bapenguin
10-12-2005, 05:54 PM
Project Gotham Racing 3 Hands on Preview
by: Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo, Editor-in-Chief
One game that's garnered a lot of attention for it's graphics is Project Gotham Racing 3. The graphics have been hyped and hyped, and the polygons pushed and pushed. And while the graphics of PGR3 are drop dead gorgeous, when you are flying by at 170 miles per hour, you don't have the time to appreciate them.
So lets get it out of the way. PGR3 is beautiful. It's sexy. You'll want to take it out to dinner, buy it flowers and hope for a good night kiss with tongue. The textures and models are as close to photo-realistic as you can get without being it. The game pushes some serious polygons. The Brooklyn Bridge in the game is made of more polygons than an entire city in Project Gotham Racing 2. The motion blur effect is nicely done and really creates a good sense of speed. If the game was only running at 30FPS, I didn't notice it. Only once did I notice the frame rate slow down, ironically it was over the Brooklyn bridge with 6 other cars on the screen.
Another big graphical upgrade is the crowds. Screenshots do the crowds no jusstice. Their movement is so fluid and natural. They'll snap photos of you and react to what you do with cheers. Crash into a wall near them? Watch them jump back and cover their faces. The crowds in PGR3 are one of those things that have to be seen to be appreciated.
The cars that I got to see in PGR3 look very well modeled. All of them seemed accurate to their real life counterparts. The inside camera view of the cars is particularly detailed with the windshield gathering dust, scratches and cracks on it. If you take a moment to sit back and just watch the game play out from that view you'd swear you were watching video from a race on TV. Every track has a night and day mode, and the New York and Vegas tracks are particularly nice at night. The neon lights of Vegas reflect off the surfaces of the car and look really slick.
The game has a ton of tracks. There were 5 Locales: London, Las Vegas, Nuremberg, New York City and Japan. In each of the locales there were at least 8 to 10 tracks all ranging in difficultly from easy to hard. The racing itself is solid and feels like the previous Gotham games. Kudos makes its return as do more cars than you care to count.
Lets get to where the game really shines. Its Live mode. Every game you play via live can be broadcast via GothamTV. As you get ranked your races begin to be put into channels. The Heroes channel will have the top racers in PGR3 and will automatically be broadcast via GothamTV. Bizzarre Creations is trying to breed the next “sports” star. What's cool is there's an online sports ticker that will let you know how your friends are doing and their various achievements while playing games. It'll also let you know what's going on in the Hero's channel. If there's a race with say, the 3 of the top 10 people in PGR3 playing in the Heroes channel, you'll have the opportunity to jump in and watch it play out. I haven't heard a limit yet on how many people can watch one of these events, but I heard a rumor that they tested it with over 300,000 spectators.
I'm really anxious to see how the Live component of this game plays out. This is truly something unique and innovative and could take online gaming to a new level. PGR3 will be a solid AAA racing game and a worthy successor to the franchise. Racing fans shouldn't miss it!
Update: I just found out the PGR3 will contain a copy of Geometry Wars for Live Arcade!
by: Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo, Editor-in-Chief
One game that's garnered a lot of attention for it's graphics is Project Gotham Racing 3. The graphics have been hyped and hyped, and the polygons pushed and pushed. And while the graphics of PGR3 are drop dead gorgeous, when you are flying by at 170 miles per hour, you don't have the time to appreciate them.
So lets get it out of the way. PGR3 is beautiful. It's sexy. You'll want to take it out to dinner, buy it flowers and hope for a good night kiss with tongue. The textures and models are as close to photo-realistic as you can get without being it. The game pushes some serious polygons. The Brooklyn Bridge in the game is made of more polygons than an entire city in Project Gotham Racing 2. The motion blur effect is nicely done and really creates a good sense of speed. If the game was only running at 30FPS, I didn't notice it. Only once did I notice the frame rate slow down, ironically it was over the Brooklyn bridge with 6 other cars on the screen.
Another big graphical upgrade is the crowds. Screenshots do the crowds no jusstice. Their movement is so fluid and natural. They'll snap photos of you and react to what you do with cheers. Crash into a wall near them? Watch them jump back and cover their faces. The crowds in PGR3 are one of those things that have to be seen to be appreciated.
The cars that I got to see in PGR3 look very well modeled. All of them seemed accurate to their real life counterparts. The inside camera view of the cars is particularly detailed with the windshield gathering dust, scratches and cracks on it. If you take a moment to sit back and just watch the game play out from that view you'd swear you were watching video from a race on TV. Every track has a night and day mode, and the New York and Vegas tracks are particularly nice at night. The neon lights of Vegas reflect off the surfaces of the car and look really slick.
The game has a ton of tracks. There were 5 Locales: London, Las Vegas, Nuremberg, New York City and Japan. In each of the locales there were at least 8 to 10 tracks all ranging in difficultly from easy to hard. The racing itself is solid and feels like the previous Gotham games. Kudos makes its return as do more cars than you care to count.
Lets get to where the game really shines. Its Live mode. Every game you play via live can be broadcast via GothamTV. As you get ranked your races begin to be put into channels. The Heroes channel will have the top racers in PGR3 and will automatically be broadcast via GothamTV. Bizzarre Creations is trying to breed the next “sports” star. What's cool is there's an online sports ticker that will let you know how your friends are doing and their various achievements while playing games. It'll also let you know what's going on in the Hero's channel. If there's a race with say, the 3 of the top 10 people in PGR3 playing in the Heroes channel, you'll have the opportunity to jump in and watch it play out. I haven't heard a limit yet on how many people can watch one of these events, but I heard a rumor that they tested it with over 300,000 spectators.
I'm really anxious to see how the Live component of this game plays out. This is truly something unique and innovative and could take online gaming to a new level. PGR3 will be a solid AAA racing game and a worthy successor to the franchise. Racing fans shouldn't miss it!
Update: I just found out the PGR3 will contain a copy of Geometry Wars for Live Arcade!