PGR3 Initial Review

I played a bit of Project Gotham Racing 3 yesterday as well. When I first started up I started poking around in the immense amount of menus. To say that this is the most configurable video game ever might be an understatement. The audio options are more extensive than many receivers I have seen. You can configure what type of speakers you have from headphones to 5.1 surround. Then you can go in and configure the size of the room and position of speakers. It also had a screen to help you configure brightness and contrast. I wish that all games were this intelligent and these types of settings could be configured on the 360 as defaults.

If you have played PGR or PGR2 you know what you are getting here. Just ratchet up the graphics, sound and speed a few notches. The scenery is simply amazing. While driving the strip in Las Vegas I recognize the Casino Royale and the other restraints nearby instantly. The cars themselves are quite well done as well. I am reserving judgment on sound until I get it into my full setup; I think a lot is lost playing on simple stereo.

The game play is very similar to previous versions of the game. In the solo mode there is the standard races as well as the cone, speed camera and overtake modes. The difference this time is that you collect money and then purchase cars. This is different than previous games where you unlocked classes and individual cars. The downside is your choices on the number of cars are smaller than before; it may change as the game goes on though.

As was the case with PGR2 the Live service is used to its fullest in PGR3. At the end of every race your worldwide ranking is shown along with other statistics. This allows you to see what is possible and how well you are doing. One unique feature is to be able to watch the best drivers live on Live. It is called Gotham TV and once you connect you can watch races from any car and any of 7 camera angles. It is interesting to see the techniques of other players.

If you liked PGR or PGR2 you will like PGR3, if not well skip it. I can't wait to play some multiplayer as that was the best part of PGR2. It is taking me a little while to get back into my PGR groove, it takes a while to get used to the controls again.