Gamespot's Need for Speed Prostreet Video Review

Project Gotham Racing 4 Review: This game makes one bad impression...

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

Most expemsive Preview EVER!

IGN, "GT5 Prologue Price Rumors "Categorically Incorrect"

Internet rumours fail again as Sony UK says demo won't cost 45 Euros.

by Rob Burman, IGN

UK, September 12, 2007 - SCEE has quashed internet rumours suggesting that the Blu-ray version of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will cost 45 Euros when it launches in Europe later this year. According to Sony, these reports are "categorically incorrect", with no decisions regarding price currently made.

Originally, various internet sources had claimed that price news had been announced by Sony Computer Entertainment Benelux (covering Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) during a press event.

However, while a Sony UK spokesperson did reiterate that Prologue won't be be free - unlike the previous demo - they confirmed that a price point for both Blu-ray and PlayStation Network versions of the game are "still all to be agreed"."

45 Euros is around $60 American. This is insane. Another instance of Sony acting like they have god's gift to gaming. I SERIOUSLY doubt anyone will be buying this game. From what I've seen of the title it just doesn't seem to be complete enough to warrant the price of a full game. I truly hope that this is truly a rumor. But considering this story keeps rearing it's head; it's hard to believe it to be untrue. At the very least I'm hoping the PSN version will be MUCH cheaper.

[UPDATE]

PS3fanboy says," Hidden away in Sony's TGS catalog was a shocking revelation: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue's Japanese release date and price. Scheduled for December 13th, the game sample (demo, as we used to call) will retail for a whopping ¥4,980 ($43.10) on Blu-ray and ¥4,500 ($38.95) when downloaded through the PlayStation Store. Although the game will feature stunning graphics and many features of the final game, this seems as much too high for a game that has a limited track and vehicle selection. We hope that this kind of sticker shock doesn't come across the Pacific into other territories."

This was first reported by me and IGN back on the 12th.. It is truly hard to believe that Sony could be serious about this non-sense.

Q&ATurn 10 on Forza 2's 11 new rides - from GameSpot

"One of Forza's strengths is its diversity. This pack really highlights that diversity. We've got a race-ready turbo diesel (the Audi R10) right next to a low-performance class inline 4 (the Honda Civic Si Coupe) with tons of upgrade potential. This pack contains cars with classic tires and race compounds. It's got front-weighted front-wheel drive (Honda Civic Type-R) and rear-weighted rear-wheel drive (Porsche 911 GT3 RS). It's got America muscle (Dodge Challenger) and rally-inspired European hot hatches (SEAT Leon Cupra). If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the Porsche GT3 RS--what an amazing car. With 415 horsepower, an 8,400rpm redline, and a performance-tuned exhaust, the GT3 RS provides a driving experience (street or circuit) that is truly extraordinary."Gamespot

Just in case you are wondering what we are all wondering.. Where are the new tracks? Here is your answer:

"GS: After this release, we'll have two DLC car packs. When can we expect new tracks or other goodies in Forza 2? Care to drop any hints on what you have planned next?

DG: We have a lot more in store for the rabid Forza community. It's much easier to "quickly" turn around a cars pack than a track pack. Of course, "quickly" being a relative term in next-gen game production. Tracks take upwards of 3 to 5 months to build, plus testing and iteration time--not to mention the reference collection and coordination trips. That said, DLC tracks are on the way. We started working on DLC tracks at the same time we started the Nissan pack."Gamespot

Certainly some good news for anyone still playing Forza 2, too bad this comes with the knowledge that in about two weeks we will be playing PGR 4. Somehow it seems like this was a missed opportunity by the Turn 10 folks...

Fatal Inertia, or lack there of...

After only playing the game for a few hours I honestly couldn't stand it long enough to write a formal review. So I decided that this was probably a better forum to discuss it. First and foremost Fatal Inertia does look good. Water shines, dust gets kicked up, and lava spurts up on to the track with a really cool effect. All of these things certainly make the game easy on the eyes and not dropped out of hand. But I will explain why Fatal Inertia doesn't work very simply.
I will explain the controls, remember this is a racing game. First you need to hold down the A button as your gas, X as your brake, Right button to fire your forward weapon, Left button to fire your backward weapon, Right trigger and left trigger to corner, Right stick for steering both right and left and up and down, Left stick also allows you to turn more broadly, and down on the D-Pad to drop a weapon. Now remember, this is a racer not a flight simulator or a First Person Shooter. You are supposed to be able to fly around an obstacle filled track while doing all this.
The worst part about all this is that the tracks are non-linear but they want you to fly through check points and if you don't you aren't progressing. There would be plenty of opportunity in a game like this for shortcuts and cute tricks but this is hampered severely by the fact that you must fly through these checkpoints in order to finish the race. All modes are basically a race with combat of some type.
The variety of crafts and options available for them are wonderful in theory but in order to get these upgrades you must win races and in order to win races you need upgrades. Because the two out of three crafts you are with are too difficult to use for their own good even using the upgrades your given. The game has no difficulty settings which it would have benefited from. This game is certainly an interesting successor to the old Podracing games but in those games you weren't shooting at your opponents you were just racing them. This game would have benefited from not using all most every button on the controller and not having so many obstacles on the track. Both would have helped including a slower ramp up in difficulty.
Rent before you even consider buying. I didn't like what I played too much but perhaps with a large time investment it would have been a better game. 5/10.