Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Bizarre Creations

Microsoft had a hit on their hands earlier this year with Forza Motorsport 2, and with Project Gotham Racing 4, they’ve finally given us a reason to give that title a rest. Yes, we did just compare Project Gotham Racing 4, an obvious arcade style racer, to Forza Motorsport 2, but both are enjoyable in their own ways. Forza Motorsport 2 has an amazing amount of depth and replay value due to the customization of cars that is so polished that gamers can spend hours just tweaking their rides and not even racing. This, however is not and never has been Project Gotham Racing‘s cup of tea. You can’t customize a damn thing in Gotham, except the paint, but the racing is so much fun that it doesn’t matter. Project Gotham Racing 4 is no different from the previous title in that respect. Project Gotham Racing 4 is a definite step up from Bizarre’s last go at the Gotham series but maybe not as significant as some would have hoped.

Some new things are brought to the table that have never been seen in a Project Gotham Racing title before and two major ones are motorcycles and weather effects. The motorcycles are quite a bit of fun and Bizarre has included bikes ranging from 30 year old V-Twin classics to the newest 4 cylinder crouch rockets. With companies like Ducati and Suzuki on board the selection is pretty sweet. The most surprising thing about the inclusion of motorcycles however, is just how well Bizarre pulled it off. There have been a few racing titles in the past that tried to match up bikes and cars and they all pretty much sucked at it. Project Gotham Racing 4 succeeds in making a game where not only are the motorcycles competitive but they’re balanced. Though there are some wildly unrealistic collision physics with the bikes (coming off your motorcycle takes some serious neglect), it’s a necessary evil to keep things fair and avoid situations where people on Xbox Live go out of their way to run a biker off the road. You people know who you are, go buy Flatout if you want a demolition derby.

As for the weather effects, they look amazing. The way the rain drops collect, bead and stream along the body of the vehicles and all the little things about how it interacts with the objects and environs is done very nicely. At times it seems like every track is wet or raining or snowing, and sometimes you just want to attack a nice, dry track. Bad weather adds a certain degree of difficulty to things but sometimes it can be overkill. Call us crazy but we’ve never seen an F50 in a road race in the snow. The rain, however, adds a bit more predictable of a challenge and when mastered can be used to rack up some serious KUDOS points.

What’s nice about Project Gotham Racing 4 is that the game seems to reward you a bit more for driving technically proficiently than its predecessor did and the motorcycles add a whole new level by giving KUDOS for stunts and taunts. A long wheelie with a few tricks mixed in can rack up some serious points. And now that KUDOS are used to access new vehicles and gameplay modes, racking up KUDOS is essential. In addition to KUDOS earned in races you earn bonuses for placing, the higher you place the more you get.

Project Gotham Racing 4 is a sharp looking title but not the best looking racer on 360 to date. The weather effects are fun to see and sometimes to drive in but they don’t make or break this title in the looks department. One thing that can be said though is that the level of detail put into modeling each car and bike, from gauge clusters to exhaust note is top notch.

Project Gotham Racing 4 is audibly amazing with each vehicle sounding as realistic as any racer we can think of and some great tire skidding effects to boot. The only thing really lacking in the sound department is the small selection of music tracks per genre but this is easily remedied with custom sound tracks off your hard drive.

Last but not least is a the main area that will keep people playing Project Gotham Racing 4 for months to come: multiplayer. There really isn’t a lot going on differently from Project Gotham Racing 3 in this regard. It isn’t bad by any means and lag rarely shows it’s ugly face, but when it does it’s bad. There has been work put in to make Project Gotham Racing 4 a more rewarding online experience but the subtle additions like true skill matches and leader boards have all been done before and are to be expected in a game in this day and age.

This is not to say that Project Gotham Racing 4 isn’t a quality game, because it is a polished and solid title. Still, it definitely isn’t groundbreaking either as everything in Project Gotham Racing 4 has been done before just not quite as well as Bizarre has done it here. Project Gotham Racing 4 should satisfy fans of the series and not just come off a rehash of the same old thing but it may not do anything to attract any new fans to the genre.