Guest review by: Geoff Osman
Project Gotham Racing 2 (MXB)
Hey bitches! I’m back from the dead! To celebrate this wonderful occasion let me review a game that has been dropping my grades like crazy since I’ve gotten back to school. Over the summer I picked up an Xbox and one of my favorites in my already fast growing collection is Project Gotham Racing 2. This is one of the best racers I have played in years! Now let me school your asses on why.
First off, its fun! Pick it up and play, that’s all there is too it. Tons of cars that can take you millennia to unlock all of them, and online play. The single player keeps you going for one main reason: the kudos. They have brought back the kudos points from the first one only now you don’t lose points by running into other cars. Instead the only time you can lose kudos is if you run into the walls, which is easier said than done. Kudos points get you rankings which in turn give you kudos tokens. These tokens are what you use to get new cars. Then the process starts over with your new car trying to get more tokens and so on. This game isn’t total arcade style like Underground where hitting the breaks is a felony, and it’s definitely not a simulation game like your GT series. Instead Project Gotham sits comfortably in the middle, like an arcade/sim hybrid. The AI unfortunately isn’t the smartest in the world and they hug a straight line, like coke attics. However if you want to race people that’s no problem at all in fact that’s where the racing aspect shines. There is four player split screen. Not good enough for you, ok, then LAN party your Xboxes together and get some killer racing with all your friends. Still not good enough for your whiney asses? Ok then, lets add Xbox Live in there where the racers are so challenging I now piss my pants whenever I go up against some of these pros. As you can see this game is about racing, sliding around bends, getting new cars, and just having fun.
Now lets talk about controls. It’s a racing game so obviously it’s simple. There is a gas button. There is a break button and you steer with the analog stick. Simple. Once you get the hang of that you can move up to a manual and try out the hand break for some nice moves, along with shifting buttons. All of these are easy to get a hang of and after about five minutes of playing you are fairly ready to race. Just don’t go up against people who have been playing a while. I think the phrase is “easy to learn—hard to master”.
As for the sound—GREAT! I have no problems with the engine the sound of breaking and of course the crashing sounds. The soundtrack on the game is typical but that’s no problem. The game comes with the custom soundtrack option. Now you decide what music you race to and therefore the music is as good as your own taste. (Try the Enzo while listening to the Animaniacs soundtrack—hilarity at its finest.)
Visual-wise I was a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong the game looks great and is a huge step up from PGR1. But there are such beautiful racing games out there with such vivid detail. I would have like to see that kind of effort put into PGR2 but instead we get nice looking cars with mediocre scenery. Underground and GT look so nice even on systems that can’t handle as much visuals as the Xbox. Why PGR2 didn’t up the ante is beyond me.
Replay Value of this game is also great. I got this game late in August and my suitemates and I don’t take it out of the system, except for Halo parties. This game won’t get old, much like the GT series. Want to race a bit and listen to your favorite Animaniacs soundtrack at the same time, PGR2 is your answer!
