Dalvado's World

The Unrelated Intro…

Supermarkets and Trolleys. Most people just push the thing around with two hands firmly gripped on the handle. I however feel the need to show off. I pull with just the one hand, I glide between mums and toddlers, I even take tight corners around the aisles. Maybe I’ve not quite grown up yet, except of course I don’t push and put my feet on the bar between the wheels and let the momentum take me to undiscovered sections – usually the women’s makeup section. Well you can’t anymore, they ‘wisely’ removed that feature on new trolleys. Anyway, there are those who show off, and those who don’t. PGR2 is for show-offs.

*What do you mean I wasted time and space with trolleys?

Holy History

Right those at the back, time for a lesson for those who don’t know their gaming history. PGR2 was developed by Bizarre Creations and Bizarre Creations were also responsible for one of my favourite racing games ever. Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast (R.I.P) was a dream come true after after a trend for serious race simulators that cropped up when Gran Turismo arrived. MSR introduced the Kudos system, and driving around the streets of London, San Francisco and Tokyo with style. The Kudos system gave you points for driving like this (usually skidding a lot around corners, overtaking cars well, finishing with good times). It added a kind of ’score attack’ system to a racing game, when every other game concentrated on times. It also added challenges and gambling elements to keep you on your toes, like choosing how many cars you overtake, then having to do it or lose kudos points. It was a really fun arcade style racing game, and I loved it. (Had I mentioned that earlier?)

Anyway, since Sega dropped the DC and seemingly any plans for MSR2 (if they existed), Bizarre took their game engine with all it’s Kudos and accurately mapped cities and went elsewhere. Microsoft at the time wanted a nice console for themselves, and needed a top class racing game to go with it. The rest is history and PGR was born.

I caught you with my laughing box of tricks (Yes I know)

I’ll admit I’m a latecomer to the XBOX fold. Most of the games passed me by as my PS2, Gamecube, and PC took the gaming crown for me. However, the power of Bizarre’s creation drew me, I wanted to play PGR and PGR2. I started seriously wanting it until one deal too far, and I bought the XBOX with PGR2 bundled for free along with Panzer Dragoon Orta for cheap. So yes it wasn’t Halo or Halo 2 that brought me to the XBOX, it was PGR2. Chances are though I’ll get them anyway, but that and the whole XBOX Live thing really hooked me in.

Chapter 1

PGR2 has a few changes to the MSR format. The Kudos points system remains, except now it’s been tweaked and updgraded. They’ve now added new ways of getting points, like keeping to the racing line at optimum speed, or drafting behind an opponent (taking the draft of air from your opponents car and using it to gain an extra boost of speed). This is all fine and well of course. It gets better when they add a combo system. If you perform a move within two seconds of the last one, it opens up a combo bonus. Thus you can accumulate vast amounts of Kudos points through chaining these combos together. However, make a mistake like hitting the side of the road and the Kudos bonus is lost, just leaving you with the small Kudos amounts from your moves, or none at all if you only made one move. Complete the challenges set and you keep the Kudos and it adds to your total which can be used to unlock cars.

What are these challenges? In the Kudos World Series you compete in Car Classes, and within each class are challenges. Hot Lap challenges give you a lap time as a target. Timed Runs are extended Hot Laps over two or more laps, just beat the set time limit. Street Races are explanatory, just finish in the position required. Speed Cameras require you reach a target speed when you cross the camera line. Cone Challenges are a pain in the lower areas. You have to drive between cone gates and rack up huge combos of Kudos points and beat the target within the time limit. A pure test of driving skill and manoeuvrability if ever there was one.

Each challenge has a medal you can acquire from the very easy Metal, to the insanely difficult Platinum. Of course the aim of the game is to get Platinums on every challenge and unlock the beast that is the TVR Cerbera Speed 12!

Now this system is all well and good, and indeed does work. Yet MSR’s, which introduced a gambling element to the game, was in my opinion, better. It saved at the start of every race, which meant if you quit the race, then you would forfeit points with a penalty. If your car hit anything it would add penalty points. PGR2 is quite lenient on you folks, as you aren’t given any penalty points. You only lose Kudos stash based on the move you were doing, and any lovely combos too. I tell you, you lot have it easy nowadays! Or do you?

Let’s take a spanner to ‘im

Now none of the cars have tuning options. A bad thing you say, seeing as tuning adds depth? Well not in this case. Sure the huge depth of the multitude of tuning options isn’t present, but that’s not a bad thing. PGR2 concentrates on the skill of driving and just getting down to driving. Really I don’t see the problem of not having tuning options. Why can’t we just have a game where you go straight in, choose a car and race? PGR2 isn’t a simulation in that sense and as such cannot be compared to Gran Turismo. It’s a straight in, get going arcade style racer and it’s just fun OK?

So we’ve established that PGR2 isn’t a simulation. Which of course is reflected in the handling of the cars. They have to take some liberties to allow for the nature of the game. You need to be able to slide easily and manoeuvre quickly. Thing is you never feel out of control of the car. It does feel right, when you steer the cars and take them round the corners. It’s not overdone in any way and is perfect for the game.

Dizzy, My Head is Spinning…

Well everything feels perfect until you race against the computer on the harder difficulties. They cheat, plain and simple. The computer car knows of a ’sweet spot’ on the corners of the tail end of the car. The computer car then barges into the sweet spot using the Drafting technique and you find yourself spinning away, while the computer cars speed off and you lose any chance of gaining 1st or 2nd place. Now I tried a simulation of this with a two player game, and I tried it many times. In all cases both cars span off in separate directions and needed to recover. There are other problems with AI being a bit stupid and not considering it’s own safety. Now I’d accept this completely if the computer actually was bound by the same physics as I am. Yet it’s recovery is excellent, and it seems to be never affected by any rules I am. I may of course be making excuses, would I ever do that? (What do you mean yes?)

Still though it’s not that bad. You learn to find ways to avoid such attempts of cheating, and it only really affects you when you are on the final bend of a five lap race, and the computer barges you, meaning that much needed second place is lost for your Gold medal. I suppose though you (I) should have taken every corner that little bit better shouldn’t you (I)? I suppose really though it’s a sign that this game isn’t a simulation, and that anything goes in the end.

Living it up

You may well complain at the computer driver, but there is one breed that is far worse… The Human Opponent. Unpredictable, Unforgiving, Unwashed (joking)… This is the draw of PGR2, the Multiplayer mode. Not just System Link or Split Screen either, it’s the XBOX Live mode that impresses. Now I’ve played online games, yet mostly it’s been on FPS games, maybe the odd game of Rise of Nations though. Now they’ve always been smooth affairs with broadband, yet for a racer I’ve been told that it can be laggy. Not with PGR2, it feels smooth to play and the occasional lag isn’t much bother. It’s a wonderful system that adds many more hours to you play, as you also gain Kudos points and tokens online, so even if you don’t complete the Single Player game, you could still unlock all those cars, except the bonus ones. Which is good for me, incase you couldn’t tell.

One point to note is that there are a few ‘custom’ games about on the online circuit. Two of which I have played are ‘Cat & Mouse’ where there are up to four teams of two. One player is a Mini (the mouse) the other is a powerful car (the cat). The aim being that the team with the first mouse to finish wins. The cats get to help there mouse by pushing it (thus boosting speed) or knocking the other mice of track that are ahead of you. Usually the mouse you should take out is in first place, yet some break the rule. (Not me you understand ). The other race type I’ve played is called elimination or Last Man Standing. Basically, everyone starts in a small car and the last player to finish becomes a powerful car, whose aim is to hinder first place cars. Repeat the racing until the last two race and we have a winner. Both games can be absolute mayhem!

You also get a Live scoreboard system where your best Kudos scores and times are posted against other XBox Live players on PGR2. They even included weekly and monthly online challenges for you to pit yourself against others at. Pretty much a standard should be a standard for online games now this scoreboard stuff. Some games have it, others don’t.

Remember what I told you old chum.

So should you buy PGR2? Well if you like arcade style racing where the replay factor is more about gaining points then building cars, more about fun than sticking to the laws of physics, then yes PGR2 is great fun. If you have XBOX Live then it’s one of the best experiences there is. I don’t think I’ll convince the die hard GT fan though, lack of tuning options may well keep them away if they are that way inclined. There aren’t as many cars either, but frankly I could live without a 1975 Nissan Sunny.

PGR2 is in my opinion, the best racing game available for any console. It has replay factor with the Kudos points, ever trying to beat your best. It has the challenge, and a bloody hard one at it, which should keep you going for a fair while too. Plus, the online mode is fantastic fun. Thoroughly recommended stuff for the racing fan in all of us.

Dalv’s Verdict: 5 Moons on Sticks