I’ve always been a fan of arcade racers and finally had a chance to try the popular Project Gotham series on the Xbox 360. Forza 2 was included with my Xbox 360 and is a beautiful game graphically but I was looking for something that was a bit more “pick-up-and-play” and PGR 4 fit the bill perfectly.
I had downloaded the PGR 3 and 4 demos from Xbox Live and enjoyed them both, but the popular opinion was that PGR 4 was a much better game than 3. While I can’t say for sure whether that’s true or not, I can say that PGR 4 is a fun, graphically impressive and addicting game. I’ve never been one to play racing games for hours at a time but I find myself doing exactly that with PGR 4.
The selection of cars and motorcycles is pretty extensive – I have no problem finding multiple cars in each class that I enjoy driving. What’s better is that almost every car sounds and handles differently while winning and losing is based almost as much on the car you choose as it does your driving skill. You’ll certainly find that certain cars are better for certain tracks.
Graphically the game is very impressive. It’s only running at 30 fps, but it doesn’t hurt the visual experience at all. To be honest, I would have never known that the game ran at 30 fps if I didn’t find out online. The tracks are varied and the scenery is impressive. There’s some jaggy graphics on the horizon but everything looks very clean and detailed closeup. I also haven’t experience any slowdown during races. There are nine cities with each city containing multiple tracks and I’ve crashed more than a few times because I was checking out scenery around me.
The gameplay is where PGR 4 shines. It’s a good combination of arcade and sim racing. The controls are much more forgiving than Forza or GT, but it’s not as “arcadey” as some of the popular “arcade” racers like the Ridge Racer series. You do have to use your brakes in this game and it’s very easy to lose control of your car during powerslides. Some people may not like that the game isn’t completely sim or arcade, but I find it to be a good mix of the two.
Online play with PGR 4 is probably its best feature. Up to 8 players can race against each other online and from my experience so far, there’s no lag or slowdown issues at all. I couldn’t tell any difference between offline and online play with a room filled of racers and that’s an impressive feat – the game runs just as smooth whether you’re offline or online too.
If you’re looking for a good-looking and enjoyable racer, you should look no further than PGR 4.