“It’s realistic. Frighteningly realistic”
Let’s start off with a confession:
This is my first PGR game, thus, I will not make any comparisons to neither PGR nor PGR2.
Now then, I have always liked racing games. Screaming down a narrow road in a Ferrari never fails to make me smile. This game is good in that it has a fantastic sense of speed, you actually feel like you are going 175MPH around a corner, taking 1st place in a tight race.
This game technically doesn’t have a story, just a single player championship mode. It opens up your ability to use your imagination to fabricate your own story for yourself, if you’re into that.
The graphics are simply amazing. A first generation game on a next-gen console that already makes Gran Turismo 4 look like a sidewalk chalk drawing. It’s realistic. Frighteningly realistic. The cars look stunning, especially in the sunlight. Which brings up another point, the lighting system and shadows in PGR3 are nuts. Everything looks as it should. The detail is nice on each section of the vehicles. The tires have hair, the cars have decals, the sidewalk has cracks, the asphalt has a roughness to it. Cars look sleek and look fast, and never stop looking good, thanks to the lack of damage inflicted on the cars. Going 190MPH and slamming into a wall will do nothing but make you come to a stop.
The sound in the game is good. Nice variety in the sounds, too. Of the many cars in the game, none of them sound identical, which is very, very enjoyable. Peel-outs sound like they should. Engines sound powerful and effective. Crashes, however, don’t sound so great. Kind of like a soda can being crushed in front of a microphone. The soundtrack is good. Many, many artists. Ranging from my homie Beethoven all the way to Death Cab for Cutie. A good mix of J-Pop, classical, electronica, pop, metal, alternative, hip-hop and so forth. Also, if you hate the music in the game, just substitute your own by ripping your music to your hard drive and playing it. You still hear all the sound effects with your own music. I love this feature and how it appears in EVERY X360 game.
There are a handful of game modes. Single player championship (basic single player game), route creator (choose one of the 6 cities in the game and create a course on it), multiplayer (offline and Xbox Live), and Race against the Clock (Time trial type mode). A big thing about PGR is style. There is a system in PGR called Kudos, which is like getting props or credit for something you do, like drifting, drafting, 360s, and so forth. Some races require you to finish the race with so many kudos to win.
Another part of PGR3 is the ability to take a picture at any time you want during offline play, which is nice. I’ve taken some really nice photos of my McLaren while racing through New York. You can save the photos to your hard drive also. Lastly, there are many different features you can do to your pictures, such as brightness and shutter speed.
Basic controls of the game are easy. Everything is re-mappable on the controller, but I stick with the default. Triggers are accelerate and brake, which is all you really need to just race. A cool aspect of the game is the first person walk mode in the garages. You just walk around and see your cars up close in first person, it’s really nice looking. Look hard enough in the garages and you’ll find a demo for Geometry Wars Retro Evolved. A nice little easter egg.
The offline multi is good. Nothing to write home about, unfortunately. Every single car in the game is available for multi right from the start. Which, to me, is boring. I’d like to earn my cars and then use them, but that’s me. Basically, in offline, up to four people will grab the same car, the fastest car in the game no less, and race. Booooring. You don’t have many race options either. Most people just choose the flat out street race option.
Online multi is just about the same, just with 8 people. It’s good, but there is one major fault with matchmaking. Once everyone in the party gets ready to race, a counter starts at 30 and counts down. Once it hits 0, the game will start. Sounds good, yes, if only the blasted counter wouldn’t restart every time someone jumps into the party or drops from it. I’ve had a matchmaking screen last at least 10 minutes due to this. Also, the community online is kinda crummy. If you bump into someone ever so slightly, they’ll more than likely get hostile and try to take you out. It’s fun, just could have been executed better.
Since PR3 is a racing game, your own interest depends on how long you will keep playing this game. If you like racing games, you’ll keep playing it. Otherwise, you will do each race once, and then be done with it, especially if you don’t like the multi. With a ton of races to do and 5 difficulties to try each race on, this game should keep you playing for quite some time. Also, you’ll probably want to try and purchase each car in the game and maybe gain access to each garage for your rides. I think I’ve purchased 70 some cars and only have about 7 or 8 garages, with many more to unlock. Also, there’s a statistics page which is always fun to constantly increase and read.
Here’s where you make the decision. If you really like racing games, you might want to pick this game up. It’ll most definitely keep you entertained, even if you only blow through each race on the easiest difficulty, but where’s the fun in racing complete imbeciles? A rental would do the game justice, however. For what it’s worth, I bought it. Oh, another thing. If you decide to try it out, do yourself a favor and try the indoor camera view. Let’s just say it dropped my jaw.
By demosquared
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