Project Gotham Racing 2 - Online Impressions


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from CVG;

11:17 We love a challenge here at CVG Towers, and when Microsoft UK puffed out its chest and challenged us to take to the wheel of Project Gotham Racing 2's finalised network element, we verily jumped at the opportunity.

When we visited developer Bizarre Creations' studio in the north of England a couple of months back, we were bowled over specifically by the astonishing online functionality included in the game.

For the first time, Microsoft's bold vision for Xbox Live had a game to live up to the hype, offering a sense of immersion, community, depth, polish and fun that is only possible on the big black box - an online killer app. make no mistake.

But - and there was a but - with the code we were able to play, we came away slightly disappointed by a rather twitchy gameplay experience. Racing was mostly smooth, but opponent's cars were prone to suddenly jumping to random points on the track, and there was some disappointing pop-up in evidence. With deadline approaching with alarming alacrity, could Bizarre iron out these key problems in time?

The simple answer is a glorious, resounding "Yes!" We spent an hour racing against battle-hardened Microsoft employees yesterday in the finalised network build and can happily report that everything is now running perfectly. No lag, no pop-up, just a racing experience every bit as fluid and compelling as you could have hoped for.

The Liverpool lads have done a fantastic job is smoothing out the flaws and tweaking everything to perfection, making Project Gotham Racing 2 an absolutely essential title if you own Xbox Live. And while the brilliant, comprehensive single-player game requires no introduction, if you're a racing fan and haven't got into Live yet, do it

During our session with Microsoft, we sped around the remarkably accurate streets of Edinburgh and Moscow. After a dodgy start, Team CVG rose to the challenge and crushed the threat of Microsoft's cocky UK PR department. Indeed, if you check out the stunning footage below, you'll here one senior member of the PR team, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gloat about his prowess stating that this was the final race and the winner takes all. Before being thrashed then demanding a rematch. We love Xbox Live, oh yes.

The footage below shows the edited highlights of our intense hour-long struggle, testing out various cars in Edinburgh and Moscow. It also provides hard proof that the game runs perfectly online and all the problems associated with the preview build have been addressed. If you want a clear picture of why you need to get online with Gotham, don't miss this movie.

And be sure to check back next week as Bizarre MD Martin Chudley speaks to us exclusively about his amazing Xbox racer.

****ing sweet! This game is on my MUST BUY list now :D

note: I have not downloaded the movie yet, because of restrictions at school, but I think you have to register :/

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30 fps?!!! Racing games on the Dreamcast ran better than that. Shame indeed.

Anyway, it's just racing online. The original PGR was nothing special. I bought it when Xbox first came out and played it maybe 4 times.

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Project Gotham was great :) Even my gf who usually hate games got addicted to it... she's kicking my butt when it comes to kudos challenges. She's almost finished the whole game ;)

The sequel looks good too... first time I've seen a game where u can race in Stockholm... will be interesting to see if I can recognise the streets.

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racing games on the dreamcast no doubt didn't have the graphics that this game will though, no?

IIRC, Dreamcast's graphics were insane...

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Shame it's going to be 30fps. :angry: :(

it runs smooth at 30fps, i would rather have fsaa/good graphics and 30fps over a jaggy 60fps any day , saying its at 30fps does not make it a stupid game, learn your facts first :yes:

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30 fps?!!! Racing games on the Dreamcast ran better than that. Shame indeed.

Anyway, it's just racing online. The original PGR was nothing special. I bought it when Xbox first came out and played it maybe 4 times.

Well you missed out PGR and Rallisport are probably the best car racing titles ever imho... motogp2 owns motorbikes

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PGR was an awesome game, it had me addicted for ages. I can't wait for the new one. I'm especially excited about the Live! features. Its definatley No1 on my "must have" list.

Shame it's going to be 30fps.  :angry:  :(

I hate it when people have to jump in and make a stupid little criticism like that. Here is a awesome game and your complaining about such a small issue? Would you rather less graphical detail and stupider AI so you can have 60fps? I'll bet if they did that then you would complain about the graphics and stupid AI.

Your eyes only process something like 10fps anyway, so whats the problem?

I admit you can see the difference between 30 and 60fps when they are put side by side. A smooth 30fps is very playable, and the difference between 30 & 60fps is so small that I'd gladly sacrifice those extra frames for better graphics.

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30fps is a pain in some racers (in APEX/Racing Evoluzione it was horrible) but if the controls/ai is sampled at 60Hz it plays just as well as a 60fps racer does. Midtown Madness 3 is a good example of this - it's running at 30fps, but the controls/physics etc don't suffer. Hell, some people thought it was running at 60 fps when they got the game.

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