Game Title: Project Gotham Racing 3
Genre: Racing
Console: Xbox 360 Exclusive
Publisher: Bizarre Creations
Rating: 
The Xbox 360 arrives on store shelves just in time for the holiday season to tempt gamers with a new design, all-new hardware, and a host of brand new and familiar game titles guaranteed to keep you busy and happy all the way through the new year.
The Project Gotham Racing series is one of the Xbox's most successful franchises, and the latest in the series, Project Gotham Racing 3, takes advantage of the Xbox 360's new hardware to bring gamers into the next level of gameplay. There is a lot to love about PGR3 with its photo-realistic graphic quality, its great selection of cars, and the new customization abilities that gamers can't help but appreciate.
Project Gotham Racing 3 is billing the cars in the game as "the ultimate supercar collection," with 80 cars available to drive and own. In this game, racing begins at 170 m.p.h. and tops out at a little over 250 m.p.h in hot cars from all the top makers like Ferrari, Lamborghini, RUF, Saleen, Ford, Nissan, Honda, C12, Zonda, Aston Martin and Jaguar. Cars come tuned to factory specs so no modifications are necessary, except to choose a favorite color before hitting the tracks.
Xbox 360's superior new graphical capabilities means these cars are rendering anywhere from 80,000 to 110,000 polygons making cars nearly photo-perfect with their mirror-like finishes and perfect body stylings. Also, if gamers choose to race from the perspective of the driver inside the vehicle, they can use the side mirror, rear view mirror and check the fully functional dashboard instrument panel for a cool dose of racing realism. Added to that, is these cars will show damage if gamers crash, scrape or bump into other cars or barriers, but this is only cosmetic and won't effect the performance of the car during the race.
Gamers can count on Xbox Live's strong online features for Project Gotham Racing 3 to keep the racing fun and interesting. A couple of fun extras include a live ticker tape for all the online racing results or a customized ticker tape for just gamers and their friends. Another big feature is "PGR-TV", a mode that allows gamers to "tune in" to watch friends race in real time, or even watch a "favorite" driver by logging in before their race to just kick back to watch like a spectator.
One of the best features of Project Gotham Racing 3 is that everything is streamlined to be the game that anyone can pick up to play. It comes loaded with many customization options, and gamers really can set-up to play the racing game of their dreams. For example, in solo career mode, before each race gamers can choose a different car from their garage, adjust the difficulty of the race, and even the skill level of all opponent AI drivers. By letting gamers customize events, developers show an understanding that gamers don't like every type of driving event and/or aren't stellar drivers in all types of racing categories. This is ideal for gamers because what that feature means is that game makers want you to actually finish PGR3--not kick that ass into oblivion because gamers can't drift perfectly at 195 m.p.h., or figure out the perfect racing strategy, or execute difficult moves with split-second timing. This way when a particular event comes up that gamers don't like, pop the level down to Novice, then clear that race to get on with the game. Also, don't forget that events can be scaled up for an added challenge to build skills and Kudos for great driving.
PGR 3 has gamers racing in four different cities, plus Nurburging, and all totaled there are about 100 tracks, plus the ability to create and design new tracks to race. Cities are done to scale, and AI race fans watch the race closely and will boo gamers for bad moves and wreckless driving, and cheer and take pictures when gamers race well or pull off a Kudo. Like with the original Xbox, gamers can "rip" their own music to create personal playlists or choose from a comprehensive soundtrack of 10 different musical styles to make sure the mood is just right for racing.
All in all, there is much to look forward to in one of the first racing games out for a next gen console. The handling and styling of the cars is incredibly realistic, the tracks, the races, and all the customization features open up tons of racing possibilities for everyone from newbie gamers to expert drivers. If Xbox 360 is on your "gotta have it" list for the holiday season, then Project Gotham Racing 3 is a great way to break it in.