| Project Gotham Racing 3 |
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| | Developer(s) | Bizarre Creations | | Publisher(s) | Microsoft | | Series | Project Gotham Racing series | | Platform(s) | Xbox 360 | | Release date |  November 22, 2005
 December 2, 2005
 January 12, 2006
| | Genre(s) | Racing | | Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer | | Rating(s) | ESRB: 10+
PEGI: 3+
CERO: All ages | | Input methods | Gamepad, Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel |
Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3 for short) is an arcade-style racing game that was released with the launch of the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005 for the US market and December 2, 2005 in Europe, and was released on January 12, 2006 in Japan. Developed by Bizarre Creations, it is the third installment in the Project Gotham Racing series. Project Gotham Racing 3 was rated by Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) to be Xbox 360 "Game Of The Year" (2005). OXM also recently rated it "Best 1st Person (Not Shooter) of the Year", because of its realistic inside-car view. This game was featured on the Xbox 360 demo in stores. A sequel has been released under the title Project Gotham Racing 4.
CitiesPGR3 offers players four cities to race through: Tokyo, Las Vegas, New York and London, as well as the NĂĽrburgring.
CarsPGR3 features 80 licensed cars from over 30 manufacturers such as Ferrari, Dodge and Lamborghini. In PGR2 the car models were comprised of 10,000 polygons and damage looks like it was made of clay, but with the next generation hardware's power Bizarre's modelers have been able to put as many as 105,000 polygons worth of detail into the cars, although it was initially stated that most cars comprise of 80,000- with 40,000 of those being spent on the exterior and the remaining 40,000 on the interior, Bizarre issued a statement of apology stating that the average polygons per car is actually closer to 96,000. The increased polygon count allows for smoother, less jagged-shaped cars than in earlier games. Of the 80 cars in the game, 71 are unlocked and available for play at the start of a new game, while the remaining 9 (prototypes, one-offs, and concept) cars are left for the player to unlock after attaining a new rank in their career count of earned Kudos. On April 14, 2006 Bizarre made the PGR3 Speed Pack containing 12 new cars available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. On May 22, 2006 Bizarre and Microsoft formed an advertising deal with Cadillac to feature four of Cadillac's cars in PGR3, all available on Live Marketplace for free (three were also available in-game for free). On July 12, 2006, the third downloadable car pack for PGR3, the Style Pack was released with a total of twelve cars and made available for a small number of points. Unlike PGR2, where new cars were bought using Kudos Tokens (gained by reaching accumulated Kudos milestones known as Kudos Ranks), new cars are bought with virtual cash (credits) in PGR3. Credits are gained by winning online races, earning Kudos, which are like style points and winning offline tournaments. The cars in the game retail for their rough real-world showroom value. Also unlike PGR2, there are no Porsches to be found, apart from one which can be purchased once one has earned 90,000 "Kudos" in career mode.But to make up for the lack of Porsches, Porsche-based RUF is used, originally reserved for Gran Turismo. This is due to the licensing agreement between Porsche and Electronic Arts games. Unlike PGR2, which focuses on production vehicles, PGR3 focuses on supercars. The series would, however, return to production cars in the fourth installment.
Car classesSimilar to its prequels, each car in PGR3 is allocated to a specific class. There are five classes, A through E, the high performance cars being Class A, and the low performance cars in Class E.
MultiplayerPGR3 allows multiplayer offline with up to two players on one Xbox 360 console or more players via System Link. PGR3 offers online integrated scoreboards for single player career events as well as Time Trials and test track times. Gamers with Xbox Live Gold are able to race with up to seven other competitors in races online. Online career (ranked) and playtime (unranked) are both offered as online multiplayer modes. Scoreboards also track standings for online career. PGR3 also allows for online tournaments, the first of which was the PGR3 Global Tournament, won by a Swedish player.
GothamTVPGR3 has a new feature known as GothamTV. With this, gamers connected to the Xbox Live service are able to watch selected online career races. Live ticker-tape information is also available providing information on when top racers are on GothamTV or when a gamer breaks track records. Up to 30,000 Xbox Live spectators are able to watch a selected race.
KudosKudos once again play an important part in Project Gotham. Kudos points are given for stylish driving, for example drifting around a corner, drafting, or getting two or four wheels off the ground. Different sets of points can be linked using a combo, by performing more stylish maneuvers before the Kudos become 'banked' (in PGR2 this cut-off time was 2 seconds). When combos are linked up, you are given a bonus for keeping them linked together, and this builds up to huge amounts if the combo is held for a substantial length of time. This bonus is however lost if the player crashes into any barriers, though the base Kudos (all but the combo bonus) are kept.
TournamentsPGR3 is also included in the Championship Gaming Series and the World Cyber Games .
SoundtrackIn the first two installments, there were radio stations in each city. However PGR3 does not offer any of the city's radio stations like in the first two games.
ReviewsThe game scores 88% on Game Rankings based on 92 reviews. The game scored 88% on Metacritic based on 74 reviews (based on 94 votes from metacritic.com users, Project Gotham Racing scored 8.2 out of 10). The game also scored 92% from Xbox World 360, with it being one of the only 13 to be rated above 90%.
Geometry Wars: Retro EvolvedPGR2 featured a well known Easter egg, a player could play an old arcade machine type game named Geometry Wars. The game has been revamped by Bizarre Creations for inclusion in PGR3. It is similar to the classic games Asteroids and Robotron: 2084, though far more advanced graphically whilst keeping the same basic gameplay aesthetic. This hidden mini-game even features its very own Xbox Live scoreboard. It is also downloadable on Xbox Live Arcade.
References- ^ Bizarre Says Project Gotham 4 Will Go Even Faster. Official Xbox Magazine (UK). Retrieved on 2006-11-29.
- ^ http://www.bizarreonline.net/news_article.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=61
External links- PGR3 official site
- Bizarre Creations' consumer site
- Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved official site
| Project Gotham Racing video games |
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| Metropolis Street Racer · Project Gotham Racing · 2 · 3 · 4
Project Gotham Racing Mobile |
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