CJRavey gets behind the wheels of some right classy motors, and desperately tries to earn some Kudos on Project Gotham.
Project Gotham is one of the most popular Xbox launch games, and deservedly so, however it's something of a lap of honour for the developers. Bizarre Creations had a hit back on the Dreamcast, with Metropolis Street Racer, and Project Gotham is rather like an MSR 1.5 - just as SSX Tricky is a half sequel to SSX.
A luscious looking driving game, Project Gotham is all about driving with skill around the streets of London, San Francisco and Tokyo. The level of detail is practically photographic, and conjures up images of the development team stalking the streets taking countless measurements and photos - which indeed they did. The front of the buildings sometimes look rather flat, like photos pasted onto boxy shapes, but this is broken up with the level of smaller details. And after all, Buckingham Palace is a fairly boxy shape to begin with.
The driving with skill element is handled by the Kudos system, (which has been redesigned since MSR). Kudos points are awarded based on slides, air, overtaking and generally how gracefully your car performs. Dreamcast racers may have found the original system unforgiving - each time you raced, the amount of Kudos was tallied, and should you under perform, your overall score was affected. Have an off day and you'd find it a long process clawing your way back. Project Gotham punishes you less, without removing the element that makes both games so successful - you have to learn how to drive well.
Pull off a cool move - such as a handbrake turn - and you'll hear the satisfying sound of Kudos points being earned for every moment the trick lasts. These are potential points, shown and known as a 'Kudos stash,' under your Kudos total. If you're building up your Kudos stash during a trick (or a combo of tricks) and you happen to smack into a wall - you've lost it all. It's just what you're used to in Tony Hawk's and other extreme sports games - but in a car game it's a genius stroke.
You can spend the first hour crashing around the tracks like a stock car racer if you wish; but this kind of oafish behaviour will never see you win through from the introduction and amateur season to the heady heights of world tour and invitational. For my first few races, I was thrilled to see that damage is reflected on the cars - I needed more panel beating than a Tory Question Time special - but soon you'll want to win races with your pristine dream machine entirely intact.
Keeping the bodywork scratch free is not always easy on the winding courses, with Tokyo especially being full of narrow streets and sharp corners - an exact memory of the track is required to negotiate it successfully. There's more of a sense of speed on the Tokyo levels, especially come night time. San Francisco features the expected Bullet-style streets - a great place to gain Kudos from flying through the air, but also chance to lose a big chunk when you crash head first into a barrier, after flying through the air. London offers more sensibly bendy corners - it's also eerily clean and empty - if Metal Gear Solid 2 can factor pigeon poo into the gameplay, why can't we have the stuff in London? Maybe a bird-cack-powerslide could offer a big Kudos win?
Each race or event takes place on a prescribed route around London, Tokyo or San Francisco - don't expect to be freely roaming each city. This ain't sightseeing - though you'll might spot Big Ben whizzing past at 90mph!
Challenges offer progression through the game, ranging from how fast you can complete a lap, your average speed throughout a course, to your more traditional street racing. An element of betting on your skill is present, with the ability to increase or decrease the difficulty of the challenge - and the Kudos points at stake. A joker can also be played before the challenge, which will double the amount of Kudos points awarded.
Depending on your preferences, Kudos will either make or break this game for you. It's not too hard - simply challenging. It rewards your hard work, though if you're an uncultured yob like me, you may occasionally get frustrated with the almost prim nature of the Kudos system. After overtaking an opponent on a San Francisco street by jumping over the top of their car, hitting a right angle barrier and flipping sideward over the winning line. This stunning move gained me no Kudos from my Mary Whitehouse of an Xbox - apparently it was too ungainly for such a reward. Who would've thought it?
The game also offers enjoyable multiplayer mode, a great chance to utilise the soundtrack ripping option (as seen in our Amped coverage) to force your chums to listen to your dreadful choice in music. Not that you'll need friends however, with the extremely accomplished AI of the CPU drivers - they won't let you win races without a fight. Multiplayer races can be set in options to be based on time or the aforementioned Kudos.
As for the nice shiny cars on offer, you begin with a new Mini Cooper, an MR2 Spider and an SLK 320. Unlike Gran Turismo 3, there's plenty of Ferrari action on offer - the F355 Spider, 355 FI, 360 Spider , 360 Modena - all the way to the top car in the game's list, the F50. However, you'll need to earn 200,000 Kudos points to unlock this beauty - so get driving.
Included is the Carrera GT - not released by Porsche yet, and set to cost about half a million dollars when it is, so start saving. However this does make another car available - the TVR Tuscan Speed Six - look dirt cheap. Familiar faces, or rather chassis, from Gran Turismo crop up, such as the Suburu Impreza and the Nissan Skyline GTR. If cars are your thing, you'll love unlocking each new toy (our boss and advisor on all things driving was particularly impressed by the chance of getting his hands on a Mazda RX-8). Fight your way through challenge after challenge with style and get 75,000 Kudos points for example, and you unlock the 'hidden car', the Delfino Feroce. This is all practically pornographically exciting for anyone with even a passing interest in cars.
If you like cars, and you like a challenge, you really ought to be slapping Project Gotham into your Xbox and settling down for a long hard play.