at last a good racing game
It's the previous analysis that makes Project Gotham racing 4's emphasis on weather effects and motorcycles a bit discouraging. The seemingly torrential downpour makes me miss the sunny days of racing where a sequel would place greater emphasis on a new physics model or deep car customization, neither of which seemed to make the PGR4 feature cut. Even if you can pick your vehicles coat of paint, we were looking for more here after playing competing arcade titles like Need for Speed or Test Drive. Driving in the snow or rain on your Ducati isn't impossible mind you (especially with PGR4's tight controls), I'm just not sure it adds up to a sequel worth of fun.
It's unfair to strike the game down entirely since Project Gotham Racing 4 manages to do a lot of things really well over its previous incarnations. Besides an expanded vehicle list (which focuses heavily on the motorcycles) and tighter handling, players will find a focused career mode which unfolds using a monthly calendar that tracks upcoming invitational, championships and major events through the game's nine cities (with races in Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Quebec City, and Macau making their series debuts). Players unlock different track variations, vehicles, and bonuses (like gamertag pics) through packs, which are for sale at the PGR shop.
Kudos - a point based system designed to rewards players for tight turns, drifts, and tricks like powerslides - are now the in-game currency in PGR4. Achieving as many Kudos as possible is a great way to get players focused on clean and efficient driving maneuvers throughout the games plethora of modes; a major portion of which return from PGR3.
Complaints aside, motorcycles have been implemented quite well in PGR4, and are the perfect vehicles for Kudos starved racers. Bikes rack up some serious points, sporting tight controls and easy to execute tricks that are as simple as pressing the B button.
The new manufactures like Ducati, Suzuki, and Toyota join a proverbial who's who of high priced automotive performance and design (mainly Ferrari, Bentley, and Jaguar to name a few). All the vehicles in PGR4 look and sound like their real life counterparts, but just remember to ease up on turns, since bikes don't bounce off the dividers as well as cars (generally speaking any hard bump will make you go splat onto the concrete).
A lot can be said regarding PGR4's visual package; the multiple car cameras, environments, and slick track surfaces look admittedly gorgeous. Effects like rain actually bead across your car's fresh-out-of-the-wash wax job helping PGR4 to easily trump any visual efforts from its sim sibling Forza 2. PGR4 also sports a slick new UI upgrade throughout that visually calls to mind an opening sequence to some non-existent Guy Ritchie film.
It is a good racing game and worth your money