Project Gotham Racing 4 - Xbox 360

[Kubrick]

I've only played Arcade mode on Platinum level so far and I've got a couple of chapters left to do. Some of the Street Races are a real challenge to finish in 1st place, and also some of the Breakthrough events, but the rest (Cone challenges, Time v Kudos, Superstar etc) seem quite easy. I've even done a few of them at the 1st attempt.

Unless the Career mode is any harder I think they've dumbed down the difficulty quite a bit since PGR3. Especially the Cone challenges. In a way I'm pleased they're just time-based now and you no longer have to do unecessary handbrake drifts all over the place to earn the medal, but that did make them difficult and really addictive.

The game is still excellent though and I'm really liking it. Earning Kudos is like a drug.

[ChrisF]

Anyone else getting problems with loading in this game? I had one stage "load" and all it was was no buildings and the road was flooded. I was in about 2 foot of water. Then mid-way through the race (it was a cone challege, which was quite hard without graphics) loads of buildings appeared, the water vanished and I had road. All of a sudden I was in St Petersberg!

That was the worst one that happened, but I seem to get a lot of invisible buildings that appear as I pass them

[Charlie]

Yeah, I've occasionally experienced similar stuff, no texture on the road, buildings suddenly appearing from nowhere etc. Gotta say though, after a few days play, I'm beginning to feel this is a better game than PGR3 despite it not doing everything quite as well as it's predecessor. The vehicles are notably faster and much more sensitive to the dynamics of the road than they were in PGR3 which, combined, make for some extremely twitchy and exciting racing. It's the new tracks though, in my opinion, that really set the game apart; they're beautifully designed, very challenging, a real joy to drive and feature every type of bend a player could want. They're probably the best tracks I've ever played and the fact that every track from PGR3 is also included (and that featured some stunning tracks) is the icing on the cake and a breath of fresh air after Forza 2's paltry and rather stale selection.

[Yoshimax]

Sounds like dodgy DVD drives !!! Not seen anything like that myself.

[Concept]

It's an engine thing - the previous PGR did it, and I've experienced it myself a few times.

Textures popping in when the replay reloops, or the odd texture appearing low-res. I've only encountered one missing texture though, and that was on the side of a building in London. If you've played any Unreal 3 Engine game, you'll know what to expect.

Apart from that, structurally the game is stronger than PGR 3. Everything fits together much more smoothly (switching to and from the photo mode for example, replays etc.) and the options are well thought out to keep the pace going from race to race. I'm finding the way I'm enjoying this isn't all too dissimilar to how I did with PGR 2. PGR 1 didn't quite do it for me. Same with 3 on the 360.

[Wools]

I brought this over the weekend and what a refinment of PGR2 it is.

It looks beautiful, has the best sounding car noises in any game and a far more rounded Single Player experiance.

I have already completed Arcade mode and I'll be moving onto the career next.

[Bassman]

I am seriously unimpressed. I have done all the Majors and reached Rank 1. I am now trying to buy all the other Kudos items. Unfortunately I have to do the Majors again. You HAVE to race them as it won't let you skip them in any way. Talk about dumb...

[ChrisF]

Can you not just pick/choose tracks from Arcade to do to get more Kudos? Or doesn't that count?

[VR46]

Can't you just start the Major, pause after the race starts and select abondon event (bottom option) ?

Not posted any impressions yet but it's a very polished offering and back to the goodness of PGR2 we all seem to love

[Senna]

My copy FINALLY arrived today from Woolworths (thought id be scottish and stingy and save a fiver - bad idea).

First impressions after an hour of play are a bit meh to be honest. The graphics are stunning, there is no denying that. The sound effects are sublime as well, but one of the first things I did was turn off the god-awful indy/rock music that was blaring out and drowning out everything else.

Handling wise, its ok as well, the cars point in the right direction when you want it to, and I guess the more slidey cars are still to be unlocked.

What has underwhelmed me is the tracks. Ive always preferred the more open race tracks over street tracks, but so far they just seem pretty lifeless and mickey mouse. Ninety degree left, ninety degree right, that sort of thing.

Ive only been playing it for a couple of hours though, so Im hoping this game gets better for me. Ive still to touch multiplayer, so will give that a go tonight.

[Charlie]

Don't worry, the tracks get much, much better.

I am seriously unimpressed. I have done all the Majors and reached Rank 1. I am now trying to buy all the other Kudos items. Unfortunately I have to do the Majors again. You HAVE to race them as it won't let you skip them in any way. Talk about dumb...

You might want to try playing Arcade and Multiplayer modes as the kudos earned there can also be used to buy stuff from the PGR shop. Looking back, I found the whole Career mode pretty tedious too, especially after Bizarre promised it would be completely unique and different - which it isn't.

[ascender]

Deeply depressing time online tonight. Took ages to find a game and then it found me a 4v4 match. All the guys were more experienced and had faster cars, but the circuits were fairly twisty so that was fine.

Except for the fact that at least 3 of the other guys couldn't actually drive round a corner. So they choose Enzos and Murcielagos, blast up the straights overtaking me, then come a cropper at a corner, literally not even trying to brake. I'd overtake them, but they'd just fly past me on the next straight. Or having got past them and holding them off, they'd just launch in to me at a corner and take me out.

Is there a trick to finding decent online matches not inhabited by twats?

[Senna]

Best bet would be to get as many people from here on your friends list - go into the Online section here for the PGR4 thread. Guaranteed that they are all respectable guys.

And you are right, I managed to go online with some randoms this afternoon and the tracks were much better than I had seen before. One of the tracks, I think around Quebec, was massive, easily three minutes plus, and was uphill and downhill at fast speed.

I think this game is growing on me.

[fragmast3r]

racing games, i'll only race with people in my friends list, too many twats that use youas the brake, as youve discovered

that said, I only ever play any game with people on my friends list, if noones on I dont tend to go online, just play a single player game.

[vanpeebles]

Deeply depressing time online tonight. Took ages to find a game and then it found me a 4v4 match. All the guys were more experienced and had faster cars, but the circuits were fairly twisty so that was fine.

Except for the fact that at least 3 of the other guys couldn't actually drive round a corner. So they choose Enzos and Murcielagos, blast up the straights overtaking me, then come a cropper at a corner, literally not even trying to brake. I'd overtake them, but they'd just fly past me on the next straight. Or having got past them and holding them off, they'd just launch in to me at a corner and take me out.

Is there a trick to finding decent online matches not inhabited by twats?

That nearly always happens with PGR and its the reason why on PGR2 we only raced with slow cars as you couldnt afford to hit the barriers. It was reason why PGR3 was crap online because it only had fast cars so you could just drive into the barriers and then rocket away again.

On PGR4 I'll only be holding online races with the slow cars, makes for far better races.