Project Gotham Racing 3

Nothing really prepares you for Project Gotham Racing 3. It's awe inspiring, but not perfect - yet it very nearly is.

	Version Xbox 360	Developer Bizarre Creations	Publisher Microsoft	Genre Racing

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By Andy Robinson

It's fascinating to think how frequently Bizarre Creations can release a gorgeous racing game, which is essentially unchanged from its previous instalment, and yet we'll still lap it up like a fat kid at a Chinese buffet. You see, Project Gotham Racing 3 might not feature any truly amazing gameplay additions - but we'll be damned if it's not one of the greatest racing games out there, and arguably the best Xbox 360 launch title.

The key to the game's success is, and always has been, superb game design and near limitless replay value; every mode and feature shines with open-ended attention to detail that provides endless depth. It's no different with the third Project Gotham offering; every area of the game seems have been carefully thought out, a solid array of underlying racing features all appear faultless; the cars, the Kudos earning techniques, the best cities - they're all there.

And oh boy, the cities - they really have to be seen to be believed. Every tree, road sign and spectator is crafted with an explicit, and quite frankly, worrying level of detail. You can drive right up to the lobby of a Hotel in Las Vegas and count the hairs on the stone statue of a lion, or check out the special offer at Burger King in Piccadilly in flawless high-resolution. The obsessive level of detail is consistent throughout the miles and miles of cityscape.

It's just staggering to think about the work that went into it all, it's the kind of project you'd usually expect only the likes of NASA to be able to undertake. Easily one of the best looking games on the market right now, Gotham 3 owes plenty to its real-world location track design; over 22,000 reference photos were used to craft PGR3's stunning courses, each track featuring landmarks and design hints eerily similar to the actual places. Manoeuvre the camera around at Piccadilly in Photo Mode, and although obviously static, it looks pretty much just as impressive as The Getaway demo for PlayStation 3.

Fortunately, the final build of Gotham 3 is noticeably tweaked since the X05 version. Motion blur now looks seamless and realistic, instead of flaky and flickery. We didn't end up with sixty frames per second, but by jove, never has it been less noticeable than in PGR3. It looks beautiful in motion, and the level detail and effects trickery just blend into a senses-shattering visual treat.

PGR3's graphical prowess offers an experience that we just might look back on in years to come as one of those next-generation defining moments. One such example of the game experience - which is so intrinsically linked to its prettiness - is New York's Brooklyn Bridge, a piece of architecture that supposedly comprises more polygons than an entire city in the first Gotham game, and it's simply magnificent in PGR3.

Looking beside your vehicle as you progress over the bridge, you can see the city changing from suburbs to skyscrapers, the bustling city becoming thicker with scenery, every building beautifully rendered. We had to take a step back to truly appreciate the stunning beauty of this sequence. Expect to come last in a lot of races when you first start to play Gotham 3, for all the sightseeing you'll force on yourself.

In fairness, the game still has a way to go before we start throwing the term "photorealistic" around. Some of the textures are so detailed that you could almost pass them off as near-perfect virtual rendition of the real thing, but some of the game's rougher edges spoil this a bit. A lack of anti-aliasing and a few ropey background buildings here and there break the illusion that the otherwise fantastic graphical features create. If you squint though, you can comfortably imagine that you're looking at the real thing.

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