While the other big names such as Gran Turismo and Forza go for strict realism and titles such as Need for Speed go for fantasy, Project Gotham Racing 4 delivers an experience cut somewhere down the middle. The racing still requires finesse and skill, but the veneer of realism that dominates other titles in the genre is replaced with the layer of fun that comes from power sliding and drifting across hairpin turns.
The fourth iteration of the PGR series has seen a significant number of tweaks and overhauls from previous titles. The Kudos system has been tweaked with a slightly expanded stable of stunts to gain the “Kudos” style points, as well as a star system that rates the current chain of stunts that are being put together. Additional game modes have been added that are either brand new or slightly tweaked versions of existing favorites. Finally, one of the most easily recognizable additions to the feature list of the series is the addition of motorcycles which add a unique layer to the gameplay.
The addition of motorcycles into the roster of vehicles isn’t a change that is merely cosmetic. Motorcycles are decidedly less stable than cars, and while hitting a wall in a car will just slow you down on a bike it may fling your rider off ragdoll-style, making you lose valuable time and/or position. Bikes also tend to have lower top speeds than the cars, and in any car-to-bike collisions you can guess who is more likely to eat blacktop. To balance out these downsides motorcycles are the kings of taking turns at speed with their slim profile, and are capable of gaining Kudos faster through both motorcycle only tricks and most tricks that apply to the cars as well (The obvious exception being any Kudos points for being on two wheels.)
Previous titles in the series have always been more or less about the racing, with the other game modes such as the cone gates and hot laps used less frequently. In a break with this tradition PGR4 evenly mixes up the straightforward racing events almost equally with events such as the aforementioned cone gate and hot laps. Some of the new game modes include one where instead of racing through cone gates you plow through groups of them and another mode that requires the player to obtain a certain amount of Kudos stars before the time limit. Your Kudos meter grows every time you complete one of the many tricks or stunts, and continues growing as you chain stunts together which also progressively raises the star value of the overall chain to a maximum of five. While other modes may require you to milk every turn for some form of Kudos to reach a goal, the star mode makes you really try to chain tricks together instead.
The organization of the career mode events in PGR4 is also significantly different than seen in any previous title in the series. Events are arranged by seasons, with each season taking up a certain span of months in the game. You don’t see an event every day on the calendar but rather every week or two, and usually a couple different selections to choose from. This means that in order to play the entire game and participate in every event, some of which are only unlocked after your racer reaches a certain bracket in the standings, the gameplay spans multiple seasons. In either case each event you complete affects your standings, and you can go up or down depending on if you win or lose. Reaching higher brackets such as the pro or master brackets unlocks additional events that you can take part in.
For the most part the multiplayer mode is solid across the board. From a performance standpoint the net code holds up well and lacks any real errors or lag issues, and very rarely will you see the title’s framerate dip too far below what can easily be called smooth. All of the career game modes make the jump into the multiplayer as well as a few multiplayer-centric ones, though many players still seem to stick to the tried-and-true racing modes more so than any other. Finally, the new On Demand feature allows for players to post their best replays and screenshots which can be viewed and rated by anyone else who is cruising around the feature.
The Kudos points you gain can be spent in the titles version of a store, with various packages for sale to unlock different cars or bikes to use as well as helmet and livery styles, additional tracks, and other goodies. Like many other racing games the roster of vehicles ranges from more run of the mill entries that you can find out on your streets all the way up to high end Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Unlike many racing games however is the fact that nearly right off the bat the player has access to some pretty high end hardware. While this does make the game easier to just jump right in and race around in an exotic vehicle, at the same time there is never a real reason to race any of the lower end cars.
