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Dom Robinson reviews
MicrosoftPGR2: 
PGR1:
- Price: £44.99
- Players: 1-8
- Widescreen: Yes
- 60Hz: No
- Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
- Xbox Live-enabled: Yes
Xmas time, sequels to drive… Project Gotham Racing 2is one of the most hotly-awaited titles on the Xbox and it’s safe to saythat no-one in that situation will be disappointed. Boththe originaland this follow-up are like fine wines where patience is its own reward andpractice really can make perfect. Just as long as you don’t go racing along asif you’re playing Midtown Madness 3then you’ll find yourself getting more and more into this release the moreyou play.
More locations, more car classes and… more cars in general here.
Take your pick of several routes around Edinburgh, Moscow, Barcelona, WashingtonD.C., Chicago, Florence, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Yokohama, Sydney and Nurburgring,not only beating your lap times, but gaining Kudos points along the way.
Kudos are obtained, not only by driving faster than before and winning a race,but also by the way you drive. Negotiate an S-bend – for example – and the wayin which you swerve round and exit it will depend on the extra points received.
The more points you get, the more levels will be unlocked, as well as thechance to drive round in more cars. There are 14 car classes and over 100 carssuch as the Mini Cooper S, Ford GT40, BMW Z4 3.0i, Audi TT Roadster, Toyota MR2Spyder, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Nur and Lotus Elise.
Not only that, but this time round they can sustain damage, which is a greatone-up on the prequel.
The graphics have a perfect sheen to them. Drive about, forget about looking atthe track but just concentrate on your car. Check out the different anglesso you can see the design and the reflections. Lovely. Fantastic recreationsof the many different locations too. Race around Hong Kong like a madman ortear up Red Square in Moscow. You know it makes sense.
Soundwise, car games often leave a lot to be desired, but that’s mainly becauseall you hear most of the time is the noise of an engine, however realisticthey may have made it sound compared to the real beasts. A nice inclusion isthe ability to choose your own music and my Xbox Live album of choice is,and always has been, David Bowie‘s 1987 underrated masterpiece,Never Let Me Down.
There are, however, far more other tunes pre-programmed into the game so youwon’t have to look far for quality material.
One problem though – occasionally during games, the soundtrack appears tostutter. This isn’t down to the recorded material as it doesn’t happen at thesame spot each time. No idea what could be causing it though.
Xbox Live is easily where it’s at. Split screen and System Link options areincluded, but if you don’t have Live, then you’ll bemissing out on a large proportion of the fun. Sure, you can race againstother people and have all the usual headset-wearing frantic fun, but evenwhen you’re not competing against friends and enemies there are other aspects.
As you collect Kudos in regular games, you can elect to have your moments ofposterity uploaded automatically to the Xbox Live scoreboard. Also uploaded areyour ghosts – switch this on during repeated attempts at a level and you’ll seethe ‘ghost’ of your best previous race appear to show where you were up toat each point in that race. You can also download ghosts of other players (thisdidn’t work the first time I tried it though) and watch replays of their raceswith all the usual trimmings you get for your own, such as changing which carto view and the camera angles.
There are thousands of people on Live though, so downloading ghosts is limitedto the Top 10 in each of the many, many combinations of races.
At first you think you’re doing well, climbing the rankings on the scoreboardsagainst everyone else linked up online. Then you see one of the top ghostsand realise you’ve got a long way to go…
Periodically, new content will be available for download via Xbox Live andsuch announcements for games quickly find their way onto a newsgroup such asuk.games.video.xbox
Those who are new to the series will find just what they’re looking for, andthis release has the additional touches that makes it an essential purchase,mainly because of the inclusion of Xbox Live play. I still feel that it’sworth having MM3 as a companion piece for when you prefer some arcaderacing that’s more off-road.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.