PGR4 details race into view

By Robert Purchese Published 25 April, 2007

Just add personality.

Bizarre Creations believes that Project Gotham Racing 4 is the first game in the series that it's really been able to focus on, not having to hurriedly complete it to release with a new console or service.

It was speaking in an exclusive feature with a Polish magazine, in which the developer talked about what this new PGR outing has to offer.

This time around you'll have more options when creating your driver, which will form the basis of a revamped Career Mode. Your opposing drivers will also now be more charismatic, identifiable by their racing styles and "personalities". There'll also be more spectators who will react better to what's going on around them, and might even wave a national flag or two.

In-car-view affectionados will be happy with the promise of a more engaging experience, with more reaction from the driver in question, as well as weather and road effects making your ride more realistic and bumpy.

There'll be garages of new cars to race in, too, like classic 1960s Minis, '63 Corvette Stingrays, and other retro rippers. You'll also be treated to a Shanghai location, plus two more TBC cities and a "Fantasy Track" - on top of all the environments from PGR 3.

But perhaps the most noticeable difference will be the flashy new weather effects. These will now change dynamically during the race and effect your car, puddles icing over or frost collecting on your windshield.

There are new textures and lighting effects, as well as plenty more polygons - on cars, spectators, and drivers. The car handling has also undergone its MOT, and online physics has been tweaked to cut down on dirty rotten cheaters.

Bizarre is promising that all of this will run at a solid 30 frames-per-second in 720p.

Pop over to Xboxic.com's scans of the Polish magazine to see the game in action.

Alternatively head over to our Project Gotham 4 gamepage for more information.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (53) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • billythekid #1 5 years ago

    Just bring back the Pacific muscle class!!

  • Tejstar #2 5 years ago

    Lol at online physics tweaking - I want to fly in my car dammit!

  • Mr-Brett #3 5 years ago

    "Just bring back the Pacific muscle class!!"

    Thats what need for speed is for.

  • chronom4n #4 5 years ago

    I remember back in the days of Playstation and N64 for example, i would drool over images like these. Who would have thought that those images are more or less reality.

    It seems that Bizarre are taking a different approach to creating a realistic game. Instead of focusing on what makes other racing games realistic i.e. simulation physics, they seem to be taking a more envirionmentally realistic approach in their games.

  • myiagros #5 5 years ago

    Sounds more like PGR3 with a bunch of tweaks, rather than a whole new game.

    But maybe that is not a bad thing.

  • InfiniteFury #6 5 years ago

    Oh dear, will have to hit the PGR4 forums at lunchtime to see how the 30fps has gone down. It won't be pretty...

  • SIDEARM #7 5 years ago

    But every PGR game has been 30 fps, haven't they?

  • InfiniteFury #8 5 years ago

    To screams of anguish yes....

    I think PGR1 may have been 60fps actually but don't quote me.

  • Dezm0nd #9 5 years ago

    PGR3 was a horrible game, I absolutely loved the structure that PGR2 is based upon but 3 was horrendous.

    I have lost all hope for the PGR series, i'll stick to burnout and Forza. There's too much for one system to handle, it'll drown in racers and FPS games

  • superted #10 5 years ago

    no damage model AGAIN!

  • ruckus #11 5 years ago

    I hope they don't go overboard with the ai personality thing (thinks Porsche Challenge and shudders). Flag waving usualy looks crap in games (as in real life) but I hope they have the custom race option where you get to choose the grid like in msr/pgr3.

  • #12 5 years ago

    Lose the weather and go for 60fps

  • bdc #13 5 years ago

    30fps, iiick. C'mon that's a shoddy standard now.

  • paulf #14 5 years ago

    making it easier to chose your car and being able to restart a race without reloading would be nice.

    Also an online race mode thats not won by who gets through the first corner without being taken out by the other drivers

  • SBfistfun #15 5 years ago

    racing styles and "personalities".

    Lies, utter lies

    30 fps, wElComE to Teh NexT Gen!

  • The_Programmer #16 5 years ago

    "It was speaking in an exclusive feature with a Polish magazine"

    No point. All the Polish live here now.

  • bonker #17 5 years ago

    "Bizarre is promising that all of this will run at a solid 30 frames-per-second in 720p." (Sorry but my paranoia gland insists that this was a sly dig/troll at teh 360)

    /taking da bait

    Err, 30fps and 720p is all a bit old-next-gen isn't it?

    Considering all the 'extra' time they've had to work on this you'd have thought they would have sniffed 60fps and/or 1080p huh?

    Or is the 360 really that limited???
    Edited by 1 at 25/04/07 @ 12:43

  • Eoin #18 5 years ago

    "But every PGR game has been 30 fps, haven't they?"

    PGR2 and PGR3 were, after they made the decision with 2 to drop the framerate to concentrate on graphics.

    Howeverboth MSR and PGR were 60FPS apart from a few graphical elements - the reflections in PGR, for example, which didn't refresh every frame (most people probably didn't notice).

    It's disappointing that they've gone for 30FPS for PGR4...while the graphics VS framerate debate goes interminably on, there's absolutely no argument that 60FPS does very much help a racing game.

  • teccrom #19 5 years ago

    Finally a Chinese city in a racing game!

  • InfiniteFury #20 5 years ago

    If they released PGR2 + shiny + 60 fps I think I'd probably shell out £40 for it.

    Sad but true.

  • Penguinzoot #21 5 years ago

    IIRC Bizarre has always claimed that they peg the frame rate at 30 fps to allow them to both guarantee (well, as far as is possible given a normal scenario) online multiplayer performance, and that the Live experience matches the user experience for single-player.

    Something like that anyway ....

  • lennon #22 5 years ago

    Ahh the old 30fps argument rears up again. Cant say that this ever effected my enjoyment of PGR 2 or 3. If its a gameplay crippler then its a huge issue if it isnt then why get all up tight about it?

  • Der_tolle_Emil #23 5 years ago

    30fps is not that bad actually. It never bothered me in PGR3 at all. I really like the graphics of PGR3 and if PGR4 tops them but runs at 'only' 30 fps I don't care. If the 30 fps are stable then everything's ok for me.

    And so far PGR4 sounds like it will be a great game.

  • DrDamn #24 5 years ago

    @bonker
    > (Sorry but my paranoia gland insists that this was a sly dig/troll at teh 360)

    I think it was more a dig at the fact PGR3 isn't rendered at 720p but a lower resolution and the resulting image upscaled to 720p / 1080i for output. It wasn't much below 720p - but still not "proper" 720p.

  • banjo21 #25 5 years ago

    Seems like most agree PGR2 was a game and PGR3 was an online F50 bore-athon.
    Good to see Bizarre acknowledge it at long last. Just hope they put more in to the racing experience both on and off line and less into first corner pile-ups and dodging traffic cones. I mean what the hell is that all about?????

  • markypants #26 5 years ago

    Hurry up and release the damn game!

    Also i can't say that i ever noticed any negative side affects from 30fps. What is all the fuss about? PGR is still the best online racing franchise available bar none.

  • The-Bodybuilder #27 5 years ago

    How many people noticed the 30fps in pgr3? Hands up (not pgr2).

  • The-Bodybuilder #28 5 years ago

    >"Howeverboth MSR and PGR were 60FPS"

    Hmmm. I'm pretty sure msr wasn't 60fps.

  • jiveguy #29 5 years ago

    @markypants:

    The way I understand the issue, from various experts who just happen to visit games forums is that the shutters in your eyes move at a much higher rate per second than 30. In effect this means that if you are playing a game at 30fps with 720 lines of information passing through your eyes which in turn are oscillating at a much faster fps than the game you end up thinking you look like a lamer. Further, the very thought that you might be a lamer makes the game crap and therefore the GT series is far superior.

    I'm sure the experts who have spent hours and hours discussing these sort of things can clarify, but thats the general gist of the problem of 30fps in racing games.

  • The-Bodybuilder #30 5 years ago

    >"I was extremely disappointed with PGR3, and even felt the graphics weren't as good as people made out (it seriously wasn't next-gen, by any degree). "

    Fully agree. PGR3 was a dissapointment (I've only gained 2 achievements from it, can't be bothered to finish it) and so were the graphics too.

    But I am excited of pgr4.

  • jepf #31 5 years ago

    Since PGR4 seems to be the only racing game with cockpit-perspective to come out in the near future, it will be the only racing game I will buy for a long time.

    For me, Forza 2 died the moment they said it won't have in-car-view.
    As will GT4.

  • moggsy #32 5 years ago

    I hope they don't go overboard with the ai personality thing (thinks Porsche Challenge and shudders).

    Porsche Challenge! I loved that game...

  • The-Bodybuilder #33 5 years ago

    >"For me, Forza 2 died the moment they said it won't have in-car-view.
    As will GT4."

    I guess once you get cock, you can't go back without, can ya? ;-)

  • Frogger #34 5 years ago

    60 fps gives a more natural feeling than 30fps, your eyes are less tired (if it's the correct word in such context ? sorry for my poor english).

    BUT : Visual effects like motion blur can reduce this feeling and make a 30fps game perfectly acceptable.

  • Beano #35 5 years ago

    "Oh dear, will have to hit the PGR4 forums at lunchtime to see how the 30fps has gone down. It won't be pretty... "

    Yes it suckes, but 30fps is no surprise for a PGR game... but I really wish they would deliver 60fps.

    At least Forza 2 will be 60fps this time.

  • bluebird #36 5 years ago

    @The Bodybuilder:

    *hand up* I definately noticed the 30fps. Maybe it isn't obvious when you haven't seen a game that does run in 60fps. Play a game of Ridge Racer 6 and then put in PGR3 and notice the big difference in smoothness and responsiveness.

  • stoopidgreg #37 5 years ago

    MINIS!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #38 5 years ago

    Responsiveness has not necessarily anything to do with the rendered framerate. You can still process inputs 60 times per second or even more but only render 30 frames per second.

    Of course 60 fps feels better, every game feels better with 60fps, but I never found PGR3 to be in anyway an inferior game because it runs with 30fps. The game was still fun to play and I actually like emphasis on graphics with PGR3. If I want 60fps but less detail I will happily play Forza 2 which I really look forward to too. Of course they are different games but still. I am definetly no graphics whore and I would buy PGR even if it was looking 'worse' but the fancy graphics made it special for me and I actually expect PGR4 to look stunning.

  • Hughes. #39 5 years ago

    For 30fps, it's not as important for a game like PGR than for a GT or Forza 2, but 60fps does really improves the feel of a racer. Beter a solid 30 than a shaky 60 though, those environmental effects sound worth the sacrifice.

  • Wash #40 5 years ago

    :S

    So by standard next gen machines should be able to do 60fps. Some folk are simpletons i'm sure. Throw enough at any computer and it will struggle. Fact is Bizarre think the trade off of wot 30fps affords them elsewhere is worth it and is where their strength lies.

    Beleive it or not this ps3 and 360 dont have magical processing power made of fairy dust. Or is every ps3 game 60fps?...

  • The-Bodybuilder #41 5 years ago

    shut up bluebird. Your testimony has been stricken from the records.

  • Wash #42 5 years ago

    @bluebird

    good example.. PGR is a lot better looking than ridge racer... so we can see first hand the trade off.

    I think the world would agree Project Gotham is generally considered to be a lot better game - even if they have rushed the last 3.

  • bonker #43 5 years ago

    "@bonker
    > (Sorry but my paranoia gland insists that this was a sly dig/troll at teh 360)

    I think it was more a dig at the fact PGR3 isn't rendered at 720p but a lower resolution and the resulting image upscaled to 720p / 1080i for output. It wasn't much below 720p - but still not "proper" 720p. "

    Ah, k, I didn't know that.

    I was convinced there was something weird with that statement but I couldn't put my finger on it :)

  • captainrentboy #44 5 years ago

    People moaning about this 30fps malarky need to be shot...Dead!Fussy bastards. There was a lot wrong with PGR3, the 30fps issue wasn't one of the problems for me though, it all felt perfectly slick and smooth in motion with no slowdown.
    The big problem (which according to the Official 360 mag is being rectified in a big way) was just the way the whole career was laid out, it was bastard boring. And having your choice from all of the supercars almost right at the beginning was a bit silly, I was never really striving to get anything.
    Rather than all of us moan about the framerate let's moan about those fooking jaggies, now they were almost game destroying!!

  • rincewind128 #45 5 years ago

    I hope they put some decent slow cars in again, mini races used to be really good in PGR2. I don't see why they took out so many options from PGR3, after a race you couldn't even see your time! How bloody hard would it be to put a simple counter in? seriously I don't know much about coding but when you've spent that long getting everything looking good can't be that hard to put a counter in. PGR3 seemed too cut down, after the triumph of PGR2, hope they put more content in the new one.

  • captainrentboy #46 5 years ago

    Yellowtruck dissing something on the Xbox???Jesus,what's wrong man?
    What the hell is Grand Turismo anyway? If it's Gran Turismo you're on about i'm pretty sure the only game that is trying to challenge that in the Xbox camp is the Forza series.
    PGR is faaar more arcadey than it is Simulator.

  • hoathenfold #47 5 years ago

    I wish someone would put the 'Top Gear' Power lap into a game. (Complete with parked up 747 in the background.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #48 5 years ago

    "good example.. PGR is a lot better looking than ridge racer... so we can see first hand the trade off. I think the world would agree Project Gotham is generally considered to be a lot better game"

    Sorry - by "the world" did you mean to say "insufferably tedious dullards who wouldn't know a good videogame if you fired it up their arse with a cannon"?

    'Cos obviously, if so that's quite a typo, man.

  • Darren #49 5 years ago

    PGR 4 running at 30 fps doesn't bother me at all as the motion-blur and smooth-framerate of the first 360 game more than successfully conveyed a great sense of speed. However, it strikes me as odd that Bizarre Creations have not gone for 60 fps @ "true" 720p for the sequel as they always claimed that they wanted PGR 3 to runs at 60 fps but ran out of development time. That's presumably the reason the game didn't run at 720p as well but upscaled 600p and the only way to see what the game really did look like at 720p was to use the Photo mode. With Forza Motorsport 2 running at 60 fps, I thought PGR 4 running at the same framerate was a given really...

    And Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast ran at 30 fps not 60! ;)

  • Darren #50 5 years ago

    I should add that running PGR 4 at 30 fps presumably allows the game to display far more detail and effects than, say, Gran Turismo 5 will on the PS3 (I'm sure that will run at 60 fps)? One only hopes that the drop in framerate from 60 to 30 isn't just because of the animated crowds because let's face when you're racing at 100 mph, you don't really notice them... much...

  • AL7AIR #51 5 years ago

    @ hoathenfold
    I second that, and don't forget to add the ghost lap of the Stig :)

  • miiiguel #52 5 years ago

    You'll see PS3's GT when PGR473289472389 is out... "TBA" isn't it?

    yellowdude... I find your faith very amusing. And you're old... PGR1 ? what's that ? GT is also so passe...

    Calling all cars! Calling all cars... that's a PGR-killer...
    Edited by 2 at 26/04/07 @ 17:39

  • TRUTH #53 5 years ago

    PGR 3 was rushed for the 360, this was to due to hitting the shelve for the launch for the console.

  • SomaticSense #54 5 years ago

    yellowtruck - "PGR1 on the Xbox lacked just about everything. Speed, personality, people.
    It was like a Grand Turismo wannabe only without all the things that make Grand Turismo the game series it is.     "

    What the hell? Is that a joke? Are you joking?

    Please tell me you are, because to be honest, if that wasn't a joke, then it's got to be one of the stupid remarks I've ever read in the comments section of this site (and that's saying a lot!!).

    PGR being a Gran Turismo wannabe? Seriously, give me one thing that the two games have in common, which isn't cars, or racing. Because the two games are about as different as two games could be within the same genre (even them being in the same genre is debatable, as one is a driving sim, and the other is an arcade racer).
    In fact, you could say the whole point of PGR wasn't even the racing, but the drifting. But then turning it on it's head even further, judging by the points-scoring drifting mode in GT:HD, Gran Turismo is actually now trying to copy PGR, in at least one of it's game modes.

    By your fucked up logic, Gears of War is an Operation Flashpoint wannabe only without all the things that make Op Flash the game it is. Yeah, don't I sound like a fucking idiot for saying that...

    You post was 100% wrong, although the speed, personality, and people comment comes down to opinion, but is still an opinion I 100% don't agree with. The game had craploads more personality than the robotic Gran Turismo. And the speed you can't even compare, as like I said before, they are virtually completely different genres, and with an almost entirely differing vehicle selection.