To complete the experience, the audio doesn’t let us down either. Bizarre Creations spent months doing fieldwork, visiting various car factories and houses so they could get real audio clips from the cars used in the game. Gearshift changes, engine noise, even right down to wheel spins are all faithfully in the game, and sound beautiful.
Conclusions
If you view yourself as a serious racer who detests arcade racers and car customising, then PGR3 could be worth a look for you. Almost everything is photorealistic, and it is hard not to get absorbed into it all. It is not an easy game though, especially online where the Pro’s reside, and trust me I’ve come across some good racers out there when I used to play this game. There are so many neat touches to this title, that it really is hard to mention them all. I do admit that out of every 360 title I have played on the 360, no title has utilised Xbox Live better then PGR3 - the online side of this game is superbly implemented, and credit to Bizzare Creations for pulling that off.
Having said that, I grew tired of it after seeing Ferrari’s in almost every track that I joined during the first two months of this title’s release, and ever since then I have rarely touched PGR3. With the 360 having its fair share of quality racing games out there - Test Drive Unlimited and the soon to be released Forza 2 Motorsport it would seem like less of an incentive to try PGR3 out, but given that this game is now available for £20.00 on the 360 as a budget title, it’s worth a look.
Rating 9/10
Pro’s:
- Photo realistic cars and surroundings
- Authentic engine sounds
- Super smooth gameplay
- Superb use of Xbox Live’s power
- Gotham TV is a top feature
- Lots and lots of cars, plus downloadable content
- Many race modes
Con’s:
- Lengthy (20sec+) track load times
- Online races can become tedious with everyone having the same car
- No ability to save photos to an external device
- The cars can look a bit too ‘clean’ and plastic sometimes
- Cone challenges smell of pooh!