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Project Gotham Racing 2 has come a long way since the days of Metropolitan Street Racer on the Dreamcast. So far, each release of the game has been a vast improvement over its predecessor and Project Gotham Racing 2 for the Xbox is no exception. Project Gotham Racing 2 has gotten to the point where other racing titles are now mimicking certain aspects of the game to try and make their own games more stylish. You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The game play of Project Gotham Racing 2 is very similar to that of Project Gotham Racing 1, with some slight alterations. The most significant of which are probably the changes to the Kudos system. It’s a bit more forgiving then in Project Gotham Racing 1. You won’t loose as many Kudos for small bumps during a kudos streak. For PGR newbies, the Kudos system is essentially a style system. Power sliding and overtaking another racer using cunning maneuvers and finishing races based upon different difficulty levels all award ‘Kudos’. This system has been around since Metropolitan Street Racer on the Dreamcast and probably the most identifying of Project Gotham Racing. When you reach a certain number of Kudos, your Kudos Rank improves. When your Kudos Rank improves you are awarded Kudos Tokens. These tokens can be used in the showroom to purchase new cars. You can even test drive cars before you decide to purchase.

Purchasing new cars is pivotal to ranking higher and earning the high end racing medals. The AI in the latter gold and platinum medal races can be ruthless. They’ll bump you around corners, sending you spinning out of control, block your attempted passes and capitalize on nearly any mistake you make. The best way to beat the AI is to buy yourself the best car in that specific class, then try to pass the crowd by the first couple turns and stay ahead of them for the remainder of the race. In order to do that, you gotta know your cars. Each car has stats for top speed, handling, power sliding and acceleration. Acceleration is probably the most important stat, followed by top speed and then handling. I suppose power sliding is important if you want kudos, but if you want to WIN you’ll want acceleration and speed. Fortunately if you win a higher medal, it automatically checks off all the lower medal races whether you’ve done them or not. The skill curve for PGR 2 is steep, but that’s not unusual for a racing game. It’s all about learning the tracks and braking. Picking up on steering is fairly easy, but proper braking skills can take time to develop and learning the tracks will take some time as well since there are so damn many. Practice makes perfect.

When I initially booted up the game and took a quick inventory of all the different modes, races and tracks, I was very impressed. PGR2 is huge game. It is definitely not the type of game you can sit down and finish in a few nights, unless you pull a marathon session. The game sports over 100 cars and a multitude of tracks, including all new locales and of course, some of the old favorites from PGR1. The two main modes of play are Kudos World Series and Arcade Mode. Multiplayer support features Xbox Live, local split screen and system link. There are a couple other modes of play worth mentioning such as Ghost challenge, where you can download and race against other gamers’ ghosts from Xbox live. There’s also Time Attack and Instant Action. You won’t earn kudos ranks in these latter modes, however, only in Kudos World Series and Arcade Mode. Xbox live also keeps track of a separate kudos rankings versus your single player kudos rank.

In the Kudos World Series, you will compete in fourteen different classes amongst a series of race types in each class. The classes each consists of a certain type of car like SUV’s, American Muscle Cars, Sports Coups, etc. As you progress through the classes, near the final ‘Ultimate’ class, the races will get progressively harder and you will need to complete more races in each class. You will start out by only needing to do maybe six to eight races to advance to the next class. When you reach the last quarter of the class list, you’ll need to do well over a dozen or more races in order to advance to the next class. You will unlock cars and tracks that can be used in multiplayer along the way. The race types include standard street racing, overtake challenges, cone challenges, time attack and top speed on camera runs. Each race has five levels of difficulty, otherwise known as five different types of medals that are up for grabs: steel, bronze, silver, gold and platinum. There are typically about seven cars in each class, but only one or two of those cars will yield the power to let you finish the upper medals. If you want to unlock all the uber cars, you will need to complete every race in every class and get every medal checked off! Remember, if you finish a platinum medal race it automatically checks off all the medals below it that specific race. If you plan on competing over Xbox Live, you will definitely want to play through at least one whole set of lesser medals to earn enough kudos to unlock and purchase some of the better cars from each class. Otherwise, they are not available to you in multiplayer games.

Arcade mode is a bit shorter than the Kudos World Series. You have three series to finish with about twenty races in each series. There are three types of races in Arcade mode. These include street races, cone challenge and time attack. There are also ‘sub modes’ for time attack. You can do time attacks for specific cars or specific tracks.

When it comes to Xbox live, no other game shines like PGR2. I had my doubts about Xbox Live with this game, at first. Up to 8 players in one game; a fast paced racing game at that could the peer to peer architecture of Xbox Live handle it? I’m sure that was a big concern for Microsoft and Bizarre Creations (the Developers), as PGR2 was undoubtedly meant to be the flagship racing title for Xbox Live. After seeing PGR2’s Xbox Live capabilities, I must say I am thoroughly impressed. Not one of my fears was justified, as the game played damn near flawlessly online using my cable modem. Kudos to Microsoft and the developers for working out some great netcode on this title. My only complaint involves Optimatches. It’s damn near impossible to find a game using Optimatch. You’d be best off to stick with Instant Action.

While I’m on the subject of Xbox Live, I should mention that even the single player aspects of the game have optional integrated XBL features. If you have Xbox Live, you can login using your Xbox Live account even when you are playing by yourself. When you finish a race, it will compare your result to tens of thousands of other gamers on XBL through a scoreboard ranking system. Downloading other players’ ghosts and being able to match your skills against their best times is one of the coolest features of the game’s Xbox Live capabilities. PGR2 also supports integrated invites through Xbox Live. If you are playing a single player game and one of your friends hops on Xbox Live for some multiplayer action and you’ve signed into Xbox Live when you started playing (which is the default), they can throw an invite your way. A notification will appear telling you that your buddy has invited you to an XBL game - pretty slick! You can also totally bypass the Xbox Live sign in if you want to be left alone to game in peace, or if you lack an Xbox Live account. On top of Xbox Live play, there is of course standard split screen multiplayer for local games. You can also race with a local buddy on your Xbox through Xbox Live using ‘guest’ mode. To top it off, PGR2 supports downloadable content. It has the best Xbox Live support I’ve ever seen.

Not only have the game play elements been improved upon, but the graphics and sound have also been touched up a bit. You can very clearly see your driver through the back windshield if you are playing in the ‘over the shoulder’ view. My customized license plate which reads ‘eat me’ is also very visible. Cars sport realistic looking damage, but won’t affect the performance of your car by default in single player. Xbox Live hosts seem to prefer damage modifiers, from what I’ve seen. Even without damage modifiers, racing on a night track in the rain can be a bit more challenging without your two front headlights or break lights, regardless of other damages your car has sustained throughout the race. There are reflective turn signs that are only clearly illuminated by your headlights. Paint jobs are glossy, lighting offers reflective eye candy and different engines have their own distinct rumbles and roars. As with most Xbox titles, you can also use your own custom soundtrack. PGR1 had great graphics and aesthetically pleasing presentation – PGR2 kicks it up a notch. BAM!

The refinements to PGR2 have improved the game enough to prove it as a worthy successor. The Xbox Live capabilities are spectacular, plus there are a lot of cars, tracks and locations to provide you with many hours of exciting game play. This is currently the best racing title on Xbox. It’s a must-have for racing fans and Xbox Live fans alike. Project Gotham Racing is turning into it’s own franchise and you can expect more Gotham Racing games in the future – I’d bet on it.