VGM Fusion

Review: Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)

Ryan (as well as many of you) have been bothering me to do a review of Project Gotham Racing 4 for quite some time. In an effort to get all of you off my back, and to allow me to move on to playing Assassins Creed; I hereby take the 10 minutes out of my day to write you a review.

PGR4 really is in tough when it comes to me assigning it a final score. I was playing it while in the midst of finally playing Forza 2 and Halo 3 — tough company to be judged against.

By now most of you already know that the new inclusion to the series is the addition of bikes. My review could literally stop here, because aside from a few new tracks, and a few little tweaks here and there, PG4 really is just PG3 with bikes.

That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, IF Bizarre Creations hadn’t put into the game quite a few instances where you have no choice but to race with a car if you want to finish off an achievement.

Now think about this for a second. I just told you I was playing Forza 2 while playing PGR4. Do you really think racing around in a car isn’t going to bore me to tears when compared to the Forza 2 experience?

The only reasons I could see for anyone spending money on PGR 4 are to either play with a bike, play a PGR title (having never purchased one before), or have friends who have purchased the game and would like to play with them online.

For me, the most fun I had was with a group of 6 other media members playing online. I schooled them with my bike skills, and had a great time doing so. The second I was left alone though, and was forced to do anything that didn’t involve a bike, things got boring.

If you want to drive around in a car, have previously purchased a PGR title, and have no intention of playing with friends, skip this and spend the money on one of the AAA titles coming this holiday season.

Game Details:
Available: October 2, 2007
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Bizzare Creations
Genre: Racing
ESRB: Everyone
VGM Rating: 3/5