$20 Game of the Week: Project Gotham Racing 3

I’ve never really been into racing games. The only reason I have this game is becuase my brother bought it for me as a christmas present. Once in a blue moon however, I have the itch for some racing action. For the most part Ridge Racer’s acrade-style action did it for me, but during the Playstation 1 era, there was one game that caught my attention becuase of it’s heavy handed approach to racing: Gran Turismo 2. I would spend hours trying to attempt the challenges and unlock all the cars. Now 7 years later, I got a racing simulation that was just as fun, and it took full advantage of Xbox Live.

Project Gotham Racing is to Racing what Halo is to FPS, which is Microsoft’s  breakthrough entry into the genre.  Take any one of several real cars from dozens of manufacturers and take it on one of five cities.  It isn’t just about going fast, but also about pulling off the coolest moves, such as drifting and 360 turns.  Completing challenges and winning races will earn you more money to buy better cars.  As one would suspect, this takes full advantages of Xbox Live.  In addition to racing against other players online, you can watch other players on Gotham TV as a spectator, and you can even buy new downloadable cars on the Xbox Live Market place.  It’s not perfect, and I know there are games that offer more and better, but comming from one who dosen’t normally play racing games, you could do worse than this solid Xbox 360 launch title.