Gonna Snap, Gonna Snap, Gonna Snap, Gonna Snap.. 1, 2 , Look out Behind You....

I remember playing the first Project Gotham and saying, "WOW!" I thought that it looked incredible and loved the whole custom soundtrack feature. One day I decided to go to my friend's house and he wanted me to try this game out. He insisted that I borrow it, so I did. I took it home and became addicted.

Game-Play:

This game starts out with you having to make a profile. It's nothing too special. You pick the kind of helmet that you want, profile name, and license plate signature (Mine was AZZ KIKR). After this is all set you have three choices of what to do for single player, Kudos World Series, Arcade Racing, or Time Attack.

This game is all about Kudos. You get these points when you do sharp turns, going so fast you start floating, and even riding on just two tires when it seems you might flip over but never do. In the Kudos World Series you have a whole bunch of tournaments you can enter. Once you complete a previous tournament you can continue to the next. Each tournament has it's own different races and challenges they call events. One is called "One on One" where you just have a race with one other car and you have to win. You also have street races which is you against 4 or up to 7 others. There are also different difficulties in the game based on medals like, steel, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. The higher the difficulties means the more work you have to do. Say you chose to do a street race on the silver difficulty you'll only have to get 3rd place. If you decided to do it on Platinum then you will have to get first. Each medal you earn gives you bonus Kudos at the end of the race, and the higher the medal ranks the more you get. With these Kudos you can buy cars at each of the Tourneys.

The Arcade Racing is similar as far as the tournament thing goes. Except you have no choice of what car you get to use like in the Kudos World Series. You are forced to do these races with the cars the developers assigned for you. You also gain Kudos while doing these races. Lets say you're sick of racing or you just want to do laps for the heck of it. In Project Gotham Racing 2 you can go to Time attack and do laps. I guessing the point of this is so you can just learn to take turns, and not be pressured by having to be in first place. It also records the best time you've had.

The actual game-play in this game is fun. The controls are very easy to learns, but you have to know and learn when to use your brake. It's also not to hard to know when either. When you're racing there will be these arrows that show where you have to turn. On the track you'll also see skid marks showing where it is best to slam the brake and not crash into the wall. One thing that made this game hard was how unrealistic the AI was. They had a perfect path from start to finish. You would have to go in front of them and knock them of their perfect course. It would have to be done in the beginning of the race or you'd be wasting your time. You would only have to use this strategy if you're going for the Gold or Platinum medal otherwise you could just go your merrily way.

As you earn more kudos in the game you are going to end up spending them on cars. Project Gotham Racing 2 has 14 car classes with over 100 cars in total. You have Corvettes, Ferraris, Jaguars, Porches, and many more. What's cool is that each car handles differently. Some may be real fast, but could be a major pain when it come to taking turns. These cars pretty much act like their real-world counterparts. You also race all over the world in places like Sydney, Washington, Chicago, Hong Kong, Yokohama, and a couple of others. It's too bad you can't tweek these cars like in Sega Gt 2002. Instead you have to use them the way they are, with no extra power.

Graphics:

The graphics are one of this game's greatest aspects. Everything is clear and shiny. When the sunlight hits the car it reflects, and then when I ride in the shade it goes away. When you can't turn quick enough and go head on into a wall the car just gets all demolished. The license plate even goes flying and windows get cracked. The hood of my car can't even fit and may lift a little. There are also some races that take place at night and you have street lights and head lights lighting every inch of the track. I just thought that they were the cooler looking ones. There was even rain in a couple of the races I've done and mist would come out from behind you when your going really fast. The backgrounds are good but there was no action taking place. It was as if these places were ghost towns or something. One thing I didn't like were the trees, I just don't know why.

Sound & Music:

All the sounds are in the game. All the different cars sound different and gives them it's own personality. The soundtrack was this games most powerful aspect. I did not listen to the soundtrack that was set for this game, and I wouldn't want to either. I just decided to listen to my soundtrack with Metal and Rock, and somehow William Hung got into it. If it wasn't for the custom soundtrack feature, I wouldn't have enjoyed this game so much. There's just nothing I hate more than listening to songs from people I don't even know

Summary:

I liked this game more than I thought I would, and one reason is because of the custom soundtracks. It really brought this game to life for me. I would have given this a 4 star rating if it wasn't for that. The racing is fun and there are many tournaments to enter. This game has some good replay value too. After a while you might get sick of the game, but then a week later it's a whole new experience. The lowest price I've seen for this game is $15.00 and I'd say it's a steal.

Random Information:

Only on Xbox
Release Date: November 18, 2003
Player (s): 1-4 System Link 2-8
Online Multiplayer: Yes
Content Downloads: Yes
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Publisher: Dolby Laboratories
Custom Soundtracks: Yes
E for Everyone ( 6yrs )