Project Gotham Racing 4 Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 11 October, 2007

Finesse the fight.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Appropriately enough for a game that introduces motorbikes, PGR4 restores balance to a series that was beginning to wobble. PGR3 wasn't sure whether to be a fast racer or a game of technical driving. With PGR4, Bizarre Creations was sure it could do both, and so it proves.

Key to achieving that are several things. Tweaks to the Kudos system, which rewards and encourages stylish driving, work in tandem with revisions to the handling model, while new ideas about track design (bundled together under the awkward "Racification" banner) subtly promote good driving practices without shoving them through the windscreen.

The influence of these elements is felt throughout. Arcade mode, the new home of PGR's traditional hunt for top-scoring medals, is less esoteric. Cone Sprints - tasks that involve navigating a regular track strewn with cone gates as quickly as possible - are able to emphasise the importance of speed despite their supremely technical requirements, with no loss of appeal. The two concepts, once conflicting, are now snugly entwined.

This harmony between the two extremes of what Kudos and high performance cars respectively imply for a driving game also have an amusing added benefit: it's now actually less jarring to encounter partisan disciplines, like Super Cone Sprint, which involves navigating courses made entirely of cones and penalises you for straying outside their boundaries. Before, tasks like this were a symptom of PGR's inconsistency, but PGR4 charts a path toward them that nullifies their potential negative influence.

These changes alone would have restored PGR to higher marks, but Bizarre certainly hasn't stopped there. PGR4 is the first time the developer has been able to take stock, perhaps even since it finished Gotham's precursor, Metropolis Street Racer, and that retrospection hangs like a broad grin across the face of the game. Everywhere there is delightful evolution.

Speed Challenge tasks, for example, used to involve preserving speed through a single tricky turn in order to register a high speed through a camera trap. In PGR4, you have to maintain performance and skill across four linked equivalents, reducing the possibility of fluke success.

'Project Gotham Racing 4' Screenshot 1

Rain and other effects add further variety to tasks and handling models that already test gamers in a multitude of interesting ways.

Track design is also improved, but more potently so is track selection. The amazing corkscrew ascents and hairpins of Quebec and the high speed cornering of Macau circuits prove to be a welcome complement to the return (and refurbishment) of PGR3's host cities.

Also important was the decision to split single-player pursuits into Arcade and Career modes. The former will satisfy people who spent hours tearing PGR3's style system apart in search of the game's most lustrous medals, but the latter is a less biased affair, closer to something like TOCA Race Driver.

Set out as a revolving, year-long calendar of events, it moves you between a variety of disciplines in a structured way, with various mini-championships, invitation and one-off events, and as your driving matures so too does the range of tasks available.

That range is greatly increased by a back-of-the-box bullet-point: weather effects. Blustery rain and icy surfaces radically alter race requirements, amplifying the difficulty somewhat but also feeding into a similarly broadened Kudos system (and have the added benefit of making an already brilliant-looking game look even more amazing).

'Project Gotham Racing 4' Screenshot 2

The range of cars is more impressive than ever, with trusty favourites, more lower-end vehicles and a good range of specials.

Kudos now comfortably rewards speed as well as style. Traditional rewards for powersliding, handbrake use, completely clean sections and passing manoeuvres slot into a framework bolstered by rewards for holding a good racing line and achieving and holding speeds in excess of the once-magic 170mph.

Visual feedback is much better, too. As you tick past certain thresholds, the game gives you stars, eventually culminating in a five-star trick and a brief fanfare at the top of the screen, after which you can keep feeding the beast with skill and verve, or dial it back in order to bank the points. As ever, the risk of striking a surface and losing your gains gives each competitive race a supplementary infusion of risk. PGR4 is also more forgiving of slight brushes and upsets, allowing for surprisingly strong collisions with the barriers, but without reducing the appeal of hardcore pursuits like Arcade's tougher goals.

There is even time to play into the new Kudos star system with Superstar tasks, where the objective is to obtain stars, not Kudos, meaning that you have to end and restart style sequences artificially. This is perhaps a step too far toward the bad old days of style over speed, but it remains a guilty pleasure.

Both single-player offerings are surprisingly vast, too, despite their potential to diminish one another, and offer satisfyingly diverse paths into the game. Both are accessible thanks to the range of available difficulty brackets, but neither discriminates particularly. Arcade simply lets you dial the challenge up or down task by task, while Career asks you to choose an over-arching difficulty.

Another element of that variety is the motorbikes, and it's here perhaps that PGR4 is less successful. It is too hard to accept the artificial stabilising effects Bizarre has imposed to balance the challenge in car-and-bike cocktail races, and the satisfaction of mastering bikes, borne out by the much better latter examples, where the relationship between acceleration and fast cornering is most rewarding, is still over-shadowed by that need to hold back the onslaught of disbelief. In mixed races, bikes are also rather too easy to defend against or bash out of the way. You need to respect other cars, but you seldom need to respect bikes.

PGR4's greatest flaw though is also one of its oldest. The core racing is still too often reliant on mastering the first half-lap through trial and error and then hunting down the race leader until you are close enough to powerslide caution to the wind and simply barge him out of the way to secure position.

On the one hand, you can't win PGR4's toughest races without being a brilliant player - and the game is undoubtedly extremely good at developing that ability - but on the other, that final stretch of skill is never necessary to locate when you can short-circuit it so mercilessly.

It's particularly galling in a game that succeeds so impressively in serving up convincing opposition. Indeed, the capacity of your fellow road warriors to race rather than simply follow is most apparent because, as you improve, you can actually observe and define the mistakes they are making, rather than having to cobble together a picture of their successes from scratch. (It's certainly a helpful trait from a reviewer's perspective.)

It's doubly a shame, because Bizarre has catered wonderfully to people who do finesse their way into that higher bracket of skill, delivering some truly fiendish Arcade events and even a multiplayer discipline that forces you to use a manual gearbox and the rightly celebrated in-car view on the toughest circuits.

'Project Gotham Racing 4' Screenshot 3

Putting cars and bikes together doesn't always work, but it does allow you to taunt people as you pass them, which is nice.

On which note, it's quite probably that conspicuously raw final solution to bypassing the graduation from mid- to high-level skill that has previously punctured the otherwise brilliant multiplayer, which returns here with lots of new ideas.

For a start, it borrows Halo's lobby system successfully, but it's at its best here because, instead of throwing its hands up at the way its game makes people behave, Bizarre has chosen to embrace that. Certain gameplay modes feed on what fans have been doing unofficially since PGR2, while another, Bulldog, is like the best playground chase game ever. In a Ferrari.

Nowhere is Bizarre's devotion to its community clearer than in the game's polish. Fans of the bumper-cam view are blessed with the real speed and rev meters for every single vehicle in the game, while that ability to revisit the old principles has bought the game additional graphical delights, like proper reflections on your bonnet, and even a fair bit of damage modelling.

Another added bauble, Geometry Wars Waves, is a free alternative take on one of Xbox Live Arcade's best games, and available in your very first Career garage. It's ruthless, but brilliant (and seriously threatened getting this review done at all), with Xbox Live leaderboards to bolster its depth.

'Project Gotham Racing 4' Screenshot 4

Each city in the game has been built or rebuilt completely, and the effort has been well worth it.

Geometry Wars is a good preface to discussion of PGR4's Achievements, too, because Retro Evolved's celebrated "Pacifism" finally has an heir - if not half a dozen of them - in the shape of tasks like having to get 8 cars in the air at once, or complete a Hot Lap without touching the brake.

Elsewhere, PGR On Demand does a better job of framing individual achievement better than Gotham TV did in PGR3. Like Halo 3, you can save events and upload them, take photos and do likewise, vote on both and download pretty much everything. A system of tags for each allows you to label your creations so that like-minded gamers can find them. You can even hang photos in your garage, and, like Forza Motorsport 2, there's an accompanying website, www.pgrnations.com, due online at launch so you can obsess over the game at work.

One slight flaw, perhaps, is the decision to award a few gamerpoints for uploading videos and photos, since people will inevitably flood PGR On Demand with gratuitous, dull offerings in order to massage their scores, at least in the short term.

Weighed against the whole, however, it and the game's other minor flaws are forgivable. Freed from the pressures of developing to match a hardware launch, and perhaps steered by the Forza team's strength in simulation, PGR4 wrings the best yet out of an already scintillating arcade racing game. As a swansong for Activision-bound Bizarre Creations, it's more than we could have wished for, and a daunting prospect for whichever developer Microsoft asks to follow it.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (122) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • hypernova #1 4 years ago

    At this time!?

  • richardiox #2 4 years ago

    Zing.

  • Apologie #3 4 years ago

    after forza2 these will not have the same impact as it should, nontheless, great game... i will enjoy it a lot.

  • likmarbles #4 4 years ago

    This will take pride of place nexy to my copy of Forza 2

  • huxathon #5 4 years ago

    i personally can't see the difference between any of the pgr games.

  • George-Roper #6 4 years ago

    I wonder how much EG got, to give this a 9/10?

    I mean, surely they got a backhand to give this 360 game a 9/10?!

    Way too many 9/10 and 10/10 nowadays, on the 360.

    Etc.

    Etc.

    Etc.

    Etc.

  • mcmonkeyplc #7 4 years ago

    I say MS give PGR to Bungie. No other developer can be trusted.

    Warthog racing! WIN!

  • bdc #8 4 years ago

    Playstation what?









    lol

  • the_sas_man #9 4 years ago

    Finesse the fight....

    Utter genius.

    You earnt you gold this month!

  • CrunchinJelly #10 4 years ago

    EMBARGO LIFTED!

  • Sid-Nice #11 4 years ago

    Do you read Edge and then post the same score?
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/07 @ 01:21

  • Calgon #12 4 years ago

    Good job Tom and good job Bizarre by the sounds of it, sounds very tastey, many a PGR fan will be pleased to hear how its turned out. This is a definate must have AAA game, cant wait to play it! :D
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/07 @ 01:49

  • NewYork #13 4 years ago

    Woah, not that I follow this stuff, but this kinda came out of nowhere. Meaning, I'd have thought PGR4 was far off, what with lack of any buzz around it on the forums.

  • Luckyjim #14 4 years ago

    I think Nintendo and Sony - and I'm saying this as a PS3 and a Wii owner - have their work cut out this Christmas. Microsoft has done a terrific job of producing some quality software. I really can't see where the Sony and Nintendo equivalents of Bioshock, Halo, PGR4 and Mass Effect (bar of course Mario Galaxy, Metroid 3 and maybe Uncharted) are coming from this Christmas. As someone has already mentioned, it's a good time to be a 360 owner.


  • drumm23 #15 4 years ago

    What a month for the 360.
    Expensive though.
    Orange Box soon too. Bl ooo dy hell.

  • figaro7 #16 4 years ago

    After buying halo 3, strangehold and sega rally in the last 2 weeks, my wallets been taking a belting by 360 games. Def have to trade something to get this, only good thing is it comes out in 2 weeks in aust! I really enjoyed pgr3, the motorbike inclusion sounds about as good as the one in test drive unlimited, ie, crap. Is it really worth the upgrade to to pgr 4 though?

  • Sid-Nice #17 4 years ago

    I clicked on this because I thought it said pornation dot com.
    Edited by 2 at 01/10/07 @ 02:25

  • Yossarian #18 4 years ago

    360 is really taking names right now.

  • AhrimaaN #19 4 years ago

    Well as long as this has cockpit views for all cars (which I believe it does... when will EG start actually making their own screenshots?!?!?!)

    I'm buying.

    Godamn expensive time to be a 360er!

  • Talha #20 4 years ago

    Certainly a good time to own a 360. Sharing the fanbase with people like Supine? Not so good.

    That said, I must say that while amazing games keep coming out for 360, the Wii is still outselling it. What message does that send to developers?

    I guess we should all pay our respect to our PGRs, Halos, Metal Gear Solids, Gran Turismos - this may well be their last iteration.

  • kissthestick #21 4 years ago

    I think Nintendo and Sony - and I'm saying this as a PS3 and a Wii owner - have their work cut out this Christmas. Microsoft has done a terrific job of producing some quality software. I really can't see where the Sony and Nintendo equivalents of Bioshock, Halo, PGR4 and Mass Effect (bar of course Mario Galaxy, Metroid 3 and maybe Uncharted) are coming from this Christmas. As someone has already mentioned, it's a good time to be a 360 owner.

    not everyone likes shooters or racers ofcourse (PGR4, Halo & Bioshock)

  • smelly #22 4 years ago

    Dunno about this.. got bored of racing games recently (almost as much as fps games).

    Skate will keep me happy for a while, so not that bothered.

    (was going to post list of wii games to answer the above.. but neither the time nor the place to discuss such things)

  • smelly #23 4 years ago

    >Way too many 9/10 and 10/10 nowadays, on the 360.

    PGR does tend to be deserving of that though.. Not played this, but the previous games (going back to msr) were great.

    And there isnt any suspect millions of adverts/articles promoting this game either.

    So (without playing it) i'd guess it's a deserved 9/10

  • t8yman #24 4 years ago

    holy shit, the games just keep on coming. Orange box soon too. I cant wait for that.

    got bored of forza 2 real quick, so this might just fill that steering wheel shaped hole in my collection of games at the mo.

  • Miths #25 4 years ago

    I've been looking forward to this pretty much since the day I bought my 360 (admittedly less than a month ago :p).

    I've got a stack of other games I'm nowhere near through - including a handful of racing games, PGR3, Forza 2, Dirt, Flatout, MotoGP 07, TDU etc, - but I'm seriously excited about PGR4, particularly because of the in-car view (which, as a longtime PC sim racing fan, I'm having a seriously had time dealing with the lack of in Forza 2 and a few others) and those neat new weather effects.

    Too bad we'll have to wait another 12 days here in Europe - let's hope we at least get the demo this week.

  • Artemis_Matsas #26 4 years ago

    Oh come on... i have a house loan to pay... i don't have any more available HDMI inputs on my tv... the 360 is too loud and breaks down...

    What the hell, i'm getting one this Christmas!!! Hey, does anyobody know if i can hook the 360 to my tv using a vga connection? Thanks :)

    P.S the wife IS going to kill me btw.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #27 4 years ago

    Great review and sounds like a great game too. Can't wait for it to be released. Too bad it's still another two weeks :/

  • SwedBear #28 4 years ago

    I must resist getting this at release ... I have to many games now that need my attention first (Bioshock, Halo3, Stranglhold, World in Conflic on the PC, TF2 beta, Quake Wars, Super Paper Mario ..). Seriously it's a good time to be a gamer. Not so good for my wallet though ...

  • Fab4 #29 4 years ago

    Artemis, yes you can use VGA as your video input for the 360.

  • optimusprym8 #30 4 years ago

    lower class cars Vs high class cars = cat & mouse ( I thought it was invented by a mad Scottish PGR2 player and introduced as proper mode in PGR3 - Bizarre credit to community nuff respec)

    yes you can plug 360 in by VGA, looks sweet although don't want to start another VGA Vs Component / Mac Vs. PC debate :p

  • Darren #31 4 years ago

    You b*****ds, EG, the game isn't out for nearly two weeks but you had to go and tease us by telling us early just how good it is so it makes the wait all the more agonising! I *HATE* you! LOL

  • Darren #32 4 years ago

    What about mentioning the graphics and sound in the review? Aren't they exceptional enough to mention at all?

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #33 4 years ago

    A single actual in-game screenshot would have done...

  • Xerx3s #34 4 years ago

    Not as good as Halo 3 then.


    What?

  • Fab4 #35 4 years ago

    I promised myself never to buy another racing game. "I'm an excellent driver" in real life but racing games just leave me cold.

  • neuroniky #36 4 years ago

    Too many racing games around... I'm still to much involved with Forza for this, still considering wheter toget Sega Rally now or wait til it gets cheaper... not to mention the fact I'm still considering to get Dirt...

    Damn, need more money and much more time to keep up to date with all these releases...

  • Santino #37 4 years ago

    hopefully the game can match up to pgr2 gameplay wise, will find out for myself soon enough and cant wait. I just really hope the loading times from the 3rd game are gone, and instant restart is a must for me. does anybody know what the deal is there?

  • Scimarad #38 4 years ago

    What about the split-screen, EG? Is it full screen, can you change which way the split goes and is the frame rate okay?

    After you neglected to mention Halo 3's visual 'issues' in that 10/10 review I'm inclined to ask this time, though from what I hear PGR does do 'proper' 720p...
    Edited by 2 at 01/10/07 @ 08:41

  • BartonFink #39 4 years ago

    Wow what a week for Xbox .. review definitely read like a 10 tho

  • ccfb #40 4 years ago

    Weather effects in multiplayer? I heard not...

  • Peew971 #41 4 years ago

    Microsoft is sending me to bankrupcy :/

  • JYM60 #42 4 years ago

    Yay! Another PGR game. Just a pity it's hardly different, even though 3 was very good.

  • decibel #43 4 years ago

    Rev. Stuart Campbell: You blind mate? Those are all in-game.

  • Scimarad #44 4 years ago

    Actually they are the same photo-mode promo shots that have been around for ages.

    There ARE plenty of in game shots around, though.

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #45 4 years ago

    In-game? So you play racing games from a camera view in front of the bonnet, looking backwards at your car while reversing up the course at 150mph? That's pretty weird, man.

  • Eighthours #46 4 years ago

    Weather effects in multiplayer? I heard not...

    There are, aren't there? That's one of the major features in the game!

    So looking forward to this.

  • mattigan #47 4 years ago

    What's the collective term for riches again...? Ah yes, an embarrasment.

    And that's what the 360 has at the moment and up until Christmas.

    Good stuff!

  • lambtron #48 4 years ago

    Great time to be a 360 owner.

  • bonker #49 4 years ago

    XBOX 360 - the console that keeps on giving.

  • LeD #50 4 years ago

    Another slap in the gormless PS3's face. Ouch!

    "I don't care what universe you're from, that gotta hurt!"

  • neosalad #51 4 years ago

    good good..
    cant wait..

    and yes. microsoft is gonna make me bankrupt this year!
    too many good games, please stop!

  • nickthegun #52 4 years ago

    Possibly the first time I have ever seen a Phantom Menace quote not used to ridicule the movie.

  • Dizzy #53 4 years ago

    This "sharing" of screens, movies and stuff seems to be the new thing in Live games. Lets hope that a lot of other games start doing this AND build on it. Would love to see some exchange stuff in RPGs.

  • Razz #54 4 years ago

    Wow! If the 360 keeps on getting excellent titles like this it might sell as much as the Wii!

    Can't wait to play PGR4! It's the reason I bought a 360. :)

  • FlamingCarrot #55 4 years ago

    'Tis indeed a veritable harvest of gaming goodness. Need to sell a kidney to pay for the huge amount of pre Christmas quality.

  • LeD #56 4 years ago

    @nickthegun

    There's a first for everything. :)

  • RevanEleven #57 4 years ago

    The restoration of my faith in EG reviews continues, good review.

  • Sebo #58 4 years ago

    @kissthestick

    Interesting viewpoint. Remember, the Dreamcast had a fantastic line up of games in the Christmas of 2000 but tanked badly.

    Now, definitely not saying the 360 will tank. But will the catalogue of games sell it to the Christmas market as much as it perhaps should.

    I don't see Nintendo having a problem this Christmas, because the point I'm basically trying to make is, is the Christmas market really an xbox market? The demographic of xbox seems firmly wedged in the 18-30 section, people who can afford their own games and won't be waiting till xmas to buy one/them.

    Whereas Mario Galaxy on Wii will be a parents to kids type system seller.

    However, Sony, which is targetting the same demographic as 360 is certainly going to struggle this Christmas I think.

    Sorry for hijacking PGR4's thread with these console war views...

  • Artemis_Matsas #59 4 years ago

    Thanks for the answer to my VGA connection issue :)

    /Waiting for Xmas 360 promotions :) :) :)

  • Apostle #60 4 years ago

    *gives in*

    *buys a 360*

  • sniglet #61 4 years ago

    So does the game use the PGR1 model for winning cars (actually a challenge) or does it use the PGR3 model (i.e. here, why don't you buy pretty much the best car in the game three races in)? I'd like a challenge for my money.

    Not that it'll stop me getting the game either way. ;)

  • FooAtari #62 4 years ago

    Well it seems to have all the options I wanted. Glad the racing line kudos is back. PGR 3 was pretty poor compared to 2. I hope 4 can match 2. I knew the bikes was stupid idea though. I'd rather play MotoGP than have them shoehorned in...

    I'm going to have to play this though before I buy, it's all about the handling for me, and it that department PGR3 lacked compared to PGR2, I couldnt put my finger on exactly why, but it just wasnt as good. Also do we get a virtual mirror on the in-car view? Having to look aroundto view the mirror to see who was behind made racing online with the in-car view a waste of time.

  • Eighthours #63 4 years ago

    So, PGR4 and new Radiohead album next week.

    Best week ever.

  • Sebo #64 4 years ago

    @dobbie

    Yeah. Didn't mean to write off the xbox at xmas, just meant xmas is more of a wii sector in my opinion.

    I think sales of 360 might be as high this month as they will be in december with halo 3 having just come out.

  • Eighthours #65 4 years ago

    How does it handle collisions between drivers in multiplayer? Is it super-fun PGR2 knocking doorhandles action, or is it screamingly-annoying PGR3 style?

    Allegedly, it's more like 2. It had better be.

  • MuppetThumper #66 4 years ago

    im still playing FlatOut, it rocks. might get this too.

  • rhinoxious #67 4 years ago

    Now's the time to buy a 360 if you'be ben holding out,

    maybe a 65nm halo 3 edition?

    [link url=http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/01/ms_ships_65nm _xbox/
    ]http://ww w.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/01/...[/link]

  • Bigglesworth #68 4 years ago

    Does PGR feature car damage? The review didn't mention.

  • Eighthours #69 4 years ago

    Does PGR feature car damage? The review didn't mention.

    Only the usual very limited cosmetic stuff, methinks.

  • rhinoxious #70 4 years ago

    "I think sales of 360 might be as high this month as they will be in december with halo 3 having just come out."

    Never underestimate the POWER OF CHRISTMAS!

    Xmas will always sell more consoles than any other time of the year. Halo 3 is actually a very well timed 'christmas' release.

    In fact I'm pretty sure that retailers will soon start to look at any console sold as a christmas sale, such is the madness of the yule season.

    It's all barmy I think, but December would be fairly empty and miserable without it, and don't even think about mentioning the annual hell that is new years eve!

  • bonker #71 4 years ago

    There's no doubt the Wii will do well at Xmas but the Wii is defo going to suffer from diminishing return as time goes by and the novelty factor wears off whereas the 360 will accelerate during the same time frame.

    I expect the 360 to set record sales (for itself) over the next few months and wouldn't be surprised to see it hit 2 million sales worldwide during December not to mention the best part of a million during Oct-Nov. The 360's attach-rate is phenomenal too (unprecedented??) and probably going to increase up until Xmas too.

    Anyway, yes, PGR4 sounds fab.

    With this and COD4 hitting the shelves soon it's going to be like Xmas '05 revisited (with knobs on) which is just super cool for me :)

  • Beano #72 4 years ago

    Anybody know how the framerate is in PGR4?

    I know it's 30fps but is it slightly choppy like PGR3 or smooth like PGR2?

  • Freekmeister #73 4 years ago

    So whats da point of this freakin' Review-Embargo, when the Edge-Review with 9/10 is out for a week?

  • Darren #74 4 years ago

    @Beano - I played PGR 3 for ages and the framerate was never less than a silky-smooth 30 fps and, thanks to the excellent motion-blur, it looked faster and more impressive than PGR 2's framerate. In fact, PGR 3 felt like it was running at 60 fps which isn't something I'd say of PGR 2. I believe PGR 4 runs at 30 fps @ "true" 720p this time round and the video footage I've seen suggests the game runs as smoothly as PGR 3.

  • Ace_McCloud #75 4 years ago

    So this, or Sega Rally?

  • bonker #76 4 years ago

    "So this, or Sega Rally?"

    Yeah, a tough one that - prolly both :)

  • Artemis_Matsas #77 4 years ago

    @rhinoxious

    Thanks for the link. Excellent news :)

    I just hope that the noise is not so bad now (not that i'm not picking one up this xmas :) )

    edit: typo
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/07 @ 13:01

  • mazzl #78 4 years ago

    yep seems like boxes from week 34 and up are 65 process
    my budget does have a problem, sega rally, pgr4, halo3, world in conflict, bioshock
    i think i'll buy gears form e-bay instead ;)

  • Santino #79 4 years ago

    so when u restart an event in this one is it instant or is there loading?

  • bicky316 #80 4 years ago

    @ Rev. Stuart Campbell

    I hear you man! The amount of times videos on EurogamerTV are titled "gameplay", when at best they could be described as "in game engine", really gets up my nose!!

  • bloke #81 4 years ago

    nice review

    /pre-orders

  • patchbox360 #82 4 years ago


    Sony's 'This is Living' statement forgot the words ' in pain'

    sorry i had to haha

  • LOLLERS #83 4 years ago

    It's difficult to take actual in-gme screenshots because the post processing and motion blur tends to make things look shit when it's not moving. And then everyone will go HURRR LOOK ALL 360 GAMES ARE BLURRY THATS NOT HIGH DEFINITION IS IT!!
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/07 @ 16:47

  • smelly #84 4 years ago

    "In-game? So you play racing games from a camera view in front of the bonnet, looking backwards at your car while reversing up the course at 150mph? That's pretty weird, man."


    Okay, that was funny for stuart.. made me giggle.. even though i tried not to.

  • squeakyg #85 4 years ago

    I've always found one big gameplay annoyance with the PGR games: In each race, two opponent cars are pre-destined to drive so far ahead that you can never catch them up, unless you get in front of them at the beginning, and hold them off for the remainder.

    I assume this hasn't changed in PGR4?

  • Calgon #86 4 years ago

    I dont know it wasnt that they werent catchable... unless they were in much better cars, I was more glad they didnt all drive like that, there was sometimes a battle to get past the ones at the back which was usually the reason the two at the front got a lead then it was all about closing that gap down(not every race was like that though but atleast the races arent the same from start to finish in that example).
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/07 @ 17:26

  • Calgon #87 4 years ago

    Arbiter what are you expecting is a better question(name me an example on your calander, Im all for innovation but not just for the sake of it, it has to be a good game too), these games sell because people like them. PGR is a great racer to answer your question I'll expand it for you so get a clearer picture of where Im coming from:

    Q1: "how many racing and FPS games do people actually want? "
    >
    Q1.1: "how many *GREAT* racing and FPS games do people actually want?"

    A: Keep them coming, keep them coming ;)
    Edited by 2 at 01/10/07 @ 17:35

  • Apologie #88 4 years ago

    After Forza PGR will have a really hard time. Nontheless, i predict a good game.

  • smelly #89 4 years ago

    >Question is, how many racing and FPS games do people actually want?

    That's the problem.. Back in the 16bit era I got bored of playing endless platformers.

    Now they're by far my favourite genre (because good ones are few and far between).

    Recently it's not platformers that are the problem, it's fps and racing games. Personally I'll get the best of both genres (say halo and pgr) then i'll not bother with any more.

    But there will always be one genre which is overused.. I just dont really understand the fascination of moving a cursor onto something and pressing a button (fps), nor why you'd want to buy more than one racer.. seen one, seen them all i'd have thought (but i'm in minority here)

    But that's my opinion, im in minority - millions of people disagree with me. So yay to them!

  • TRUTH #90 4 years ago

    Arbiter: Question is, how many racing and FPS games do people actually want?

    Vitrtua Tennis, Oblivion, Dead Rising, Skate, Crackdown, Lost Planet, Dead Or Alive, Blue Dragon, Command & Conquer, Flatout, Gears Of War, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Vina Patna, Kameo, Condemned, Fight Night 3, Fifa, Burnout, Pro Evo, Madden, NBA Street, Stranglehold, Bioshock (Not just a fps - much more - one of the finest games ever.)...etc!

    ..I think you meant to ask is how many variety and styles of games you want!

    Alan Wake, Mass Effect, Lost Oddysee, Fable 2, Splinter Cell Convections, Cry-On, Halo Wars, Ninja Gaiden 2...all exclusives coming soon and not a single fps or racing.

    Also able to play many cool xbox games on 360: Fable, Streetfigher III, Fable, Jet Set Radio...
    Edited by 2 at 01/10/07 @ 17:51

  • Calgon #91 4 years ago

    Well smelly you can say that of platformer, rpgs, beat-um-ups ect if you ignore the differnences between the mechanics of each and oversimplify things, we have seen everything before when you look at it like that... inventing new genres isnt easy and doesnt always mean a good game will come of it. So you want a more even spread of devs working on each genre? do you not think publishers respond to what is selling at the time more? wouldnt even more games go ignored in such a case, perhaps even some fanancial troubles for some devs(some devs are better at some genres than others too)?
    Edited by 2 at 01/10/07 @ 17:53

  • patchbox360 #92 4 years ago

    'Also able to play many cool xbox games on 360: Fable, Streetfigher III, Fable, Jet Set Radio... '

    you can play Street Fighter 3 on the 360?! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

    Since playing so called next gen games i've come to realise the perfection of the programming, movement, precision, characterisation, timing, purity of Street - too many next gen games are riddled with errors

  • Miths #93 4 years ago

    "Question is, how many racing and FPS games do people actually want?"

    Don't care too much for the FPS games myself (Bioshock is the only one I've ever finished), but racing games? As many as possible :) - most of them, different or same game series, usually offer more than enough differences to be well worth the money (well, at least my money).

    Forza is very different in theme, handling/feel and look from PGR, which in turn is vastly different from TDU, which [blah, blah, blah] ... Need for Speed... Burnout... Flatout... Dirt... Sega Rally... Something Else.

    Even comparing PGR3 to 4 there have obviously been some vast improvements. Hell - just the weather effects alone would damn near (well, entirely actually) have been enough to make me want the latest iteration.

  • deaner #94 4 years ago

    What?! Not 10/10?! Does it achieve something new? Is that what's upset the mix?

  • SAH1977 #95 4 years ago

    'Another slap in the gormless PS3's face. Ouch!'

    If people wish to stick their head in the sand and hope the PS3 is not going to hit it's stride big time in the next 6 months, so be it.

    PS3's owners currently have slim pickings, but quality, orignal games and highly anticipated sequals are on their way.

    The 360 is hardly in need of yet anothr racer/FPS, they're selling to the converted.

  • thepiedpiper #96 4 years ago

    how about reviewing a games that's already out first? like say...conan?

  • foamy #97 4 years ago

    12th October, me thinks.

  • dryden555 #98 4 years ago

    is there two player split-screen? how's the framerate in that mode?

  • Scimarad #99 4 years ago

    I asked that this morning;-)

    Oh here's another question I might hopefully get an answer to: How are you restricted when choosing cars? I really liked the system they used in 3 and really don't want a return to the restrictions of 2!

  • SlackMaster #100 4 years ago

    It's a good time to be a 360 owner atm...

  • Verwandlung #101 4 years ago

    I have never played a PGR game but this looks stunning.

  • BobaZloba #102 4 years ago

    PGR4 might be welcome addition to the already huge X360 games library, what I need now is next gen Rallisport Challenge 3!!!!

  • FooAtari #103 4 years ago

    +1 Need a Rallisport 3

  • smurphs #104 4 years ago

    'How are you restricted when choosing cars? I really liked the system they used in 3 and really don't want a return to the restrictions of 2!'

    I'm completely the opposite! I like having to work for the best cars. Gives a sense of progression.

    I'm so pleased they've implemented a proper career mode this time round. Much as I love racing online, I enjoy single-player just as much. Now I've just got to complete Forza 2 before I can jump in with this, as I don't think I could handle switching between the two games with their opposite handling models.

  • FooAtari #105 4 years ago

    Arbiter actually makes a pretty good point.

    Although for PGR, 3 should never have happened, much like CoD, again 3 should never have happened. I'd have happily waited from CoD2 till now for CoD 4. Three was no where near as good as the rest of the games (judging by the beta for 4 anyway) as with PGR 3 wasnt anywhere near as good as 2 so I never really saw the point in it.

    It's not so much innovation I'm looking for, but as funny as it sounds, less games. The quicker games in a franchise get released the quicker franchises get boring, I'm more for a new game ever 2 or 3 years at a minimum not every year. That we games don't feel so old, and you dont start to wonder where the inovation is, not as much anyway.

    Half-Life is a good example. Im still not tired of those games, probably because after nearly ten years there as only been three, or two games and an expansion if you like.

  • buddha0m #106 4 years ago

    Will it have 2 player split screen?

  • dryden555 #107 4 years ago

    sorry to badger the reviewer -- but there are at least a few folks here who would like to know how 2 player splitscreen is.

    thanks

  • Scimarad #108 4 years ago

    I suspect they didn't get to try it or we would have had a reply from someone;-)

  • Miths #109 4 years ago

    "My point is simply this:

    Where is the goddamn innovation?"

    How do you innovate in the racing genre? Free roaming worlds like in NFS or TDU (personally I prefer circuit racing, though I do like just cruising around in TDU)? Weather (looking forward to it in PGR4)? Mixing cars and bikes (not sure how I feel about that one yet, but I more or less expect to like it)?

    Personally I'm having a bit of hard time coming up with ideas more creative than that (unless we look at something like Burnout or Flatout) - and as a racing game fan I'm certainly not expecting any.
    In fact I'm more than happy if a new addition to a racing game series simply features a graphical face lift, new tracks, some new cars, improved engine sounds if they were lacking a bit in the last game, and (if we're talking about a true sim, which we aren't with PGR) an attempt at improving physics and handling even further.
    I don't need any more than that.

    If we're talking about some of the true racing sims I still play on the PC (I stick to arcade racers and "sim light" on the console, and that's really all you can get anyway - even Forza 2 or the GT series hardly qualify as full blown sim racers), I'll probably even settle for less.
    I don't need much variation here - as long as I got my trusty old Logitech G25, I'll happily lap around and race on Spa and a handful of other favourite tracks a few thousand times in the same two or three cars :).

    It's racing - not a story based game. When a new F1, Porsche Cup, WTCC, DTM, whatever season begins each year, you don't expect them to suddenly start racing on ice, use ramps to jump over busses or leave the track in their race cars and head for the nearest city to go on a vehicular rampage, do you? :)

  • captain-future #110 4 years ago

    Wow, Microsoft did really deliver the "greatest line-up" in the history of video games.

    BioShock, Halo 3, Projekt Gotham Racing 4, Mass Effect ...

  • vpin #111 4 years ago

    i loved pgr3 (and still do) and look forward to playing pgr4 soon.

    pgr3 had annoyingly long and frequent load times.

    i saw no mention of it in the review, does pgr4 have better load times?

  • asphaltcowboy #112 4 years ago

    No mention on whether it's good with the MS wheel or not?

  • BobsUncle #113 4 years ago

    "Finesse the fight."

    Genius.

  • fightman #114 4 years ago

    the games alright i suppose cunts - glad i didnt have to buy it though ;)

  • jlaakso #115 4 years ago

    Well, it managed to tear me away from Sega Rally, so it has to be pretty good. I'm torn on the motorbikes. They're fun, they're variation, but they're also clearly not quite finished.

    The overall level of polish commands respect, though. This really feels like a 60€ game, as they all should.

  • ruckus #116 4 years ago

    Awesome - just played this today and thanks to Custom mode I'm one happy peep :) (once I clicked on Lobby though - before that I was wrongly gutted and thought they left out the option to select what car each ai drives).

    If it just had the option to change the camera in cockpit (rFactor/GTR etc.) and mute the kudos sound it would be perfect - but I still think it's great. ^_^

  • JavaJawaUK #117 4 years ago

    Fuck me I'm outta money! Stop releasing games for a bit so I can catch up!

  • Thiral #118 4 years ago

    I've played this game a lot now the latest two days, it's very good. I feel the driving is better here then in Forza 2, but here you can't do as much customization as in Forza, wich makes the games different. It's not about wich is the better, both is good and the only correct thing imo is to own the two of them.

  • TRUTH #119 4 years ago

    FORZA 2: pure racing simulation...PGR4: arcade/sim and a bit stunt driving.

  • MaxiSleep #120 4 years ago

    "Question is, how many racing and FPS games do people actually want? "

    Well lots actually.

  • Miths #121 4 years ago

    "at least the creators now why 60fps solid as a fucking rock means to a racing genre

    so smooth, you get an erection playing it
    nuff said"

    And yet PGR4 only runs at 30 fps according to the info I've been able to find in various articles and on the official boards :).
    Just goes to show that those yelling out their demands for 60 fps in a racing game, either:

    a) Aren't really complaining about the smoothness of 30 fps, but rather the occasional framerate drops that might occur in some of those titles (and once we're down into the mid twenties, or lower, I'll grant them it starts getting rather noticable).

    b) Have way more sensitive eyes than us mere mortals (sarcasm aside, I'm not denying that can be the case for some people).

    c) Just like to complain for the hell of it.

    Personally I'll take (a rock solid) 30 fps over 60 fps any day if it means better graphics - details, effects etc. And that certainly seems to be the case with PGR4.

    Frankly with the beautiful tracks and the amazing lighting and weather effects I'm impressed that there appears to be absolutely no framerate drops whatsoever.
    I've been playing for 12+ hours since Friday (most addictive game I've played this year, of any genre) and I can't recall a single instance where the game has seemed any less than completely smooth to me.

  • Corben_Dallas #122 4 years ago

    this is good but Forza2 is still the King. end of.

    Pgr4 has gone too arcadey, The F50GT is now piss easy to drive(PGR3), likewise the CLK GTR(PGR3), plus everything has been dumbed down. Even the cone challenges now have guide cones to help u line up, its now nearly impossible to miss a gate.

    Bikes are very average and have no chance to compete against cars, Bikes in Test Drive Unlimited are much better. suspose its a bit like real life ie Cars will always beat bikes, but they could have done one track were the bikes had a chance.

    BUT TEH MOST GLARING ERROR IN THE GAME.......
    (that needs a patch NOW bizarre)
    is that yur friends loggin in notifacation COMES UP OVER THE REV COUNTER WHILE YUR RACING, MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE WHAT GEAR YUR IN AND WHERE YUR REV COUNTER NEEDLE IS.........FIX IT!!!!!!!
    ahem....

    Also there seems to be no penalty whatsoever in hitting the barrier, so the skill-less wonders can whack the barrier and continue at the same speed.

    The weather looks good, spray and snow rooster effects are sweet, but again is all too easy, a wet track might as well be a dry track, u need to put on the extreme weather to have any affect on the driving physics.

    **one thing they have done right is the team battles, the put all the ppl on the blue ....in blue cars, clever & looks good too, plus they can have 4 teams of 2 players Blu, Red, Black and Yellow(all in the correct colour)

    It is fun, but too easy.

    will finish this quickly(cause its easy) and go back to forza2

    FORZA!

    Edited by 1 at 17/10/07 @ 20:38

  • dryden555 #123 4 years ago

    forza 2 is great but i prefer PGR -- much better graphics for both car and tracks. Both games are very worth playing.