Post by TTR Dr Payne on Jul 9, 2007 18:27:40 GMT -4
Go to links for pictures!
previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1664/Project-Gotham-Racing-4/p1/
xbox360.ign.com/articles/802/802288p1.html
media.xbox360.ign.com/media/853/853087/imgs_1.html
www.joystiq.com/2007/07/09/joystiq-hands-on-pgr4-xbox-360/
With each iteration of Project Gotham Racing, Microsoft and developer Bizarre Creations have built up the franchise with new features. The pair are hoping to keep that growth going with the next installment, Project Gotham Racing 4. TeamXbox had the opportunity recently to get behind the wheel and take it for a spin.
According to Adam Kovach, Microsoft’s global product manager for PGR4, the intention was to make a title that would “deliver the fun and excitement of racing, but in a very easy-to-pick-up-and-play fashion.” Indeed, the arcade-like action does just that, making it a nice counter to the tighter, more realistic Forza Motorsport series.
One of the key changes in this version is the inclusion of motorcycles as a new vehicle class. Kovach said that the bikes will have their own Kudos system and physics, so you’ll be able to pull some fun stunts, such as wheelies, stoppies, endos and more. Though the game still has a lot of work left before it’s ready (which means our hands-on experiences might not be exactly the same as yours when you play the final game), the first thing we did was hop on a crotch rocket and burn donuts for a while, racking up major Kudos the whole time—and it was for a long time.
Hold on tight!
As for other vehicles, while the last game had a lot of “supercars,” Kovach defined the ones chosen for PGR4 as “a lot of cars that span the range…we wanted to focus on a smaller segment of vehicles—a segment of vehicles that either have history in racing or automotive culture or have sort of an iconic nature to them.” These include exotic cars, such as the Enzo, but also traditional prestige vehicles, such as Jaguars and Corvettes. They expect to offer a total of about 130 vehicles in the game.
Another fresh component that’s been added is weather. Because the game is intended to be “Hollywood-esque,” you’ll probably find that the weather makes it easier to do such things as sliding and drifting, so it’ll be more there for fun than to complicate the driving or make it feel like a simulator. In a heavy storm, puddles will accumulate, which will play with your car control.
The weather system in PGR4 will also add to the look and realism of the game. Kovach took us to the roads of Macau and demonstrated how you might find the driving perspective crystal clear within the city, but once you head for higher elevations, you’ll start encountering fog that’ll limit your visibility somewhat. “Again, it’s designed to add a lot of fun and visual fidelity to the game—and, as Kovach said, “provide photo realism, not racing realism.” He also indicated that, from a technical standpoint, the fog is truly volumetric.
As for the driving, the plan is to make it easier to chain moves together and keep building up Kudos. On the other side of the coin, there’ll be penalties for wrecking, so the strategy will be to keep the car moving, not always racing at top speed. Vehicle damage will also be included—though it won’t affect the car’s performance—and swapping paint with adversaries will be a common occurrence.
PGR4 will also feature a new team-racing system. You’ll not only be able to race against your friends, but also race with them to gain points as a group. Your individual stats will be changing, but they’ll also be included in the team stats so everyone can see how they’re contributing. The four-on-four racing will build the social aspects of the game, especially if your successes earn you invites to join other teams.
The ability to customize your racer is going to be in place, not only for the look of the driver, but also for such aspects as your nationality. There’ll also be the ability to create a team jersey, to personalize the group experience that much more.
Kovach also stated that the Kudos system will be the primary focus for “leveling up” your driver—a move that’ll make sure that you devote your attention to earning them. For instance, it’ll be the only way to unlock cars and garages; the money-based purchases of previous installments are being eliminated in PGR4.
Open road...
PGR TV will be replaced in the new game by “PGR On Demand.” You (along with the rest of the PGR4 community) will be able to upload pictures and races, but also use it to seek out specific things from others that you can view. Do you want to know who’s accomplished “the longest power slide in…Macau or someone who has the craziest wheelie or the highest Kudos points—and how they do it,” Kovach asked? PGR On Demand will enable you to do a search for many different accomplishments using what he calls “YouTube functionality in Project Gotham Racing.”
There are ten locations that’ll make up the tracks in PGR4, including London, New York and Tokyo. The “old” cities won’t be the same as you’ve played previously, though, because they’ll offer different track layouts, as well as having the weather further change up the races and locale appearances. New areas include Macau; Quebec (which offers lots of risk/reward to players); Shanghai; and a Michelin test track, which has some specific Kudos, as well specific achievements tied to racing on it.
Finally, in keeping with the effort to have the game maintain a “cool and hip” feel, the band Prodigy (“Firestarter”) has been called upon to do an exclusive title track for the game. We doubt it’ll be called “Smack my Benz Up.”
Microsoft claims that there’s still a lot of work to be done on tweaking and smoothing in PGR4, and as we see new versions, we’ll be sure to bring you new reports on how it’s coming along.
Pre-E3 2007: Project Gotham Racing 4 Hands-On
Prepare to earn kudos in the worst possible weather… and on a motorcycle.
by Hilary Goldstein
27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="flashad" _base_target="_top" height="250" width="300">
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July 9, 2007 - Including its original incarnation on the Dreamcast as Metropolis Street Racer, Bizarre Creation has been around the block four times already with its Kudos-based arcade racing franchise. So what's going to make the fifth iteration, Project Gotham Racing 4, stand out from the rest? Inclement weather, true AI, and motorcycles. As previously revealed, PGR 4 features rain, fog, and snow. What we didn't know, was that you'd be racing through PGR 4's ten cities on just two wheels.
A Hog Between Your Thighs
Don't think of motorcycles as some cheap toss on, an added bonus or some kind of fun unlockable. Bizarre Creations is taking bikes seriously (well, as seriously as the powerslide-heavy series can manage). There will be a little over 130 vehicles that can fill up your various garages in PGR4, at least 30 of which will be motorcycles. Among the manufacturers onboard are Honda, MV Agusta, and Ducati. And yes the "original naked motorcycle" the Ducati Monster will be among the roster of bikes.
As always, PGR 4 is about racing fast and with style. The same holds true when racing motorcycles. Because a motorcycle is not a car (unless you drive one effed up car), the Kudos set for bikes is a bit different. Wheelies, stopies, endos, drift, and catch air are the five Kudos available in a motorcycle and trust us when we say, you will find plenty of opportunities for all of these. Though control feels a bit looser on a bike, the principals of Project Gotham remain the same. Winning races won't mean much if you aren't earning major Kudos on the way to the finish line.
Most of those Kudos, however, require some cajones to pull off in a race against seven other people (who could all be racing you in cars). It's one thing to pull a wheelie for 20 yards in one of the motorcycle-specific challenges, but quite another thing to do one in the heat of a race. The truly daring will take risks and pull wheelies on short straightaways, before chaining into a drift around a corner. Daredevils will hold A to add a modifier to their stunts. Sure, it adds additional risk, but it will help you thrill your fans (and infuriate your competition).
As with the cars in PGR 4, you have a variety of different camera views. While you can get a good look at your custom uniform from the third-person perspective, the best view when riding a bike is the helmet cam. This gives a clear view of your hands on the throttle as your look through the windshield at St. Petersburg during a snowstorm.
If you know how to race a car in Project Gotham, you will have no troubles driving a bike in PGR 4. Though motorcycles have their own physics (and crashing your Ducati Monster into a wall is oh so much more fun than crashing your Enzo), it's not so different that it can't be quickly mastered by veteran players. The real trick is in learning to use the new Kudos while racing against cars. And while we were only given time to race briefly on an unpopulated track, it would seem that racing players online could get messy. After all, it's one thing for someone to sideswipe a rival's car, but imagine being neck-and-neck in a race and having your bike knocked to the side by your opponent.
Motorcycles are definitely a welcome addition to PGR 4. Don't expect it to be like racing in MotoGP, though. Again, Project Gotham is not about being a sim; it's about being fun. And on that end, the bikes should add some extra flavor to the mix. But hogs aren't the only new thing coming to PGR 4. Perhaps the most interesting new element is the dynamic weather system.
Should We Talk About the Weather?
There are ten types of weather in all, ranging for hot and dry to snowstorm. The weather isn't just a cosmetic addition to PGR 4. It's going to change the way your race. As it rains in Quebec, the roads will gradually get slicker and puddles will form. Since Bizarre Creations wants to keep things arcadey, you won't have to worry about wild spinouts or hydroplaning. Instead, you'll find that in heavy rain it "gets looser around the corners." You won't be saying, "Aw crap, it's raining, I better not drive fast." You'll be saying, "I am going to rack up some crazy drift Kudos."
We should warn that, while the weather will be more asset than hindrance, you will need to alter your driving somewhat based on the weather. Over time, puddles will accumulate on the track. Racing through a puddle will slow you down slightly, so you'll want to quickly spot and avoid these hazards. Timing for powersliding will also vary based on weather, since a slicker surface will mean you may need to start a drift earlier than in dry conditions.
The weather is dynamic in PGR 4, meaning that it can actually change during a race. It will never go to the extremes of starting out snowy and ending in sunshine, but there will be changes on a smaller scale. In Shanghai, it might go from light rain to a heavy downpour with thunder and lightning. Or it could start heavy and lighten as the race wears on. Weather will be specific to the cities and tracks -- which include Vegas, Quebec, Shanghai, Macau, NY, London, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, the Michelin test track, and Nurburing. It doesn't snow often in Vegas, so you will almost never see fresh powder on the strip. London and Macau will see a fair amount of fog, which should make navigating some of PGR 4's sharp turns just a tad more adventurous.
In Macau, the volumetric fog is especially cool. You'll start one race at the bottom of a mountain. The fog is so thick you can't see more than 30 feet in front of your car. As you race up the hillside, you'll pull above the fog and into the clear. Take a peak to the right and you can see the fog blanket below. While we'd have loved to see a few more new areas to PGR 4, Macau is a pretty interesting new area we can't wait to explore.
Be a Team Player
Project Gotham Racing 4 expands on Bizarre's tradition of online integration by introducing Team Racing. After creating your character (either male or female), choosing from one of 25 nationalities, and customizing your professional race jersey, you can join or create a team. You'll race with your club online in 4-on-4 team-based race modes including Capture the Flag, Cat & Mouse, and Cops & Robbers. Team-based Kudos will be earned during races, but every point you rack up adds to your single-player total. So whether you decide to race on- or offline, you will always be adding to your bank account.
That bank account, by the way, takes only Kudos points. Everything in PGR 4 is unlocked by Kudos. You'll unlock new cars, bikes, and garages with the Kudos earned in races. The garages, while not yet revealed by Bizarre Creations, are promise to be more interesting and substantial than PGR 3's storage facilities. And while there's not official word on another Geometry Wars sequel being found in one of these garages, we've been told to expect "something." And hey, something sounds like a lot more than a dusty Galaga machine.
You'll be filling up that garage with more than just bikes and supercars. PGR 4 includes a number of cars with "a history in automotive culture." In other words, expect to race some hot muscle cars. The Shelby GT500E and Chevy Sting Ray (Tuxedo Black no less) are just two of the muscle cars being included in PGR 4. How these beasts will be able to stand up against the Ferraris of the world is anyone's guess at this point. But we can't wait to get behind the wheel of one of these old metal beasts and charge through PGR 4's twisting courses.
And the Rest...
While PGR 4 plays very similar to its predecessor, there have been a few changes. The most notable is some tweaking to the Kudos system. You will no longer be able to earn quick drift Kudos by quickly swerving on a straightaway. All powerslides will need to be genuine this time around. And there's been an adjustment to Kudos timing so that "Kudos can be truly chained."
PGR TV has been given a makeover. It's now PGR on Demand. Expect a lot more videos for each track in PGR 4 along with uploaded pictures as well. You can search by very specific criteria to find the right videos. Let's say you want some tips on powersliding in Vegas. What happens in Vegas, no longer stays in Vegas. Just search for "longest powerslide" and learn from other racers. You can also find places to catch the biggest air or watch entire runs to find how to earn the most Kudos.
Project Gotham Racing 4 is looking promising. Though the series is fundamentally the same as it ever was, there's enough new wrinkles to satisfy fans. So far, we have only had a chance to get our hands on the motorcycles. Hopefully we'll get to race in some muscle cars against the new and improved AI. With PGR 4 feature complete and expected in early September, we should be seeing quite a bit more of Bizarre's racer in the coming months.
Joystiq hands-on: PGR4 (Xbox 360)
34 Comments by Zack Stern Jul 9th 2007 10:10AM
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving, Online, Galleries
Project Gotham Racing 4 follows the track of previous PGR titles by recreating cities on a building-by-building basis and then letting the fast cars loose. The September Xbox 360 game will include 10 total locations: New York City, Tokyo, London, Las Vegas, Quebec City, Shanghai, Macau, St. Petersburg, Nuerburgring, and the Michelin Test Track.
I got some hands-on time with a recent version of the in-progress game, with the touted weather and rain specifically being shown off. PGR4 looks and feels like it'll be a fun racer, and this time, motorcycles get to play alongside the cars.
Gallery: PGR4 (Xbox 360)
I rode a motorcycle through a rainy Shanghai night to get a sense of the game. Rain streamed down the face of my chase-camera as I practiced racing and turning. Motorcycles -- new to PGR -- follow slightly different "kudos" rules as the cars; I earned PGR's point currency not only by drifting on turns but also by tricks including wheelies and standing on the bike while racing.
The roughly 30 licensed motorcycles will be able to race directly against the roughly 100 licensed cars, although the game isn't being promoted as a cars-versus-bikes showdown. Instead, the single-player missions will straddle both vehicles, although online drivers can more easily specialize in one type.
In addition to the rain and puddles -- I got a close look skidding on the pavement after failed tricks -- PGR4 will include snow and ice. Volumetric fog -- rendered in a three-dimensional shape instead of a 2D layer -- was also touted. As we drove up the city hills, dense fog at lower altitudes cleared at peaks, showing city vistas. While the demo omitted snow and ice, fog and rain looked good at least.
Developer, Bizarre Creations, says AI will be improved in this version, giving opponents more of a vindictive memory of how you drive and more interest in earning their own kudos. But online play, including team-based racing, seems the most interesting way to race.
Specifics are still being defined, but friends will be able to play together, earning team points and individual points at the end of the race. (A teammate win will earn you points regardless of your own individual placement.)
And if your friends aren't around to help win a race, in-game replays and video sharing will recap that glory. Bizarre hopes it'll create a YouTube-like community within the PGR4 interface, and players will first be directed to Gamertag friends' videos before looking though random clips and top-rated movies.
Motorcycles, new weather, and team tactics make PGR4 worth considering for any racing fan. And the gorgeous real-life city settings still stand out against other titles.
Tags: bike, bizarre, BizarreCreations, car, impressions, motorcycle, pgr, pgr4, ProjectGothamRacing
previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1664/Project-Gotham-Racing-4/p1/
xbox360.ign.com/articles/802/802288p1.html
media.xbox360.ign.com/media/853/853087/imgs_1.html
www.joystiq.com/2007/07/09/joystiq-hands-on-pgr4-xbox-360/
With each iteration of Project Gotham Racing, Microsoft and developer Bizarre Creations have built up the franchise with new features. The pair are hoping to keep that growth going with the next installment, Project Gotham Racing 4. TeamXbox had the opportunity recently to get behind the wheel and take it for a spin.
According to Adam Kovach, Microsoft’s global product manager for PGR4, the intention was to make a title that would “deliver the fun and excitement of racing, but in a very easy-to-pick-up-and-play fashion.” Indeed, the arcade-like action does just that, making it a nice counter to the tighter, more realistic Forza Motorsport series.
One of the key changes in this version is the inclusion of motorcycles as a new vehicle class. Kovach said that the bikes will have their own Kudos system and physics, so you’ll be able to pull some fun stunts, such as wheelies, stoppies, endos and more. Though the game still has a lot of work left before it’s ready (which means our hands-on experiences might not be exactly the same as yours when you play the final game), the first thing we did was hop on a crotch rocket and burn donuts for a while, racking up major Kudos the whole time—and it was for a long time.
Hold on tight!
As for other vehicles, while the last game had a lot of “supercars,” Kovach defined the ones chosen for PGR4 as “a lot of cars that span the range…we wanted to focus on a smaller segment of vehicles—a segment of vehicles that either have history in racing or automotive culture or have sort of an iconic nature to them.” These include exotic cars, such as the Enzo, but also traditional prestige vehicles, such as Jaguars and Corvettes. They expect to offer a total of about 130 vehicles in the game.
Another fresh component that’s been added is weather. Because the game is intended to be “Hollywood-esque,” you’ll probably find that the weather makes it easier to do such things as sliding and drifting, so it’ll be more there for fun than to complicate the driving or make it feel like a simulator. In a heavy storm, puddles will accumulate, which will play with your car control.
The weather system in PGR4 will also add to the look and realism of the game. Kovach took us to the roads of Macau and demonstrated how you might find the driving perspective crystal clear within the city, but once you head for higher elevations, you’ll start encountering fog that’ll limit your visibility somewhat. “Again, it’s designed to add a lot of fun and visual fidelity to the game—and, as Kovach said, “provide photo realism, not racing realism.” He also indicated that, from a technical standpoint, the fog is truly volumetric.
As for the driving, the plan is to make it easier to chain moves together and keep building up Kudos. On the other side of the coin, there’ll be penalties for wrecking, so the strategy will be to keep the car moving, not always racing at top speed. Vehicle damage will also be included—though it won’t affect the car’s performance—and swapping paint with adversaries will be a common occurrence.
PGR4 will also feature a new team-racing system. You’ll not only be able to race against your friends, but also race with them to gain points as a group. Your individual stats will be changing, but they’ll also be included in the team stats so everyone can see how they’re contributing. The four-on-four racing will build the social aspects of the game, especially if your successes earn you invites to join other teams.
The ability to customize your racer is going to be in place, not only for the look of the driver, but also for such aspects as your nationality. There’ll also be the ability to create a team jersey, to personalize the group experience that much more.
Kovach also stated that the Kudos system will be the primary focus for “leveling up” your driver—a move that’ll make sure that you devote your attention to earning them. For instance, it’ll be the only way to unlock cars and garages; the money-based purchases of previous installments are being eliminated in PGR4.
Open road...
PGR TV will be replaced in the new game by “PGR On Demand.” You (along with the rest of the PGR4 community) will be able to upload pictures and races, but also use it to seek out specific things from others that you can view. Do you want to know who’s accomplished “the longest power slide in…Macau or someone who has the craziest wheelie or the highest Kudos points—and how they do it,” Kovach asked? PGR On Demand will enable you to do a search for many different accomplishments using what he calls “YouTube functionality in Project Gotham Racing.”
There are ten locations that’ll make up the tracks in PGR4, including London, New York and Tokyo. The “old” cities won’t be the same as you’ve played previously, though, because they’ll offer different track layouts, as well as having the weather further change up the races and locale appearances. New areas include Macau; Quebec (which offers lots of risk/reward to players); Shanghai; and a Michelin test track, which has some specific Kudos, as well specific achievements tied to racing on it.
Finally, in keeping with the effort to have the game maintain a “cool and hip” feel, the band Prodigy (“Firestarter”) has been called upon to do an exclusive title track for the game. We doubt it’ll be called “Smack my Benz Up.”
Microsoft claims that there’s still a lot of work to be done on tweaking and smoothing in PGR4, and as we see new versions, we’ll be sure to bring you new reports on how it’s coming along.
Pre-E3 2007: Project Gotham Racing 4 Hands-On
Prepare to earn kudos in the worst possible weather… and on a motorcycle.
by Hilary Goldstein
27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="flashad" _base_target="_top" height="250" width="300">
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July 9, 2007 - Including its original incarnation on the Dreamcast as Metropolis Street Racer, Bizarre Creation has been around the block four times already with its Kudos-based arcade racing franchise. So what's going to make the fifth iteration, Project Gotham Racing 4, stand out from the rest? Inclement weather, true AI, and motorcycles. As previously revealed, PGR 4 features rain, fog, and snow. What we didn't know, was that you'd be racing through PGR 4's ten cities on just two wheels.
A Hog Between Your Thighs
Don't think of motorcycles as some cheap toss on, an added bonus or some kind of fun unlockable. Bizarre Creations is taking bikes seriously (well, as seriously as the powerslide-heavy series can manage). There will be a little over 130 vehicles that can fill up your various garages in PGR4, at least 30 of which will be motorcycles. Among the manufacturers onboard are Honda, MV Agusta, and Ducati. And yes the "original naked motorcycle" the Ducati Monster will be among the roster of bikes.
As always, PGR 4 is about racing fast and with style. The same holds true when racing motorcycles. Because a motorcycle is not a car (unless you drive one effed up car), the Kudos set for bikes is a bit different. Wheelies, stopies, endos, drift, and catch air are the five Kudos available in a motorcycle and trust us when we say, you will find plenty of opportunities for all of these. Though control feels a bit looser on a bike, the principals of Project Gotham remain the same. Winning races won't mean much if you aren't earning major Kudos on the way to the finish line.
Most of those Kudos, however, require some cajones to pull off in a race against seven other people (who could all be racing you in cars). It's one thing to pull a wheelie for 20 yards in one of the motorcycle-specific challenges, but quite another thing to do one in the heat of a race. The truly daring will take risks and pull wheelies on short straightaways, before chaining into a drift around a corner. Daredevils will hold A to add a modifier to their stunts. Sure, it adds additional risk, but it will help you thrill your fans (and infuriate your competition).
As with the cars in PGR 4, you have a variety of different camera views. While you can get a good look at your custom uniform from the third-person perspective, the best view when riding a bike is the helmet cam. This gives a clear view of your hands on the throttle as your look through the windshield at St. Petersburg during a snowstorm.
If you know how to race a car in Project Gotham, you will have no troubles driving a bike in PGR 4. Though motorcycles have their own physics (and crashing your Ducati Monster into a wall is oh so much more fun than crashing your Enzo), it's not so different that it can't be quickly mastered by veteran players. The real trick is in learning to use the new Kudos while racing against cars. And while we were only given time to race briefly on an unpopulated track, it would seem that racing players online could get messy. After all, it's one thing for someone to sideswipe a rival's car, but imagine being neck-and-neck in a race and having your bike knocked to the side by your opponent.
Motorcycles are definitely a welcome addition to PGR 4. Don't expect it to be like racing in MotoGP, though. Again, Project Gotham is not about being a sim; it's about being fun. And on that end, the bikes should add some extra flavor to the mix. But hogs aren't the only new thing coming to PGR 4. Perhaps the most interesting new element is the dynamic weather system.
Should We Talk About the Weather?
There are ten types of weather in all, ranging for hot and dry to snowstorm. The weather isn't just a cosmetic addition to PGR 4. It's going to change the way your race. As it rains in Quebec, the roads will gradually get slicker and puddles will form. Since Bizarre Creations wants to keep things arcadey, you won't have to worry about wild spinouts or hydroplaning. Instead, you'll find that in heavy rain it "gets looser around the corners." You won't be saying, "Aw crap, it's raining, I better not drive fast." You'll be saying, "I am going to rack up some crazy drift Kudos."
We should warn that, while the weather will be more asset than hindrance, you will need to alter your driving somewhat based on the weather. Over time, puddles will accumulate on the track. Racing through a puddle will slow you down slightly, so you'll want to quickly spot and avoid these hazards. Timing for powersliding will also vary based on weather, since a slicker surface will mean you may need to start a drift earlier than in dry conditions.
The weather is dynamic in PGR 4, meaning that it can actually change during a race. It will never go to the extremes of starting out snowy and ending in sunshine, but there will be changes on a smaller scale. In Shanghai, it might go from light rain to a heavy downpour with thunder and lightning. Or it could start heavy and lighten as the race wears on. Weather will be specific to the cities and tracks -- which include Vegas, Quebec, Shanghai, Macau, NY, London, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, the Michelin test track, and Nurburing. It doesn't snow often in Vegas, so you will almost never see fresh powder on the strip. London and Macau will see a fair amount of fog, which should make navigating some of PGR 4's sharp turns just a tad more adventurous.
In Macau, the volumetric fog is especially cool. You'll start one race at the bottom of a mountain. The fog is so thick you can't see more than 30 feet in front of your car. As you race up the hillside, you'll pull above the fog and into the clear. Take a peak to the right and you can see the fog blanket below. While we'd have loved to see a few more new areas to PGR 4, Macau is a pretty interesting new area we can't wait to explore.
Be a Team Player
Project Gotham Racing 4 expands on Bizarre's tradition of online integration by introducing Team Racing. After creating your character (either male or female), choosing from one of 25 nationalities, and customizing your professional race jersey, you can join or create a team. You'll race with your club online in 4-on-4 team-based race modes including Capture the Flag, Cat & Mouse, and Cops & Robbers. Team-based Kudos will be earned during races, but every point you rack up adds to your single-player total. So whether you decide to race on- or offline, you will always be adding to your bank account.
That bank account, by the way, takes only Kudos points. Everything in PGR 4 is unlocked by Kudos. You'll unlock new cars, bikes, and garages with the Kudos earned in races. The garages, while not yet revealed by Bizarre Creations, are promise to be more interesting and substantial than PGR 3's storage facilities. And while there's not official word on another Geometry Wars sequel being found in one of these garages, we've been told to expect "something." And hey, something sounds like a lot more than a dusty Galaga machine.
You'll be filling up that garage with more than just bikes and supercars. PGR 4 includes a number of cars with "a history in automotive culture." In other words, expect to race some hot muscle cars. The Shelby GT500E and Chevy Sting Ray (Tuxedo Black no less) are just two of the muscle cars being included in PGR 4. How these beasts will be able to stand up against the Ferraris of the world is anyone's guess at this point. But we can't wait to get behind the wheel of one of these old metal beasts and charge through PGR 4's twisting courses.
And the Rest...
While PGR 4 plays very similar to its predecessor, there have been a few changes. The most notable is some tweaking to the Kudos system. You will no longer be able to earn quick drift Kudos by quickly swerving on a straightaway. All powerslides will need to be genuine this time around. And there's been an adjustment to Kudos timing so that "Kudos can be truly chained."
PGR TV has been given a makeover. It's now PGR on Demand. Expect a lot more videos for each track in PGR 4 along with uploaded pictures as well. You can search by very specific criteria to find the right videos. Let's say you want some tips on powersliding in Vegas. What happens in Vegas, no longer stays in Vegas. Just search for "longest powerslide" and learn from other racers. You can also find places to catch the biggest air or watch entire runs to find how to earn the most Kudos.
Project Gotham Racing 4 is looking promising. Though the series is fundamentally the same as it ever was, there's enough new wrinkles to satisfy fans. So far, we have only had a chance to get our hands on the motorcycles. Hopefully we'll get to race in some muscle cars against the new and improved AI. With PGR 4 feature complete and expected in early September, we should be seeing quite a bit more of Bizarre's racer in the coming months.
Joystiq hands-on: PGR4 (Xbox 360)
34 Comments by Zack Stern Jul 9th 2007 10:10AM
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Driving, Online, Galleries
Project Gotham Racing 4 follows the track of previous PGR titles by recreating cities on a building-by-building basis and then letting the fast cars loose. The September Xbox 360 game will include 10 total locations: New York City, Tokyo, London, Las Vegas, Quebec City, Shanghai, Macau, St. Petersburg, Nuerburgring, and the Michelin Test Track.
I got some hands-on time with a recent version of the in-progress game, with the touted weather and rain specifically being shown off. PGR4 looks and feels like it'll be a fun racer, and this time, motorcycles get to play alongside the cars.
Gallery: PGR4 (Xbox 360)
I rode a motorcycle through a rainy Shanghai night to get a sense of the game. Rain streamed down the face of my chase-camera as I practiced racing and turning. Motorcycles -- new to PGR -- follow slightly different "kudos" rules as the cars; I earned PGR's point currency not only by drifting on turns but also by tricks including wheelies and standing on the bike while racing.
The roughly 30 licensed motorcycles will be able to race directly against the roughly 100 licensed cars, although the game isn't being promoted as a cars-versus-bikes showdown. Instead, the single-player missions will straddle both vehicles, although online drivers can more easily specialize in one type.
In addition to the rain and puddles -- I got a close look skidding on the pavement after failed tricks -- PGR4 will include snow and ice. Volumetric fog -- rendered in a three-dimensional shape instead of a 2D layer -- was also touted. As we drove up the city hills, dense fog at lower altitudes cleared at peaks, showing city vistas. While the demo omitted snow and ice, fog and rain looked good at least.
Developer, Bizarre Creations, says AI will be improved in this version, giving opponents more of a vindictive memory of how you drive and more interest in earning their own kudos. But online play, including team-based racing, seems the most interesting way to race.
Specifics are still being defined, but friends will be able to play together, earning team points and individual points at the end of the race. (A teammate win will earn you points regardless of your own individual placement.)
And if your friends aren't around to help win a race, in-game replays and video sharing will recap that glory. Bizarre hopes it'll create a YouTube-like community within the PGR4 interface, and players will first be directed to Gamertag friends' videos before looking though random clips and top-rated movies.
Motorcycles, new weather, and team tactics make PGR4 worth considering for any racing fan. And the gorgeous real-life city settings still stand out against other titles.
Tags: bike, bizarre, BizarreCreations, car, impressions, motorcycle, pgr, pgr4, ProjectGothamRacing
