There are few racing games on the market today that make a worse first impression than Project Gotham Racing 4. The first hour to second hour of the game is terrible. The cars and bikes are horrible in those first few levels. In fact, until the player reaches B Class, the player really has so much trouble that in some cases the addition of weather makes the tracks virtually unplayable.
The vehicles in the game in essence are pretty good. In fact, some of the A Class cars and bikes are excellent. But the overall handling of everything in the game are just too floaty and inaccurate that it makes the addition of weather effects ridiculous. Perhaps in a game like Forza, some weather effects might make things more challenging and interesting. But in PGR where the player cannot damage their car to do damage and where somehow the A.I. controlled cars fly by the player like they are on rails. Makes the average consumer a little more than standoffish about the whole concept of weather effects.
There are certainly plenty of things to do in PGR 4. But be prepared for a much different system than those in previous games. PGR 4 is setup into 4 major areas: Arcade, Gotham Career, Multiplayer, and On Demand. The Arcade mode is much like the Career mode in PGR 3. The Gotham Career mode is a poor substitution for anything resembling a career mode. The game allows the player to align with one particular country of their choosing and customize their driver's appearance. The game then unceremoniously throws the player into the Career mode which allows the player to choose a difficulty but the three choices are rather poor. Easy is very hard for an easy mode, and Normal in most cases makes the beginning bikes impossible to compete with. This is a symptom of the overall problem with the game. It is as if the creators made a PGR 3 expansion instead of a true sequel. There really are no beginning modes or trials. The game drops the player in as if they just finished playing PGR 3 getting Gold medals in every event.The weather effects in most areas of the game are generally used to punish the player more than they are to enhance the game experience. This has to be the intent given the fact that no A.I. controlled opponents seem to be effected by the weather. Even in the snow on the Nurburgring the A.I. controlled racers fly past the player as if they are driving on a totally different track.
The visuals in the game are very good. All of the cars and tracks look wonderful. But all of this glitz won't help you when trying to string kudos together on some rainy track and the floaty cars and bikes don't respond as they should.There is a photo mode in the game that can be used at any time during the race or in the replay. There are plenty of effects that can be added and it is a small upgrade from the photo mode in PGR 3. All of the photos I have in this post were taken in the photo mode in the game.
This game is certainly a classic PGR game, problem is that with the added difficulty of weather, the lack of customization, and the overpowered bikes starting at around B Class. This game seems unfinished. Even if the artists did their job, it looks like the programmers and designers were resting on their laurels. The longer I played the game the more I liked it; until I reached about hour 7. When the repetitive nature of the challenges, annoying weather, and unfairly advantaged A.I. got to me. The bad first impression of the first hour to two hours is less about getting used to the game and more a prophecy for when you reach around hour 7. I really loved PGR 3 but this is not so much a successor to that game and more an unfinished expansion pack. Don't buy and with all the other stuff out right now, don't rent. If you want good racing play Forza Motorsport 2 or wait to see how Need for Speed Pro Street is. Oh and Geometry Wars Waves, isn't much of a game and it is fun for around a half hour. But once the novelty wears off, it's over. 7.5/10
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