Project Gotham Racing 2

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Travel around the globe as a member of the international street-racing underground -- the sweetest rides anywhere are here for you
• Earn Kudos to upgrade your driving machine by driving faster than the rest and pulling off insane stunts -- from cornering around the Sears Tower on two wheels, to powersliding through Florence
• Xbox Live support for the ultimate multiplayer racing -- compete against your friends or download ghost cars
• Listen to the hottest DJs in the world as you blast real radio from real stations, from around the world
• Detailed graphics capture the essence of every city -- you'll feel like you're really there, blazing down the streets at 150MPH!

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0000C6FKA
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 18, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,498 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Project Gotham Racing 2 is the ultimate test of racing skill, style, and daring that rewards you not only for how fast you drive, but also for how you drive fast. Earn Kudos points and gain recognition for cornering on two wheels around the Sears Tower in Chicago; power sliding through the ancient streets of Florence, Italy; or maneuvering along the racing line through the slick streets of Edinburgh, Scotland—all while racing some of the most exotic high-performance vehicles available. Challenge other gamers online, utilizing Xbox Live, or take on your friends in a multiplayer race via System Link.

Features

• New Kudos reward system: Earn Kudos by performing power slides, spinning out in 360s that corner on two wheels, and (for the first time) drafting while staying on the race line and keeping car damage to a minimum. Kudos is a way to measure your driving skills, flair, and daring, as well as the accomplishments you achieve throughout the game. The more Kudos you earn, the better you're ranking will be and the more vehicles, skins, and tracks you can unlock.
• Online play: Project Gotham Racing 2 supports Xbox Live. Join friends and others around the world for the ultimate street race, or download ghosts (recorded cars to watch, learn from, and compete against).
• Multiplayer System Link: Allows players to race head-to-head in the same room. Racing around the globe: Maintaining its international theme, Project Gotham Racing 2 takes place in photo-realistic recreations of famous cities including Chicago, Edinburgh, Florence, and Moscow.
• Sweet rides: Take the wheel of some of the most exclusive high-performance vehicles, all fully licensed with realistic damage modeling. Project Gotham Racing 2 offers an exciting driving experience in vehicles such as the Ferrari Enzo, Porsche GT2, BMW Z4, Pontiac GTO, Mini Cooper S, and many more.
• Music that drives you: Listen to the hottest DJs in the world turn out authentic music from real radio stations, as you drive through each city in the game. You can also create personal play lists with the exclusive CD player in Project Gotham Racing 2.
• Highly detailed game environments: Project Gotham Racing 2 captures the essence of every city, with fully researched, photo-realistic environments (including highly detailed storefronts and buildings), allowing gamers to experience the superior graphics technology of Xbox.

Product Description

Project Gotham Racing 2 is the sequel wher eyou'll experience better graphics and faster gameplay, with the thrills and control of the original! You're a member of the world street-racing circuit, out to win the fastest races on the toughest streets, even if it means risking your life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most ambitious racing game ever created!, November 28, 2003

By 

DarkDan "DarkDan" (Norman, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Project Gotham Racing 2 (Video Game)

While I am not a racing purist, I loved the first Project Gotham racing and enjoy playing most racing games on my Xbox and PS2. It also appears that I'm the only reviewer at this point who has completed Project Gotham 2.

For newbies and PG1 players, progressing through the game has been made considerably easier than the first game and you can easily teach yourself the ropes of each track and car class by playing for a bronze medal. Also you can jump into the super cars even if you haven't "unlocked" them in the single player game yet by visiting your garage.

If you're familiar with the series, or have read the other reviews, you know that Microsoft has taken everything that was great in PG1 and upped the ante. For newbies, you'll find Project Gotham 2 is the most intense street racing game ever created. The game begins as a solid "race for place" competition against computer opponents, and adds variety events like cone solemn racing, vehicle overtake and photo radar gun top speed contests. In each event, you can select the award level you want to try for, which establishes the difficulty and the specific objectives. Aside from the career mode (which PG2 calls the "Kudos World Series") there are also three arcade modes, two time attack modes and numerous online challenges.

Aside from the mere thrill of racing against human opponents, the online component has a few innovative features that set PG2 apart from any other racing game ever made. With online scoreboards you can see how you compare on each single player race you complete against everyone else in the world. Your rank, for each and every level is shown, along with the other gamers around you and the number 1 player. In addition, you can download "ghosts" which show you how the other people got their scores. And special trials are offered in the "ghost challenges" arena, where you can download the best performances from players around the world and try to beat them.

Technically, this game is perfect. The load times are extraordinarily fast and the game instantly returns you to the starting line if you restart the level (where many games would require lengthy reload time). There's also a seamless line between online and single player game play.

There are 10+ things about this game which are absolutely amazing:

1. Online features and functionality (see above)
2. Graphics. (This game looks best on a 480i HDTV)
3. Music. (And I'm a tough critic, but I really enjoy the songs on this game)
4. Vast number of tracks, well designed and well detailed.
5. Vast number of game modes
6. The environment has detailed elements, like leaves blowing across the track or birds flying in the foreground. Animations (like a ferris wheel) are in the background to provide even more graphic realism.
7. Your vehicle sustains incredible damage as you drive and while the performance is not affected, knocking out your headlights on a dark level makes it tough to drive!
8. Spectacular lighting effects!
9. Replayability
10. Achievable unlockable vehicles and accomplishable tasks
11. VERY cool secret unlockable cars!

There are 3 things that could have used improvement:
1. Often, the competitors will fall into two packs. If you get behind the second pack, they will intentionally slow you down or crash into you so that it is almost impossible to reach the front pack.
2. Some of the levels are so tight (one/two lane tracks) that playing the same level at easier difficulty is a negligible advantage.
3. In the final car circuit, (called the "Ultimate Series") the tracks are considerably longer and require an extended number of laps for no apparent reason other than to delay game completion.

There are 3 things about this game which are absolutely ridiculous:

1. Apparently the AI drivers all have PhDs in automotive physics because they know EXACTLY where to hit your car to send it into a spin. And they will do this to you more often then not.
2. When YOU hit a wall it's a reverse/back-up/steer out/gas procedure, but when an AI competitor hits the wall (or, OK, I run them into a wall), they somehow miraculously recover and are instantly behind you.
3. AI cars will often "take the line" while driving, meaning that they plow into you if you're already in the optimal apex.

All-in-all, this game suffers many of the flaws that all racing video games have, and while this game isn't absolutely perfect, it is -by far- the best racing game available on any platform.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Game~Online and Off, January 18, 2004

By 

obryanstars - See all my reviews

This review is from: Project Gotham Racing 2 (Video Game)

When Project Gotham Racing came out back in 2001, people had mixed feelings. It was a fun game, with an emphasis on style. It had great graphics, dozens of cars, and a huge single player. There were some problems though. It was extremely hard in areas, people wanted more cars (only 80 or so in the first), and the multiplayer wasn't very fun. Because it was hard for people to just pick up the controller and play...

Well, Project Gotham Racing 2 has everything the first one did, and so much more! Its funner, looks better, plays better, and isn't as frustrating. You can really get good at it, and you never really get stuck. Here's what I thought of Project Gotham Racing 2:

1) Single Player~ This game has an amazing single player. Dozens of tracks, hundreds of cars, and a ton of fun tracks. The game is divided into 2 sections: Kudos World Series and Arcade Racing. The overall goal is to earn Kudos (for every few thousand Kudos, u get tokens. With the tokens you can buy new cars). You can earn the tokens in either the World Series or Arcade modes.

In the Kudos World Series, you start out in the lowest class (there are 15 or so classes, each with about 10 cars). Once you select a class + pick a car, you can begin racing. You pick either to race, cone challenge, 1 on 1, pass as many cars as u can, finish a lap in a certain amount of time, etc... There are several challenges in each class. Each challenge has 5 difficulties: steel, bronze, silver, gold, or platinum medals. Once you complete a class (and earn as many tokens as u can while at it), you can move on to the next.

In Arcade Racing, you either street race or do cone challenges. You are given a car (no car classes here) and try to beat each challenge. There are also 5 difficulties here. Its pretty much just a chance to earn more kudos, and tone your skills.

The single player is huge, tons of cars, medals, and challenges to complete. Just single player alone will keep you busy for dozens and dozens of hours.

2) Online Play: This is where the game really shines. First off, online play is a WHOLE new game. There are no medals, no cone challenges. The only thing that comes with you from single player is the cars you unlocked. Once online you can race with friends, or just random people. You can use any of the tracks you unlocked in single player, or join a game with a map you haven't unlocked. When doing "Kudos Racing" you can earn Kudos to increase your Kudos Rank (online). Everyone starts at 1 on LIVE. After you earn your first few thousand Kudos, that will increase to 2. The next ten thousand, 3. The next twenty thousand, 4. etc... Its sort of a badge, telling people how good you are at this game.

Online you can race with up to 8 people. Voice Chat, rankings, friends, etc... And with Kudos Rank and racing, it really is an unlimited game online. There are really good people out there, so if the computer is just getting too easy, meet your challenge online.

3) Graphics~ The graphics in this game are...amazing. Cars get beat up, glass smashes, license plates become bent and smash off, doors get bent, etc... Your car really does look beaten if you have a messy race. Hard slides have smoke coming up from the tires. Screech marks remain in the steet for the race after a sharp turn. Crashes are greatly improved over the original. Nothing like walling a rival, seeing his perfect car smashed into peices, then driving off taunting. The graphics really do make the game better.

Weather changes are great in this game too. At night, its hard to see, and your headlights are your only guide around the track. Oh, if you break them, they dont shine anymore... When its raining, its hard to see. You car slides all over the track (go a little slower perhaps?) And it just looks incredible. The rain gets on the cars, makes them shine a bit. The track is wet and slippery. Weather really is fun in this game...

Overall the graphics are incredible, and really show off the XBOX's power.

4) Gameplay~ This game is just..really fun to play. Its a blast to hit a perfect slide, keep control, and leave your oppenant in the dust. Steering is hard, and knowing when to slow down, or how to take a turn is really important. In other words, newbs don't beat experts in this game, and you can really get good. This game has rankings online, and you can work your way to #1 (permanantly, as stats dont reset in this game)

Overeall this game is just a blast. Worth every penny, anyone looking for a fun LIVE game, or who loves racing HAS to buy this. 10/10

Thx!

obryanstars*

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally a Gran Turismo for the Xbox - with multiplayer!, November 24, 2003

By 

tzadik "tzadik" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Project Gotham Racing 2 (Video Game)

First the good news: you finally get rewarded for driving a good line. All us Gran Turismo 3 drivers used to be mighty confused about being rewarded for sliding through a turn when a well-executed line is faster and more elegant! So now you can slide, or nail the apex, and still get points. (You still get more for sliding though.)

It's a great racing game. The physics are good, and the vehicles respond as you'd expect them to. The AI is much better than the GT3 AI.

It's easier to unlock new cars, and you pay for them with Kudos tokens, rather than virtual money. You cannot upgrade the cars as you could in GT3, and I will miss that.

Playing against others is fun, just mute some of the trash talkers - or beat them.