Project Gotham Racing 2
Posted January 1, 2004
Although launch titles are rarely representative of the power of a console, the XBox benefitted greatly from the presence of several early releases that are still looked upon reverently by gamers even more than two years after originally hitting store shelves. Among them was Project Gotham Racing, a racer that emphasized style as much as speed, selling over a million copies in less than a year on the shelf. Its newly-released followup, also by developer Bizarre Creations (Disney's Treasure Planet), improves upon what was already widely considered to be a great title, and the end result is an outstanding racing game deserving of a spot in the collection of any XBox owner.
Gameplay:
Project Gotham Racing 2 has around a hundred cars and individual tracks at its fingertips, tossing racers in courses throughout Barcelona, Chicago, Edinburgh, Florence, Hong Kong, Moscow, Stockholm, Sydney, Washington D.C., and Yokohama. The selection of licensed cars is impressively varied, spread across fourteen classes that include Compact Sports, Sports Convertible, Coupe, Sports Utility, Pacific Muscle, Roadster, Classics, Sports Coupe, American Muscle, Super Car, Grand Touring, Track Specials, Extreme, and Ultimate. Players can careen across courses in everything from a Mini Cooper S to a Pontiac GTO to a quarter of a million dollar TVR Cerbera Speed 12. Although a full list of the licensed cars would be prohibitively long for this review, there are comprehensive guides online for anyone who wants to take a peek before forking over a credit card or shelling out a few bucks for a rental.
The controls, at least on the surface, don't differ greatly from other racing titles on the XBox. Like RalliSport Challenge and Midtown Madness 3, the left thumbstick steers, the left trigger brakes and reverses, the right trigger accelerates, and the 'A' button grips the handbrake. Other buttons shift up and down for drivers who prefer manual transmissions, change the perspective of the camera, access the stereo controls, and, for those with more of an obnoxious streak, honk the car's horn. Although Project Gotham Racing 2 is an arcade racer at heart, new players shouldn't expect to be able to demolish the online competition on their first run or two. To spout off the old Othello cliché, the controls only take a moment to learn, but a lifetime (or at least more than an hour or two) to master. The controls are streamlined enough that it only takes a couple of laps to get a sufficient handle on them to breeze through the early offline races, but it takes a considerable amount of play to be able to really dominate. It's not just a matter of mashing the accelerator harder and more quickly than the competition -- it takes skill and finesse to excel at Project Gotham Racing 2, and the game's Kudos system rewards that.
Kudos is a point system that can be used for both bragging rights and to unlock additional cars, acquired by impressive racing. Points can be netted in more traditional ways -- completing expressly defined tasks, avoiding damage, placing well, or finishing quickly -- but it's stylized driving that really adds them up. Spinning around, flinging your car in the air, slingshotting past other cars, and fishtailing are just a few of the moves that snag Kudos, and they can be strung into combos for an even larger reward. However, there is a slight delay before those points are added to the bank. No matter how impressive a combo may have been, instantly plowing headfirst into a rail wipes it out. A risky combination has the potential to be incredibly lucrative, and unlike the original Project Gotham Racing, a crash won't wipe out the entire combo. To prevent players from incessantly spinning around tracks on the lower difficulty levels, Kudos are based on the best run on a track in single-player mode. These points can also be earned online, and variables such as the car being raced and the Kudos rank of competing players factor into how many Kudos are received.
Although only a handful of the game's hundred or so automobiles are available initially, even novice players can give higher-end cars like the Enzo Ferrari a spin in the Showroom. Using a standard first person shooter interface, this mode allows players to stroll through a mammoth showroom and take a peek at each of the dozens of automobiles, noting its stats, whether or not it's currently available to race, and the number of Kudo tokens needed to acquire it. Even for players without any Kudos to speak of, these cars can be put through their paces with a test drive on a two-mile course. As is the case with most everything in Project Gotham Racing 2, lap times are tracked and players can race against incorporeal ghosts. The garage, which shows the cars currently at the player's disposal, can also be navigated with a similar FPS interface or by simply pressing left or right on the controller. Another nice addition to the garage is an arcade game that can be found against a back wall. Selecting that cabinet launches Geometry Wars, an infectiously fun Asteroids-style game, and, yup, high scores are tracked over XBox Live.
Project Gotham Racing 2 offers a variety of racing modes, both single player and multiplayer. The single player mode that's mostly likely to dominate every waking second of players' lives is the Kudos World Series, which is divided among a number of different types of races for each class of cars. Among the challenges are careening around cones, one-on-one bouts, timed trials, overtaking opponents, and reaching a certain speed in a limited amount of time. The number of individual races coupled with the varying difficulty levels ought to be sufficient to keep players busy for quite some time. There are several automobiles that can only be acquired by completing the entire series at certain difficulty levels. Although most players should be able to effortlessly tear through the lower rungs of difficulty, earning a full set of platinum medals is no small feat, particularly since the AI-driven cars can be absolutely merciless. The game's arcade mode is divided into street races, timed runs, and cone challenges, each with varying difficulty levels and twenty sets of challenges. Finally, there's Time Attack, the lone option in the game that disregards Kudos. This mode has two different options, Circuit Challenge and Car Challenge, encouraging players to match their best time with the whatever cars and courses are available. Tracks are limited to what's been tackled online or in the Kudos World Series. For players who just want to race and are disinterested with wading through submenus, the "Instant Action" option offers just that.
The multiplayer options include split-screen multiplayer, System Link, and, most notably, XBox Live. Project Gotham Racing 2 is perhaps the single best example as to what can be accomplished with online gameplay on a console; aside from the addictive gameplay, XBox Live functionality is integrated into nearly every facet of the game. Even in single-player mode, players can see how they stack up compared to tens of thousands of other gamers after completing a race. It's also possible to download 'ghosts' of the top racers worldwide to see how they managed to pull off their accomplishments. Project Gotham Racing 2 also supports downloadable content. Although there's nothing available at the time this review was written, the Official XBox Magazine suggests courses from the original game, more tracks in the currently available cities, and perhaps even an additional car class as possibilities. Considering how rapidly downloadable content is being deployed with more recent titles, hopefully the wait won't be all that long.
Of course, the chief appeal of XBox Live is competing against other players online. Up to eight players can compete at once without any noticeable lag, and the game supports split-screen multiplayer online as well for a pair of racers playing on a single console. The options include the standard XBox Live set -- a Quick Match search to find races matching limited criteria, a more granular Optimatch for those in search of something more specific, and the ability to create a new game. Virtually every aspect of a race can be shaped and controlled. Of course, the track and environmental variables are to be expected, but its other options are impressively thorough. If continually pitted against an onslaught of gamers with a fleet of Enzos in tow while others putter around in a Mini Cooper S, the playing field can be leveled by limiting gamers to a certain automobile class or even a particular car. It's also possible to have races where the winner is the player who snagged the most Kudos, meaning that being the first to plow through the finish line isn't as important as skilled driving. Not only can the number of players be defined when creating a new game, it also allows the starter to reserve spots for gamers on his or her Friends list. Annoying players are easily booted from a game, and those determined to race backwards are quickly ghosted to make them as unintrusive as possible.
The XBox Live scoreboard allows players to see how they and their friends compare to scores of other gamers, which is invariably pitiful. Countless hours logged and nearly two hundred thousand Kudos still aren't enough to break past the 10,000 mark. It's also possible to see which gamers on your Friends list are online and to add recent opponents to that list. Because Project Gotham Racing 2 enables players to sign onto XBox Live even when tearing through its single-player mode, gamers wading through the Kudos World Challenge can still receive online invites from friends.
Graphics:
My first time playing the original Project Gotham Racing wasn't under the most ideal of circumstances, clunking along on a well-worn 13" TV in the corner of an office. I was still blown away by the look of the game, and some aliasing aside, the replays veered dangerously close to photorealistic on that small screen. Its followup is even more visually impressive, and though the screenshots that have been floating around for months may look incredible, they don't do justice to the way the graphics look in action.
The car models are immaculately rendered, and their appearance is bolstered further by a variety of realistic lighting effects and slight damage suffered throughout the course of a race. The individual courses are richly detailed (Edinburgh, particularly), and they each have their own distinct feel and flavor. Some courses are built around wide lanes and a series of sharp turns, while others are more claustrophobic, relentlessly twisting and turning. I've read that the courses are also strikingly representative of their real-life counterparts, and intrigued readers who have progressed to that point may be interested in comparing the game's Nurburgring track to the photographs on this fan site.
The sidelines aren't nearly as bustling as those in Midtown Madness 3 -- activity in the backgrounds of these courses are limited to the likes of flying birds and sprinkling fountains -- but I didn't find the lack of people milling around to be a particular disappointment. The framerate never stutters or hiccups, running silky smooth regardless of the number of players or the amount of activity on-screen. I've seen some message board posts griping that 30 frames per second is unacceptable for a racing game, but I'd be interested to hear how many felt the same way after actually seeing the game rather than simply skimming through specs online.
After completing a race, a highly-customizable option to view or save a replay is made available. These come closer to looking like live video of a race than anything I've seen previously, further improving upon the original Project Gotham Racing, and the ability to manipulate the perspective and presentation makes it all the more impressive. The camera perspective can be altered while racing as well, though I found that I preferred the default view.
Project Gotham Racing 2 is also extremely accomodating of widescreen displays, including support for 16x9 displays and progressive scan capability. There's an option I don't offhand recall having seen before, enabling gamers to define how the screen is divided in split-screen multiplayer. Slashing the display horizontally down the center makes it difficult to get a full sense of the course on a widescreen television, and being able to choose between a horizontal or vertical division is extremely welcome. For owners of rear projection televisions concerned about burn-in, the game also has an option to redirect the center of the screen, preventing static elements of the display from appearing in the same place continually.
Audio:
Project Gotham Racing 2 offers Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, complete with a healthy low-end growl. Ambient sounds are slight, and roaring engines, squealing tires, colliding thuds, and booming car stereos dominate. The engine of each car has its own unique, distinct sound, based on meticulous recording of their real-world counterparts. I was also impressed by the combination of the resonating audio and rumbling controller after a crash. The provided soundtrack consists of nearly 250 tracks, spanning high-octane punk flavored rock, hip-hop, to boisterous teen-pop, to name a few. Alongside more commercially recognized acts such as American Hi-Fi, A Simple Plan, and the Flaming Lips are bands like ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Autopilot Off, Dirt Bike Annie, Mustard Plug, and the Pietasters. The songs are included on radio stations with a number of different DJs, tailored to the city in which the current race is held. A click of the right thumbstick while racing allows the player to select a station and adjust the volume, and Project Gotham Racing 2 also supports custom soundtracks.
Conclusion:
It's the small details that tend to distinguish a great game from one that's merely good, and the incomparably polished Project Gotham Racing 2 includes many of those sorts of flourishes mixed in with a variety of already excellent gameplay modes and design features. It's generally easy to lean back in a recliner and rattle off dozens of features, regardless of how realistic they may or may not be, that would improve a game, but I'm wholly unable to do so here. In my eyes at least, Project Gotham Racing 2 is near-flawless, as close to perfection as any game I've played. The single-player mode alone warrants an enthusiastic recommendation, but the incredible incorporation of XBox Live functionality into most every aspect of the game and the brilliant multiplayer gaming stand out as a showcase of what the XBox is capable of accomplishing. This isn't just one of the best racing games for the XBox (and considering the emphasis placed on that genre on the console, that itself is a high compliment), it's among the best games for the platform, period. An essential purchase.
Demos and Videos: Also included are playable demos for Grabbed by the Ghoulies and NFL Fever 2004, alongside videos for RalliSport Challenge 2, Amped 2, NHL Rivals 2004, Links 2004, NBA Inside Drive 2004, Top Spin, the XSN Sports lineup, and the XBox Music Mixer.
Gameplay:
Project Gotham Racing 2 has around a hundred cars and individual tracks at its fingertips, tossing racers in courses throughout Barcelona, Chicago, Edinburgh, Florence, Hong Kong, Moscow, Stockholm, Sydney, Washington D.C., and Yokohama. The selection of licensed cars is impressively varied, spread across fourteen classes that include Compact Sports, Sports Convertible, Coupe, Sports Utility, Pacific Muscle, Roadster, Classics, Sports Coupe, American Muscle, Super Car, Grand Touring, Track Specials, Extreme, and Ultimate. Players can careen across courses in everything from a Mini Cooper S to a Pontiac GTO to a quarter of a million dollar TVR Cerbera Speed 12. Although a full list of the licensed cars would be prohibitively long for this review, there are comprehensive guides online for anyone who wants to take a peek before forking over a credit card or shelling out a few bucks for a rental.
The controls, at least on the surface, don't differ greatly from other racing titles on the XBox. Like RalliSport Challenge and Midtown Madness 3, the left thumbstick steers, the left trigger brakes and reverses, the right trigger accelerates, and the 'A' button grips the handbrake. Other buttons shift up and down for drivers who prefer manual transmissions, change the perspective of the camera, access the stereo controls, and, for those with more of an obnoxious streak, honk the car's horn. Although Project Gotham Racing 2 is an arcade racer at heart, new players shouldn't expect to be able to demolish the online competition on their first run or two. To spout off the old Othello cliché, the controls only take a moment to learn, but a lifetime (or at least more than an hour or two) to master. The controls are streamlined enough that it only takes a couple of laps to get a sufficient handle on them to breeze through the early offline races, but it takes a considerable amount of play to be able to really dominate. It's not just a matter of mashing the accelerator harder and more quickly than the competition -- it takes skill and finesse to excel at Project Gotham Racing 2, and the game's Kudos system rewards that.
Kudos is a point system that can be used for both bragging rights and to unlock additional cars, acquired by impressive racing. Points can be netted in more traditional ways -- completing expressly defined tasks, avoiding damage, placing well, or finishing quickly -- but it's stylized driving that really adds them up. Spinning around, flinging your car in the air, slingshotting past other cars, and fishtailing are just a few of the moves that snag Kudos, and they can be strung into combos for an even larger reward. However, there is a slight delay before those points are added to the bank. No matter how impressive a combo may have been, instantly plowing headfirst into a rail wipes it out. A risky combination has the potential to be incredibly lucrative, and unlike the original Project Gotham Racing, a crash won't wipe out the entire combo. To prevent players from incessantly spinning around tracks on the lower difficulty levels, Kudos are based on the best run on a track in single-player mode. These points can also be earned online, and variables such as the car being raced and the Kudos rank of competing players factor into how many Kudos are received.
Although only a handful of the game's hundred or so automobiles are available initially, even novice players can give higher-end cars like the Enzo Ferrari a spin in the Showroom. Using a standard first person shooter interface, this mode allows players to stroll through a mammoth showroom and take a peek at each of the dozens of automobiles, noting its stats, whether or not it's currently available to race, and the number of Kudo tokens needed to acquire it. Even for players without any Kudos to speak of, these cars can be put through their paces with a test drive on a two-mile course. As is the case with most everything in Project Gotham Racing 2, lap times are tracked and players can race against incorporeal ghosts. The garage, which shows the cars currently at the player's disposal, can also be navigated with a similar FPS interface or by simply pressing left or right on the controller. Another nice addition to the garage is an arcade game that can be found against a back wall. Selecting that cabinet launches Geometry Wars, an infectiously fun Asteroids-style game, and, yup, high scores are tracked over XBox Live.
Project Gotham Racing 2 offers a variety of racing modes, both single player and multiplayer. The single player mode that's mostly likely to dominate every waking second of players' lives is the Kudos World Series, which is divided among a number of different types of races for each class of cars. Among the challenges are careening around cones, one-on-one bouts, timed trials, overtaking opponents, and reaching a certain speed in a limited amount of time. The number of individual races coupled with the varying difficulty levels ought to be sufficient to keep players busy for quite some time. There are several automobiles that can only be acquired by completing the entire series at certain difficulty levels. Although most players should be able to effortlessly tear through the lower rungs of difficulty, earning a full set of platinum medals is no small feat, particularly since the AI-driven cars can be absolutely merciless. The game's arcade mode is divided into street races, timed runs, and cone challenges, each with varying difficulty levels and twenty sets of challenges. Finally, there's Time Attack, the lone option in the game that disregards Kudos. This mode has two different options, Circuit Challenge and Car Challenge, encouraging players to match their best time with the whatever cars and courses are available. Tracks are limited to what's been tackled online or in the Kudos World Series. For players who just want to race and are disinterested with wading through submenus, the "Instant Action" option offers just that.
The multiplayer options include split-screen multiplayer, System Link, and, most notably, XBox Live. Project Gotham Racing 2 is perhaps the single best example as to what can be accomplished with online gameplay on a console; aside from the addictive gameplay, XBox Live functionality is integrated into nearly every facet of the game. Even in single-player mode, players can see how they stack up compared to tens of thousands of other gamers after completing a race. It's also possible to download 'ghosts' of the top racers worldwide to see how they managed to pull off their accomplishments. Project Gotham Racing 2 also supports downloadable content. Although there's nothing available at the time this review was written, the Official XBox Magazine suggests courses from the original game, more tracks in the currently available cities, and perhaps even an additional car class as possibilities. Considering how rapidly downloadable content is being deployed with more recent titles, hopefully the wait won't be all that long.
Of course, the chief appeal of XBox Live is competing against other players online. Up to eight players can compete at once without any noticeable lag, and the game supports split-screen multiplayer online as well for a pair of racers playing on a single console. The options include the standard XBox Live set -- a Quick Match search to find races matching limited criteria, a more granular Optimatch for those in search of something more specific, and the ability to create a new game. Virtually every aspect of a race can be shaped and controlled. Of course, the track and environmental variables are to be expected, but its other options are impressively thorough. If continually pitted against an onslaught of gamers with a fleet of Enzos in tow while others putter around in a Mini Cooper S, the playing field can be leveled by limiting gamers to a certain automobile class or even a particular car. It's also possible to have races where the winner is the player who snagged the most Kudos, meaning that being the first to plow through the finish line isn't as important as skilled driving. Not only can the number of players be defined when creating a new game, it also allows the starter to reserve spots for gamers on his or her Friends list. Annoying players are easily booted from a game, and those determined to race backwards are quickly ghosted to make them as unintrusive as possible.
The XBox Live scoreboard allows players to see how they and their friends compare to scores of other gamers, which is invariably pitiful. Countless hours logged and nearly two hundred thousand Kudos still aren't enough to break past the 10,000 mark. It's also possible to see which gamers on your Friends list are online and to add recent opponents to that list. Because Project Gotham Racing 2 enables players to sign onto XBox Live even when tearing through its single-player mode, gamers wading through the Kudos World Challenge can still receive online invites from friends.
Graphics:
My first time playing the original Project Gotham Racing wasn't under the most ideal of circumstances, clunking along on a well-worn 13" TV in the corner of an office. I was still blown away by the look of the game, and some aliasing aside, the replays veered dangerously close to photorealistic on that small screen. Its followup is even more visually impressive, and though the screenshots that have been floating around for months may look incredible, they don't do justice to the way the graphics look in action.
The car models are immaculately rendered, and their appearance is bolstered further by a variety of realistic lighting effects and slight damage suffered throughout the course of a race. The individual courses are richly detailed (Edinburgh, particularly), and they each have their own distinct feel and flavor. Some courses are built around wide lanes and a series of sharp turns, while others are more claustrophobic, relentlessly twisting and turning. I've read that the courses are also strikingly representative of their real-life counterparts, and intrigued readers who have progressed to that point may be interested in comparing the game's Nurburgring track to the photographs on this fan site.
The sidelines aren't nearly as bustling as those in Midtown Madness 3 -- activity in the backgrounds of these courses are limited to the likes of flying birds and sprinkling fountains -- but I didn't find the lack of people milling around to be a particular disappointment. The framerate never stutters or hiccups, running silky smooth regardless of the number of players or the amount of activity on-screen. I've seen some message board posts griping that 30 frames per second is unacceptable for a racing game, but I'd be interested to hear how many felt the same way after actually seeing the game rather than simply skimming through specs online.
After completing a race, a highly-customizable option to view or save a replay is made available. These come closer to looking like live video of a race than anything I've seen previously, further improving upon the original Project Gotham Racing, and the ability to manipulate the perspective and presentation makes it all the more impressive. The camera perspective can be altered while racing as well, though I found that I preferred the default view.
Project Gotham Racing 2 is also extremely accomodating of widescreen displays, including support for 16x9 displays and progressive scan capability. There's an option I don't offhand recall having seen before, enabling gamers to define how the screen is divided in split-screen multiplayer. Slashing the display horizontally down the center makes it difficult to get a full sense of the course on a widescreen television, and being able to choose between a horizontal or vertical division is extremely welcome. For owners of rear projection televisions concerned about burn-in, the game also has an option to redirect the center of the screen, preventing static elements of the display from appearing in the same place continually.
Audio:
Project Gotham Racing 2 offers Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, complete with a healthy low-end growl. Ambient sounds are slight, and roaring engines, squealing tires, colliding thuds, and booming car stereos dominate. The engine of each car has its own unique, distinct sound, based on meticulous recording of their real-world counterparts. I was also impressed by the combination of the resonating audio and rumbling controller after a crash. The provided soundtrack consists of nearly 250 tracks, spanning high-octane punk flavored rock, hip-hop, to boisterous teen-pop, to name a few. Alongside more commercially recognized acts such as American Hi-Fi, A Simple Plan, and the Flaming Lips are bands like ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Autopilot Off, Dirt Bike Annie, Mustard Plug, and the Pietasters. The songs are included on radio stations with a number of different DJs, tailored to the city in which the current race is held. A click of the right thumbstick while racing allows the player to select a station and adjust the volume, and Project Gotham Racing 2 also supports custom soundtracks.
Conclusion:
It's the small details that tend to distinguish a great game from one that's merely good, and the incomparably polished Project Gotham Racing 2 includes many of those sorts of flourishes mixed in with a variety of already excellent gameplay modes and design features. It's generally easy to lean back in a recliner and rattle off dozens of features, regardless of how realistic they may or may not be, that would improve a game, but I'm wholly unable to do so here. In my eyes at least, Project Gotham Racing 2 is near-flawless, as close to perfection as any game I've played. The single-player mode alone warrants an enthusiastic recommendation, but the incredible incorporation of XBox Live functionality into most every aspect of the game and the brilliant multiplayer gaming stand out as a showcase of what the XBox is capable of accomplishing. This isn't just one of the best racing games for the XBox (and considering the emphasis placed on that genre on the console, that itself is a high compliment), it's among the best games for the platform, period. An essential purchase.
Demos and Videos: Also included are playable demos for Grabbed by the Ghoulies and NFL Fever 2004, alongside videos for RalliSport Challenge 2, Amped 2, NHL Rivals 2004, Links 2004, NBA Inside Drive 2004, Top Spin, the XSN Sports lineup, and the XBox Music Mixer.