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The Project Gotham Racing Appreciation Thread

Krakatoa

Member
I loved Gotham TV, and the real course times of other players around the globe on completion of a race.

I can't believe noboday else built this into their games.
 
They really did do racing games right because they had great gameplay and most of all they were fun to play. I actually really liked Blur, too bad it didn't get the marketing it deserved. Bizarre Creations did have troubles trying new things like The Club and the James Bond game wasn't very good. I still think PGR4 was the best game they ever did.
 

Witchfinder General

punched Wheelchair Mike
My second favourite racing series. I have every game in the OP except for PFR1 for a reason I can't fathom.

Blur is amazing, just needed more tracks. Shame we'll never get a sequel.
 
I don't have any of the MSR games for the Dreamcast anymore, but I do have all of the PGR's. #2 being my absolute favorite, with 4 close behind. Seriously, for anyone who never played PGR4, check it out. It costs next to nothing these days, it looks beautiful, and it's a lot of fun.
 

imthemaid

Banned
i haven't played much of 2, but i've played a lot of 4. i'm curious as to why so many fans seem to love 2 the most. anyone feel like explaining?
 

bangai-o

Banned
WickedCobra03 said:
And finally PGR4 was sad... I bought it the week it came out and was astounded by how much microsoft dug the grave for that game and eventually that studio. There was no advertising... nothing. It was crazy how fast MS buried that game. Sure, I was not a super fan of the bikes, but the game was amazing none the less!
This is my problem with the PGR4 hate. It never has logic. Why would you hate a game because it apparently didnt get enough ad space?
"PGR2 was so good online, and now it is shit!"
STUPID. Did anyone try to figure out why PGR2 was so huge on Live back in the day? Not only was it a great racer, but it was pretty much the only racer. Comparatively on the 360, there is many great racers all competing for online space.

When PGR4 was released, the fans knew that it was released. The fans didnt need adverts. The fans chose to abandon the series. der blame Microsoft. Blame Halo 3.

Blur is amazingly fun btw. Activision was incredibly dumb to let go of perhaps the greatest racing studio ever.
 

Lakitu

st5fu
PGR 2 is my favourite followed by PGR 4. My favourite series of racing games. I miss Bizarre :( Fuck you Activision and fuck you Microsoft for not buying them when you had the chance.
 
PGR4 is so much better than the previous ones it's no fun. Seriously, people here better take their rose-tinted glasses off, because there's no amount of nostalgia that can justify putting PGR3 or even 2 above the fourth game. I played some PGR2 yesterday and it just doesn't compare. The only thing it still has to it is the tracks, with Edinburgh being perhaps the best locale in the whole series, and the soundtrack, which to some might be better. PGR4 is just perfect: the graphics, the tremendous variety, the perfect handling model...
 

Zizbuka

Banned
Though I think the Dreamcast is overrated on gaf, boy MSR was awesome. Spent many hours between MSR and the Tokyo Extreme Racer games.

Might fire 'em up this weekend. Hard to go back to that controller though :(
 

ruxtpin

Banned
Memories! I played MSR on my Dreamcast and loved it, but didn't get into PGR1. PGR2, however was my introduction to XBL and rarely - if ever - did that game disc come out. I remember rolling with a few of the TTR racers on there. PGR3 was my go-to 360 launch game and I still remember getting 1000 points and qualifying for the first "tournament" that was put up.
 

Scotch

Member
I've been playing PGR4 again today in honor of this thread, and man is that game good. I'm still not a fan of the bikes, but it has the best car handling in any arcade racer ever (except maybe PGR2.)

By the way, I noticed the DLC pack is only 80 MS points in case any of you haven't played it yet. You get a bunch of new cars and three new arcade chapters with achievements.
 
imthemaid said:
i haven't played much of 2, but i've played a lot of 4. i'm curious as to why so many fans seem to love 2 the most. anyone feel like explaining?

- The perfect difficulty levels, with gold medals always achievable after some practice, and platinum medals really very hard.
- The soundtrack consisting of location-specific radio stations. This gives the game a lot of its personality.
- The perfect online lobbies, with the race progress and everybody's location in the race visible from the lobby (something that no racer since then has ever been able to do).
- The forgiving online collision physics, enabling very close racing without frustration.
- The incredibly nice online community. Never experienced anything like it in any other game.
 
PGR2 was the best racer ever and had the best radio with the Dj's and stations. Perfect.


And the series gave us Geometry Wars for free.
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
cjelly said:


I'll raise you a

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcsPdB76Sh4

This track defined MSR and the Dreamcast as a fun system!

I uploaded this years ago for everyone, enfuckingjoy.

PGR 2 Menu Sountrack


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60lW-CvMMSo

PGR 2 Kudos World Series Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc-hsheSj2Y

PGR 2 Live Online Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQjVPirtBmg

PGR 2 Multiplayer Music (godly)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9lAow8LGPA

PGR 2 Showroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGGrrXOw02o


I'm quite possibly adding a lot of these to my FM 4 menu music setup.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
i <3 Washington DC, Sydney, Edinburgh, Las Vegas, and Quebec City
 

Bumhead

Banned
Remember spending so much time playing PGR3 at the launch of the Xbox 360. With the possible exception of Timesplitters for the PS2, I'm not sure I've ever loved or played a launch game for as long as I played PGR3.

PGR4 is pound for pound my favourite racing game of the generation. Say no more, really.
 

mr stroke

Member
more love for PGR2 here. As mind blowing as PGR3 was when 360 launched. PGR2 was perfect in every way(for its time) and had the best online racing community I have even been around.
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
mr stroke said:
more love for PGR2 here. As mind blowing as PGR3 was when 360 launched. PGR2 was perfect in every way(for its time) and had the best online racing community I have even been around.


I have never ever had as much fun in an online console racer as I did in PGR 2.

It's the way the fun worked in that game and the handling of the cars, it was just fucking finesse man the vision for KUDOS was ultimately achieved in PGR 2 to perfection.

They need to remake this shit badly.


I'm not sure how the game would have felt @ 60FPS but the 30FPS worked perfectly for PGR 2 to capture what it captured.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
Slayer-33 said:
The city tracks in PGR 2 were some of the best in any racing games history.

i wouldnt make a blanket statement like that because pgr2 also had some massive turds IMO.


also, cone challenges are among the greatest things in a racing game ever. really REALLY wish more games had these, especially the "sims"
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
op_ivy said:
i wouldnt make a blanket statement like that because pgr2 also had some massive turds IMO.


also, cone challenges are among the greatest things in a racing game ever. really REALLY wish more games had these, especially the "sims"



I can't think of any racing game with city tracks that came close to the selections in PGR 2 and all the layouts it had.


And yes cone challenges were incredible, you have no idea how many times I restarted just one particular challenge at times to get a perfect plat score. It was frustrating to fuck up but addicting as cocaine.

Do you remember the camera challenges too?

Holy fuck I loved seeing how people jacked up their kudos before completing the course under a certain amount of time given through their ghosts.

I was number one in the world at one point for a particular speed camera which I think it was done with a ford focus or some little hatch back in one of the early ones lol..
 

eso76

Member
still have a few pics in my photobucked album

stica.jpg


cars reflected on wet tarmac. Looks incredible.

mazdapioggia.jpg


mini.jpg


carmodelbmw.jpg


tizi.jpg


still the best looking racer this gen.
 
Don't forget PGR2's wonderful online leaderboards with downloadable ghosts. My friends and I had some mega asynchronous battles using each others ghosts. It was so well designed, just like everything else with the game.
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
BCD2 said:
Don't forget PGR2's wonderful online leaderboards with downloadable ghosts. My friends and I had some mega asynchronous battles using each others ghosts. It was so well designed, just like everything else with the game.


This is one of the things that made PGR 2 legendary.
 

LordAlu

Member
Lovegooder said:
Any custom soundtrack I create for a racing game always includes tracks from MSR, even a couple of the radio commercials.

Club Paris

SWATCH TIMING!
Oh man oh man oh man oh man, time to set this on repeat! The nostalgia!
 
Thought I would jump on PGR3 and see if anyone still roamed the hallowed halls of 'playtime' and I was in luck! A few lobbies about, managed to get a fix of cat and mouse :D
 
MikeDub said:
Thought I would jump on PGR3 and see if anyone still roamed the hallowed halls of 'playtime' and I was in luck! A few lobbies about, managed to get a fix of cat and mouse :D

That's insane! A discounted 6+ year old launch racing game still has a online community going & not even on the weekend?
 

thundr51

Member
This thread brings back so many memories.

Installing PGR3 and 4 to my new slim as I type this. Great game is still great.

Only had 6 acheivements left on PGR3 all network related...

Just unlocked an acheivement on PGR4 for voting on and uploading a pic...

Nothing like earning an acheivement on a 5 year game.
 

TheMan

Member
Spent so many hours just driving by myself in PGR2. I would load up my own soundtrack, zone out, and drive for a couple of hours at a time. Cotton Tree drive was one of my favorite tracks and I was disappointed when it was not included in PGR3. PGR4 is like 5 bucks now, I should pick that up (although the motorcycles are a big turn off for me).
 

U2NUMB

Member
PGR2 was the first GAME in general that I remember that got the digital Crack that made COD what it is today. The Kudos system in that game was great. How even if you were LAST in a game you still leveled up by what Kudos points you earned.

They were way ahead of the curve.. sadly they never returned to that system. But outside of that I loved each one for the on street action!
 

Scotch

Member
thundr51 said:
This thread brings back so many memories.

Installing PGR3 and 4 to my new slim as I type this. Great game is still great.
Dunno if they fixed this yet, but PGR4 is known to get audio glitches when installed. The music will sometimes slow down and you get cracking noises during races.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
ShinyBallBoy said:
sigh, i still have one of these buried somewhere (not my pic)

825_3.jpg


Coolest racing game ever...
You lucky sonuvabitch.

I won a PGR3 poster signed by the devs over at BC.net, but when it came in the mail months later it was all crumpled and water damaged and stuff :(
 

cory021

Neo Member
I loved Bizarre's games. Such a shame they're gone now. I loved how photo-realistic the PGR games are. Even though I suck at them (okay, I guess I'm not that bad), I still get on them today and have a blast.

Also, it's too bad Blur has so low population. I play the MP on this every once and a while, and it seems like the pop on Xbox hangs around 300. And a majority of the population plays in the standard racing playlist, instead of Team racing, which I think is the best playlist in the game.
 
Awesome thread.

Glad you included Blur too, it was awesome even though not what the fans wanted.

Gonna pop in PGR4 tonight. Maybe I can finally get all 1250 of those achievements.
 

FreeMufasa

Junior Member
MS really should have delayed PGR4 to 2008 where the only big racing games were Grid and Mario Kart Wii.

The Halo 3 Forza 2 combo completely killed it.
 

Nobility

Banned
I applaud this thread for bringing back my teenage years...

I must have spent at least 2000+ hours on PGR2 and Xbox Live, that's how we rolled back in the day. I had a great cat and mouse partner, we almost always destroyed everyone, just memories now...

PGR2>>>ALL

Hoping for the best in the future, I would be very sad to see the series become long forgotten when it was the game that defined Xbox Live (Until Halo 2 came).
 
Only 1 year between MSR and PGR? wow shorter then I remember.

Speaking of MSR I had a dodgy first print run copy where you could win each championship race without actually winning, and the drivers arm would randomly not load up in half the races making him drive 1 handed, you could send your game off for a free fix but I never did.

Still own the game, woo! I loved the real time day/night thing at the time although it meant I always played tokyo at night time unless I had a day off from 6th form at school.
 
I fucking love the PGR series (including MSR). I was shocked when I've learned that Bizarre was sold to Activision. I knew it would never be the same :(

PGR 2 is easily my favorite racer ever. I've spent so many hours and cigarettes playing this game online. Glad I don't smoke anymore though. I had all gold medals and got 2/3 of all the platinums. I was happy to smoke all the cheaters that were using the Cerbera Speed Twelve (you could easily tell they cheated when they sucked that hard) with my legit Mercedes CLK GTR. Maybe one day I'll have the courage to grind my way to 100% platinum and finally get a chance to ride a Cerbera Speed Twelve (I know you were able to race it anyway if the guy that created the game had the car and allowed the ghost option which would let you drive a transparent Speed Twelve).

Anyway, long live PGR ! They are all good. I enjoyed them all. Fuck yeah. Live on.

Diablohead said:
Only 1 year between MSR and PGR? wow shorter then I remember.

Speaking of MSR I had a dodgy first print run copy where you could win each championship race without actually winning, and the drivers arm would randomly not load up in half the races making him drive 1 handed, you could send your game off for a free fix but I never did.

Still own the game, woo! I loved the real time day/night thing at the time although it meant I always played tokyo at night time unless I had a day off from 6th form at school.

So true. Same thing for me regarding Tokyo lol.
 

SonicBoom

Member
I've only played PGR 3 and fell in love with it... love the game and soundtrack

I had PGR 4 for 2+ yrs and its in my backlog pile... will fire it up sometime soon

A huge Thanks for the thread
 
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