ridge Racer 6 or Need for Speed Most Wanted. If you’re a veteran of games such as Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, you will quickly find yourself winning most of the game’s races with ease, since whatever you learned about handling turns, braking, etc... can be applied to any race in PGR3 in order to be victorious. You won’t have to learn anything new in PGR3. In order to separate itself from racers with identity and unique gameplay, PGR3 awards players with Kudos, which are basically points earned with each drift, draft, overtake, and any other stunt you can perform in the game. So basically the game rewards players for driving "dangerously," but don’t be mistaken -- in competition races, winning is always the main objective.

Street races and eliminator challenges in the game’s career modes are not necessarily completed by finishing in first. Depending on what medal your going for (Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum), you could

Boredom is a serious issue with PGR3’s street races. A good video game is supposed to entertain the player but I couldn’t help but be disgusted by the fact that there were times where I found myself dozing off during quite a number of street races. While I do feel that the overall design of the tracks have improved over the previous game’s, the tracks encountered aren’t as challenging as those of PGR2 and hardcore fans of PGR2 may be a tad bit disappointed with the game’s tracks as a result. Any seasoned veteran of PGR2 and racing simulations won’t be too impressed or challenged by most of PGR3’s tracks. There is, of course, Nurunburg, but it makes an appearance in most racing games, along with the infamous Leguna Seca race track.

PGR3’s single-player strength comes from its other challenges (not its street racing aspect), which includes the hot lap, timed lap, cone challenge and drifting challenges. My particular favorite is the cone challenge, which gives players the goal of earning a specific amount of Kudos points by racing through cone gates through some of game’s tracks. It’s a challenge that forces a player to strive for perfection, moving through cone gates quickly and flawlessly, trying not to knock a single cone over and even performing E-brake drifts and other stunts to increase his score. I’ve always felt that the cone challenge has always been the most challenging gameplay modes of all the PGR games and my thoughts on this still have not changed. The other challenges can be just as compelling since they also force players to work towards taking turns and performing enough stunts to beat the clock or earn a specific amount of Kudos.

The game’s online component is something that is supposed to boost the appeal of the game and it’s emphasized quite a bit in the game. If connected to the Xbox Live service, the amount of Kudos you’ve earned for a certain challenge will be recorded and posted on the game’s online leader-boards. This gives the game a much needed sense of competition, which is likely to trigger the competitive nature of many gamers who just want to be one of the best PGR3 players. There is also a full fledged online career mode that can be very entertaining at times, but it’ll most likely be more frustrating than it is enjoyable.

An issue that plagues most racing games online is that an unskilled player can absolutely ruin a race for better players. Way too often have I entered a race where some fool crashes into everyone on the first turn of

Of course, there should be a solution to avoid playing with players of this sort, or lessening the occurrence of encountering them. One solution could’ve been including a penalty for crashing, a performance-hindering penalty like in Forza Motorsport. Another possible solution would be to restrict players from being able to buy the best cars in each class without completing the more difficult challenges in the game’s single-player mode. Unfortunately, none of these solutions are present and because of it PGR3’s online career is turned into garbage.

New features to the series include a track builder and Gotham TV. The track builder essentially allows players to construct point-to-point races and Gotham TV basically lets players view races of players over Xbox Live. They are both neat little features but I find both of them, especially Gotham TV, to be incredibly boring. In fact, the only reason I bothered to spend some time with these features were in effort to earn the Xbox Live achievement for toying around with them. Some players may find these features to be cool additions but I unfortunately cannot share these sentiments. In regards to Gotham TV, I’d much rather play the game than watch others play it instead.

Project Gotham Racing 3 isn’t the sequel fans should’ve been expecting. All it is a better looking version of PGR2 with some new tracks and a new soundtrack. The game isn’t very fun and its online career mode isn’t too enjoyable due to unavoidable encounters of careless racers. The game is only for those gamers who care more about graphics than gameplay itself. For those gamers it may be worthwhile, but for others there are two better racers to pick up for the Xbox 360 and they are Ridge Racer 6 and Need for Speed Most Wanted. Don’t fall victim to the hype.