[Update] XBox360 & PGR3 Review - (video added)
 

Yeah, yeah - so I broke down and bought one after all ;) :P

My quick review of Project Gotham Racing 3, now that I am 24% complte and had a chance to rtry the features out.

First off, as Jabba posted before Christmas, the visuals are off the fucking chart for a console... and border on some of the best PC game graphics ever seen... the full interior cockpits are really good.

Second.... the richness of the sound is farging awesome - they did their homework on this title - saounds are even richer than Forza, which was already very good.... and miles better than GT4.

Now the reality check - this is a fun arcade game, designed for buddies and friends to meet online and race casually and enjoy slightly easier driving physics. Pretty much what you would expect, a next generation of PGR2... duh... ;)

But - let it be known that even though this an arcade game, the control and "realism" and "handling" of the cars are waaaaaaaaay better then NFS:Unlimted and NFS:Vinyl and NOS Edition etc.

The cars actually behave differently, and if you get into a bumpy braking zone too quickly in your Enzo, you find yourself pulling Stephen "the crook" move as the back end of the Enzo passes the front... and you are thankfull that damage is not really modelled that well ;)

Try the same move with the Viper SRT-10 and you have a car that behaves just like the USA-Bashers describe (even if it is not quite right ;)), but you can oppostie lock a huge slide through the bend and collect a zillion Kudo's in the process...

Try the same move with an Ultima GTR and the no-nonsese chassis rewards finess with a blistering corner entry speed and a Schumacher exit with little fuss.

So - all in all the cars actually feel BETTER than the cars in PGR2 did. But you still need to collect those D1GP style Kudos points by pulling all sorts of far fetched moves in order to rank up.

The good part is that all the "realism" and "atmospjere" of Forza rubbed off on this game, no surprise as many of the Forza team were on the PGR3 team.

But......
The biggest let down is the Nordschleife... :x :x :x :x

The track is clearly based on the PGR2 version, not the Forza one - so it is far too wide and smooth and level in some places....

And they moved the freaking start AGAIN - and placed it at thegantry at the start of the straight away.

Other than am ability to mimic the Bridge to gantry run, I cannot fathom why they put the start there - it menas you cannot end a lap with a 1 mile top speed run :(

....and it means you start a lap with a blistering top speed run, which I am sure is a recipe for disaster online. (I still ahvene't ventured online - too many 11 years bolds outrank me ;) :P)

The plus of the Northloop, is the inclusion of the GP track, and the ability to run a full loop of "The Mother' of all tracks.. :twisted:

You can also choose to run just the GP track, or any of a number of point to poiint bits of the Nurburgring... and you even get to run it backwards.

That was an interesting trip let me tell you.

To few cars...
There are too few cars, and even possibly to many uber-super cars - and no BMW M5's or SL65's or Z06's or other interesting "regular" models.

Thankfully there are not 44 Skylines, but a few more "fun" cars would have been nice.

Maybe they will fix this with content downloads - for sure they need to add tracks... London, Tokyo, New York Las Vegas and the Northloop.. that's it.

Now granted, there are many sub-tracks within those city tracks - AND you have the ability to make your own routes through the cities. This is a different aproach, but because there are no cameras steup, you cannot save replay of your a run on your custom route (at least I have not yet found a way to do so)

Maybe ther are extra tracks to unlock, I don't know - ther are some prototype and concept cars you can unlock as you gain Kudos.. but not nearly an interesting enough line up.

Yet another intersting mode, id the one that lets you spectate on other online races... this is pretty cool. There are many dumbass Enzo and MC12 drivers out there - turn one crashers are the norm it seems ;)

Verdict
The game is fun, superb looking and sounding and has a small smudge of realism built into the handling - but it is ideally suited as an online social racing game :) ;P *hint* *hint* ;)

If this is any indication of how good Forza 2 can be, and provides some clue as to how amazing Test Drive: Unlimited might be, then holy smokes are we in for some treats - but then again both those titles might trun out crap ;)

No forxe feedback wheel is a bummer, but I think the game is so arcady in its intentions, that a controller will do just fine, but I sure would liek to be able to steer into and out of thos elong slides in my Viper with a steering wheel ;)

The abilty to set up races with your own list of cars on the grid, coupled with great replay camera angles and the superb graphics and sounds, means you can really make some nice videos ;)

So you went ahead and bought one huh? I noticed in another thread that you said you did, and was waiting for some type of review about it. I knew you'd have something to say. Surprisingly, far more positive than I thought it would be.

I haven't bit the bullet yet because there isn't a must have title that makes me want to get the system. I have never had a chance to play or really even see PGR3 in action other than online videos, and I don’t know if it would be a title to make me run out and buy the system anyway.

My next purchase is Tourist Trophy this coming Tuesday and I definitely will have a review of it.

i really enjoy taking the CCR, and do drift on Las Vegas track. She has so much torque, fantastic !! 8)

Well - discovered a nice little touch, you have these very well detailed and 3D architected garages to store your cars in.

You start with a 4 place, and when you buy your 5th car, another ore elaborate garage is unlockedm and when this ones 10 slots are filled, you get another etc etc.

These are some awesome photomode scenes to use.

I "cheated" a little, and raced to gather about 4 million credits, then went and bought 80 odd Corvette C6's (cheapest car in the game at 40,000credits) so I have now unlocked all the garages.

I had to sell all the xtra cars at 17,600 credits - but at least I have all the unlocked garages - now it's off to earn Kudos to unlock the rest of the cars ;)

Videos and pictures to follow - ifthis game had Forza style car painting and a force feedback steering wheel, the GT4 Northloop and the Forza damage engine with the Enthusia game engine, it would be pretty much perfect... ;)

I won every challenge in GOLD. But i've not unlocked one Ruf.
I also bought tons of cars sometimes twice, three, four... :mrgreen: When i won a big amount of money, around 6 000 000...
BTW, how many garages did you unlock ? The last i have unlocked is in front of the sea.

So so true, maybe forza 2 will be that?

I was "this" close to buying an XBOS 360 and PGR3 today...

An electronics store opened up a bigger store down at a mall, with a 10% reduction on all items. I coulda had the whole deal for way less then $400, but... something held me back.

Now I'm kicking myself... doh.

Oh well... I got so many other games I need to finish first so that I can "justify" getting yet another console. Besides, I think it'll drop another 50-100 bucks by the end of summer anyway ;)

looks like you only needed an excuse :lol: Im the same way. If I want something but hold back for "savings" issues, I change my mind soon if I get 1 excuse.

Well - I finished the entire series of races today.

Took about 7 hours, split over 3 days (essentially 2 hours 1st day, 2 hours 2nd day and 3 hours 3rd day.)

A couple Platinums, some Golds.. but a whole lot of Silvers (and a few Bronze as well) - so I need to go back and get some Kudos to unlock more stuff.

There are 7 garages in total - the last one is the Tokyo II garage (from what I remember).

So now it's just down to how long before all y'all decide to have some online races ;)

Lets hope their downladable content is exciting :P

RC, i enjoyed reading your thoughts.
I agree, PGR 3 is awesome for having the buddies over and having a bash.. Going on Live with JW crew should be good too... How do we line it up? (damn time zones.... :P )

As promised - here is a replay video I put together that hopefully portrays the atmosphere PGR3 has managed to capture.

The sound, visuals and a little bit of reality make for a really fun game.

:arrow: Linky : http://www.jabbasworld.net/dload.php...e&file_id=1494

http://www.jabbasworld.net/pafiledb/...yellowbird.jpg

looking cool GOtta seeit thanx.

You took the plunge then, buying the 360 ;)

Cheers for the vid, RC, I will dl it and watch it later at home 8)

Looking forward to it :)

Yeah - I took the plunge... and even though I have already completed the game, it seems to have some hot-lap replay value. And once we get a couple people online, might be a bit of fun as well.