Pros: Prettier than real life
Cons: Some things are a step back from the godly PGR2
The bottom line: So I wonder what Mozart would think about his music being in a racing game. And where his royalty check goes.
It's entirely possible that Project Gotham Racing 2 for the original Xbox is one of the greatest driving games ever created. And it came out of nowhere. After all, while Metropolis Street Racer for Dreamcast was 'pretty good' and Project Gotham Racing 1 was 'even better', neither were earth-shattering titles. But PGR2 was different, and blew numerous people away with its depth, gameplay, and online integration. So it's hard to blame people for putting the Xbox 360 launch title Project Gotham Racing 3 on a whole different level of expectations, seeing it has to follow up such a spectacular title. As a launch game, PGR3 offers much of the Microsoft vision – great Xbox Live support and beautiful, almost perfect graphics that show off the reality of what high-definition can do. But at the same time, the game takes a couple minor, almost harmless steps backwards from its previous greatness (if only due to a slight change in function), though in truth it doesn't actually hurt the game that much; it's still without question a top-flight racing game that will appeal to both the Burnout and Forza camps simply due to its choice of vehicles and more realistic arcade action. In other words, if you like racing games and have an Xbox 360, it should be in your collection. Now.

What was known as the Kudos World Series in PGR2 has been renamed Gotham Career, the latest sign that Bizarre Creations has slowly shied away from the whole Kudos thing and now is just an e-penis thing rather than the absolute core of progression. The Career can be played offline, on your own, with Xbox Live support for rankings and Achievements, or you can play out the events online against other people a la Forza Motorsport. The Career is very different from PGR2, which may come as a disappointment to some. There are no 'classes' of vehicles; instead, you theoretically could use one car and the game will offer you suitable competition based upon your performance, rather than the old feeling that you're accomplishing something by moving up the ranks to faster, more powerful cars. There aren't even any 'regular' cars anymore, replaced by nothing but exotic, high-speed vehicles. However having access to numerous Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, and the like over a Ford Focus or a Mini Cooper isn't a bad tradeoff. There's 23 different events, each with at least 2 races in each one, and you earn a trophy for clearing it on your current difficulty level, which like PGR2 is 5 levels deep, from Steel all the way to Platinum medals for PGR experts.

All the traditional PGR events are here, along with some new ones. You can do individual races, hot laps, and speedtraps where you have to get a certain speed at a certain time to advance, and the like. New to the fold are Eliminator events, which are merely knockouts making their Gotham debut, a Drift Challenge where you must get as many Kudos as possible in a specific time frame, Time vs. Kudos where you complete a lap, but you must get Kudos to stop the clock to complete the event, and finally, the unimpressive Breakthrough event which is just a checkpoint-based event that doesn't offer anything thrilling. However these new events do the necessary act – mix things up so you don't get bored repeating the same event over and over, which is something that plagues Ridge Racer 6, its closest competition. Generally, each tournament in Career is either all races, or all style events, with few if any exceptions. All of this is done in 4 cities; New York (after all, it can't be a Gotham game without Gotham), Tokyo, London, and the new kid, Las Vegas. There's also a few events taking place at Nurburgring, the greatest race track ever devised. It's a bit of a bummer that other cities, like San Francisco, Chicago, and Paris aren't here like in PGR1 and 2, but there's always a possibility that they could appear on Xbox Live Marketplace before all is said and done. As a matter of fact, it downright expect it. Hopefully they'll add career events with the new cities to max out replay.

Of course, there's plenty else to do in the Gotham world. If you venture online, you can tackle regular races with other gamers, a staple of racing games. What's new and cool is the spectator mode, known as Gotham TV. Gotham TV is exactly what it says; you can watch other people play the game. It's split into two channels – Friends and Heroes. Friends channel lets you watch your buddies compete and see how they fare, and Heroes is where the top PGR racers show their skills. If you're good enough, it's entirely possible to wind up on the Heroes channel yourself. Though it's a bit unusual to ask people to watch others play games instead of playing with them, there is some small incentive in the form of those pesky Achievements for both watching Gotham TV and getting featured on the Heroes channel. If you don't do the online thing, there's still some stuff to do to increase the almighty Gamerscore. If you're the customizer type, you can head into Route Creator and develop your own track based upon the 4 in-game cities, using the built-in waypoints to craft either a point-to-point course or a circuit track, which can then be raced on. PGR3 claims millions of possibilities, and I can believe it considering the land mass most of these cities take up. Finally, there's also Photo Mode, which of course was influenced by one Gran Turismo 4. However unlike GT4's photo setup, you can take pictures during the races rather than in any specific menus.

On the track itself, Project Gotham Racing 3 continues the tradition of having arcade-style racing with a slighty more realistic slant. That's not to say you're gonna get Forza or GT here, but instead the cars simply are (usually) planted more into reality than, say, Burnout or Need for Speed. This time around, PGR's rides are a bit heavier than before, but at the same time, all of them are more than capable of absolutely flying around corners, racking up Kudos for your powersliding awesomeness. Each of the 5 car classes contain machines of high speed, and there's plenty of cars in each class that are designed for novices and experts all the same. Generally novice cars are easy to handle, while the expert cars require a whole lot more handling prowess (for instance, the McLaren is insanely loose and difficult to handle). All of these luxury race cars have one thing in common though – speed. And all of them have a sense of speed that's unparalleled, making for very exciting racing most of the time. At the same time, the whole PGR motto of 'it's not how fast you drive, it's how you drive fast' seems to be just cosmetic here, as Kudos only reflect your ranking offline and on XBL leaderboards rather than giving you access to new cars (you earn cash now to buy cars), or even the ability to progress. It's just a score now, really, unless you're doing Drift Challenges or Time vs. Kudos events.

One of Project Gotham Racing 2's few issues was the insane AI in the career mode. And not so much with actual challenge (it was fairly easy), but more along the line of AI cars trying to put you (and them) into a virtual casket thanks to their patterns of ramming the crap out of you around bends and corners, with little to no regard for their own safety. It was a bit hectic, even if it was a simple video game and not reality. This time around, PGR3's AI is a bit more...conservative. They're still pretty aggressive and won't hesitate to ram you a bit or use drafting tactics, but they don't drive like they have death wishes. It perhaps does come at the expense of challenge, since anything under Gold (aka Hard) races are mindlessly easy – and even then, you only need to place second in a race to win the medal, though chances are you won't settle for 2nd best.. It all depends on the car you choose however; some cars won't fare as well while others dominate their competition – I went with a Ferrari F355 and annihilated every other car unless a CPU opponent used the same one, which then presented a bit more challenge. Generally, events that put time and Kudos ahead of placement are a bit more difficult since it requires pure skill rather than merely outdueling other vehicles.

No matter which way you play Project Gotham Racing 3, one thing is always there – it's fun and enjoyable. Arguably it's a step backwards from PGR2 (perhaps due to a need to get the game done for launch), but it's still a highly entertaining racing game that is accessible to both racing veterans and new players alike, and thus is the perfect launch title for both camps to add to their collection of Xbox 360 titles. It's great to fly around corners and hear the Kudos tally up, and it's rewarding to finally get that medal you've been slowly working at, chipping seconds off your time to beat the Hot Lap. If you play online, there's all sorts of goodies, and even the offline gamer will find the career mode is a 10-15 hour trip that's worth taking again to get the better medals you missed the first time around, while getting to Kudos rank 1 at the same time – something that requires a whole lot of time investment for those 80 Achievement points. Even if you just buy the game as a visual showpiece for your new hardware and HDTV, you'll find something to do with PGR3.

Speaking of those visuals...wow. While there's certainly some Xbox 360 games that don't exactly raise the performance bar or truly appear 'next-gen', PGR3 is not one of them. In short, this game is downright stunning to look at in HD. Even in standard definition, this is a looker. Every single city is recreated in perfect detail – Las Vegas is so incredible you might get caught looking around and taking in the scenery (which contains every major casino and landmark, real names and everything) and miss a turn or two. It's happened to me. The other cities are also painstakingly done here, whether its in the daytime or at night. The draw distance is mesmerizing and the whole thing is sharp, clean, and damn near photorealistic. It makes the other 360 racers look plain in comparison. Hell, there's even crowds watching you race this time around, unlike the barren sidelines of PGR1 and 2. In sync with that, car designs are perfect, though granted that was done a generation ago, so it's not that impressive anymore. What is impressive is the new first-person view. When you hit this viewpoint, the game changes into an even faster, more demanding game. Everything whizzes by, the cockpit is jumpy, all the dash is represented; it's truly incredible what was accomplished here. It has to be experienced to be believed. It doesn't always make for the best viewing angle, but for realism, it's A1.

Likewise, the audio is also top-notch. Again, the in-car view changes how you hear things; the engine roars and the tires squeal like they would sound if you really were in the car. Outside you don't get the same impact, but it's still there. There's not a whole lot of variety in terms of engine sound or anything like that, but they all sound like the high-powered monsters they are. The soundtrack has undergone some changes this time around. There's no more DJ's like the first three MSR/PGR games, replaced by one of the largest and most unusual soundtracks ever assembled. It's one thing to hear current acts like Bloc Party (is it just me or has Helicopter appeared in like every racing game this last 6 months?), Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV, or Static X – that's expected. However it's something entirely different to find musicians like Mozart and Brahms. And no, I'm not kidding, they're in there, amongst other classical artists. Most of the compositions are familiar and you should know them, but they are a bit strange to hear in a racing game. But you know what...they work. In a game where the developers put emphasis on graceful, skilled driving rather than absolute speed, classical music fits, just like Double Cleff FM was perfect for one Grand Theft Auto III all those years ago. The only downer is the music is usually drowned out by the racing action, unless you fiddle with the audio options.

The Last Paragraph
If you enjoy racing games, Project Gotham Racing 3 offers something for everyone, whether it's the novice looking for a good game to play here and there or the hardcore fan who dreams of being featured on Gotham Heroes, though at the same time, long-time PGR fans might still be reaching for PGR2...if it were compatible with the Xbox 360, anyway. PGR3 gets a lot of things right – beautiful graphics, fun gameplay with improved offline AI, hordes of gametypes, and every little Xbox innovation over the last 5 years the brand has existed. It does a couple things that don't compare with its predecessor; more limited career mode, less cars, and generally an easier game in comparison. But PGR2 is an awfully high standard to top - it is one of the best racers ever, after all, and for PGR3 to be even 3/4ths of that classic is good enough to be better than most everything else out there. Even though it's 'just' a racing game, PGR3 is arguably one of the few 360 launch games that could be considered a true 'system seller' – and one of those games that Microsoft can point to when discussing the whole HD Era thing.