Reviews

    Project Gotham Racing 3 was one of the most anticipated launch titles for the XBox 360.  Microsoft wowed us all with an impressive demo of this game at E3 last May, with eye-popping graphics and realistic looking physics.  Project Gotham Racing 3 does not disappoint, the game fires on all cylinders and is a very good addition to the launch lineup.

    The graphics in Project Gotham Racing 3 are incredible, taking full advantage of the XBox 360's HDTV support.  Each car is made of 40,000 polygons for the exterior, and another 40,000 for the interior.  Individual bridges in the game are constructed with more polygons than entire cities were in Project Gotham Racing 2.  Some of the cars look almost real, and if you happen to crash into something, you will see damage in the form of a crumpled hood, scratched paint, or even cracked taillights, depending on the severity of the crash and how many you've had.  The cities look incredible, and there were times I found myself distracted from looking at the amazing scenery rather than concentrating on what I was doing in the game. 

    The sound is also great, each car has a different engine sound, and you can hear burnouts and tires squealing.  If you're doing well in a race, you might hear the crowd cheering you on as you pass them.  Just like with any previous PGR title, you can rip your own CD's to your XBox 360's hard drive and listen to your own music in the background rather than listen to the background music that comes with the game, so that's a nice feature to have.

    The gameplay in Project Gotham Racing 3 follows the simple "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy.  The game plays almost identically to Project Gotham Racing 2, but there are a few minor improvements.  For one, rather than having to get a certain number of Kudos to get tokens that let you buy cars, in PGR 3, each race you win gives you a certain amount of money, you can use this money to buy any car in the game regardless of your Kudos rank.  Your Kudos rank is used to improve your gamerscore, which is a nice innovation that Microsoft added to increase replay value for their games.  For example, if you finish the game on easy mode, you get a small bonus to your gamerscore for that, and you might also get one if you reach a certain Kudos rank.  If you go through and defeat the game on a harder difficulty, not only will you get the bonus to your gamerscore for finishing the game on that difficulty, but if you continue to increase your Kudos rank, that will improve your gamerscore as well, providing incentives to keep playing even if you've finished it on a particular difficulty setting.  Plus, you continue to get money for winning races on harder difficulties, allowing you to buy more cars.

    If you like cars or racing, Project Gotham Racing 3 is a must-buy for you!  The game features amazing high definition, next-generation graphics, great sound, outstanding gameplay and replay value, and all the great cars you might want to drive!