Project Gotham Racing 2

The most anticipated Xbox sequel of the year roars into stores from next week - does it live up to the hype or crash and die? First ever online review.

Version
Xbox

Developer
Bizarre Creations

Publisher
Microsoft

Genre
Racing

By Adam Doree

Microsoft wasted little time in signing up developer Bizarre Creations for an Xbox version of Dreamcast's Metropolis Street Racer. Imagine the meeting with Ed Fries: "Throw in New York City, loads of new cars, sixty frames and a huge level of gloss!" he'd have said with his charismatic grin. Result: one of the best selling games on the platform. And, as much of a rehash as Gotham arguably was, it was still a fantastically well designed videogame. With Project Gotham Racing 2, Bizarre solidifies its position as a world-class games developer, with a racing game package that unquestionably defines what this generation of games is all about.

If you think it's good, you're wrong - it's downright stunning.

"PGR2 is a package that defines what this generation of games is all about."

The single player premise is the same as before; whilst the Arcade and Instant Action modes provide cut-down and quick-thrill experiences respectively, the Kudos World Series is where you'll spend the most time. This intricately crafted competition has you racing in a range of varied challenges within 14 different car series, starting off with the humble Compact Sports Series progressing all the way up to Ultimate Series.

The actual challenges include Street Race, a straightforward race against a handful of opponents; Speed Camera, where you must reach a certain speed by finding the perfect line around a corner then accelerating away; Overtake and One on One, both self explanatory, and the superbly deep Cone challenge. The higher the difficulty level you choose (ranging from very easy to frighteningly difficult) - the more Kudos points you need to complete a race, the tougher opponents become, and the shorter the allotted race times will be.

The total Kudos you earn is totalled up as you progress from series to series, and every ten thousand points or so you'll receive some kudos tokens to purchase locked cars in each series. Often it's extremely tough to complete certain challenges without first upgrading your motor, but you'll need to purchase carefully, as different challenges sometimes require vehicles with certain strengths.

"The Cone challenges offer an astonishing level of depth. Even the Japanese should love it."

The tweaked Kudos system awards points for a taking particularly efficient turn, good powersliding, drafting, overtaking opponents, best laps, clean sections, passing between cones and so on. The more of these you do quickly in sequence, the bigger the combo 'multiplier' gets, and the bigger your overall points will be for that section. After three seconds pass with no new points, the combo ends. If you crash or hit a cone during a combo, the combo disappears altogether and you only get the points you earned, not the multiplier bonus.

"Some Expert Cone scores can only be earned by linking the entire circuit without breaking the Kudos combo once."

It's often the physical layout of the circuit, or the arrangement of cones that make the game so addictive. The Cone challenges offer an astonishing level of depth. For example, the Medium (Silver) difficulty level might require 850 points to complete, whereas Expert (Platinum) on the same course might require 5,000 points or more! That is a lot. At times you'll ask yourself, how the hell is anyone supposed to score that many points with only so much track and a maybe couple of laps? This staggeringly difficulty Expert level - although pretty inconsistent (some challenges are easier to complete on Expert than a Cone challenge) - is testament to the game's depth and the resultant single player replay value. In time you'll work out that scores like those can only be earned on Expert level Cone challenges by linking the entire circuit together without breaking the Kudos combo chain once - frequently a near-impossible task. The Japanese should love it.

"We haven't got into a real Enzo yet, but every vehicle handles with a convincing sense of weight and steering."

For example, you can link two sets of cones together that are more than three seconds apart by performing a small, controlled powerslide half way, or at the more forgiving parts of a circuit, by earning a 'clean section' bonus, which also keeps a combo active. Working out how to link it all together, and then actually doing it, is a true masterclass challenge, which Bizarre should be applauded for creating and including. And although you'll frequently question it - they're all actually possible - which in itself is a show of very talented and precise game design.

But if this all sounds like a nightmare, don't worry - it's easy to get the hang of the Kudos system, especially on the easier settings - and besides, Cone challenges are the only event where a number of Kudos points are needed to actually win; they're purely about Kudos. All the others require fastest laps, positioning first, overtaking six cars, reaching a certain speed and so on.

"Often, investing in a vehicle as early on as possible in a Series is a good idea."

In terms of raw gameplay, Gotham 2 comes up trumps. The 102 cars have been faithfully recreated, and whilst we have yet to get behind the wheel of a real Enzo Ferrari or Koenigsegg, every vehicle handles convincingly. We found all the cars on offer to move with a believable sense of weight and steering, with the vehicle stats always providing a truthful rundown of whatever you'll be driving. Remember the cars here are not all about endless fine-tuning; it's about variety, a bit of novelty (check out some of the roadsters, and see what's up for grabs in the American Muscle Series) and above all, enjoyment. You'll still have to handle the car like a pro if you want to even think about competing in the Hard and Expert level challenges - which means hardcore, brake-pumping, gas-teasing, powersliding, slip-streaming, counter-steering, wheel-wrestling, top-speed-reaching, eye-bleeding focus of justice. But don't forget to look cool, that bit's important too.

Often, investing in a vehicle as early on as possible is a good idea - the AC MKIII for example outperforms pretty much everything else in the Roadster Series, and the fabulous Ferrari 275 from the Classic range is also a sound purchase that will not only make is Series easier, but bring some of the tougher Hard and Expert challenges to more achievable levels. The Nissan Skyline is another example, an incredible machine that frequently forces opponents into your dust (or off course, for that matter).

"But while opponents race aggressively, they're prone to human-like mistakes and crash with each other."

Bizarre has really outdone itself with the opponent AI. It is really quite good. With five distinct levels of opponent - obviously the expert opposition appears in the Expert level challenges - you'll find the tougher opponents can be really aggressive. They think like real people in terms of blocking and overtaking, and they're not scared to bump you given any low-risk opportunity. But while opponents race aggressively, they are typically conservative, and even prone to human-like mistakes or random crashes between themselves, which is when you can take full advantage. Basically one CPU race is never the same twice - not because of randomly generated power-ups like in Mario Kart - but because of fantastic AI, which is a good thing, and makes the single player experience a lot more immersive.

Graphically, Gotham 2 is a considerable improvement over the original, and it's also tweaked in areas since the preview code we played exhaustively. What really steals the show here is the level of detail on the car models themselves, the reflective paintwork and the real-time lighting effects.

One thing we didn't see much of in the preview build we had since September was different weather effects and times of day, and let me tell you, this final code makes the preview version look relatively bland. When you see a city like Sydney lit up at night, the moonlight highlighting the rippling harbour water, or the bucketing rain in Edinburgh as it glosses the entire track with a reflective shine while watery mist hisses from the wheels of every vehicle (which by the way really makes the cars handle differently!) - you will understand that this is true, unmatched Xbox power like you have never seen before. It's all much more convincing and exceptionally pretty.

"Graphically, Gotham 2 is a considerable improvement over the original."

The reflective paintwork was the least effective part of the original's graphics, jerking around a few times a second. Now the environment, sun glare and everything is reflected and processed in synch with the rest of the graphics. All the other cars on the circuit are as detailed as yours, and when visible, the drivers are much more realistically animated, hurtling around with the force of the action. The lighting is incredible, and when the sun is low and in front of you, the shadows of the car's own seats can be seen on the back of the car, looking completely perfect. When the sun is directly reflected from the car to your screen, it even creates a sharp 'blinding' effect. Fantastic.

"The new weather effects and night races make the September's preview version look relatively bland."

The amount of work that's gone into building the ten real-life cities is breathtaking. Every surface, landmark and detail is completely authentic. Whether you're at Hong Kong's Convention Centers, Sydney's Harbour or Yokohama's Bay Area, you can't fail to be amazed at the quality of the scenery - especially in some of the awesomely complex, concrete-jungle type settings. Touches such as rippling water, flying birds and leaves blowing in the wind add a real kinetic energy - Yokohama even features a giant theme park with a huge moving roller coaster. Barcelona is beautiful and radiant with lots of palm trees and a hazy sunset. Texture detail in cities like Edinburgh, with castles and mountainous greenery, and Florence with its cobblestone roads and old buildings, and are absolutely delightful to behold.

"The bucketing rain glosses the entire track with a reflective shine while watery mist hisses from wheels..."

Of course, as many an upset fanboy already knows, Gotham 2 only runs at thirty frames per second, whereas the original ran at sixty (and so does just about every racing game these days, including GT4). Bizarre opted for detail and effects over framerate. I have to day, after extended playing, it doesn't really affect the enjoyment of the game in any way - but I am a firm believer that it does make a difference. Some couldn't tell the difference between thirty and sixty if they tried. But I sure as hell can and, although less noticeable on more distant parts of the scenery, the close-up, fast moving parts of the screen such as the ground, close walls, or tunnels, would simply look much better running at sixty.

"Close-up, fast moving parts of the screen would simply look much better running at sixty."

One less cosmetic issue with 30fps in a reflex-based game like this where scenery rushes towards you at high speed is the argument that it does slightly affect gameplay. Whether you realise it or not, you can simply see what's going on better at sixty frames, especially when trying to work out what turn lurks ahead in the far distance. You would have thought Xbox could handle this massively improved level of detail and quality of effects, and still render sixty frames per second, but obviously not. As Bizarre explained to us in our recent video interview, the game is also rendered at a much higher resolution by the VPU, before being scaled down to TV resolution, making for a wonderfully smooth picture and not a 'jaggy' in sight. And frankly, more people will be impressed with this photo-realistic level of detail than will notice any relatively nerdy frame rate bullshit.

"There aren't as many recognisable music tracks as in the original."

The music is varied, with radio stations and CD compilations offering different kinds of R&B, dance, pop and hip-hop beats, one of our favourites being On Inc's old-school sounding Size Does Matter - although I have to say, there aren't as many recognisable tracks as in the original, which boasted like of PYT's Same Ol' Same Ol'. Not that it matters particularly, as you can easily put your own music on instead by copying it to your Xbox hard disk. Again, there's a whole host of real life radio DJs to add authenticity as well. And you can change the radio station or music track in-game now, without pausing, but pressing and then flicking the right analog stick around. Just make sure you don't crash or something.

"The multiplayer experience is what power-boosts Gotham 2 into true generation-defining territory."

The multiplayer experience is what power-boosts Gotham 2 into true generation-defining territory. The split-screen and system link options provide, er, split-screen four-player and full-screen eight-player racing respectively, depending on how popular / rich you are, while the phenomenal Xbox Live compatibility is used to full effect, with seamless, eight player network play available, downloadable ghosts and a leader board that appears built in to the game menu screens whenever you're signed in. As you might expect, the game works beautifully over Live and you can use any vehicle you've unlocked. The combination of 10 real-world cities, hundreds of circuits, 102 different cars spanning 14 series, plus awesome time-of-day and weather effects make this one really atmospheric Live experience. And, with Bizarre currently toying with the idea of a downloadable city or two (the consumer's cost, and duration of delivery process being the sticking points) it's certainly as complete a package as you could hope for.

It's out November 18 in North America and November 28 in the UK. You know what to do.

Graphics	Sound	Gameplay	Depth	Presentation	OVERALL
9.0	8.5	9.2	9.7	9.8	9.2

THE VERDICT: Basically, there's nothing anywhere else quite like this experience right now. A vast, superbly designed racing game with untold depth, slick presentation, tight controls, comfortably realistic handling, stunningly beautiful graphics, and replay value beyond measure thanks to a handsomely crafted single player mode, and the limitless entertainment on offer from Xbox Live online play. I haven't even touched on the other stuff like the fantastic replays. You won't get bored with Gotham 2 and it will always be great for a quick spin long after you've 'finished' it. You should buy this.

Video Coverage (See Latest Videos & Video FAQ Here)
PLEASE DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO ANY MEDIA FILE ON KIKIZO
Description	Dur.	Size	Details
Project Gotham Racing 2: Video Interview (320x240, 276kbps) Bizarre Creations' Matt Cavanagh answers everything you need to know about the Xbox racer of the year.	15.37m	32.7 MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Barcelona circuit in the Koenigsegg CC V8S [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.10min	10.0MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Chicago circuit in the Saleen S7 [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.47min	16.4MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Chicago circuit in the Pontiac Trans AM [640x480, 1360kbps]	2.01min	18.7MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Chicago circuit in the Chevrolet Camaro SS [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.49min	16.8MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Edinburgh circuit in the Mercades-Benz ML 55 [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.49min	16.8MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Edinburgh circuit in the Ferrari 355 F1 Berlinella [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.48min	16.7MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Edinburgh circuit in the Caterham 7 Classic Dragster [640x480, 1360kbps]	2.00min	18.6MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Florence circuit in the Renault Clio V6 [640x480, 1360kbps]	2.00min	18.5MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Florence circuit in the TVR Tuscan [640x480, 1360kbps]	2.00min	18.6MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Florence circuit in the Lotus Elise [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.26min	13.0MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Florence circuit in the Ferrari 355 Berlinella [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.26min	13.0MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Hong Kong circuit in the Enzo Ferrari [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.54min	17.6MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Hong Kong circuit in the Subaru WRX [640x480, 1360kbps]	2.10min	20.2MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Hong Kong circuit in the Toyota Supra [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.41min	15.5MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Moscow circuit in the MX-5 Miata [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.41min	15.5MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Moscow circuit in the Enzo Ferrari [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.36min	14.6MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Moscow circuit in the Honda S2000 [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.25min	12.8MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Nurburgring circuit in the Koenigsegg CC V8S [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.46min	16.2MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Nurburgring circuit in the Mercades-Benz CLK GTR [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.36min	14.6MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Stokholm circuit in the Audi TT Coupe [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.24min	12.6MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Stokholm circuit in the Lancia Delta Integrale [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.35min	14.6MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Sydney circuit in the Porsche GT1 [640x480, 1360kbps]	2.00min	18.5MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Sydney circuit in the BMW M3 [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.14min	11.0MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Sydney circuit in the TVR Cerbera [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.25min	12.9MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Washington DC circuit in the Ferrari 355 [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.37min	14.8MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Washington DC circuit in the Ford Mustang [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.57min	18.1MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Yokohama circuit in the Nissan Skyline GT-R [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.57min	18.1MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Yokohama circuit in the Ferrari 550 Barchetta [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.34min	14.3MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Racing on a Yokohama circuit in the Mercades-Benz SL-55 [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.06min	9.80MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Replay: Racing on a Edinburgh circuit in the Ferrari 355 F1 Berlinella [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.01min	9.90MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Replay: Racing on a Hong Kong circuit in the Subaru WRX [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.29min	13.5MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Replay: Racing on a Yokohoma circuit in the Ferrari Testarossa [640x480, 1360kbps]	1.21min	11.8MB	WMV
Project Gotham Raching 2 Replay: Racing on a Florence circuit in the Porsche Cayenne Turbo [640x480, 1360kbps]	0.50min	7.25MB	WMV

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Project Gotham Racing 2

The most anticipated Xbox sequel of the year roars into stores from next week - does it live up to the hype or crash and die? First ever online review.