2nd Op By

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Public Opinion

EnduroGamer 9.0 Rating

I commend Mike on his review on Project Gotham Racing. I've logged dozens of hours on this game and can vouch for his praise on the controls, cars, originality and replay value. I will also agree that the environments aren't as jaw-dropping as they could have been, but this is a trivial detail when they're flying past you at 120mph.

The two points I'd like to make are that comparisons with Gran Turismo 3 are impossible. These games are as different from one another as they are from Super Mario Kart. Although I'm much more into sim-style racing, no racing game has ever captivated me like Project Gotham Racing. And that's the main point I want to make. Project Gotham Racing, in my opinion, is the ultimate single-player racing game. There are simply so many tasks and challenges at varying difficulties that it's nearly impossible to put the controller down. Toss in a great soundtrack (and the ability to rip your own music to the hard drive) and you have a game that will seldom leave your Xbox.

I think Project Gotham Racing (PGR) well deserves Mike's and EnduroGamer's high praise. I don't think Mike's comparison with Gran Turismo 3 is as inappropriate as EnduroGamer does—after all, gameplay in both titles comes down to trying to find the best line through a track—but I do think that it would be unfair to dock PGR for lacking some of Gran Turismo 3's features. It wouldn't make much sense, for example, for PGR to model a real garage & parts shop—what real car manufacturer makes advanced parts to make its cars slide better?

Comparisons aside, I'm tempted to agree with EnduroGamer that PGR is the 'ultimate single-player racing game.' But a couple of issues are keeping me from giving in to the temptation. First, the pure racing mode has frustrating shortcomings—opponents are all too eager to ram into your car at full speed; also, because the cars you race depend on the car you choose, the game doesn't really require you to improve to win.

Also, the kudos system is so ruthless that practicing isn't as fun as it could be. A light bump against a wall makes you lose all your kudos, leaving you with too few kudos to have a shot at reaching the goal, and forcing you to restart. A more finely graded penalty system would have made for fewer frustrating restarts, and more exciting comebacks (it seems that PGR2 will incorporate this feature—hooray!).

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