Joystiq hands-on: Project Gotham Racing 3

Of all the games I previewed on Tuesday, Project Gotham Racing 3 boasted—by far—the best Xbox Live experience. The heart of the Xbox 360 is in this service, and Bizarre has done an incredible job molding the latest PGR into an online world. Of course, up until now, the focus has been on PGR3's looks. So let's settle that first.

PGR3 is a stunner. To put things in perspective, consider this: there are more polygons in PGR3's rendition of the Brooklyn Bridge than there are in an entire city featured in PGR2. Zipping along a course in cockpit view and peering up at the towering skyscrapers around you is an incredible experience—with "Night on Bald Mountain" (yeah, the soundtrack is dope) pumping through the speakers. Add to this an interactive crowd, which while not super detailed (but how could you tell going 180 mph?), will wildly snap pictures as you kick your style up a notch or jump back if you veer towards the wall they are all standing behind. That atmosphere is enough to distract you from the real task at hand, racing.

I want to stay focused on what Bizarre has done to make this the Xbox 360 Live experience to beat. It all starts with the Online Career. Players have a choice to earn their kudos entirely in the Xbox Live circuit. The Online Career is essentially a matchmaking mode that, within approximately 20 races, will have you ranked and ready to race against like-skilled gamers. It’s similar to what Bungie has done with ranked matches for Halo 2, and it’s a wonder that other developers have failed to continue in this vain.

But if you want to just race for the sake of racing, or goof around with friends, that option is there too. A simple Route Creator will even let you shape your own course, which you can share with friends. Pursue a career or play around—again, the Xbox 360 is all about playing how you want to play.

Enter Gotham TV—here’s were things get interesting. Inside this mode you’ll find the Heroes Channel, your Friends Channel, a gallery of your snapshots, and also your recorded replays. The Heroes Channel—which I touched on yesterday—provides you with viewing access to the Top 50 racers in the world (on Live). If you’re watching a race you can hop in and out of the perspectives all of the cars that are racing, utilizing the different view modes and camera options available. The Heroes Channel has tested up to 300,000 viewers watching a single race.

Initially, Bizarre wanted to award a greater number of kudos for style moves that were performed in front of large audiences, but it turned out to be impossible. That is, essentially, a set amount of viewers will be watching the original race, but then, each of those spectators will act as a host for 10 additional spectators, and so on, and so on, down the tree. So, actually, most of the viewers will be watching the race on a slight delay (not unlike TV broadcasts of sporting events). The issue is, the race feed is only sent down the tree, there is no communication back up, so Bizarre has no way of knowing how many people are actually watching.

The Friends Channel is similar to the Heroes Channel, as it allows you to see what your friends are up to (i.e. watch their races). As for the gallery of snapshots, this is actually a pretty cool feature. At any time during a single-player race (and perhaps even during multiplayer) you can pause the game and choose to photograph the scene from the pause menu. You can actually move the camera around, adjusting the angle to capture your car against a famous landmark, or wherever you happen to be in the race (preserve a close finish forever). Once you take the picture you go into a watered-down Photoshop mode, which lets you tweak things like shutter speed, depth of field, contrast, etc. All in all, it’s a nice touch for Gotham fanatics or photography enthusiasts. Then, you can use your pictures as a screen saver (just head to the gallery in Gotham TV) or trade them with friends. Finally, there’s a mode that will allow you to view any of your past races that you’ve recorded.

I really appreciate what Bizarre has down with PGR3, particularly with the Xbox Live experience. In order for the Xbox 360 to be successful, developers are gonna have to focus on innovative features that take advantage of the possibilities that the Live community offers. PGR3 is the only game that I saw in which the developers really tried to come up with next-gen features. Will Gotham TV work? I don’t know. But the idea of turning video games into a spectator sport via Live is exciting. The idea of creating “heroes,” that is, superstars—or dare I say, celebrities—is also exciting—as is the notion of spectators becoming students of the game. I commend Bizarre for taking that risk—and heck, if no one is watching it just means they’re too busy playing this highly polished title.

Note: I wanted to re-emphasize that the cockpit view really adds another layer of depth to the game. You can swivel your head with the right thumbstick, and staring out of the side mirrors really gives you an idea of how fast your virtual car is moving. The sound inside of the cockpit is really effective too. In fact, Bizarre recorded individual sounds for each car in the game, so that they all sound unique—plus, the nature of the car sounds changes depending on what view mode you are racing in. From the cockpit view, the sounds are muffled, enhancing the sensation of being inside of the vehicle. In addition, the windshield features glare effects and will scratch, crack, and even gather dust. The side view mirrors will take a beating too, if you’re reckless. Also, all of the dials and meters actually work, and the rearview mirror (some cars don’t have one) gives you a good idea of what’s happening behind you. All in all, the new cockpit view is one of the most important additions to PGR3.