The latest entry in the series, Project Gotham Racing 4, is a truly curious endeavor considering the racer’s previous installments.  Developer Bizarre Creations manages to include all the concepts that made the last entry great, but new community enhancing features aside, the latest versions list of upgrades seems to center primarily around motorcycles and weather effects.  Ultimately, it may be fun to fishtail endlessly in the snow, but it just seems ridiculous compared to the series customary focus on high speed racing in super expensive exotic cars. 

Before I get to the meat of the subject – it’s important to remember that PGR 3 was a Microsoft exclusive launch title that really showed off the graphics potential of the Xbox 360.  Heck, PGR3 even managed to sport some snazzy HD visuals way before competitors like Gran Turismo HD.  Implementing in-game car models that sported real time reflections, fully modeled cities with intricate 3D crowds and environments, and an active online multiplayer community made PGR 3 a solid launch title that spawned numerous new fans for the franchise.

Today’s Forecast: Incoming Showers

It’s the previous analysis that makes Project Gotham racing 4's emphasis on weather effects and motorcycles a bit discouraging.  The seemingly torrential downpour makes me miss the sunny days of racing where a sequel would place greater emphasis on a new physics model or deep car customization, neither of which seemed to make the PGR4 feature cut.  Even if you can pick your vehicles coat of paint, we were looking for more here after playing competing arcade titles like Need for Speed or Test Drive.  Driving in the snow or rain on your Ducati isn’t impossible mind you (especially with PGR4’s tight controls), I’m just not sure it adds up to a sequel worth of fun.

A Fair Shake

It’s unfair to strike the game down entirely since Project Gotham Racing 4 manages to do a lot of things really well over its previous incarnations.  Besides an expanded vehicle list (which focuses heavily on the motorcycles) and tighter handling, players will find a focused career mode which unfolds using a monthly calendar that tracks upcoming invitational, championships and major events through the game’s nine cities (with races in Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Quebec City, and Macau making their series debuts). Players unlock different track variations, vehicles, and bonuses (like gamertag pics) through packs, which are for sale at the PGR shop. 

Kudos - a point based system designed to rewards players for tight turns, drifts, and tricks like powerslides - are now the in-game currency in PGR4.  Achieving as many Kudos as possible is a great way to get players focused on clean and efficient driving maneuvers throughout the games plethora of modes; a major portion of which return from PGR3. 

Got Bikes and Pretty Graphics?

Complaints aside, motorcycles have been implemented quite well in PGR4, and are the perfect vehicles for Kudos starved racers.  Bikes rack up some serious points, sporting tight controls and easy to execute tricks that are as simple as pressing the B button. 

The new manufactures like Ducati, Suzuki, and Toyota join a proverbial who’s who of high priced automotive performance and design (mainly Ferrari, Bentley, and Jaguar to name a few). All the vehicles in PGR4 look and sound like their real life counterparts, but just remember to ease up on turns, since bikes don’t bounce off the dividers as well as cars (generally speaking any hard bump will make you go splat onto the concrete). 

A lot can be said regarding PGR4’s visual package; the multiple car cameras, environments, and slick track surfaces look admittedly gorgeous.  Effects like rain actually bead across your car’s fresh-out-of-the-wash wax job helping PGR4 to easily trump any visual efforts from its sim sibling Forza 2.  PGR4 also sports a slick new UI upgrade throughout that visually calls to mind an opening sequence to some non-existent Guy Ritchie film.

PGR4 and the Online Experience

Project Gotham Racing 4 sports strong multiplayer support and integrates ‘PGR4 on Demand’ – a new content service which offers downloadable ghosts, videos, and screenshots (plus file sharing) over Xbox Live. Coupled with their new statistically focused website PGR Nations, players gain a new stat based appreciation that few racers have enjoyed.  On the multiplayer side PGR4 now groups players with a Halo styled ‘party system’ – which keeps you and your buds together from race to race.  However, our review copy wasn’t able to test the online waters over XBL, so we can’t really comment on this aspect of the PGR4 experience.

What Hath Bizarre Creations Wrought?

No matter your perceptions on whether the weather works (say that three times fast), Project Gotham Racing 4 possesses many small yet notable enhancements that we couldn’t help but admire.  Integrating new cities, a community file sharing tool and website, and motorcycles make it compelling despite a seemingly thin upgrade list from PGR3.  While I found the addition of weather and motorcycles a questionable sequel crutch, the game still has plenty of value and provides a solid offering for fans of the series.