September 16, 2005 - Holy cow, what a difference a month can make! While we weren't overly impressed with the first time we laid our eyes on PGR 3 back in August, what we saw today was a totally different story. At a meeting just around the corner from the TGS convention center we saw what may be the best looking Xbox 360 game currently in development. Bizarre Creations hasn't been known to disappoint with the Project Gotham series, and the latest build of PGR 3 continues the trend. Besides the impressive visuals (it's living up to the screenshots in full motion, folks), we were also walked through some of the new features being implemented in this upcoming racer.
The first topic that Bizarre stressed was that gamers have more freedom with PGR3 than with their other games. For example, players can pick almost any car from the start of the game. The class system has been done away with in favor of a more open presentation. All vehicles are worth real life cash values and once players get the cash, they can own the wheels.
The cars are also a different breed from PGR 2. This time around team decided to go with a lineup of exotic speedsters. The developers stated that every car takes five to seven weeks to make, so they didn't want any clunkers in the mix. We're guessing this means there won't be any Ford Festivas earning kudos in this installment. Each ride can go at least 170 mph, and the track design accommodates this with long straights and wide turns that allow players to avoid constant brushes with the wall.
Bizarre has approached PGR 3 with the goal of making every player feel as though they are an expert racecar driver. The game is not trying to be a simulator by implementing punishing physics or touchy handling.
Career mode is made up of an offline solo career and an online challenge. The offline section contains some favorites from PGR 2 like drift challenge, cone challenge, and kudos challenge. Online modes supports up to eight players and takes advantage of Xbox Live's new matchmaking features on 360 that automatically adjusts the skill of a players competitors. Career modes reward players with trophies, badges of honor, and of course some cold hard cash.
Besides Xbox Live the game also supports split screen, system link, and an intuitive tool for creating a custom racecourse. Players can bring up a map of any of the selectable cities and set waypoints to build their own circuits or point-to-point races. There are 110 pre-made tracks by default, and the cities are two to three times as big in PGR 3 as they were in the last Gotham racer. This means that players literally have thousands of options when creating their own tracks to take online and share with the world.
When you finally settle on a location there are plenty of racing options. An Eliminator mode bumps the last driver on every lap and can also be applied to team races. This creates an interesting dynamic where teammates can work together to box in competitors and keep their side ahead of the pack. A Team Street Race sets red against blue in a combined race to the finish. Finally, Capture the Track breaks the course into segments and awards that section to whoever puts down the fastest time in that area. The team also hinted at a new mode that stopped time while players earned kudos encouraging fast but flashy driving. AI teammates and opponents can be added to any of these modes, making for wide dynamic of race options. Bizarre has said that adding content through Xbox Live is simple and fully expects to add more modes in the future.
PGR 3 has produced some incredible screenshots due to a robust photo mode that has been included in the game. This feature lets players stop at any place on the course and snap a shot of their ride or anything in the surrounding area. There is an auto focus, adjustable shutter speed, aperture, exposure, contrast, color, brightness, and sepia overlay. Photos can be stored on the hard drive just like any uploadable media.
All we can say after seeing the new build today is that we're ready to play the game. Unfortunately our excited pleas of "Can we play it? Can we play it? Can we play it?" were turned down (although, secretly, we think Bizarre wanted us to since it was looking so nice), but we should hopefully be able to play PGR 3 at X05 this October.
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