Project Gotham Racing 2 Review

Two years after Project Gotham Racing set the standard for Xbox driving games, Microsoft and Bizarre Creations present Project Gotham Racing 2, an impressive overhaul of the original that adds more cars, features more racing venues, and offers the ability to play online against up to seven other players. These key new additions should be more than enough to convince fans of the previous game to pick up the sequel, while those new to the series will find in PGR 2 a long-lasting, fully featured racing game that's much more impressive, overall, than most of its competition. Like its predecessor, PGR 2 is a relatively arcadelike racing experience that really can't be considered a realistic simulation, despite its use of real-world cars and locations. In fact, its driving mechanics would be very straightforward were it not for the unique "kudos" system, the likes of which first appeared in Bizarre Creations' Dreamcast game Metropolis Street Racer. This system rewards you for racing with style and grants you an increased number of points the more often and the better you slide around corners and perform other such maneuvers. These rewards may be used to unlock more cars, though plenty are available from the get-go. "Plenty" seems to be a fitting word to describe PGR 2 in general. It's a game that most any car enthusiast would greatly appreciate.

Project Gotham Racing 2 features more than 100 different cars, from manufacturers such as Ferrari, Porsche, Lexus, Jaguar, and many others.

PGR 2 offers a variety of modes of play that can seem pretty overwhelming at first. Fortunately, one of these is called instant action, and it does exactly what it says. Choose this option, and, after a brief loading time, you'll be on the track in some nice car, in some racing circuit, somewhere in the world. However, the main single-player mode of play in PGR 2 is the Kudos World Series, a long sequence of racing events organized by car class, of which there are more than a dozen. Though you must complete each event within each class sequentially, PGR 2, thankfully, lets you choose from one of five difficulty settings for any of the events, and they range from novice to expert. These difficulty settings influence the victory conditions for the event, the speed of any computer-controlled competitors in the event, and how many bonus kudos points you'll gain when all is said and done. So, essentially, you can pretty easily unlock all of the events (though it'll still take you a while) on the novice setting. Bear in mind, however, that you'll be scoring a minimum number of kudos as you do so, thus limiting your ability to unlock new cars. You can always go back and try any race event at a higher difficulty setting, though your kudos for that event won't add up. Instead, you'll be awarded kudos exclusively based on your best run on a given track.

The car classes featured range from the relatively modest compact sports class (featuring the MINI Cooper S and the Honda Civic Type-R), to the sport utility class (with the Mercedes ML55 AMG and its ilk), to the classics class (like the Jaguar E-Type), and all the way up to the ultimate class (featuring the Porsche Carrera GT and the incomparable Enzo Ferrari). Obviously, there's a significant difference in speed and handling when you compare cars from the lower classes versus those in the higher classes, but, overall, the game's 100-plus cars don't really handle in a completely different manner. Each is rated differently for top speed, acceleration, powersliding, and handling, and though you may choose a different paint job for your vehicle of choice, you can't customize it (apart from changing the license plate and driver helmet) or tinker with it under the hood in any way. Right off the bat, about 30 cars are available, including a couple from each class. As you race and earn kudos, you'll earn tokens with which you can unlock additional cars at your discretion. Earning lots of kudos tokens is a gradual process, so it's fortunate that you can test-drive that new car you have your eye on prior to spending the tokens to unlock it.

In addition to offering many more cars than the first game, PGR 2 offers much more variety in its settings. Actually, the previous game boasted hundreds of tracks, but they were all set in San Francisco, London, Tokyo, or New York City. Now there's a brand-new set of venues spread across more than 10 cities, including Stockholm, Moscow, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Sydney, and Yokohama. Races can take place during the day or night and in rain or shine. The tracks themselves--though they tend to be quite narrow--vary significantly in size and shape. Some feature numerous hairpin turns, thus requiring continuous skillful cornering, while others sport long straightaways where top speed rules. One small issue is that, though you'll see a map of the track before a race, you're given no sense of its scale. In unrestricted online races, players naturally gravitate toward their faster cars, but you might feel a bit silly in that Ferrari F50--never getting anywhere near your top speed--while trying to navigate a track that happens to be a lot smaller than you expected. Of course, you could eventually memorize the 100-plus different tracks, and that's a challenge any racing fan ought to be eager to try.

The addition of online play opens up a whole new dimension for racing action in PGR2, though there's a ton of offline content, too.

On the street, there are four perspectives to choose from, including a default behind-the-car view, a closer version of that view, a first-person view from the driver's perspective, and a first-person view that's inches above the pavement. Unfortunately, (but unsurprisingly) you won't see the cockpit of any of the vehicles from the first-person perspectives, but you will get a rearview mirror, whereas the prettier third-person perspectives let you see what's coming up behind you at the touch of a button. It's hard to resist the perspectives from which you can see the beautiful car model for the vehicle you happen to be driving, but you do get a better sensation of speed from the first-person view, and the mirrors give you a competitive advantage.

As previously mentioned, the core action on the track really isn't as remarkable as all the content surrounding it. Nevertheless, there's definitely some real depth to the racing. You'll strive for surgical precision when negotiating the twists and bends of all these tracks, as the analog sensitivity of the gas, break, and handbrake buttons, as well as the steering, make it so that each time you're about to round the bend, it presents its own unique challenge. On the other hand, though, much like its predecessor, PGR 2 offers next to nothing in the way of damage modeling. You'll see your car pick up some fender benders and such if you're banging around a lot, but this superficial damage doesn't look serious, nor does it have any effect on your car's performance. Not much happens when you collide with a rail or with another car, anyhow. You just slow down. Though if you take a bad turn, you might find yourself spun around backwards, and by the time you recover, you'll have little hope of winning the race.