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A racer...but not the winner.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game stands out for its improved graphics I must say. However, this particular game isn't the winning racer for me. The variety of luxurious cars was pretty good, however it was the game play that really bombed. The hits cars take from each other was a little bit too "weak" and unrealistic. When a car bumps into another it wipes out very quickly, which seems unrealistic again (unless someone can verify that realism by driving over 170 mph on the streets).

I wasn't impressed much, the online game play against other races wasn't too bad and might be worth added to how the graphics are to score some pointers for the game, but it just wasn't all that. One thing that would be great is if the cars were customizable. But in this game, what car you buy is what you get, nothing to customize. Even a Grand Turismo (best racing simulator in my opinion) you can customize some aspects of the car, but not in PGR 3.

This game wasn't a seller, so I traded it back to get Need for Speed Most Wanted, which I must say would be much more my type of racing game. Overall, not that impressive of a racing game unless you just want to watch the 'stock' cars racing on your TV instead....

A fun 360 exclusive racer

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

PGR3 is a 360 exclusive title that came out at the same time as the console's launch. It is a racing game that was above and beyond what was available, in terms of graphics and sound, in that genre when it first came out. The graphics was better than any other racing game available due to the power of the 360. And the sound, when played through a capable audio system, really brought the engines of these exotic cars to life in your livingroom.

As I have said before in my review of the console itself, I do not like First-Person Shooters. I much prefer all of my games in the third-person perspective. Mainly, I prefer Japanese-style RPGs and Fighting games. I bought the 360 mainly because I wanted to experience XBox Live and see what the Marketplace had to offer, in terms of content. Once in a while, I will play a racing game even if the view perspective is not what I prefer in gaming. I make that exception because I love cars. And PGR3 is one of the few racing games that I enjoyed.

The most enjoyable aspect of the game for me is the chance to "drive" the exotic cars. Sure, it would be a whole lot more fun to drive them in real life, but Citan is not a man of means. The best he can do is to play simulations such as these on his video game consoles. And PGR3 is not the worst substitute for that sort of fantasy trip. However, do keep in mind that the best cars will not be available to you at the start of the game. You will basically have to earn (unlock) them in order for them to become available for you to use. But don't despair. You do have some interesting cars at the start, like a Lotus or a Honda/Acura for example.

How does the game play? You've got different modes that you can play. I have only played one mode. I do not own the racing wheel. I am having to make do with the wireless controller that came with the premium system. I am sure that takes away some of the realism. Yes, the car responds to controller. I have no complaints there. I just want a more realistic experience. I hope to be able to purchase a racing wheel at some point. The only negative there for most people is that the game is included when you buy the Microsoft racing wheel set. I knew that going in, so I am just borrowing the game from my friend. He owns the racing wheel set from Microsoft.

I recommend this game to you, if you like this genre. However, by this time, I am sure there are more games in the genre that can match this one in terms of graphics, sound, and all around realism. I would also recommend for you to buy the MS racing wheel set, which includes the game. It is expensive to buy. I can understand people hesitating. But, in my opinion, this type of game just doesn't feel right using the normal controller? Do you drive your car with a controller? No. So why should you drive a simulated car with a controller? There is no reason to do so if you can afford the racing wheel.

Somehow, it betters PGR2.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Anyway, PGR was always a brilliant idea. When it comes to that warning about not using these driving techniques in real-life that devs whack on the front of racing games these days, it lurks somewhere in the gap between Ridge Racer's "because you will die" allusions and GT's "because nobody's this good". When you clamp the accelerator and fishtail the back of the car and then wrestle it straight, it isn't just forgiving, it actually awards you points. Applying this to exiting tight turns and using a model that rewards sharp braking and traction loss was inspired.

It was inspired in Metropolis Street Racer, it was inspired in the first PGR. It's still inspired. It's not a realistic game - you bump and scrape when you should be deflating like a turbo-accordion, and the collisions between cars on the track and the AI drivers' apparent lack of concern about them and the way you're all bashing past each other is wrong, but that's easily overlooked because the core skill that it asks you to develop is so satisfying. And that clicking of the Kudos meter, which tots up points for drifting, drafting, riding the curb tightly, and comboing it all together and suchlike, tickles your ears with the promise of points to go with your podium positions.

PGR3 arrives on Xbox 360 with surprisingly little to add to the mechanics and structures that underpinned PGR2. Career mode allows you to pick one of five difficulty settings before tackling each challenge - and your daring or confidence in your ability informs the choice, because if you don't live up to the goal you've set you won't bank any points. Challenges range from racing and time trial affairs that are about speed to more technical cone and drift challenges that are about stringing Kudos-heavy moves together, and each adopts a different route through one of the game's city areas - London, Vegas, Tokyo, New York and Nurburgring (Ok so Nurburgring's not a city, but it might as well be for the distance and range it offers). On top of that, every single task synchs ever so elegantly with global leaderboards, so even the highest-ranked will have something more to push for.

Its principle divergence is in the way it separates these tasks from car classes. Now you simply go to a shop and buy yourself a car with credits earned by completing challenges - the idea being that you can use your favourite car throughout if you like. Along with the five grades of difficulty, this gives the game a level of accessibility that would've been alien in MSR or PGR, and even PGR2. You can make easier progress and move off tougher tasks by brushing them aside on lower difficulties, and the balance is such that even an accomplished racer will need to work for those Hard (gold) medals, which lurk tantalisingly just out of reach when you first attempt them, and their credit benefits, and Hardcore achievements are just that. Collecting cars as you go rather than having them prescribed will please everybody who ever whinged about the truck class in PGR2.

But you know what? I hate those bastards who whinged about the truck class, given what's happened. The concessions have bred profligacy by design. You gain enough credits by smashing through the relatively easy silver-medal band of races that you can amass a garage of Enzos, DBR9s, TVRs and other high-end machinery within a few short hours. The central Kudos mechanic of having to put your own imagined potential where your BHP is by selecting a target score before a race remains good - although personally I preferred the way you played with your shades of ambition by more closely defining your goals in the older games, half-second by half-second - but this is now more of a personal quest than a predefined one. It lacks incentives beyond the colours of medals, the ranks on Live and the badges you can earn that celebrate 360 spins and tasks completed in one combo. These are good incentives admittedly, but they're not as good as cars and new tracks were in the olden days.

PGR3 also plays with the separation of offline and online, and does this to better effect. Live's integration in single-player is limited to leaderboards and downloadable ghosts in Career mode (two of the best things ever done with Live, frankly), but now there's a distinct Online Career, with its own Live-specific Kudos-accumulation. There's a range of events to join in with at any given time. You can also set up your own Live races of course, in the game's Playtime area, and the way the game matches your connection speed and skill level to random opponents seems to work even at this early stage in the console's life.

The Route Creator, meanwhile, opens up a great many possibilities. It's simple to set up routes between start/finish and the waypoints available, and the results are easily distributable. But while the selection of cities is decent and the number of possibilities is barely conceivable (until a load screen somewhat comically suggests you "create over 100 million"), and nobody's questioning the devs' meticulousness in modelling each environment, the area covered is actually surprisingly small. Take London for example (since I live here) - the area covered is a fairly small section about ten minutes from my front door (by foot, mind you - not in a DBR9 or anything), and runs from Victoria Embankment through Trafalgar Square, loops round Piccadilly Circus without reaching upper Regent Street, and then circles back down to Pall Mall, St James's Park, and straight back to Big Ben. It's not that big. The Getaway's mapped area was many times the size and you could do the in-between bits. What is included works well - each city section features several memorable turns, straights and distinctive sections that combine to good effect, and to be fair Vegas and the winding sections of Tokyo feel more varied than London - but you have to wonder whether all that time wireframing buildings might have been better spent.

Which leads me inexorably to the question of how the game looks. This is undoubtedly the main thing people know about PGR3 at this point: the cars are enormously detailed, the environments are thoroughly mapped and modelled, and the visuals are presented in resolutions hitherto unseen on console hardware. And yeah, you've picked up on the tone - this is the point in the review where I say I don't think it makes as big a difference to the play experience as everyone's been so breathlessly declaring elsewhere.

Someone asked me a whole bunch of questions about PGR3's graphics yesterday. If it was true that the tarmac was virtually photo-realistic, if it was true all the pedestrians were 3d models, if it was true that you could stop and read the hoardings on the buildings, and see the light bouncing off windows and so on. Frankly I don't really know. My recollection of the tarmac is that it passes under me like a blurry grey conveyor belt, because I'm moving so damn fast. The spectators I only see when I stop, and that's only when I've screwed up, and when that's the case they're hardly my priority. The things you notice are the big things - the sun creeping over the skyscrapers in Shinjuku, the incredibly pronounced and sometimes blinding effect when you emerge from tunnels, the trees lining a road, the wealth of scenery. In terms of providing a world around the track, PGR3 goes the furthest so far, and yes, everything's presented in ways that other consoles can't present it, in a game that even PC owners who can reach these visual heights haven't much to compare directly to.

But you're only really going to notice where most of the grunt went in replays. Or on Gotham TV. The latter is a nice idea, but kind of ignores the unspoken truth about replay modes: they are boring. Watching the best of the best do their stuff is interesting, but watching eight mediocre players bashing into each other is not. Being one of as many as 30,000 people doing so simultaneously is a technical accomplishment, not an extra point on the score. Then if you look around, you're forced to admit that the spectators are automatons, and the trees aren't moving. It's quite a sterile environment, for all its definition and the wealth of objects outside the track boundaries.

But let's say you view it as a spectacular whole - even at this, for the most part the enormous amounts of incidental detail presuppose that you aren't actually racing. When you are, the key things are being able to see the next corner, or the next cone gate distinctly, and here the game is no better than any other. You'll notice far more impressive effects and depth of background material than you ever have before, and when you fiddle with that Photo viewer mode and actually marvel at the vehicle exteriors, you'll be hard pressed to think of another car model that includes as much. It's like watching those GT videos before Polyphony actually had to run them through the ancient PS2 graphics tech.

But we do still truly love the clicking of the Ferrari.
Hop into the cockpit view, which many are eulogising, and you'll certainly feel more immersed than you have elsewhere, owing thanks to the terrific engine sounds and enormous amount of in-car detail. But it's also kind of peculiar, because when you're in a car you don't find that half of your view is taken up by steering wheel, dashboard and the frame of the car; you focus on what's outside of the windscreen. The windscreen filter here is lovely, but unless you really divorce yourself from the interior modelling it feels more like you're leaning forward from the backseat, and the viewing window is quite restrictive. In the end I preferred the bumper cam, as I often do, not least because it's much easier to get a handle on the precise demands of the Kudos challenges and see what's coming when the track ahead fills the whole screen.

Let's give it its dues: when played from this perspective, PGR3 is an excellent, well-refined racing game. Cone Challenges, Drift Challenges, Street Races, Hot Laps, Eliminators, Time vs Kudos (where you stop the ticking down of the clock by playing up to the Kudos system - an excellent idea) - all are good, most are ridiculously compulsive thanks to the superb balancing of the medal targets, so much so that you'll happily pause and restart them every time you spin off and the chap ahead quickly builds up an unassailable lead. And while the range of challenges will probably feel a bit narrow to people who have stuck with the series since its birth on the Dreamcast, the temptation to try and scale those greater heights will appeal to the arcade mentality that still lurks within a lot of players.

Must have, though it may collect some dust...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Two words: AMAZING graphics! The ONLY downside is gameplay. If you are like me you will easily get bored with this game after much play. The car is virtually indestructible, and the vehicle controls take some getting used to. While the game has a lot to offer, I would recommend that you rent this one, or (better yet) buy it used. Admittedly I must say you will spend many hours enjoying this title, despite the very few shortcomings.

To PS2 fans, think GT3 and you'll get a pretty good idea what this game is about!

Magic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I recently brought this game having read many reviews from other players of PGR3. I found that the reviews were all different, but having played it myself, i can now say that you should take no notice of the 'poor' reviews because they aren't true!

From the moment i first played it, i was hooked. The graphics - great, gameplay - great, online - great, every thing about the game was as good as it could be. Please dont pay any attention to reviews whch say things like, "You can't take a turn without hitting the sides" because that is NOT true!

The fact that once you have brought a car, you can always use it is OK, but it is helpful to have, especially if you are somebody like me who trys to complete everything on 'Hardcore' difficulty and achieve platinum medals.

If you are a keen gamer, explore the game more, and are up for a good challenge, then this is the game for you.

Great Racing Title

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you love cars like myself then you will appreciate being able to drive in the cars that most of us will never be able to afford. The graphics are outstanding, every car has a little description and the fact that you can testdrive every car is good and bad. I personally dont like it cause it takes away from the surprise factor that comes when you get a new better car and drive it for the first time. Its kind of a let down if when at the beggining of the game you decide to test drive the best car and then youre dissapointed when you can only afford something else. But thats pretty much the only flaw that singleplayer has, the kudos system is great rewarding you for basically being a good racer, ie taking turns really well, going so far without hitting anything etc. theres alot of cars to chosse from and 24 more available to download i hate paying for extras but even i couldnt resist the style pack that came with the bmw m6 and m3,online play is great and what you would expect, word to the wise if you like to pimp out your cars this is not the game for you. all the original cars in the game all exceed 200mph and are exotic so they are fine the way they are, sorry need for speed fans not a street racer game with all the rims and car tatoos. If you want a pure racing game and love cars its the next best thing to having a garage full of them.

Great but imperfect launch title

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This review is coming from a guy who is waiting with baited breath for Forza Motorsports 2 to come out, so take it with a grain of salt.

Things I really liked:
- Stunning Graphics: The backgrounds, cityscapes, people, car models, everything, really take it up a notch.

- Immersion: the in-car view is customized for each car, and is probably the single most impressive aspect of this game. I've never felt more "in the car."

- Online: Cat and most is some of the most fun I've had online.

- Gameplay: This isn't as "arcady" as you might think. It's no Forza, but it seems a little more realistic perhaps than PGR2, for example. It's a pretty satisfying driver, even for a Forza junkie.

Things I didn't like:

- Kudos: Ok, that's just part of the game, but I'm into racing, not tricks. Guess I'll have to wait for GTR or Forza to not have to deal with that nonsense.

- Menus: If you back out of an online game, it takes you back too many menus . . kind of wierd, and frustrating.

- Online: You can't tell if the game is in progress, so very often you're throwin in to a game where you're "watching" the other racers finish up. That's not too big of a deal because most races don't last that long.

- Load times: probably a function of Microsoft's idiotic decision to not make a hard drive mandatory, so the game apparently isn't tuned to stream data to it. You'll spend more time than you're used to looking at load screens than you did with the original XBOX.

- Tracks: the ones they have look great, would have liked some licensed tracks (Road America, Road Atlanta, etc), or at least more variety.

Bottom Line: Now at 29 bucks, probably soon to be a platinum hit (20 bucks), this is a steal, and if you're a racing fan this is almost a must-have, at least until Forza 2 or GTR comes out.

Great Racing Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Great graphics. Great gameplay. I really enjoy driving games and this does not disappoint. The controls are easy to use and the visuals are outstanding. I like to watch replays of my races becasue it looks that good.

I highly recommend this game to all that like racing games.

The closest I'll ever get to driving a Ferrari

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was trying to decide between this game and Forza Motorsport 2.
Both have great graphics and solid gameplay, but I actually chose PGR 3 because of what it lacks: ultra-realistic car physics.

PGR 3 is very forgiving when it comes to driving. You'll still find yourself slamming into barriers if you try and take corners too quickly, but you can still take them quicker than you can in Forza 2, where the individual car physics are real-life.

I would have liked more car customization, as being able to solely pick from solid car colors is a bit drab.
The number of cars you can purchase is incredible, with even more that can be purchased from the XBLM.

With PGR4 coming out soon, you should be able to find this title on the cheap (I bought mine used for $15.) If you don't have it yet, now would be a perfect time to get it. If anything, it'll make you even more hungry for the next PGR installment.

Great racing title, Bizzare finally got the picture.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: February 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you read my review about PGR on the regular XBOX, you would see that I was VERY dissatisfied with the game, mainly due to the fact that the game focused too much on Kudos, and not actual racing, in addition, there was only one difficulty level on the game, PMI (Pretty Much Impossible). Don't get me wrong I like difficult games, but not difficult to the point were it becomes tedious due to cheesy AI and having to start all over again if you make ONE mistake. Not my idea of fun in the least. Add to that that the Kudos aspect which made it more important to do stupid tricks rather than race. PGR1 was only for super hardcore racers that have tons of hours each day to master, I like most people I suspect, don't have the time to spend THAT much time on one game, or on video games period. I hated PGR1, so much that I didn't even raise an eyebrow when PGR2 came out. I didn't even raise an eyebrow when PGR3 came out, but after downloading the free demo from XBOX Live, I saw the game was actually kind of fun, and playable. I decided to rent it a few days later and the very next day I was convinced and went out and bought it.

As usual the graphics in PGR3 are downright spectacular. The attention to detail was done so well that the cars and the entire racing experience look pretty much lifelike. The reflections coming off the cars react to the actual environment, instead of some generic reflection effect. The actual race environments look real as well and it seems you are actually racing through the street of NYC or Vegas. The crowds are the only downside, but going 100+ MPH most of the time, you won't have time to sit there any really analyze them. One cool thing the crowd does is that if you happen to crash into a wall, the people standing right behind the barrier will back up and give you a funny look. Another cool thing about PGR3 is that they have AUTHENTIC cockpit view, in which you can switch the camera to inside of the car and you will see the actual steering wheel, dashboard, center console of the real life counterparts. You can even look around in the interior while you are driving using the right thumb stick. If you are about to get passed by the Ferrari on your right (or left), using the right thumb stick you can literally turn your head to the driver or passenger windows to see as they pass by. VERY COOL! If you choose the Manual transmission option (which I always do) you can actually see the driver's hands leave the steering wheel to shift to the next gear in cars that have the gear box in the floor. Cars that have the F1 paddle shift you will see the driver's finger flick the appropriate paddle. For cars that only come in Automatic, the drivers hands will be on the steering wheel at all times. I have had the opportunity to drive 6 of these cars in this game in real life on open mountain roads in North Georgia (Ferrari F430, Ford GT, Lamborghini Gallardo, Masserati Grandsport, Bentley GT, Corvette Z06, and I can tell you that this game has the interiors down to the smallest detail. One thing I wish the game had was being able to do turn completely around while you are driving (or watching a replay) so you would be able to see the engine behind you in cars like the Ferrari and Lambo. There is some damage done to your cars during racing, but nothing too extreme. Very frequently your mirrors, tail lights and headlights will get smashed, and if you ram into a wall or get rammed too many times, your hood and trunk become bent and will pop open slightly during the course of the race. Some may want more damage, but it doesn't bother me too much.

The sound is also topnotch. Each car's engine sounds pretty much like the real thing as well as screeching tires. Cranking the volume up on your surround sound system and hearing the engines roar gives me an adrenalin boost every single time, it makes me want to push the car harder just so I can continue to hear that lovely sound. I love spinning the tires when I am just playing around and was even expecting to smell the burning rubber on the asphalt. The game also comes with a wide range of music choices to listen to while you are driving, you can also use your music on your 360's hard drive, an IPOD, or stream music directly from your Media Center PC. The only thing about custom music though is that its not really integrated into the game like the built in sound track are. So if you have one of your own songs playing while you are racing, that song will continue to play even if the race is over and you are back on the main screen. Whereas the built-in soundtracks will be stopped once you stop racing, just you can no longer hear your car's radio if you are no longer in the car.

To me, the most important part of any game is the actual game play. PGR1 excelled in graphics and sound, but the actual game play made it one of my most hated games. Luckily PGR3 has great game play as well.

One of my main issues with PGR1 was the over emphasis on Kudos, it focused on that way more than it should and it made the game tedious and not fun. Kudos is back in PGR3, but it has taken sort of a backseat to actual racing, which is the way it should be. Yes there are still Kudos challenges, but most of the races involve you having to place in the top 3 to advance rather than placing in the top 3 AND getting the specified number of Kudos. Kudos can still be earned, and are a must to unlock certain cars, but the fun factor of the game keeps you coming back for more even though you raced that same track 10 times already. Kudos are a lot more forgiving this time around as well, no longer will a slight tap on a wall cause you to lose all the Kudos you were racking up, now you really have to hit it for you to lose them. This was definitely needed as well. Honestly, because this game is so fun and not so darn tedious, I find myself actually wanting to rack up Kudos, strange how that works huh?

Another issue with the original was the ridiculous difficulty and cheap AI that would make it a point to wreck you on purpose, making the game pretty much impossible after you unlocked a certain car. But that is no longer the case, now PGR has 5 difficulty levels that should satisfy every racing fan (Novice, Easy, Medium, Hard, Hardcore). I suspect Hardcore was the default level from the original. Medium is no cakewalk however, and you still have to be on your toes to advance, if you are new to this game, then try some races in Easy to get the hang of it. Novice is pretty much a waste of time, as it is way too easy. A good thing about the difficulty levels as that you can choose them before each race in your career, so you are not locked in to one the whole time.

Handling of the cars in this game has also improved greatly. I remember in PGR1, when I got the Vette, it would spin around for no apparent reason, while CPU controlled cars were like tanks. No more, there is no an even playing field when it comes to handling. Some cars of course are harder to handle than others, but no more phantom spinning while taking a turn at 20 MPH. Computer controlled cars still try to wreck you, but not nearly as blatant as PGR1, and if you think that they are going too far, you can wreck them too.

Another good thing about this game is that you can by any car at any time and not have to depend on the game to decide which car you can use. So if you gain enough credits (not the same as Kudos), you can buy an Enzo Ferrari right off the bat. Of course the better cars cost more money, the Mclaren F1 if I remember correctly costs a whopping 1.7 million credits! You earn credits by completing race objective. There are some cars that you still have to earn the right to buy by accumulating enough Kudos, but there are TONS and TONS of cars that are playable right out of the box so that is not an issue. In addition to this, you can race with any car outside of your career mode, so if you just want a quick race with a car you haven't bought in Career mode yet, no problem. (The locked cars rule still applies though). Back to the Career mode, every car you buy will appear in your virtual garage, and when you are not racing you can walk around your garage looking at each car you have bought. Heck they even added coin operated video game machines that you can play in your garage. No I'm serious, really! When you garage gets full, you will get a bigger garage that can hold even more cars.

All of this stuff is in the SINGLE player portion of the game, and I didn't even mention that you can take/save photos and videos of your races, race against your own ghosts, test drive cars you haven't bought in career mode etc.

Online is almost another game in itself. Even when a free Silver membership you can race against ghosts from the best drivers around the world and see how you stack up. Get ranked based on your track times, and even watch real time races of ridiculously good racers on XBOX Live. And wait, you can download even more cars from XBOX Live! Some are even free!! Of course if you have Gold you can actually race against other people online.

If you like racing games, then what are you waiting for? At basically HALF the cost compared to other XBOX360 games, this game packs quite a punch. Definitely worth the money for every thing that is in the game and what you can do right out of the box. PGR3 is much improved from the original, and I am highly satisfied. Some people are saying its not as good as PGR2, but for someone that has never played PGR2, PGR3 is light years ahead of PGR1 in EVERY aspect.

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