PGR4 shows off an all-new career mode, dynamic weather system and PGR On Demand. The game also features some exotic locations, including St. Petersburg, Shanghai, and Macau, plus a revised kudos system.
GenreRacing
Platforms xbox360
DEVELOPER Bizarre Creations | PUBLISHER Codemasters | RELEASE DATE
Project Gotham Racing 4 Reviews xbox360
jolt.co.uk review
No Synopsis Available
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game-over.com review
I found the revamped cone challenge mode to be a welcome change of pace, while the bulldog mode has resulted in some of the most fun I’ve had online with the series yet, as everyone just scatters before eventually being caught. It’s great fun, and a perfect showcase for how social the game can be. The superstar mode is an absolute blast – most of its challenge comes from chaining your kudos together, and not so much the actual achievement of the goal (which is really quite easy once you master kudos chaining). My biggest thrill with it was definitely getting a 1,200 kudos chain, which is by the far the highest amount of kudos I’ve ever racked up at once in this series.
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worthplaying.com review
At first, the variety of game modes may seem restrictive, but playing around reveals enormous depth that can easily turn the desire to just try and clear a few races into an hours-long, sleep-destroying marathon game session. The single-player modes are the aptly named Arcade, Gotham Career, Time Attack and Custom Match. Time Attack is entirely self-explanatory, while Custom Match allows the player and the computer to get in a quick racing fix by designing a particular challenge, using the same options available for customization in any multiplayer matches. What’s interesting about Custom Match is that it lets players focusing on the single-player mode us the elite A-class vehicles they’ve unlocked much earlier than they would be able to otherwise, and it’s also the best mode for playing around with the G-class oddities like the DMC-12 (the DeLorean of "Back to the Future" fame) and the Mini Cooper G (from the original "Italian Job").
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cheatcc.com review
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computerandvideogames.com review
Cone gate challenges are gone, having been replaced by the (more fun) Cone Sprint event, which has you speeding around a lap littered with cones in as quick a time as you can, with three-second penalties introduced for every cone you hit. There’s also a new Cove Attack challenge, in which you race around a course ploughing into clusters of cones to hit down a target number within a time limit. It’s all good fun
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gamer20.com review
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gameshark.com review
The Kudos points you gain can be spent in the titles version of a store, with various packages for sale to unlock different cars or bikes to use as well as helmet and livery styles, additional tracks, and other goodies. Like many other racing games the roster of vehicles ranges from more run of the mill entries that you can find out on your streets all the way up to high end Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Unlike many racing games however is the fact that nearly right off the bat the player has access to some pretty high end hardware. While this does make the game easier to just jump right in and race around in an exotic vehicle, at the same time there is never a real reason to race any of the lower end cars.
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eurogamer.net review
Both single-player offerings are surprisingly vast, too, despite their potential to diminish one another, and offer satisfyingly diverse paths into the game. Both are accessible thanks to the range of available difficulty brackets, but neither discriminates particularly. Arcade simply lets you dial the challenge up or down task by task, while Career asks you to choose an over-arching difficulty.
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gamestyle.com review
With that last sentence the emphasis is on the "may have", because while we have no doubt that this is better than 3 we’re still not 100% certain if its better than 2, which is a game we regularly played online right up to the arrival of the Xbox 360 years later. Time will tell. Whats helped is that Bizarre Creations have given the series a bit of a spring clean. The medal system has been shoved to the side and into the arcade mode, with a new calendar based career being at the heart of it all. Not unlike the EA sports licenses, the calendar shows what races are happening in the coming months. Once a racing event comes along you have the choice of playing in each specific tournament depending on how high up the ranking table you are.
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thunderboltgames.com review
Cars and ridiculously high speeds are the defining features of the PGR experience, and 4 doesn’t disappoint – it kicks into overdrive with fuel capped boots. There is a range of classes to choose from, with the lowest including such classic motors as the ‘Austin Mini Cooper S’ and the ‘Lotus Cortina’, and the highest introducing horsepower behemoths like the ‘Ferrari FXX’ and the ‘Caparo T1’, life really does begin at 170mph with these beasts. There’s no shortage on choice here, the roster is tantalisingly full. Each class represents a refreshingly different change of pace, you’re always having to apply different tactics to your favourite courses, of which all of PGR3’s make a return, along with a fresh batch of new courses in the form of four cities (Macau, St. Petersburg, Quebec and Shanghai), and a fictional test track.
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videogamer.com review
The amount of content in PGR4 is deserving of thousands and thousands of words, but hopefully you get the picture: PGR4 is a brilliant racing game. It’s got some issues still, with the lengthy load times and a fair amount of re-used content from PGR3 likely to turn away a few gamers, but it remains the Xbox 360’s premier racing title. Whether you want to play alone or with friends over Xbox LIVE, PGR4 won’t disappoint. Whoever steps into Bizarre’s shoes for PGR5 has an almost impossible task as PGR4 could well be the best racer you’ll play this gen.
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totalvideogames.com review
Away from the online and career, the arcade mode provides 10 chapters of six bike and car challenges. With the option of platinum, gold, silver, and bronze medals dictating the difficulty of the challenge, the arcade mode feels a lost closer to previous PGRs and adds a further layer of long-term replay value to a game that’s already heavy with content.
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palgn.com.au review
The inclusion of bikes into the series for the first time is something that has been met with a lot of skepticism. The fear was that they wouldn’t fit the style of the game or handle with the same degree of satisfaction that the cars do. At first it’s hard not to agree with those same fears as you hit the walls for the twelfth time during the first lap. But give them time and learn how you’re supposed to ride them, because once it ‘clicks’ they’re great fun to ride around on and offer something fresh to the game, especially in Arcade mode where there are medals specifically for bikes as well as cars.
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actiontrip.com review
Surprisingly, the weather effects would never drastically change the racing conditions. In this case, however, this is a good thing. Being arcade in nature, the driving feels very unforced and fluent, with clear emphasis on fun and the skill factor as it relates to game design. Sure, your car will handle differently on a slippery road, but this is also fine-tuned not to feel realistic, but fun within the rules of good game design.
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gametrailers.com review
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atomicgamer.com review
The online observing features in PGR3 were quite interesting, but PGR On Demand takes it further by allowing players to take photos during their games as well as save replays, upload them, and vote on others’ photos and replays. And much like YouTube’s hottest videos, those with the most votes get bumped up to the top for all to see. Throw in nice touches like the ability to place photos you’ve taken on the walls of your garage, and even the ability to play a new version of the Xbox Live Arcade hit Geometry Wars (this one is called Geometry Wars: Waves and is a little stripped down, but it also ramps up difficulty more smoothly than Retro Evolved did) whenever you pop over to your garage, and this one seems like it’ll have the longevity to last easily until the next Project Gotham Racing title.
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nzgamer.com review
PGR’s strong point has always been multiplayer. PGR 2 helped launch Xbox Live and both it and PGR 3 were applauded for really boosting the profile and community feel of the service. Everything has received a touch up here and there, and what the user is presented with is PGR On Demand, a service which lets you search for any race running, or view stored footage based on track, times, kudos etc. Add this to the solid racing component, and you’re presented with a neat online multiplayer package.
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gamezone.com review
The second big inclusion of PGR4 is the new career mode that acts as a season mode of sorts. Allowing players to unlock new garages and challenges is a fantastic idea, but when players are only provided one chance to complete the task successfully, then the difficulty rises higher. In the past, players were able to retry over and over again until they were satisfied with the results. Now, with the one-shot-and-done method applied, players will have to accept their failure and move on to the next race. The only option is to quit before the race is finished and restart it – so be prepared to quit before the checkered flag if you are one of those players that needs to be first in every race. Before moving on, I don’t want to make it sound like the career mode is all doom and gloom – it’s an Ok career mode that I was praying they would venture forth to, but it’s just that it could’ve been applied to the PGR series in a much better way.
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extremegamer.ca review
Online PGR4 has everything that the last version had to offer with more options with the PGRTV which has been PGR on Demand to include race replays and pictures from the PGR community. Online the racing is as solid is ever and remains one of the most fun racing games online. Following a queue from Halo, PGR4 includes a party feature which helps keep the players you want coming back for some competitive online races. If you’re in for the long hall until the next PGR game is released, PGR4 has enough life to last another two years.
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gamerevolution.com review
PGR4 makes a lot of absurd decisions ranging from motorcycles to Lady Sovereign to unreadable menus to Quebec. While the core gameplay is the about the same as it has always been, the one good upgrade, the weather effects, isn’t enough to maintain PGR’s earlier decent showing. A rental, maybe, and only if Forza Motorsport and Test Drive: Unlimited are checked out
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