Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10026 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2003-04-11
• Platform: Xbox

Amazon.co.uk Review
Project Gotham Racing is very similar to its predecessor, except with refined gameplay mechanics and vastly improved graphics. The focus of this racer is unique and centred on the "kudos" system. Players are rewarded bonus points for sustaining slides, riding on two wheels, catching air, clean driving, and passing other drivers. Chaining any of these actions together results in high-scoring combinations. So in addition to trying to finish the race first, the player must worry about style and technique to succeed in this game. The kudos system is fun and definitely makes this game stand out from the competition.

Another highlight of the game is its detailed graphics. The more than 200 circuits, based on London, Tokyo, San Francisco and New York, are extremely authentic. Those familiar with the areas are sure to do a double take at the numerous courses. The games' cars are also beautifully rendered and feature impressive reflection and lighting effects.

Gameplay is quite diverse with quick race, arcade race, kudos challenge, time attack, and multiplayer modes. Kudos challenge alone features nine different types of gameplay that ranges from races, time trials, and obstacle courses. The only significant drawback with this game is its difficulty. Most players will find that two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through, the game becomes exceedingly difficult to the point where it's more frustrating than fun. Despite this problem, it still provides dozens of hours of entertainment for most and a challenging time for the hard core. All players will find that Project Gotham Racing is a truly distinct and beautiful racer. --Raymond M Padilla

Manufacturer's Description
Project Gotham Racing is the ultimate test of skill, style, and daring that takes you to over 200 race circuits in four of the world's greatest cities: London, San Francisco, Tokyo, and New York. It's the next generation racing game where fun and reward come from focusing equally on speed, flair, and risk-taking. Race against up to three friends at a time through realistic time-of-day and weather conditions and choose from over 25 performance cars. With over a hundred individual and wheel-to-wheel racing challenges and a separate arcade mode, you'll have an almost endless array of racing excitement.

Customer Reviews

Amazing Racing!
Project Gotham is probably the finest racing game available on Xbox, rivalled only by Sega GT2002. The gameplay is responsve, the graphics amazing and there is plenty to do. The game focuses around earning Kudos points by winning races, beating lap times on timed runs and driving outlandishly without crashing. This makes a nice change from the typical driving games, where you merely have to race around the track as quickly as possible. The driver AI is great, although the player's car is easily pushed into walls or spins, which becomes especially frustrating when other cars gang up on you. However, the game is exceptionally rewarding, as you can unlock cars simply by spending time driving, although some of the cars, such as the F50, will require huge amounts of devotion to the game to unlock. Should you get to the end of the game, it has great replay value, with other modes such as arcade and multiplayer.

Enjoyable racing game - until it becomes impossible
Project Gotham is initially one of the more entertaining race games. Up until you get through your third Kudos Racing season and the 3rd Arcade Challenge/Quick Race Challenge you'll be having great fun in your beautiful Nissan Skyline, screaming round corners and doing stunts.

Then the game's difficulty curve becomes too steep and you find yourself trapped, unable to complete a certain challenge and therefore unable to advance through the game. You'll find yourself attempting an Overtake Challenge for the 13th time and you'll realise with accelerating dismay that you are wasting your time.

Project Gotham offers the most limited choice of cars outside of rally sims. It takes the rather offensive route of awarding the player with the same cars over and over again - e.g. soft-top and tin-top models of the same vehicle which are basically the same car with no performance difference. Many of the cars have statistics so similar that again, they might as well be the same vehicle (Lancer and Impreza).

Most of the cars included do tend to be fun to drive and they all look fantastic. There are a couple of oddities: the VW Beetle looks like it's been stretched, the BMW Z3 cannot take corners without coming out of them completely sideways, the Ferrari F355 has a very high "Handling" score but spends most of the race struggling not to do doughnuts.

The gameplay is very fast and furious. Losing your concentration for a few seconds is the difference between earning a medal and being sent spinning to the back of the pack. There's nothing so exhilerating as flooring the throttle downhill in a Camarro. It's extremely rewarding to take a powerful rear wheel drive monster round the American circuits amassing thousands of Kudos points.

Gameplay flaws are present in most races. The enemy cars make successful attempts to nudge, bump and block the player, and they seem to get a speed increase on the final lap of a race. Let a car out of your sight and it'll build such a lead you may as well restart the race. You will find yourself racing the same opponents over and over again which gets really, really boring.

The tracks are OK to look at. Most of them are far too cramped to accommodate side-by-side racing and you will be losing hundreds of Kudos points on the tighter corners which simply don't allow powerslides.

The game modes:

Overtake Challenge: You'll learn to dread these. You need to pass slow-moving cars who invaribly get in the way on tight corners. You'll spend on average 50% of the race just trying to catch up with all the other cars, and that's if you don't waste time gathering Kudos. Ugh.

Kudos Challenges: Involves burning round a track trying to rack up Kudos points. The targets become ridiculously high as you advance. (1600 Kudos in a 3-lap race - the most I've ever got on this track is 1450!) I cannot overemphasise how soul destroying this gets.

Street Race: The only really enjoyable element of the game - a high speed run round town a la Gran Turismo.

Hot Lap: Can be fun. You need to complete a track under a set time limit. The time limits are usually pretty fair.

1-on-1: Race a new, more powerful car. No matter what this car is it's always faster and better round corners than yours (imagine my amazement when a computer-controlled Chevy Corvette cornered better than my Nissan Skyline!). If you do beat this car you unlock it and can use it at any time.

Pointless extras include unlocking horrible new colours for your car (the new colours are the same for each car). Oh, and tons of those useless time trial tracks every racing game features for bored players keep unlocking themselves. Woo.

You should find the Ford Focus to be the most useful car initially due to its better than average handling. After that the Nissan Skyline and the Panoz Esperante are very exciting to drive, particularly the Esperante. The later cars - including some of the Ferraris - oversteer so badly they are no good on most tracks, and the British and American muscle cars are a bit of a joke seeing as they all have a handling rating of 4 or 5 out of 10!

I'd recommend giving this game a miss now that Project Gotham 2 is out.

PGR - Probably the Greatest Racer ever!
This being one of the first two games I purchased when I got my XBox holds a special place in my console history.
I could go for more than 1000 words so I will keep it simple:-

GOOD POINTS:
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+ Phenomonal Graphics & Lighting Effects
+ Realistic-ish Damage (See bad points also)
+ London, New York and 2 other cities in full detailed glory
+ Cool Cars (50 ish) - including Porsche, Ferrari & New Mini!
+ Good Variation of Music, including ability to use your own
+ Ultra Cool Replays
+ Good Difficulty Curve
+ Kudos is cool - Literally. A new aspect to driving games.

BAD POINTS:
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- Damage should mean, get to certain 'point' and you cant drive on or your car goes up in smoke and/or flames.
- Not enough cars!
- Cant customise cars
- Not enough tracks (yes there are loads but only in 4 cities)
- The sequel isnt out until December 2003!

Summary: Superb game with a nice new aspect - Kudos - the way you drive affects how many points you get, enabling you to unlock new cars and stuff. A definate must purchase.