Remembering Project Gotham Racing, Microsoft’s first great racer
Nowadays it is but a fond memory, yet it’s one of the most important franchises in gaming for me, shaping what was to come over the next two decades.
Early beginnings on the Sega Dreamcast
Source: Windows Central
MSR blended real-world, licensed cars with street racing and the kudos ‘currency’ system. It looked brilliant, it was a heap of fun to play, the soundtrack was pretty awesome and all that is without considering you could drive an MGF.
An antidote to Gran Turismo
Source: Microsoft
MSR and then PGR were an antidote to this. Gran Turismo was quite serious, but Project Gotham was, well, just fun. It’s this lighter, more casual approach that hooked me in.
PGR was still a challenge, as were the next three games in the series. But a different kind of challenge. The focus wasn’t just on winning races and having the best car. The kudos system rewarded you for driving with style, which meant a lot of tapping the handbrake. And that’s a blast when you’re a kid.
Today, one of the closest experiences to that first time playing Project Gotham is the GRID reboot by Codemasters. It has a very similar feeling, with gorgeous cars, make believe street circuits, and plenty of scope for flamboyant driving.
Forza Horizon’s spiritual predecessor
Source: Windows Central
You can still see glimpses of influence in Forza Horizon today. Tell me the skill points system in the Forza Horizon games doesn’t remind you a whole lot of the kudos system in PGR?
Forza Horizon of course amped up the street racing experience by adding in an open world that has progressively became larger and more interactive, mixing gorgeous environments with stunningly recreated real-world cars.
Whatever happened to Bizarre Creations?
Activision also then announced that Project Gotham Racing 4 would be the studio’s last game for Microsoft Game Studios, though the latter retained the rights to the franchise.
In an Activision-owned life Bizarre went on to make one more racing game, 2010 release Blur, and then in 2011 Activision closed the studio down. And Microsoft hasn’t done anything with the franchise since. The actual last PGR game to launch wasn’t even on console.
Project Gotham Racing on the Zune and Windows Mobile
Check it out in the video above.
A lasting impression
Source: Windows Central
The spirit of PGR lives on though. The Forza Horizon series is an obvious comparison, but elsewhere, Codemasters’ reboot of GRID is probably the closest modern title to capturing the magic of this great series. And we’re fortunate that we have these among a slew of amazing racing games to play on the current and future Xbox consoles.
There may not be a place for PGR in the landscape anymore, but in my heart it’s the one title I want to see reborn above all others. Alas, that’s a far fetched dream, but at least what we did get left a mark and can be played still today.
Which is exactly what I’m going to be doing having finished writing this post. If you’ve got your own PGR memories to share, be sure to drop them into the comments below.
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