Project Gotham Racing 2

"The most exciting and intense racing game ever"

Introduction:
Project Gotham Racing 2 is a racing game developed by Bizarre Creations. The main mode of play is the Kudos World Series. The objective of this mode is to get as many kudos as possible. When you have enough of them, your Kudos Rank increases, which gives you tokens. You can purchase cars with tokens. You can get kudos in any race when you perform powerslides, 360's, and several other things.

Graphics: 10/10
I could not name a game that has better graphics than this one. This category is flawless. There are eleven different cities, and each one is more beautiful then the last. The cars look so realistic and simply breathtaking. When you crash cars hard enough, you can see dents and broken glass. If you are driving in a course at night time, you can destroy your headlights, making it harder for you to see. Never have I seen a game that looks as realistic as this one.

Sound: 10/10
With over 200 soundtracks to pick from, this also is a very strong point of the game. The music offered is quite well designed for racing. If you don't like the music in the game, you can play you're own audio CD's. Every car has an engine that makes a very realistic sound.

Controls: 10/10
Each car varies in acceleration, top speed, braking, and sliding. Considering there are about 100 cars, the developers certainly did an excellent job of balancing the game. Controls are extremely responsive, and you will feel like you are actually racing in a car.

Gameplay: 7/10
There are 14 different car classes. Some contain classic cars from the older days, others have fast cars, others don't, so don't expect to race an Enzo Ferrari against a Ford Focus. That would be completely unbalanced. In each car class, there are different challenges that you have to complete. The different challenges are street races, one on one matches, cone challenges,
overtake, hot laps, timed runs, and speed cameras. I think that most people, including me, would prefer mostly street races. Timed runs can actually make you really frustrated, and same with the cone challenges.

By now you are probably asking me why I took off three points in this category. My biggest complaint is that other cars can shove you into walls or off of the track without much trouble. It honestly is VERY annoying, and all it takes is one shove to mess up your whole race(on higher difficulties). You should always be very careful about the opponents around you. Don't let them push you. Sometimes it's even possible to shove your opponents off the track. Other than the complaints listed above, this game is just a dream to play. You'll just have the time of your life flying around corners, zooming past cars, and flying down a highway at 200 MPH. How can you compare that to any other game?

Replayability: 10/10
Let's see: About 100 cars and 100 tracks in 11 cities. There's also about 200 soundtracks to accompany your racing. That equals to a HUGE load of hours playing this game. Seriously, you won't want to stop. The game won't be easy at first, though. There are five difficulty modes. Novice, easy, medium, hard, and expert. Until you get some faster machines, you might struggle with novice. There's no shame in having trouble with the easiest difficulty, because this game is quite hard. After a while though, you'll have no trouble with even the higher difficulties.

Bottom Line:
I think that this is one of the greatest games ever made. The gameplay has a couple flaws, but everything else is beyond perfect. If you're a gamer that generally likes racing games, definitely purchase the game. If you hate racing games, rent it and see how you feel after you've played it. This is one game you CAN'T miss. FINAL SCORE: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/04