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Project Gotham Racing 2
by Kyle Johnson
Friday, November 14 2003
Microsoft's newest addition to their arcade racing series is a gem.
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Title:
Project Gotham Racing 2
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Platform:
Xbox
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Publisher:
Microsoft Game Studios |
Developer:
Bizarre Creations |
#
of Players: 1 - 2, Xbox Live |
Genre:
Racing
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Origin:
United States
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Expected
Release:
November 2003 |
Grapevine:
Project Gotham Racing 2 has to be one of the best games in the year 2003. |
When Project Gotham Racing first premiered on the Xbox on November 15, 2001, millions of people knew right away, that the Xbox had a killer racing title, and that the Xbox could soon be able to compete with PlayStation 2 when it comes to having the best racing title on the console. Whether or not that’ll ever happen is still yet to be decided, but no matter which console has the best racing game, it’ll only help the two out because they’ll always be trying to top the other.
Now that Project Gotham Racing 2 has hit store shelves, Xbox gamers can now rejoice. Project Gotham Racing 2 not only takes the bar that was set by its predecessor and raises it drastically, but it also is quite possibly the best game to hit the Microsoft Xbox….yes, it could very well be better than that of the all mighty Halo. Okay…so maybe not as great as Halo, but it’s up there, trust me.
Project Gotham Racing 2 kind of bends the feel of the traditional racing title. Yeah, there’s no doubt that you do in fact race cars (so don’t believe anyone if they tell you otherwise), but the fact that you do more than just race cars, is quite possibly the main reason why so many people keep coming back for more….and more. For starters, you don’t just race for position, and after you’ve completed all the races do you just set the game aside and try some other game. Oh no, chances are you’ll be too addicted to the kudos, so there’s no way you’ll be putting the game down anytime soon.
When you get down and dirty in Project Gotham Racing 2, and you’ve been able to experience a majority of the cars available in the game, you’ll notice that every car handles differently, accelerates differently, brakes differently, and of course has a different top speed than the other cars in the game, even other cars in the same class. The two cars that fit all of this the easiest are the Enzo Ferrari and the Koenigsegg CC V8S. These two cars have stats that are almost identical, yet the two have such a huge difference when it comes to performance.
There is a lot that can be accomplished in Project Gotham Racing 2, even if you only play it offline. There are 102 cars that you can own, and you start out with 30 of them. Bizarre Creations knew that if they gave you 30 cars to start off with, that they better make it difficult to purchase the others. And in fact they did, depending on the difficulty level you attempt each race, cone challenge, speed camera, one-on-one, hot lap or overtake obstacle in, which are all part of the Kudos World Series, which consists of a total of 14 series’ ranging from using compact sports cars to classic cars to American muscle cars to ultimate cars. The number of races per series increases with every series you complete.
Also for you offline racers, if completing the Kudos World Series is either not important, too hard, or you’ve already completed it, have a try at the arcade racing, which consists of street races, timed runs, and cone challenges. While they’re not too difficult, they may pose a challenge for some.
And last, but certainly not least, there’s time attack challenges that you may compete in. The time attack challenges contain 92 circuit challenges and 102 car challenges. In the circuit challenges, your goal is to set the fasts time on any available circuit, but of course you don’t earn any kudos. It makes it a lot easier to complete the circuit challenges if you have already completed the Kudos World Series, so that you can actually DO the circuit challenges.
As far as the car challenges, your goal is to set the fastest time with any available car in any available car class. And since you start out with 30 cars to begin the game, you can easily get 30 of the 102 car challenges completed before you complete the Kudos World Series.
Online Play
Ahh, the beauty of having one of the best online services for a gaming console. Xbox Live offers so much for gamers to do, and by having Project Gotham Racing 2, it only gets better. Just like every other Xbox Live title, Project Gotham Racing 2 allows you to join a quick match, search for a certain game type in the optimatch, or create your own match. But, unlike a lot of other Xbox Live titles, Project Gotham Racing 2 contains an online scoreboard, so you’ll be able to easily figure out your world rank, as well as compare your rank with those on your friends list who also have this wonderful game.
Playing Project Gotham Racing 2 on XBL is miraculous. So many things to do, so many people to race with, not enough time in the day to accomplish it all. Not only are you able to race for kudos, but if you want to be a grinch and not allow your fellow racers to earn kudos, you have the ability to do an exhibition race so no kudos are earned, and you have the ability to change the number of laps and turn collisions off, two things that cannot be done in kudos racing.
Despite the fact that there are over 80,000 people currently playing Project Gotham Racing 2, it appears that the issue of lag really doesn’t come up a whole lot. Sure, there’s some lag, but it’s not like trying to play Halo on GameSpy Arcade or XBConnect.
Project Gotham Racing 2 is one of the few Xbox games that support custom soundtracks that you actually don’t need to use the feature. Sure, it’s great to listen to your own music, but the music that the sound artists put in are very good and well thought out. But, it’s always better to listen to your favorite music, in my case; I can only race while listening to one of KoRn’s six CDs.
What’s wonderful to listen to while racing is the uniqueness each car has when it’s accelerating. Every car sounds different, which is a dead giveaway that the sound artists, yet again, did a wonderful job on researching the cars before they just slapped some off the hook sound for each car. They made sure they got as accurate as possible, and did so wonderfully.
When the first Project Gotham Racing title was released on the Xbox, I’m pretty sure everyone thought that it was pushing the Xbox’s power, when in reality, it wasn’t even using very much of the total power behind the Xbox. Now that Project Gotham Racing 2 is out, we’re seeing that is in fact true. The Xbox’s full power has yet to be fully tapped into. Project Gotham Racing 2 has to be the most accurate looking racing game ever. The men and women behind the graphics of Project Gotham Racing 2 made sure they traveled to the city and took pictures, and remarkably, made the game look pretty damn close to that of the actual city.
The lighting in the game is pretty good as well, especially when you’re driving down the road in the day time and you come around the corner, and all of a sudden you have the sun right in your face, practically blinding you….as it does in real life. Bizarre Creations definitely took their time when it came to the lighting, and I’m sure many people are thankful they did, I know I am.
Just by looking as some of the early build screen shots of Project Gotham Racing 2, it’s easy to tell that the cars each have their own unique look (as they always should), and there’s so much detail in the cars themselves that it boggles the mind. And when you get into a wreck in a race, it quickly becomes apparent that the designers took their time to make sure the dents would show up. And be careful if you get rear ended a lot, since your mufflers will drag on the ground, causing sparks to fly.
Project Gotham Racing 2 has to be one of the best games in the year 2003…actually; it might just be one of the best games ever on the Xbox (with Halo still up front). One thing is for sure, with over 80,000 people playing this game on Xbox Live, Project Gotham Racing 2 is definitely a game that no one should go without. If you don’t have Xbox Live, don’t think that this game can’t be fun, because it can be and probably is fun without Xbox Live.
--- Kyle Johnson
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