Saturday, May 24, 2003

Xbox - Project Gotham review

| GAME FEATURES |

Developer : Bizzare Creations

A.) 4 tracks already unlocked. 4 cars to drive and a 6 paint options. See more in the review ....

Publisher : Microsoft

B.) The 4th best looking racing game on Xbox as of today.

Released on Sept 15, 2001

C.) About the same exact gameplay in SEGA GT

D.) Poor selection of songs.

Type : Racing

The good old Dreamcast had some amazing titles on the racing realm. For example, I have Test Drive Le Mans and Test Drive V Rally. V Rally is the best racer I ever played. That's because I liked Mario Kart 64, then I got into Sega Rally 2. For a very short time I was into Tokyo Extreme Racer and now I got into Sega GT 2002. I disagree with the Project Gundam case when the game isn't my favorite. The case says "The best racing game for Xbox" Midnight Club II is around the corner and is looking good. But I like Sega GT 2002 better for Xbox. So what does Sega GT 2002 have that Project Gundam doesn't. More tracks. Better music. A lot of little things such as the lighting effects are exactly the same. SEGA GT 2002 came out 6 months after Project Gundam. I don't find the driving point system annoying. I just have a problem with it. I can average 430 points on this game. The game has obsyicles such as cones that you must avoid. If you don't you use points. If you ram the wall you loose more point. It adds up. I suppose you can ignore it and put in cheat codes. But that is missing the point. I just don't like it as much. It could be that the game is so well designed that I'm missing the whole prospective. I have been in console racing since 1998. Since then I went though 4 more consoles.

Summing up Project Gotham

Graphics

9.5

Excellent graphics. I've seen the sequel on the Internet so I have to say that these graphics are sub-standard in 2003. Like Sega GT 2002. Fortunely, there hasn't been any slow downs. This game features cone motion. The game is full of them. This is where the cones, when knocked by the race car, spin and turn. It's noticably good when the camera zooms in, it spins, then zooms out. The sun flare is also a enhanced feature that looks very good on the Xbox. This has been done for many years on simulation games. But this game makes it look really good. The Xbox is running at a higher resolution. Which means more animation on screen. In english. Microsoft didn't hold back much when they've created the xbox. Because Microsoft is a monopoly and has a net value of a couple billion. They have the money to spend on big projects like this one which costs 100 million to make. So 50 times 1 million is 1 dollar. So out of 5 the 5 dollars it cost to develop and package the game. Microsoft is getting 15 dollars or more dollars back. So Microsoft puts that into other expensive projects like Project Gundam 2.

Control

8.5

The control is loose like Sega GT 2002.

Orginalism

7.0

This is the aging concept of street racing. Driving for points gets annoying, but I can ignore it. Its not too annoying. It just tells you how good of driver you really are. The high scores are left blank. So I compete against myself. An advanced gamer could probably be able to play this game without hesitation.

Sound Effects

10.0

The engine sounds are great. The sound of the engine skips like a real engine would when you down shift. Plus the Dolby Digital enhancement makes the sound effects live and crystal clear.

Replayibly

9.0

Dispite the fact that I don't care much about the point system. The game delievers a awesome slow down and speed up drill that you repeat a lot in the game. It doesn't get boring. Using the hand brake to add points is very cool if it is done correctly. The game has a stuning replay mode which does all kinds of camera angles. Closeups are also equally eye popping.

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