Project Gotham Racing 2

[Tobal]

Just had a crack at the demo, and i love just like the first only i can actually see what him doing, as i also found MSR/PGR to dark which isn't a big problem until multiplayer games come in. I like the way PGR2 plays with the cross between arcade and realism with 'phat' graphics

[NeilMcRae]

Played the demo and it looks lovely, great smashing into the M3 but midtown madness 3 feels faster Still going to get it as the Live components will be worth it.

Neil.

[Shimmyhill]

Got the demo this morning and this is my taking.

I want to get the bad out of the way. 30fps defi detracts (been playing fzero yesterday so i doubt that helped) all im gonna say on that one. Typical of xbox the RGB is dull and lifeless, looks worse than GT3 on output (not graphical detail which is amazing) The AI seems as bad as it was on the first pgr, ai cars stick to their line and if you happen to be on it then they just bash you

But now onto the good the cars feel nicely weighted and handle well, powersliding is fun and easy to control but over do it and you can lose it big style. The RWD cars are immense fun and i spent a fair while just on the Ferarri time trial level had it was a blast. The cone challenge was also alot of fun

All in all this is a game i was looking forward to and was going to buy, the demo has made me want it more - only thing is i hope they can sort out the AI as imo it spoilt the first game.

[Burai]

Got the demo.

I pretty much agree with everything Shimmy has to say. I was a bit annoyed that the AI is still crap, but that'll just make the cone challenges etc. stand out again. Also annoyted that a bit of tyre smoke caused by wheel-locking from multiple cars causes the framerate to grind ever further down. It seems to be a feature in many Xbox games that special effects kill the framerate but I was hoping this wouldn't be one of them.

Final comments: The Dino is pure sex. That is all.

[Kirby]

Got the demo this morning and this is my taking.

I want to get the bad out of the way. 30fps defi detracts (been playing fzero yesterday so i doubt that helped) all im gonna say on that one. Typical of xbox the RGB is dull and lifeless, looks worse than GT3 on output (not graphical detail which is amazing) The AI seems as bad as it was on the first pgr, ai cars stick to their line and if you happen to be on it then they just bash you

It is noticeably slower than PGR and from those demo tracks i'm struggling to see where all the power is going - it certainly doesn't look much better on a normal PAL set with standard RGB. Loads of aliasing and filtering artifacts still. Contrary to what most Xbox fanboy simpletons say i'd much rather have 60FPS - and anyone that says they cant notice any speed differences between this and PGR or say F-Zero need to get their eyes tested. Although saying that it is still perfectly playable - just rather have faster speeds, especially since i'm stuck with standard crap PAL and cant benefit from Progressive Scan modes.

As for the AI, my god what a bunch of retards. All they do is drive into you. If you're in front they drive into you from behind, if you're going through a corner they drive into your side. And the most minute of touches sends you careering into the scenery. I tried knocking the AI from behind and they stay totally in control as if they're glued to the road. It's pathetic.

Handling wise it's hard to say as two of the cars are old monsters which i can imagine would be incrediably hard to control, but the Skyline seems to have had some serious rear end grunt given to it. In PGR and MSR it was very easy to control (and conversely harder to get high Kudos) but they seem to have changed it's driving model somewhat. I would have prefered a low powered car like the Focus or Beetle to test out different powers of cars.

I really dont know what to make of it to be honest - my purchase now depends on how good the Live options are.

[Max M]

As for the AI, my god what a bunch of retards. All they do is drive into you. If you're in front they drive into you from behind, if you're going through a corner they drive into your side. And the most minute of touches sends you careering into the scenery. I tried knocking the AI from behind and they stay totally in control as if they're glued to the road. It's pathetic.

ft: Not again. Why couldn't they have just used the MSR AI? It was perfect, it's just not fun to have other cars constantly ramming you so you spin around and are facing the wrong way. It's meant to be a racing game, not destruction derby.

[Smeghead]

[Contrary to what most Xbox fanboy simpletons say i'd much rather have 60FPS - and anyone that says they cant notice any speed differences between this and PGR or say F-Zero need to get their eyes tested.

you CAN have a 30fps game moving just as fast as a 60fps game, it's just that the screen doesn't update as often taking the smoothness out. I love 60fps racing games, even if the graphics are more basic, the smoothness imo more than compensates.

Tbh, PGR2 sounds like MSR with **** AI with ropey framerate from tyre smoke an what not. I think PGR1 will prolly for me at least be more visually pleasing than PGR2 if only for the frame rate. PGR1 "looked" perfect to me, bar a few dodgey textures and a bit of off rendering, all PGR2 needed for me was better AI, if it fails to deliver on that...then meh :/

[Jashin]

So what happened to the supposedly 'locked' 30fps then?

[YOUWIN]

hmmm..

played the demo this afternoon - and it wasn't for hours,as i thought it would be.... my enthusiasm(sp?) for PGR2 has dropped considerably, framrate does affect the overal effect (if that makes sense), and like Neil has already said it seems sooooo slow, perhaps thats just down to the given car, and track on the demo tho.
Graphically it seems crisper than PGR i spose, but not such a'large'a leap as i was expecting to see.

Have also been playing Quantum Redshift lots, and that game really throws the effects around the screen, blisteringly fast, in master mode - (redshift yet to be unlocked)
framerate is rock solid no matter wtf is going on, fantastic graphics, tracks, 5.1 sound, an all round superb racer and now an old game - perhaps its a wierd comparison but i just can't see where all the enhanced graphics are in PGR2 to lock the frame rate down to 30 -

b4 someone else says it - I guess we should remember that its only a demo

did i mention that it feels slow.........

[Freddo]

just did some digging around on the cd, there are ini files u can use to unlock some extra stuff and what-not, but most relevantly this seems to be an E3 build, or it says so in the ini files anyway.

[Shimmyhill]

Played it some more this afternoon and im still liking it - however the AI really is getting me down. I mean the time trial is so much fun and you can really chuck the car about but as soon as im in a race the damm AI drivers kill all the fun - sometimes in the first corner.

For example - there is a really fast left hand corner that you can take full whack, the cpu on the other hand can not. So i fly into first place only for the cpu to draft me (which was quite impressive) get alongside me and then as a right hander was comming up he just barged into me to get in the left hand lane ready for the corner Literally midway thru a overtake the script told him to get back in line for the corer - no matter that i was there. Needless to say my 1 tonne 4wd car with the most advanced car stability computer on this earth clipped the barrier and spun out of control.

I think the saving grace is that this time its online so at least if a human does it i can shout at them !!!!!

However without AI cars the game is supurb and still a defi buy for me.

And i just remembered the xbox is in 50Hz due to halo, ill try it in 60hz cos tbh 30fps is very dissapointing at the mo and is affecting the overall game. As someone has said there are games with similar gfx @ 60fps and did the xbox hit its ceiling graphically on launch day ?? I have also noticed the smoke etc does affect the framerate, maybe it will be fixed before release but it is the big flaw with the Nvidia based gfx, they do not like doing multiple affects on a single pass. I belive this is the reason for 30fps as on the GC most effects are free (ish) and you seem to get much better spot efects.

Is it still out 28/11 ??

[Hodge]

did i mention that it feels slow.........

Try playing the complete game in an enzo ferrari and Porsche GT3 and say that. Even by the demo it didn`t really feel any slower than gotham and the skyline wasn`t particularly fast on gotham anyway compared to the ferraris. Also i can`t see how people can moan about the framerate now after seeing it in action as it doesn`t detract from the gameplay as the car is still as responsive as gotham and am still setting good lap times (managed a 1.16.500 on time attack in the dino). As for the slowdown i read on the bizarre creation forums that there was tweaking still going on after this demo and that the slowdown problems have been rectified in the final release. I`ve also been thinking to myself over the past month why i`m so hung up about the technical aspects of a game as i never used to be 10 years ago and just used to play a game for what it was. And if technical aspects are all that your nit picking at then you can`t really be enjoying the game? AI fair enough as it does have an effect on the game but if the framerate is smooth and the car is responsive and handles well (which it does with being one of the biggest gotham fans around) isn`t that all that should matter?

[Prine]

About Online mode

From CVG

But - and there was a but - with the code we were able to play, we came away slightly disappointed by a rather twitchy gameplay experience. Racing was mostly smooth, but opponent's cars were prone to suddenly jumping to random points on the track, and there was some disappointing pop-up in evidence. With deadline approaching with alarming alacrity, could Bizarre iron out these key problems in time?

The simple answer is a glorious, resounding "Yes!" We spent an hour racing against battle-hardened Microsoft employees yesterday in the finalised network build and can happily report that everything is now running perfectly. No lag, no pop-up, just a racing experience every bit as fluid and compelling as you could have hoped for.

The Liverpool lads have done a fantastic job is smoothing out the flaws and tweaking everything to perfection, making Project Gotham Racing 2 an absolutely essential title if you own Xbox Live. And while the brilliant, comprehensive single-player game requires no introduction, if you're a racing fan and haven't got into Live yet, do it

[evilmatt]

I just did a little test, played the PGR2 demo Skyline level a few times, then booted up PGR1 and had a couple of races in a Skyline. Two points:
1) Anyone saying 2 doesn't look much better than 1, obviously hasn't played 1 recently! It looks almost... cartoony in comparison. Much more 'real' and complex look to 2, and I think the depth of field does an awful lot for that.
2) 2 is definitely slower than 1, and cars feel a lot heavier. It's very noticeable if you do a comparison for yourself as I did. Whether thats a real problem or not, I don't know... the Skyline was a fairly middle order car in PGR1, maybe its a very early car in PGR2, who knows. But it'll be interesting to see if the Enzo will feel as fast as the F50 did in PGR.

Having said that, I've enjoyed the demo immensely and am still looking forward to the finished game more than anything else due the rest of this year.

Oh, and I still don't get where the accusations of '****' AI come from Aggressive, yes, but then you should just fight fire with fire And learn to control the car in skids Saying they stick to the racing line like brainless automatons is nothing like what I've seen in PGR1 or 2....

[Hodge]

I agree with you on the AI side matt. I didn`t find it **** as they make you work for your win unlike another certain racing game which shall remain name less *cough GT*. If people are struggling with the AI then there 3 ways to over come it. 1. go faster (i managed to get platinum medal with a 2 second lead) or 2. give them a taste of there own medicine. 3. go on a lower difficulty. I also find the AI quite neat how the cpu cars can take each other out as well which i`ve seen a few times on the demo. At the end of the day i`d rather them give me a challenge than no challenge at all.