This is the place where we come together to appreciate and play the fine collection of arcade racing games that the fine men and women at Bizarre Creations gave us over the past decade or so under the Project Gotham Racing and Metropolis Street Racer monikers.
It all began with Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast, the precursor to the series, but a game considered one in the same with the rest. This is where our kudos adventure would begin. Years before this, Bizarre had released Formula 1 in 1996 and Formula 1 '97 a year afterwards, to critical success. As they got a grasp of how to make good racing games, Bizarre decided that they would make the plunge into arcade racing games, specifically the street racing subgenre.
This is where the Bizarre would introduce a plethora of features to the arcade racing genre that would make this a solid package and the start of something big. A unique kudos point system to emphasize that style should compliment speed, a time of day configurator based upon the internal Dreamcast clock, weather effects, hundreds of track configurations alongside memorable cities such as Tokyo and San Francisco, and radio station tracks that immersed you in the city driving experience. Kudos would go on to become the defining mechanic of the PGR franchise, not exactly a bullet point that would sell the game by itself, but something that kept the franchise unique amongst other arcade racers put out throughout the years.
After Superman was left imprisoned in the IP vault of Sega on it's burning ship, Bizarre turned to the Dark Knight to carry on the legacy. And thus, Project Gotham Racing was born as a launch title on the Xbox just a year after the release of MSR. The name may have been different, but the game was all the same business and destined to be the spiritual successor to MSR. Adding New York City to it's roster of locales, PGR was a very familiar beast in comparison to it's Dreamcast predecessor, but boasted a refreshed and refined roster of cars with interesting choices such as the Delfino Feroce. The radio stations and kudos, the staple game mechanic of the series that earned the player points for pulling off stylish and daring maneuvers throughout the race, were back in full effect in PGR as well.
As a launch title and new IP for Microsoft's entry into the console race, a brand new wave of gamers were able to experience the blend of arcade and simulation racing physics that the MSR/PGR franchise offered. Alongside Halo, PGR rounded out the Xbox's launch lineup and displayed Microsoft's commitment to building new flagship IPs to support it's console with beyond it's infancy. Project Gotham Racing was incredibly successful, selling millions and ensuring that this was not the end of the franchise.
With the Xbox booming, Microsoft was ready to take it a step further. They would try to bring online multiplayer gaming to consoles to a scale and degree of success that had not been achieved before with Xbox Live. With this, was an opportunity for the Project Gotham series to evolve. Incubated for two years after the release of Project Gotham Racing and a year after the launch of the Xbox Live service, Project Gotham Racing 2 was unleashed to the masses. PGR2 is widely regarded as the pinnacle of the series, and there are many reasons why.
PGR2 was the point where the franchise exploded in terms of content. The selection of cars spanned 102 automobiles over 14 classes, featuring everything from hot hatches in the compact sports class, to SUVs, all the way up to the Ultimate class which featured some of the best cars money could buy. The Kudos Challenge mode from Project Gotham Racing was expanded into the Kudos World Series, offering tradition street racing and hot lapping challenges amongst speed camera and cone challenges.
This time around, all of the cities were new and built from scratch, providing some of the most memorable locales and track configurations of any racing game. Whether it was hot laps on the Catalan Challenge in Barcelona with the F50, street races down the Miracle Mile in Chicago with American Muscle cars, vaults over the road into the Red Square on St. Basil's Circle in Moscow, maximum-lap races through the Shinko Park loop in Yokohama or just a leisurely drive through Edinburgh to soak in all of the sights, each the cities had a character of their own. Only augmenting the experience were the better-than-ever localized radio stations that returned from the prequels. Will you forget listening to Sir Mix-A-lot on FM Yokohama (eighty four point seveeeeeeeeeen)? I know I won't.
But with Xbox Live is where the game really shined. A community formed online that would stay strong until the death of the Xbox itself. Featuring 8 player online racing and per-event leaderboard support, PGR2's online would go on to spawn a dedicated group of racers, who would spawn their own multiplayer gametypes to play, the most famous being Cat and Mouse. On top of that, PGR2 would also receive some of the first packs of downloadable content to appear on consoles, in the form of two city booster packs, Long Beach and Paris, each also adding 8 cars to the stable. PGR2 also marked the debut of Geometry Wars, a hidden minigame created by Stephen Cakebread of Bizarre, which would have variants included in every subsequent PGR, and would later go on to have it's own success and fame across multiple platforms.
PGR2 was a bold, content-rich game that delivered in every criteria that defines a good racer. An addictive career mode, an unmatched, pioneering multiplayer experience online and offline, a wealthy amount of cars from nearly every niche, and memorable track configurations from memorable cities.
Rumours swirled of the next Xbox being in the works, and it was only fitting to expect a Project Gotham launch title to be in the works. And during the Microsoft Press Conference at E3 2005, this trailer was unleashed upon the world. Project Gotham Racing 3 was the return of the PGR franchise, but arrived with a new tagline: Life Begins at 170.
PGR3 would feature many tweaks to the formula. Kudos were rewarded differently for a much larger variety of drifts and powerslides, and city street racing would return to 4 familiar locales to the PGR series along with a new one, Las Vegas, but now with the opportunity to make custom track configurations within the confines of the modeled city district.
With the transition into the HD generation of consoles, Bizarre were able to improve the graphics and level of detail in environments significantly. But what benefited most from the extra power the 360 provided, were the cars. The wonderfully detailed car models glowed in the vibrant colours Bizarre chose to bathe them in. Bizarre went ahead and captured raw audio of each car in the game, alongside individually modelling the interior of each car for use in the all-new in-car view, setting standards early on in the generation for racing games.
To make sure you were able to fully appreciate the cars and environments they had built, PGR3 included a photo-mode, which let you upload your photos to PGR servers, and download them on your computer. To succeed PGR2, it was important that PGR3 did have this robust online feature set. On top of all the features in PGR2, PGR3 added new modes such as Eliminator, and even included Cat-and-Mouse built-in. Bizarre also introduced an online tournament system, as well as a photo and replay content browser and GothamTV, which allowed people to watch other players racing online live.
PGR3 was a strong debut and showcase for the 360 at launch. Some of the tweaks to physics, the removal of weather options from the series, and the controversial change in car selection that made it so no car had a top speed under 170mph, were met with criticism by the fanbase. And although the PGR2 community stayed strong year after year, the move to 360 saw the PGR3 online community die out quickly, with people finding difficulty finding any matches online months after release.
Like clockwork, another 2 years passed, and another PGR was ready for release. Little did we know that this would be the last we would see of the franchise on consoles. Project Gotham Racing 4 was the culmination of what had been learned from the previous games in the series, all in one.
All the cities from PGR3 returned and had their time of day and environments tweaked to jive with the new and improved lighting. 5 new locales joined the group: Macau, Shanghai, Quebec City, St. Petersburg, and the Michelin Test Track. All of these locations welcomed the return of weather effects to the series, including new ones such as icy roads, storms and varying degrees of snow. Single-player races even featured a dynamic weather system, where rain could escalate into a storm, or could dry up over the course of the race. The city environments as well as the trackside detail appeared leaps and bounds better than in PGR3, which hold up quite well to this day for a game that is 4 years old.
However, although PGR4 returned it's more varied and quirky selection of cars that the series was known for pre-PGR3 with the likes of the DeLorean DMC-12 and the GMC Syclone, it also brought motorcycles into the mix. This was a controversial addition to the series and many fans were split on this inclusion from the initial announcement, despite the game still offering considerably more cars than motorcycles.
Some say that the inclusion of motorcycles aided the demise of the franchise, but a large contributing factor was that the game was released within a month of Halo 3. The marketing was just not enough for the game to make as big of a blip as the previous titles in the franchise did. PGR4 was overshadowed by the daunting amount of big titles in the Fall of 2007, and found it's way into bargain bins quicker than expected for a well-reviewed game from what was once one of Xbox's largest franchises. Tastes were changing, and critics complained the PGR formula was wearing as far back as PGR3 in 2005. Microsoft ultimately decided not to back development of a new PGR, and the series has been in limbo ever since.
Also here are some more pictures of PGR4 because it's awesome:
Just before the release of PGR4 in fact, Bizarre was bought by Activision. These were early signs and fears that fans would not receive a PGR5 developed by Bizarre Creations, as Microsoft owns the IP. Bizarre was tasked with creating "the Call of Duty of racing games" to round out Activision's portfolio of titles across various genres. This was quite a large burden for Bizarre, as they were solely purchased to fulfill this task because of the decade of experience they had building racing games. The game that would attempt to fulfill this task, would be Blur.
People hoped for a spiritual successor to the Project Gotham Racing and Metropolis Street Racer, but what they got was something quite different. Blur was a car combat game, featuring many power-ups with tactical uses, and was marketed as an adult version of Mario Kart. It featured a Fans system that worked a lot like Kudos did, a ton of online modes featuring perks like Call of Duty and many social-gaming influences in the game design. Fans were split on this game even more so than PGR4. Bizarre claimed that the game gave you the option to turn off all the power-ups and you would be able to play it just like you would PGR, but it just wasn't the same.
Activision decided to release the game in the same month as Split Second: Velocity, another car-combat racing game, a misstep Bizarre had experienced in the past with Halo 3 which proved to work against the game in the long run too. Millions were sunk into Bizarre and Blur, and Blur didn't return as it experienced limited commercial success. The other game Bizarre released under Activision was James Bond 007: Bloodstone, which also garnered very little critical and commercial success.
That was the third strike for Bizarre, and Activision began seeking buyers for the studio. During this period, everything was very silent from both Bizarre and Activision. News came that Microsoft was interested in buying Bizarre, but negotiations went nowhere. After months of searching for a buyer to no avail, Activision finalized the closure of Bizarre Creations, and the studio was dissolved. A sad day for Bizarre and PGR fans everywhere.
Although the future looks bleak from the franchise, we can look forward to what the talent behind these games can bring us in the future. From the ashes of Bizarre rose Lucid Games, a studio that has found itself in Liverpool, the home of the original Bizarre studio, that plans to employ up to 50 artists and programmers for their next project. Additionally, the creator of Geometry Wars, Stephen "Cakey" Cakebread, along with Ben Ward and Peter Collier have set up Hogrocket Studios, and plan to develop iOS games initially. Ben Ward maintains an excellent tumblr here that chronicles many different topics related to Hogrocket and the challenges that arise from creating and maintaining an indie studio. Hogrocket have stated though that they are not making Geometry Wars, as they are working on a new IP. Activision owns the Geometry Wars IP. Their first game has actually been submitted to Apple already in fact.
Now that your all caught up on the history of this franchise, why not give it a shot if you haven't already? PGR4 is a great place to start, as it can be found for cheap anywhere and will irrefutably give you a lot of bang for your buck with all of the content inside.
And if you have already played PGR games and own them, which you likely have if you're clicking this thread, then you should join in on this celebration of the Project Gotham Racing series. Post your favourite memories, favourite tracks, favourite pictures, favourite videos, favourite cars and favourite games from the franchise. ITS A CELEBRATION BITCHES.
Thread written by enzo_gt, graphics by Xun.
