Project Gotham Racing 3 Review

Project Gotham Racing 3 is the sequel to one of the best racing games on the Xbox and it is also a showcase title for the new Xbox 360 so it had a lot of hype to live up to. Thankfully, it delivers everything fans expected plus a whole lot more. It features a ton of cars and tracks, it plays great both online and off, and it looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous. This is a must own game and you’ll only find it on Xbox 360.

Features

PGR3 is a lot more focused than the first two Project Gotham games and features more than 80 of the world’s fastest supercars. There aren’t any wimpy Ford Focuses or Honda CRXes here. Just the most gorgeous cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, Shelby, Saleen, TVR, Mercedes, and more. If you can’t find a car you like out of this list you might as well give up racing games forever. Pretty much all of these cars are available right from the start with only a handful of concept cars needing to be unlocked. You can jump into the driver seat of your favorite car right away which is a very good thing. Because of the more focused approach to supercar racing, the car list isn’t as big as in PGR2. Also, the offline career mode isn’t anywhere near as long as before. Project Gotham Racing 3 more than makes up for it by offering a number of different modes, fantastic online options, custom course creation, and flat out better gameplay than the series has offered before. The feature list might not be as long, but what is here is a lot better.

Gameplay

Project Gotham Racing 2 was a fun game, but it took a lot of getting used to. The game focused on flashy driving in order to earn Kudos and in order to emphasize the spins and powerslides the controls were somewhat loose and the game felt slippery. For Project Gotham Racing 3, you still have to do powerslides and fancy moves in order to earn Kudos, but this time around you aren’t fighting for control of the car every inch of the way. The cars are heavier feeling and handle a lot more realistically this time around, but because these are very powerful vehicles you can easily start a slide by simply turning the wheel and slamming on the accelerator. This makes the game play a fair bit differently from its predecessors but it is a 100% better experience because of it. It isn’t a “love it or hate it” type of game anymore that you had to work at to really get into it. It is simply a “love it” experience that anyone can pick up and play and enjoy.

In-Car Camera View

The best way to play and really appreciate everything that PGR3 has to offer is to use the in-car camera angle. It puts you right behind the wheel in the leather seats of your favorite supercar and delivers a sense of speed and a realistic feel to the racing that no other racing game can match. The interiors are all nicely detailed with cool features such as gauges that actually work and side and rear view mirrors that show perfect reflections. It is also very cool for some reason to see your driver actually move his hand from the wheel to shift gears. This is the absolute best in-car camera angle in any racing game ever. The car shudders and shakes and really moves just like a real car and it is a great experience you have to see to believe. My only complaint is that there aren’t any racing wheels for Xbox 360 yet because that would have really sealed the deal.

Review continued on Page 2 ...