Xbox 360 Project Gotham Racing 4 - Dirty Car Porn Junk Food Racing

[I thought a new thread seperate from the dull demo thread was required]

Thoughts?

Bought it on Friday, and I'm really enjoying it. The game structure is very different this time, I suspect to properly distance itself from Forza's more manly campaign mode. The Arcade mode seems beefed up, with a much more essential slant on it as I always felt in PGR it was rather flimsy and unneeded. They've linked everything together so you can dip in and out of the CAReer and Arcade mode and they both have different but interlinked effects on your overall progress. It took me a while to get used to the fact that you now don't have as much freedom to buy and sell cars as before - you can now buy them in bundles, which can feel a bit contrived, but the PGR Shop now exists so you still have some freedom to choose but it doesn't seem to be as great as before (also I'm not sure of the wisdom of making you earn the Kudos to buy multiplayer game modes...). I'm sure that these new invisible walls will hack some people off, but it works rather well within the confines of a game that makes no bones about being a filthy, smut fest of cars. I think if you approach this as a GT or FM, then you may very well be disappointed by the game mechanics. I think Bizarre have made a game that is trying the hollow out it's own niche - somewhere between GT and something totally ridiculous like Ridge Racer. It's full on Arcade thrills and junk food racing but with enought substance and a good difficulty curve to keep you/me interested for ages. Not to mention an immense sense of speed, far better than either PGR3 or FM2. I think the big chink in it's armour are the bikes. Pretty poorly done - good idea, but they have a weird other worldy feel to them that is just so odd.

Oh and the graphics are gorgreous.

 

100% agree, I love the arcadiness

 

This is top of my list with Orange Box. WHERE IS MY STUDENT LOAN?!?! ARGHH. Those screenshots are amazing.

 

Just wait til you see it moving. The sensation of speed is the best I've seen on a console. There's times with the really ultra-uber-sooper cars that you can't quite believe you are keeping them under control. Add a crazy high speed side ways driiiiiiiiiiiiiiift to that. Pants = soiled.

Oh and it has the lovely, makes-you-glad-to-play-games moments too.

Shanghai. At night. Bombing it in a skitting rear wheel drive classic Ferrari. Rain lashing down. On the car stereo comes The Ride of the Valkyries. And almost at the same moment the rain turns into a thunderstorm.

I nearly passed out from the artifically induced sexual gratification as I crossed the finish line, a car length ahead of the 2nd place computer car.

 

Why would you do that to me? That sounds amaaaaazing. So the weather effects are all dynamic and such? Also, is this proper 720p this time? It was something I found quite noticeable up close on my 20" Dell. Looks crisp as hell in the screenshots.

 

The weather seems totally unpredictable tbh. What's great about the rain is that it gathers in pools on the tracks in places, and when you blast through them, aside from the great noise and the spray, the car slows a little too. You can really feel the resistence feedback through the pad.

Graphics wise I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm not clever enough to know what it's plays at. It looks lush, although I think the Photomode increases the resolution a bit. Still look belting, and it's not the difference between Halo3's screenshot mode and game graphics.

 

Couldn't resist a couple of the Challenger Concept. Great fun to drive as it rolls about the place like a bad 'un.

 

Or... like a typical American car













* Ducks sharpish, to avoid the flak *

 

Oh god, now you've shown me that I might actually have to buy the game

I assume there are no 'tuning' options like you get in Forza?

 

It's very different from PRG3, it's more arcadey like PGR2 i like it a lot and have been playing with motorbike at, its good that they have made it realistic to drive but not to realistic.

 

Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, say it's not PGR3-esq "buy fastest car - complete game" and more PGR2 "rank up slowly".

 

The ranking is a lot better then PGR3, if you fail an event you can't take it again, you have to wait for it to re-appear in the calender, the AI is fairly good and you have to be careful about the way you get round a course to get achievements.

But nothing beats doing a 1Km wheelie round a track

 

I think the problem is that people are comparing PGR4 to Forza. They're totally different games, IMHO. Forza is a racing simulator, with the emphasis on realistic mechanics and precise racing. PGR4 is an arcade racer, with the emphasis firmly focussed on fun.

That said, the mechanics are more refined in PGR4 compared to PGR3 (I think PGR3 was rushed so it could be a launch title when the 360 came out). Haven't played with a bike yet, so couldn't comment.

 

PGR2 was one of my most played games on the xbox but PGR3 was a let down, I missed the progression through the classes of cars. Forza 2 is just way to fiddly to me to be fun, I have no interest in tuning my car I just want to race and the additional modes like the cone challenges and speed camera ones in PGR2 just gave me a little something else to keep playing and trying to beat.

 

More like PGR2, " rank up slowly"

 

WOOT!! /o/ \o/ \o\

 

QFT

 

Seconded, I really liked PGR2 but I think PGR3's cars were awful, we didn't get all the awesome classes, we just had really fast cars at the bottom end and stupidly fast cars at the top.

I may have to get this, although I should save my money, got N: RoaN and Mass Effect next month, plus I STILL haven't received my CE Halo 3! The RM doesn't seem to give a **** and GAME are ignoring me.

 

I think PGR3 overdid the cars, and the game suffered. They really banked on the mulitplayer aspects being the focal point and the rest of the game (imho) had a very short shelf life.

I'd say even on normal difficulty, this is pretty hard sometimes, and there's no magic car to blast through a bunch of races with. I found even Forza was guilty of this, but with PGR4 I find quite often that I end up competing with vehicles waaaaaay superior to mine and you really have to be on the ball from the first corner at times. What this can mean though, is that you might need to go back to Arcade mode, earn some more kudos, and come back and buy a better car with the winnings to have a chance in the career mode. I really like how they've ensured both single player modes are essential and you don't pick one over the other. The class system is very different though. I kind of hits you with all the classes, bar the very top one, all at the same time. You end up flitting between C, to E, to B within a few competitions without really much say in what comes next - some days on the calendar however do give you a choice between events to compete in.

RE the Challenger Concept: I totally expected it to have more modern handling than it does, certainly better suspension. Maybe it's intentional, but it drives like a 60's muscle car, which isn't always a good thing in races but is a blast in Kudos challenges.