::Middle-ground between Racing Sim, and an Arcade Racer::

Back in 2001, Metropolis Street Racer caught gaming public’s eye by offering a racing game with beautiful graphics and realistic car controls. (Well, maybe it didn’t catch too many eyes;, it was on the Dreamcast, after all.). It stuck out at the time as one of the few racing sims that had ever struck me as a good game. After a sequel, a name change, and a system crossover, Project Gotham Racing is widely regarded as a realistic and beautiful racing game that will make almost anyone a fan of the racing genre. It still, however, holds a second place finish in the gaming world to the front-runner known as Gran Turismo. Now, Microsoft has released a sequel to the Xbox’s flagship racer, complete with fully integrated online play, but can lightning strike twice?

The main focus of both PGR games is a system known as “Kudos”. Kudos are reward points that don’t only encourage you to win, but win in style. Kudos are given for completing different tricks and maneuvers during a given race. For instance, if the player uses his handbrake on a turn, performing a power slide, he is rewarded with kudos. One can also earn kudos by drafting, or speeding directly behind an opponent to gain speed; kudos will continue to accumulate so long as you hold this position. Overtaking an opposing car during a race, will also be rewarded. Kudos are crucial if you want to advance progress in the game. Obtaining enough kudos to level up in rank allows the player to purchase more cars and opens new tracks to conquer. As a result, unlocking new tracks and cars go hand and hand with performing well in races.

When playing offline, there are more than enough game modes to keep you busy even if you don’t have the luxury of playing online. Arcade Racing provides modes to tune your skills, including tasks like Street Racing, Timed Runs, and, my personal favorite, the Cone Challenge. The first two are self-explanatory, but to those that have yet to play this game or its predecessors, the cone challenge is simply a way to grease up your cornering skills. There is also a Time Attack mode, which is your ordinary “practice your skills on a given track” mode.

The Kudos World Series is where you will flex most of your skills by completing all of the above gameplay modes. However, when racing in the World Series, you start at the bottom of the car models, also known as the Compact Sports Series. The series consists of the Mini Cooper S as well as the Ford Focus. There are 14 car classes in all and completing the first few is a cinch, but as you become more engrossed in completing all the classes, the challenges will grow in number to almost three times as many as when you first started. I found this game mode to be most crucial to practicing my skills as I became accustomed to each car class.

I must add that for some odd reason, I play this game better when I’m controlling my car with my D-pad as opposed to the analog. I know a lot of gamers that I have played online have told me the same thing. At any rate, it’s a weird perk to the game and could be seen as a disadvantage to some (this must be the first racer that I used a d-pad for since Outrun). In a typical racer, you would naturally place your left thumb on the joystick to turn your vehicle. PGR2 takes this norm and throws it out the window. For the first time in years, I found better control in the trusty D-Pad. After switching off the analog stick, I found that my drifting skills greatly improved and my race positions were at least respectable. And like other racers, this game has it’s own feel when it comes to control, but you will learn how to use it in less than an hour, but it will take you days, if not weeks to master.

Online play only makes the game even sweeter. Even when losing repeatedly as I started to venture online, I didn’t get discouraged like I would have with some other racing games. This is because I was still receiving my kudos for a job well done, (or, more accurately, just done at all). Your online and offline kudos totals are kept separate, but each will award you “kudo tokens” as you level up in rank, which can be used to buy bigger and better cars online and off. This really makes the game’s replay value skyrocket as I often found myself saying, “Just one more race, then I’ll go to sleep.” That usually wouldn’t be a problem, but since I was saying that at 2:00 in the morning and I had to get up at 4:00 for work, this started to cramp my style. One other nice feature that PGR2’s online mode offers that’s worth mentioning is the ability to have your offline friends join you as a “guest” on your Xbox.
What also adds to PGR2’s shelf life is the ability to unlock new tracks while playing online. If the player joins a room where the host uses a map that the player hasn’t yet unlocked, the player can unlock that map by getting a first place finish. Of course, the host doesn’t lose the track by losing to another player; one you acquire a track, you cannot lose it.

A good judge of a racing game is by how well its tracks are crafted. The Project Gotham Racing series has excelled in this from the very beginning and PGR2 is no exception. There are ten cities to race in, but that is just the beginning. More and more tracks can be unlocked within these cities by selecting different routes to drive on. The thing that I loved about these tracks is that you were at least familiar with each part of a city, but the hook of the track design was to screw with your head by taking a whole bunch of pieces of the course and making a new circuit. The courses weave in and out of streets, under tunnels and on top of overpasses. I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of detail and structure of the track design overall. You can really tell that a lot of time and effort went into each and every one of the courses, except for the one that’s just a circle.

In fact, there were a lot of times as I played PGR2 that I said to myself, “Dang, they worked their butts off on this game.” This becomes apparent by the small things that most people wouldn’t think of. For example, if you’re waiting in the lobby for a current game to end, you can see the positions and lap number of each car that’s currently racing. Another great feature is the “showroom” mode, where you can actually walk around all the cars in a virtual showroom. This becomes handy as the game goes on because you can use it to plan out what cars you’re going to buy next, and you can even test drive the cars before you buy them. Some other cool features include downloadable content for Xbox Live users. This content was just released and features 7 new Paris tracks and 8 new vehicles to check out. This does cost you a retail of $4.99. Like most Microsoft titles, Custom Soundtracks are enabled in this game. For those that don’t know what this is and don’t have an Xbox, it simply means that you can listen to music that you have ripped onto your Xbox hard drive while you’re playing the game. This is a sweet feature indeed, and it’s implemented nicely in PGR2.

PGR2 flexes its graphical muscles with its superb car models, beautiful looking tracks, and some of the best night lighting in any racing game out today. If you’re looking for a game that shows off the Xbox hardware, this is definitely one of the best looking games available.

Sound comes into play after you realize that you’ve been listening to the same songs for a few days at a time. This is not saying that the music in this game is lacking, but whenever you listen to the same music constantly, it always gets boring. This is when you should take advantage of your custom soundtracks and boast your own tunes when you’re racing. There’s no better feeling than beating people online when listening to your favorite band.

I know Project Gotham Racing 2 did a great job holding my interest because I’ve never had this urge to unlock all the cars in a racing game since the old San Francisco Rush series. In fact, it probably gets my vote for best game of 2003. The online play alone is worth the purchase, but with such an extensive and expandable offline game, I can confidently say that this is a must buy. If you have an Xbox and you love racing games, or if you’re like me and have even just a mild interest in them, this game is easily worth the purchase.