Gotham Nights

Game: Project Gotham Racing
System: Microsoft Xbox
Release date: November 9, 2001
Developed by: Bizarre Creations
Published by: Microsoft Game Studios

Like fighting games, racing games belong to a genre which produces a lot of gems and a lot of duds and it's not always easy to sort the good from the bad. Because racing games rely so much on play control, physics and track design (and thus can't get by simply with superior graphics and storytelling), there are few things as frustrating as a bad racing game, few things as rewarding as a good racing game.

Project Gotham Racing (PGR), an early Xbox release, is one of the good ones. While not as comprehensive as titles like Gran Turismo, PGR still delivers a ultra-realistic racing experience with some truly gorgeous graphics and lighting effects.

The courses in PGR are divided among four cities: Tokyo, London, San Francisco and New York City. Each city has several districts, which are subdivided into dozens of circuits. At the player's disposal are over twenty-five high-performance cars, including Corvettes, Porsches, Ferraris and Aston Martins. As players complete races and earn medals, more and more cars become available.


PGR features several game modes: Quick Race, Arcade, Time Attack, Kudos Challenge and Multiplayer. Quick Race is a standard race against computer-controlled drivers; Arcade mode requires players to accumulate "Kudos," bonus points awarded for completing stylish maneuvers and stunts, in order to proceed. The central mode of PGR, however, is Kudos Challenge, which encompasses twelve levels and nine different types of racing challenges: average speed, overtake challenge, street race, etc.

Lastly, PGR allows players to choose among several virtual radio stations while driving their cars; alternatively they can import music from their personal music collections to create a virtual CD.

Score: 89/100