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> Results: Project Gotham Racing 3
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Nearly every home videogame console launches with a racing game now that everything comes in increasingly pretty 3D. It's the perfect showcase for the latest in graphics technology because the core gameplay is simple, leaving plenty of time for beautification. Project Gotham Racing 3 is this staple of the Xbox 360 lineup and it does a fine job of looking great, running fast and showing off the Live online service.
The game's core structure is based on earning medals from Steel up to Platinum depending on the level of challenge you're willing to take on in the single-player career mode. Take on the Easy challenge and you earn Bronze. Go for a Hardcore level of difficulty to get the Platinum. It doesn't matter which car you use for any of the events because the game adjusts the goals to suit the vehicle and your selected difficulty. That's bogus because it makes buying the various cars unimportant in single player. You only need invest in them to be competitive online. Each single-player medal you earn can be compared to everyone on your Friends list. That makes earning the best medal you can a matter of personal pride. Without that ability to compare with friends, there just isn't a whole lot of enticement to be better than average. You earn plenty of credits to buy more cars even on the middling difficulty, so it's not like you're shutting yourself out of anything by taking the game at a casual pace. The structure is great for people who like to set the challenge of a game to whatever level they prefer. The game doesn't push you to be better unless you want to be. That's both a plus and a minus as it requires extra player noodling to find the right sweet spot for each challenge even if it does allow anyone who can pull a trigger and move a stick left and right to complete the game.  All the cars in the game are exciting to drive. Gotham straddles the line between serious simulation and arcade game by taking away all the tinkering options on car setups, but leaves in a fairly serious driving model. Cars like the Ferrari F50 GT are a bear to keep underneath you, but reward the driving technician with top lap times. Lower class vehicles like the Ferrari 575 Maranello have far less punch, but still require serious skill to go fast. The game enhances this sense of being on the edge of automotive excellence by asking you to drive on the edge of your abilities to earn Kudos. Kudos pile up when you slide through corners, drive without hitting anything for long stretches and are used as goals in some of the challenges. The game is a lot more forgiving than the other Gothams because it lets you glance off the fence pretty hard without stopping a Kudos string. Once again, accessibility to even the weakest of players is both satisfying and aggravating all at the same time. When you've had enough of beating your friend's scores in single-player, there's extensive multiplayer online to jump into. Racing in TruSkill online matches gives your online rating a boost or a drop based on your performance. Get good enough and you get to be on Gotham TV for the entire world to see you in action. It's even entertaining to watch replays and take photos of your exploits. These photos can be edited and enhanced in a bunch of ways and are some of the sharpest images available on the 360. That's thanks both to the superb graphics in the game and extra sharpening after the fact. It's brilliant to watch this game move, especially from within the detailed cockpits of all these ridiculously expensive cars you're likely to never get to drive for real. It helps that you're ripping through beautiful reproductions of New York City, Las Vegas, Tokyo, London and the Nurburgring.  Anyone with even a mild interest in racing games and with a 360 in their entertainment center should pick up Project Gotham Racing 3. Build up a Friends list online and shoot for their records. Hop on Live Gold and put your skills to the test against people the world over. There are some questionable decisions in the course designs but you can rectify that yourself because there's a whole course editor included too. It's clear that there are still a lot of things that can be done to make this series better, but this one is definitely good enough to hold anyone over for a few months while that after-launch slow period unfolds. 
The rating is E10+ based on the lyrics of some of the songs in the game. If your kids are playing games on the 360, simply turn off the music if you're concerned about that. There's nothing else in the game that's at all objectionable. There's more objectionable language to be found online than in any of the music. As usual, the recommendation is to unplug the headset and turn off voice through the TV if you are allowing your kids to play online.
The difficulty scales to just about any level so this is one game that lets you put the controller in anyone's hands and watch them succeed. That accessibility makes it a little less convenient for competent players to find the right level of challenge, but it's definitely welcome for everyone else. Kids especially will love the beautiful cars and making them go fast. They don't break apart too much when you wreck them, but the excitement of going fast is the real star of the show anyway. Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Project Gotham Racing 3 |
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