December 23, 2005 - Upon its launch, the Xbox 360 boasted a few first person shooters, a platformer here and there and quite a few sport titles. Nowhere did we really see an RPG or a fighting game, but that’s another story. The one genre best represented however, was clearly the racing world. Fans of over the top arcade racing had their Ridge Racer, tuners and speed freaks had their Need For Speed and fans of more conventional racing games had Project Gotham. It’s needless to compare the three since they each have their own fan-base and “raison d’etre” which set them apart from each other, but it is worth noting that PGR3 has probably drawn more attention than the other two for the simple reason that it was a Microsoft published title and along with Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero, was touted as one of the main reasons to own a 360 at launch. So how does PGR3 fare when the dust has settled?

To get the obvious out of the way; PGR3 looks amazing. Yes, while you’re cruising along the streets of Las Vegas you may not notice much graphical difference from PGR2 (which was no slouch either), but when you slow down and really take into account everything that PGR3 does graphically, it’s hard not to be amazed. From the small No Parking signs in hotel fronts to the emblems and badges on cars, every detail has been painstakingly recreated. The streets are lined with fans and photographers (who react appropriately to the race and your car - if you feel like nudging the fences) and the cities not only feel complete, but alive. The cars, now boasting 40,000 polygons on the exteriors and 40,000 more on the interiors are reason alone to pick up this title. If having the cars look perfectly authentic on the outside wasn’t enough, PGR3 adds accurate interiors to the mix and provides an in-car camera view unlike anything that’s ever been done.

When racing from a 3rd person perspective, the right thumbstick in PGR2 was used to look at your surrounding and rotate around your car. This still carries over to PGR3 (better than before) but now, while using the in-car perspective, the right thumbstick is used to rotate around the dashboard so that you can clearly see your mirrors, your shifter, your gauges and your hands as you maneuver around with the controls. Each car has been uniquely rendered with utmost attention to detail and there really is no cooler sensation than sitting in an expensive Lamborghini and being able to look around at what a real one truly looks like. The in-car perspective also provides a unique way to race since the camera follows the movement of your car, for example, when you with bumps, your view shakes or when you hit a wall, there’s a slight blur effect. The new camera view and in-car perspective are truly the highlight of PGR3 and must be seen to be believed.

In the audio department, PGR3 faithfully recreates the sounds of each automobile with pitch perfect accuracy. The positional audio is perfect and the ambient noises help brings things alive. The cars may not sound as warm or as deep as Need For Speed: Most Wanted, but only a true car-nut would complain. Unfortunately, the music this time around has taken a hit. PGR2 had radio-like stations unique to each city that played while you drove. While the music wasn’t always perfect, at least it felt alive. This time around, PGR3 features bland techno and boring classical music for your driving pleasure. This makes the whole affair seem less than exciting from time to time. But this is easily fixed since you can, and will, race using your custom soundtracks.

In the gameplay department, where looks and sounds take a back-seat to the real core of the experience, PGR3 comes up slightly lacking. It’s not that PGR3 isn’t an amazing game or that it’s not easily recommendable to anyone with a pulse, but PGR3 feels a lot (read: big time) like a prettier PGR2 with a lot of the magic missing. The leap between the first Project Gotham and the second was staggering. PGR2 felt so completely new and even playing the solo career mode felt like a constant challenge. There was a sense of discovery, of accomplishment and of satisfaction to go with every class challenge, with every car unlocked and with every trophy earned. PGR3 removes the slower cars and the trucks and the muscle cars in the hopes of making the game more exhilarating, but instead creates an uninspired career mode where every race feels the same because you can very easily race with the same two or three cars for its entire duration. As much as I wanted to unlock the faster cars in PGR2, there was a part of me that also appreciated the Mini and the Focus and the Cayenne. When I did get the Enzo, it’s because I had worked hard for it and when I used it, I felt a certain pride in ownership. In PGR3, I started out with the Ultima GTR (a class B car no less, which served me quite well) and purchased the GTR-1 Coupe as my second car for 625,000 Credits (quite easy to earn). With the GTR-1, I had a car that easily took on almost anything PGR3 could throw at me and before I knew it (quite literally), I had enough money for the Ferrari F50 GT (PGR3’s Speed 12 in terms of Xbox Live car of choice) which plays fine, but also had enough left over to purchase the Mercedes CLK-GTR SuperSport which served me quite well in the later part of the career mode.