project gotham racing 3 review

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Average Ratings

Addiction Level	7.2/10
Graphics	8.2/10
Value for Money	6.6/10
Overall rating	7.4/10

80% Recommended4 out of 5 Reviews

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By Takahiro on 1st Feb 2006

Takahiro's Ratings

Addiction Level	7/10
Graphics	9/10
Multi-player	Yes
Value for money	7/10
Overall value	8/10
Takahiro's recommendation

Good Points

The graphics truly show what the 360 can do
All the cars featured look astonishing and are great fun to drive
XBox Live will blow you away
It's lengthy, and on harder settings is VERY hard

Bad Points

If you blast through on easy you'll be disappointed
The Game feels slightly rushed...
If you own PGR2 then it could feel too familiar

General Comments

Project Gotham Racing 3 was the main reason to buy a 360 at launch, all it had to do was be at least almost as good as Project Gotham 2 to still be fantastic, and it doesn't disappoint.

First, the graphics. They are simply amazing, no other 360 game out yet comes close to the all round perfection of PGR3, the cars are extremely detailed, and the in-car view has to be seen to be believed, but the tracks are the real killer app here. There are 5 realised cities in the game including London and New York, and each has been sculpted to perfection. In London you blast by Big Ben, the London Eye and more, if you've been there in reality you'll feel a strange sense of nostalgia as to how accurate it is, and even though you'll be blazing by at 170mph it still creates a brilliant atmosphere that no racing game I've played has ever had.

Aside from that, the speed of the game may surprise you. Unlike other racing games where you start out in a cheap slow car, PGR3 throws you straight in with top class cars, and that's because there are only top class cars in PGR3. You heard right, there's nothing like a Mazda MX5 or Audi TT here; fast cars maybe, but about the slowest car in PGR3 is a Jaguar, and it still holds it's own against Ferrari's and the like. But as if that wasn't enough, the whole sense of speed has been stepped up, at times PGR2 could feel slow, but never with PGR3! Races feel intense, and on harder difficulties the other racers will really give you a hard time, so speed junkies should be right at home here.

Unfortunately there are some minor issues... Although the 5 cities are split into several different track layouts, they can start to feel a bit samey, and not all the game modes will hold your interest. Time Trials are still an acquired taste, and if you don't like them then the TT sections in PGR3 will drag on, and the skill tests (such as the cone gates) can become a test of patience on the harder difficulties, rather than a test of skill, and on easy you'll just find it too boring. Generally if you've played PGR2 you'll feel like you've been here before, it's just too similar in almost all areas.

However, these are minor; stick with what's good about PGR3 and you'll love it, it only has 2 player split screen now but it's still amazing, and this time you can add AI drivers in the mix.

XBox Live is truly something! You can race with people from all over the world, you time trialers out there can post your high scores, and you can even watch the world's best race in Project Gotham TV if you so wish, and then you can try to be featured there yourself!

There a wealth of options for you though, and you can create your own custom tracks through 4 of the cities, and there are hundreds of possibilities to exploited there, and you can even trade them over XBox Live. There is also a photo mode, allowing you to take pictures of your cars in ideal locations in any city, then show them off over Live or to your mates!

So overall it's a great game! Compared to PGR2 it's more of an update than a full sequel, but don't let that put you off, this is still a fantastic game that fully shows off what your 360 can do, and if you're lucky enough to have a HDTV and a good surround sound system you'll be in 7th racing heaven!

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