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Fun for online play, but grossly unrealistic

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game is fun if you're interested in playing bumper cars, but unrealistic otherwise. The majority of the courses are easy to beat even at gold level, with about 10% being an unreasonable pain in the butt. Winning a race usually involves pushing other cars around (the game rewards you for this), and be ready to be spun around yourself - the computer will aim to hit you if you're heading the race by taking the inside line and ramming you as you're taking the corner. Should you try to do the same, you'll have a much harder time, as cars controlled by the computer are very resilinient to being bumped and in some law-of-nature defying manner just keep no racing faster than you.

A major nuissance is that you're always started at the last spot, and often the game will race perfectly until the last lap, where the leader makes a dumb mistake and bumps into a wall.. this game really tries your patience.

On the up side, graphics are fun, as is the option to pick your own music. Online game play is a lot of fun though, as everyone's on a level playing field. I swear the computer cheats when you're playing against it!

The Best Racer on the Old Xbox

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: March 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Most games within the racing genre are generally very easy to divide into sub-genres; there's the straight simulation, the action-leaning cartoon / kart racer, and the arcade racer, which lands somewhere in between. Project Gotham Racing 2 is the textbook definition of an arcade racer. It's stuffed full of the physics, modeling, real world location selection and intense competition you'd expect to find in a simulation racer, which results in something of a sim-flavored credibility, but streamlines most of the meticulous, detail-oriented specifics that usually turn off casual gamers and anyone, really, without permanent oil stains on their fingers or a rice burner in the garage. This is a game that excels at delivering the sensation that you're really behind the wheel, with the force of several hundred horses behind your right foot, but also at keeping away from the monotony and mindless repetition that's usually associated with a race of more than one or two laps.

Separating it from straight sims, such as Sony's Gran Turismo titles, is PGR's heavy focus on the acquisition of "Kudo Points." The driving force behind each of the two previous chapters in the Project Gotham / Metropolis series, Kudos are gathered through a variety of methods, some common and everyday, others more difficult and unpredictable, and always center on the theme of "driving stylishly." In short, you're expected to drive an exciting race every single time you hit the track. While almost every other racer in the history of the industry concentrates exclusively on the clock and the ongoing pursuit of faster laps and more efficient driving, Gotham 2 places a much higher emphasis on showmanship and flashy tricks. You'll gain a flat sum of Kudos for passing an opponent's car or taking a turn properly, but more elaborate maneuvers, such as drifting wildly around a curve or catching some air, reward with higher sums depending on the duration of the trick and your willingness to go on longer and longer stretches without complete control of your vehicle. If you aren't leaving behind a patch of burnt rubber and a cloud of foul-smelling smoke, PGR wants you to think you've done something wrong.

The idea is to shake up the usual formula of "drive three identical laps and don't let anybody pass you," and on the large, it works. Instead of enjoying a track the first few times you drive it, then giving in to brainless replication, you'll find yourself constantly challenged and interested in a course. Actually racing is a lot more fun when you can make the most of your big lead by firing off a few donuts at the finish line or allowing the back end of your car to slide well beyond the point of good reason while taking an easy turn. The key is finding a good middle ground between a dull, straightforward race and an excessively daring, mistake-filled hunt for bigger and better tricks, since most of your opponents' cars are merely looking to win the race and couldn't care less about looking good in doing so.

Actually racing in Gotham is largely very enjoyable, despite a few snags, and though it can make you almost blindingly filled with rage, there's just a certain something that keeps you coming back for more, looking to improve and show the game who's boss in the end. There's a vibe you'll get from controlling one of these cars that's difficult to put into words, something that's perhaps not immediately obvious when it's there but absolutely glaring when it's missing. It's something of a sense of reality, that feeling that you're actually moving as fast as the speedometer says you are, that your car really is as powerful as it claims. It's... well, it's really cool, for lack of a better phrase. When you accelerate in one of Gotham's more thrust-heavy high end machines, you'll feel something pressing down right in the center of your chest... that, and just a tiny bit of adrenaline.

As I hinted, however, the gameplay isn't always wine and roses. There are a few aspects that leave me scratching my head, for instance the decision for the player-controlled car to always, ALWAYS begin the race in last place, without any sort of a qualifying lap or anything. You're always fighting an uphill battle, as you must work your way around the painfully slow cars that start just in front of your position while the speedy pole-sitter gets a chance to create as much distance between himself and your car as possible.

One area in which Gotham 2 really makes its case as a front-running title is the amazing variety of its maps and race tracks. You'll find yourself globe trotting from Moscow to Barcelona to Sydney and back, driving on tracks that vary in length from excessively minute to inexplicably long. Seriously, one course allows the driver to finish four laps in under three minutes, while another demands fifteen minutes of dedication per lap! The environments are incredibly lush and detail heavy, and each course is allowed several different racing layouts, providing endless hours of replay value on courses that look similar at a glance, but are laid out completely differently.

In "Kudos World Series" mode, rather than giving players a course, a rundown of opposing cars and a quick "good luck," Gotham shakes up the status quo by not only introducing a few new (and almost universally successful) game types, but by making them an integral part of the single player experience, to boot. As you'll progress through "World Series" mode, you'll work your way through a healthy mix of seven different spins on the traditional gameplay model. Each variation seems to emphasize one aspect of becoming a successful driver in the straightforward street races, which remain the bread and butter of individual play, and surprisingly enough, none come across as forced, unnecessary or aggravating.

The multiplayer aspect of the game is a nice addition, if occasionally underdeveloped, but should never be mistaken for the star of the show. The online multiplayer does allow for more than straightforward head-to-head matches, but could have done with a little more thought when all is said and done. The actual system of joining a race online is a tedious, boring affair. You'll find a room with slots available for more racers, find that a race is more than likely already in progress, and then find yourself relegated to observing the remainder of the race from a stale, overhead map with tiny colored squares to indicate the location of each car. There's no fly-by observation mode, or really any kind of visual flair in the slightest. If you have the misfortune of attempting to join an excessively lengthy race just after it's started, your options are either to stare vacantly at the screen for upwards of ten minutes or drop out of the room and look for another race. In short, the multiplayer mode is quite weak and borderline unfinished, which stands in sharp contrast to the polished, beautiful nature of the single player game it accompanies. Very disappointing, and something that brought my opinion of the game down a notch or two.

The amount of work that went into every visual aspect of this game is obvious from the very first moment you boot up. Everything from the menus to the surroundings to, obviously, the vehicles themselves is unspeakably gorgeous. It's a shame the HD output is limited to 480p, because I can't even imagine the kind of impact this would've had at 720p or 1080i. The little touches are what grabbed me the most: they didn't have to include that flock of birds, flying ignorantly over the roads, or that enormous, spindly ferris wheel off in the distance, but they did, and they take unprecedented steps toward furthering the illusion that you're actually there, in person, participating in these races. Nothing about this game's visuals seem forced, even areas that have provided nightmares in other games. The glares and reflections off your car's exterior, which could've very easily been tacky and overdone, seem just right. My sole complaint is that the dynamic lighting is sometimes too realistic, as it occasionally becomes difficult to see where you're going when racing among the long, dark shadows of a dusk-time race. PGR2 is just a gorgeous bit of digitized visual realization, something that set the bar way too high for any competition to even hope to match.

In summary... well, I'll say this in no uncertain terms; this game is a hell of a lot of fun. The controls are simple, easy to comprehend and staggeringly easy to pick up on. The courses, set in landmark cities throughout North America, Europe and Asia, are challenging and varied without completely throwing the player for a loop every time they load a new track. The incline of opposition is steep, progressing upwards from relatively simple-minded Sunday drivers to blood-hungry maniacs who know exactly what they want and precisely how to get it. Even the gameplay, which is largely relegated to simple "race against the computer or race against your friends" in other titles, gets a breath of life here, in the form of half a dozen different modes of play. It lacks the fine, fine details of tuning a racing auto to perfection, but seeing as how I'm not all that intrigued by that aspect of the business as it is, I didn't miss those options one bit. If the multiplayer mode had been just a little more well-developed, I'd be giving this one a nearly perfect rating, but as it is right now it's still far above average. This one is definitely worth adding to your collection if you have even the slightest interest in driving a car around a track at insane speeds, and remains one of the most visually stimulating experiences I've enjoyed in gaming.

Rubber band handeling of cars completely frustrating,

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The game looks nice, sound good, but unrealistic handling of cars make it unplayable.

I bought a steering wheel in the hope that game handling of the cars would become more realistic than with the xbox controller.

In summary, it feels nothing like a real car.
Firstly, there is a time lag of almost a second between the time when you turn the steering wheel and when the car responds. It feels like there is a rubber band connecting the steering wheel to the tires.

Secondly, for the same angle of the steering wheel, the amount the wheels turn is dependent on your speed. This is completely unrealistic.

Thirdly, if you let up on the accelerator at high speed the car starts floating around totally out of control.

It seems that the designers tried to compensate for the limits of the hand held controller and did not change them for the steering wheel.

Other aspects of the game are good, but car handling is so unrealistic and frustrating that it makes you want to pull your hair out.

One hollow and empty gaming expierence

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Not what I was expecting. They spruced up the graphics very well. Some tracks invoke that empty feeling that I'll touch on in a bit. Like racing through ghost towns.

The sound is about on par with number 1, which is another good thing. The novelty of real time radio has defenitely wore off by this time but it's just as good as GTA's.

Something also on par is the games AI, which is absolutely unexcusable given the games development time. The way they can spin you out by nudging you seems worse this time around. It also features rubber band catch up and robot driving lines. No one expects this to be perfect, but it could of been much, much better. The AI still usually as one group way in back and one way in front. These were more forgivable during xbox's launch, but now that they still haven't gone away it makes them much more noticable this time around.

The career is really dumbed down because of the new kudos tokens give you 0 motivation to go for plantinum since you'll get enough kudos for the best cars in each class you'll race. Also you now don't have to worry about earning a certain amount of Kudos AND finishing in a certain spot. In part one, you were forced to go for the gold because the kudos bonus would just barely get you over the top, and that's if you didn't screw up. The cone design is uninspired, but that could be due to the new driving model. After completing the game here's the killer: the handiling is for pansies. I compared my best replays from PGR1 and PGR2, and played PGR1 right after 2, and the control in 2 lets you make perfect runs because you can usually counter oversteer, overacceleration, over brake, whatever without going out of control and still get through cones. In part one if you could misjudge every now and then, but it felt like a battle to keep the car in your control and any one silly thing would take you out the race. The scoring system is on a higher scale, which makes no sense at all. But there are enough good tracks to go around. The races don't have that keep you up to 1 am intensity of Midnight club 2 or PGR1. Those games require undivided attention and practice, this is present in only a handful of PGR2 races. Everything is there, but I don't like racing for the hell of it. It isn't worth the time to go through the plethora of modes, because almost all of them are sheer eye candy. Difficuly and weird pacing can destroy the greatest masterpieces...this game reminds me of the wind waker...I shouldn't be ahead on the final race of the game by 30 seconds after spinning out twice. Where's the reward in that? And certain tracks really start to repeat as you make your way through the game in a way it doesn't make sense. Your at the second to last class, and your racing in a race from the third class and it's like what the hell and next race the track is from the sixth class. There is no logic involved the that at all.

Xbox Live play is great if you find the game fun, which I really did not. Downloading the ghosts further proves my point, this game is lighter, more accesible game than the first one. If you like games like Ninja Gaiden, pick up the first one in a heartbeat. If the pace and difficulty in WW didn't bother you, you should feel right at home here. If you have little racing expirience this gen, you may have the time of your life with this game. But I think the system has many better choices out there.

best racing game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

this racing game is far better than the first which was also a great game. with more cars and better variety and more immersion into the gameplay, this game truely lives up to its predcessor. and the graphics....best car models i have seen ANYWHERE and the backgrounds are very well-done as well. control is tight, and when you are flying down the track in a brand new enzo going 180 and try to take the upcoming 90 degree true....be prepared to use the handbrake and smack the wall. this game also has diffuculty settings for the first time....the harder you play the more chance for earnings of course. overall, this game is top-notch and microsoft has put together one smooth game that is the best i have ever seen.

Super Sweet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This might be the best racing game xbox has..finally something that is as fun as the Gran Turismo games were for PS/PS2. The graphics are amazing and all the cars are gorgeous. Probably the best part about this is the Xbox Live fun you can have...like 8 guys flying around a track talking trash and running into eachother..you can't beat it. Must buy

Best Racing Game I've Ever Played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a long, beautiful and challenging game. NFS Underground offers you Street Races, but PGR2 does that plus 6+ other styles of race to participate in. The online mode is a lot of fun, too. The first night online, I met 4 blokes who wanted to have a demolition derby with Enzo Ferraris. Cool. Not only can you race others online, you can bring the points back and cash them in to open cars in the single-player game. You also get constant ranking for your score based on all other players on XBOX LIVE. It's fun (if a little depressing) to compare yourself constantly like that. The cars control smooth and are realistic enough (yes, I happen to own 2 of the featured cars in real life) to force you to learn a different method of turning, accelerating and sliding for each.

Gran Turismo is too technical and tedious, NFS:U too limited for me--especially since EA is Sony's bandwidth consumer and won't do XBOX Live. PGR2 is just right. This is the best racing game I've ever played. Plus, the soundtrack has around 200 songs by new or relevant artists to flip in-&-out. This is just nice.

Beats Need for Speed by FAR!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Wow, Project Gotham Racing 2 is excellent! Despite what others say, this is a extremely good game.

The graphics are realistic. Oh, there's car damage too! The damage is big on the car too. If you're driving wrecklessly, at the end, your car will look like it's been crushed by a machine. The damage is easily done too, unlike Need for Speed where a ton of crashes results in little car damage. The scenery in PGR2 is smooth, colorful, and realistic. The game is running at a steady 60 fps, so there's no lag.

Ahh, the controls. This is where most people think it sucks, but it doesn't. Why? Because you can change it to a different controller setting! The default controls are: (R) trigger to accel, and (A) button to brake. That's tough. However, you can change it so it's (A) button to accel, and (X) button to brake, like 90% of other racing games. After you do yourself the favor of changing the controller settings, the game is much easier and more responsive.

To anyone who says the controls are bad: Have you changed it to your likings yet?

The soundtrack is great. Each city has its own radio station complete with a DJ and radio host. The stations and music differ on every city you're in, so you'll hear American music on American race tracks, and so on. If you hate the songs, you can put your own music in.

Online play is where it's at. Online stats, voice chat, friends list, and downloadable content make this game a must buy for any Xbox owner who wants a nice racing game.
The cars are great. Over 100 of them. Very exotic and better than the Need for Speed's cars. PGR2's has some EXTREMELY nice cars like the Ferrari Enzo, Saleen S7, Pagani Zonda, and more exotic cars. There's a car showroom so that you can take a look at and test drive any exotic car you want before you decide to buy.

This game is well worth every cent. Online play stretches the replay value for miles beyond.

Best Console Racer Yet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Project Gotham 2 Racing is a must for any sort of sim racing enthusiast. Whether your a casual gamer, or a hardcore one, this is the game for you. XBOX Live is also a must. This game is a blast against other humans. Split screen is great too, but not as good as playing on Live. The cars and tracks are all beautiful and well-modeled. The sounds are remarkable. If you're into just racing, you can ignore the Kudos feature and still do well. If you like racing with style and immense skill, then Kudos are a great thing to have. 5 Stars, a must have.

solid, vanilla racer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I like the wide range of cars available in this game. Having the Ferrari license (which is rare for a video game) is a huge plus. I was happy with the range of cars.

However, I didn't like that the player cannot customize any of the cars. You cannot alter the performance in any way. This puts this game a little behind the curve of games like Sega GT2000, Gran Turismo series, and Need for Speed Underground.

Also, the cars look pretty good, but they sound pretty poor. All the cars sound wimpy to me, like that Civic in your neighborhood that has a coffee can on the back and sounds like a lawnmower.

The controls take some real getting used to. You have to be incredibly precise or you will hit a wall. The wall contact costs you dearly as your speed goes down to nothing. I would recommend playing this game with a steering wheel so you have a fighting chance. The CPU cars rarely come off the perfect line and almost never hit the wall.

That's another complaint I have with this game. The CPU cars drive like robots. They follow a line and do not budge from it. This doesn't make for a realistic feel in my opinion.

The environments in which you race look great. Graphics are sharp and clean. However, there is no life in the city... no pedestrians, no other cars... the most you can hope for is to see some birds flying around. This results in each environment feeling like a dead city.

I really like that you can add your own soundtrack to this game. I'm thankful for that because the in-game soundtrack is long with unknown artists.

All in all, this is a nice solid racing game that lacks that fun-factor that you get in something like Need For Speed Underground. There is no human element in the presentation, and that gives the game a pretty bland flavor.

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