A good arcade racer...but by far worst in the series. (Full review inside...unique scoring system inside)
Id like to put down how I Score games (this is important if you want to understand why my score is so 'low'):
1 - Utter rubbish
2 - Utter rubbish
3 - rubbish
4 - average
5 - Good
6 - Pretty good
7 - Great
8 - Greater than 7
9 - Awesome
10 - so great ill never review a game that's this good...period.
I played the first PGR on the Xbox and the REALLY similar racer on the dream cast (which i cant remember the name of, but its the same game really), and i played the much improved PGR2 and now for PGR3, which i must say is a step back for the series. Which is really disappointing.
GRAPHICS
PGR has always been the series to be if you wanted awesome graphics on for a racer, and this installment is no different. Its a pretty big step up from PGR2 as you would expect and is probably on of the better looking racers on the market. You have really good looking sports cars, fantastic tracks and a pretty steady frame rate. Theres rarely a slow down, and when there is you cant actually notice it. A really nice feature is the motion blur when you look from a Side view from the inside the car. Everything looks super blurry, and adds a real sense of speed, which is what this game does well. Apart from the TINY amounts of slow down, this is an awesome looking game.
SOUND
The sound track, as always, is varied, and has music to suit any sort of Music lover, from rap to scream based Heavy metal. All the cars sound really powerful and just help add to the immersion that your really driving at break neck speeds. As you can see, so far everything in this game is about making you feel like your going FAST! Which brings me to my next point...
...GAMEPLAY
For PGR3 this is the real let down. Yes, you still have your ultra fast paced racing as before. You can power slide around a U turn at 150mps and rack up the Kudos. Kudos of course being the points you rack up for driving with skill, speed and style. Its also your currency. But unfortunately, the game just feels Shallow.
Why does it feel shallow you are all bellowing. Well its for one simple reason. The cars. In previous PGR games you could drive any type of car, in fact you had to start off with crappy cars, and work up to the Ferrari F50's and you Lamborghini's. Unfortunately, what you have here is a ALL sports car game. You start off with a Ferrari, and end with a Ferrari. Which as mentioned makes the game shallow. I couldn't help feeling like if im already at the top of the board (top 10 in the world) with all the best cars, why continue playing?
PGR3 isnt a bad game, its a good game, dont get me wrong, but its the worst in the series. If you LOVE the series, you will love this game. If your a fan of arcade racer's, this is the one for you, but just prepare your self for some shallow gameplay. Oh yeah, before i forget, you also have 5 levels of difficulty, so even if your new, you can enjoy this game...but the AI gets a lot more aggressive the higher the level...so be warned.
OVERALL
Does everything that PGR does well, makes you feel like your going really fast...but you just don't get a chance to chill in a mini anymore, which brings it down...a lot. (not just because of the mini of course).
5/10 GOOD.