Project Gotham Racing 4 [Xbox 360]

"Project Gotham Racing is a series of race games where you primarily drive on street circuits in real cities (London, Tokyo, Las Vegas, etc...). Another typical PGR trademark is the kudos system. You do not only earn points by winning races, but you also earn kudus for driving with styles, so you get awarded for nice overtake actions, tight racing lines, drifting through corners, clean laps, etc... PGR's control system is a mix between simulation and arcade.
The series began on Sega's DreamCast system, but was then called Metropolis Street Racer. But because Sega had the rights to that name, the later Xbox and Xbox 360 editions appeared under the name Project Gotham Racing.

New in this fourth edition is the introduction of motorbikes. Maybe the developers are trying to win over some of the MotoGP fans? I don't care much about riding a bike, but luckily there are not many races that have to be done on a bike.

The graphics
PGR3 was one of the first Xbox 360 games and looked amazing at the time. But PGR4 shows that developer Bizarre has now really come to grips with the hardware, it really looks spectacular. The cities are almost photorealistic, especially because of the enhanced lighting effects. It also seems like Bizarre has learned a new trick: weather effects, as in rain snow, fog and lightning. The combination with the many nocturnal races results in a very realistic experience. It looks like the creators are quite proud of it too, because there are many rainy race days and even the menu screens are splattered with rain drops.

My biggest problem with the PGR3 graphics was the view being too dark in shadowy streets, it was hard to see where you were going. I was glad to see that this issue has been fixed now, perfect views all around.

The controls
Compared to PGR 1 and 2, the controls of the 3rd edition had gotten a bit more realistic. But I am happy to find that the makers realized that a more easy and arcade-like control system better suits the street racing genre. So PGR4 shifts a bit towards the arcade side and in my opinion this results in a perfect sim/arcade mix. Now that scoring kudos is the core of the game again, it is important that going sideways through every corner is not too hard.

Controlling the bikes is a different story. You have to brake harder for turns and drifting is rather tricky. Cockpit view (my preferred view for race games) is useless for bikes. You bike tilts left and right in every corner and so does your view. Realistic and sensational looking, but it made me sick. MotoGP fans may think otherwise, but it's not for me. The "behind the bike" view is easier, but still tricky. I'll stick with cars.

The career mode
I found the career mode of PGR3 way too linear, it was just a matter of dutifully completing the list of races, especially compared with the freedom offered in games like Forza, Gran Turismo and Need for Speed. In this fourth edition, the career mode is set up completely different though, but initially I wasn't sure it was for the better.
All races and challenges are now linked to days on a calendar. You start on a day in september and on that day the amount of races you can choose from is exactly one. After completing that race a time-warp brings you forward a few days and there's one race available again. After a while you achieve a higher rank and you get to enter races from a higher class. Important, because from that day on you get to choose from two races each day (yeah!). Sounds better, but in practice you'll always choose the higher class because it get's you more kudos. Not a lot of freedom then.

Also interesting: if you fail to win a race or fail to complete a challenge, you cannot retry. The race just ends and you get warped to the next day on the calendar. This also holds for the "Invitationals", special races using which you can unlock special cars. Didn't win? "Too bad, try again next season" (in practice an entire season takes you a few hours).

The funny thing about the weird career mode setup is that it actually works very well. Indeed, you get less freedom, but because there are no retries you are forced to do a different race every time. There's no endless retrying of a particularly difficult race. This keeps things interesting and fresh, also because of the large variety in race-types: street races, overtake races, eliminator aces, one on one races, cone attacks, hot laps, speed challenges, etc..

In PGR4 you don't have to worry about tuning or upgrading your car. Just select a car and drive. Which means you can use all gained kudos on buying new cars and bikes. Speaking of which, cars and bikes can only be purchased in packs, never separately. For example, there is a RUF pack, with five cool RUF-tuned Porsche's and a Suzuki pack having three Suzuki bikes. You can also use kudos for unlocking extra tracks and other goodies, but I didn't bother with that.

Should you go and get it?
If your opinion is like "the more realistic, the better", then I'd recommend to skip this one. The only thing that's realistic in PGR4 is the graphics. If on the other hand you are in for some fun, entertainment and racing around beautiful cities, then this is a great game for you.
The graphical advances, the interesting career mode and the addition of bikes make this a worthy sequel to PGR3.
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