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Project Gotham Racing (video game)

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Project Gotham Racing
Cover art featuring a Ferrari F50
Developer(s)Bizarre Creations
Publisher(s)Microsoft Game Studios
Producer(s)
List
  • Martyn R. Chudley
  • Brian Woodhouse
  • Peter Wallace
  • Ged Talbot
  • Glyn Williams
  • Kev Reilly
  • Chris Pickford
  • Steve Gaffney
  • Allan Speed
Programmer(s)
List
  • Roger Perkins
  • Phil Snape
  • Edmund Clay
  • Keith Pickford
  • Sam Hall
  • Nick Bygrave
  • Steve Cakebread
  • Dave Al-Daini
Artist(s)
List
  • Jon Dugdale
  • Mark Sharratt
  • Derek Chapman
  • Julie McGurren
  • Paul Spencer
  • Glen Griffiths
  • David McDonald
  • Boz Briers
  • Matt Cavanagh
  • Stuart Jackson
SeriesProject Gotham Racing
Platform(s)Xbox
Release
  • NA: 15 November 2001
  • EU: 14 March 2002
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Project Gotham Racing is a 2001 arcade-style racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios, released exclusively for the Xbox console as a launch title. It is the spiritual successor to Bizarre's Metropolis Street Racer and retains the Kudos system, whereby points are awarded for driving skills and style, and are necessary to progress instead of just finishing races first.[1] Races take place across four real-world cities made up of a total of 204 unique circuits.[2][3] The game was both a critical and commercial success and launched an exclusive series, succeeded by Project Gotham Racing 2 in 2003.

Gameplay

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Gameplay

Project Gotham Racing has three main game modes: Kudos challenge, quick race, and arcade race. The Kudos challenge consists of various style events for which the player would receive a gold, silver or bronze medal if successfully achieving a certain amount of Kudos. These include but are not limited to the Style Challenges, where the player has to drive through sets of traffic cones on the track successfully; Overtake, where the player has to overtake as many cars; and Speed Challenge, in which the player must get their speedometer hit a set target. A quick race is made up of various races against five computer opponents, while the arcade race is a further collection of style challenges.[2]

Kudos system

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Advancement in Project Gotham Racing, unique from other racing games, requires both driving fast enough to meet the challenge set, and scoring enough Kudos points to advance. Kudos points are gained through the player's driving skills, such as power sliding around a corner at speed, driving with two wheels, or overtaking non-player characters in the race. The longer the stunt is maintained, the more points the player receives. Colliding with the guard rails and other surroundings will cause the Kudos points from that stunt to be lost.

Content

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There are a total of 29 licensed cars in Project Gotham Racing,[2] ranging from the initially available Mini Cooper-S, Toyota MR2 Spyder and Mercedes-Benz SLK 320, to the Ferrari F50 and Porsche Carrera GT at the higher end.[4] Visible car damage, such as bumps, are also present if the player's car is hit, although this is merely aesthetic and doesn't affect driving performance.[2]

There are four world cities realistically recreated; San Francisco, London and Tokyo all return from Metropolis Street Racer, alongside the newly introduced New York City.[5] Each city is broken down into three distinct districts (e.g. Fisherman's Wharf), and every district contains 17 circuits, to make a total of 204 configurations.[2]

The game feature 12 radio stations, 5 of which are based on real-life stations (HOT 97, Live 105, Capital 95.8, Xfm London 104.9 and InterFM) and feature the voices of real DJs such as Angie Martinez.[6] The songs are diverse and include Japanese and Spanish language tracks as well as obscure and underground artists.

Development and release

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Bizarre Creations did not receive the financial return from Metropolis Street Racer which was over-budget, late to the market, and released only shortly before the Dreamcast hardware was discontinued. Initially Microsoft asked Bizarre for a conversion to their upcoming Xbox, but the developers decided to evolve the game further to make it a "worthy" launch title, while the title needed changing as the name was owned by Sega.[1]

The game was unveiled under the tentative title Project Gotham at Gamestock 2001, on March 13 of that year. The demo presented here was an early build though the fundamentals of the game were already there.[7] The development team had taken over 50,000 photographs in the four real-life cities with the aim to capture every detail and design the game's cities as accurate as possible.[7] The team was also committed to making the game run at a smooth 60 frames per second even with split-screen multiplayer.[7] Project Gotham Racing was also the first racer since Need for Speed: High Stakes to officially secure both the Ferrari and Porsche licenses.[2] Compared to Metropolis, there were many high-end exotic cars added to Project Gotham.[7]

The Kudos mechanic also had small changes in Project Gotham Racing whereby points are given from the best attempt from multiple attempts, instead of the risk and reward type used in Metropolis Street Racer.[1]

Reception

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Critical

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Project Gotham Racing received favourable reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[8] NextGen said that the game "has enough gloss, variety, and originality to compete with the genre's best and give speedfreaks a great reason to jump on the Xbox bandwagon."[18]

Then chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, described Project Gotham Racing as his favorite game in 2005.[20]

Accolades

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The game was nominated for GameSpot's annual "Best Xbox Game" and, among console games, "Best Driving Game" prizes; these went respectively to Halo: Combat Evolved and Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.[21][22] During the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Project Gotham Racing for the "Console Racing" award, which was ultimately given to Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.[23]

Sales

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The game sold above 1 million units globally by July 2002, the joint-second (with Dead or Alive 3) to reach the milestone following Halo: Combat Evolved.[24][25] By July 2006, it had sold 1.2 million copies and earned $44 million in the U.S. NextGen ranked it as the 43rd highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of the Project Gotham Racing franchise reached 2.1 million units in the U.S. by July 2006.[26]

Legacy and series

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See also: Forza and Blur (video game)
Release timeline
2000Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast)
2001Project Gotham Racing (Xbox)
2002
2003Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox)
2004
2005Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360)
2006Project Gotham Racing Mobile (J2ME)
2007Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)

Project Gotham Racing (Symbian, Windows Mobile)
2008
2009Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition (Zune HD)

Project Gotham Racing launched a series as Microsoft's flagship racing game series on Xbox. The final main title, Project Gotham Racing 4, was released around the time when Bizarre Creations was bought by Activision, with Bizarre Creations announcing that PGR4 would be the last game produced for Microsoft;[27] effectively, Forza Motorsport replaced it as Xbox's flagship racing franchise. Bizarre developed PGR4's spiritual successor, Blur, which was multi-platform, before the studio was shuttered by Activision in 2011. The developers of Forza Horizon had originally intended to reboot the franchise;[28] reportedly this was turned down by Microsoft.[29]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "The evolution of Project Gotham: from Metropolis Street Racer to the original Xbox and beyond". GamesRadar+. 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Ajami, Amer (2001-11-13). "Project Gotham Racing Review". GameSpot. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on 2019-05-10. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  3. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20011201014242/http://www.microsoft.com/games/Xbox/projectgotham.asp
  4. ^ leftover911 (2004-07-29). "Car List/FAQ". IGN. Retrieved 2024-09-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Project Gotham Racing 2 Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  6. ^ https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/09/26/the-sounds-of-gotham
  7. ^ a b c d Ahmed, Shahed (2001). "Gamestock 2001: Hands-on: Project Gotham". Gamespot.
  8. ^ a b "Project Gotham Racing for Xbox Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Archived from the original on 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  9. ^ Edge staff (2001-12-25). "Project Gotham Racing". Edge. No. 105. Future Publishing.
  10. ^ EGM staff (January 2002). "Project Gotham Racing". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 150. Ziff Davis. p. 229.
  11. ^ Bramwell, Tom (2002-03-25). "Project Gotham Racing Review". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  12. ^ Brogger, Kristian (December 2001). "Project Gotham Racing". Game Informer. No. 104. FuncoLand. p. 100. Archived from the original on 2003-12-01. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  13. ^ Four-Eyed Dragon (2001-11-15). "Project Gotham Racing Review for Xbox on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2005-02-08. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  14. ^ G-Wok (November 2001). "Project Gotham Racing Review". GameRevolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  15. ^ Padilla, Raymond "Psylancer" (2001-11-14). "Project Gotham Racing (Xbox)". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2004-12-28. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  16. ^ Bedigian, Louis (2002-02-19). "Project Gotham Racing Review - Xbox". GameZone. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  17. ^ Lopez, Vincent (2001-11-09). "Project Gotham Racing". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  18. ^ a b "Project Gotham Racing". NextGen. No. 85. Imagine Media. January 2002. p. 28. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  19. ^ "Project Gotham Racing". Official Xbox Magazine. Imagine Media. December 2001.
  20. ^ "Meet your sub for today -- Bill Gates". web.archive.org. 2005-10-19. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  21. ^ GameSpot staff (2002). "GameSpot's Best and Worst Video Games of 2001 (Best Driving Game Nominees)". GameSpot. CNET. Archived from the original on 2002-08-04. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  22. ^ GameSpot staff (2002). "GameSpot's Best and Worst Video Games of 2001 (Best Xbox Game Nominees)". GameSpot. CNET. Archived from the original on 2002-06-13. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  23. ^ "2002 Awards Category Details Console Racing". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  24. ^ "Multiplayer.it Business to Business". Archived from the original on 2 September 2003.
  25. ^ https://news.microsoft.com/2002/07/23/xbox-hits-major-sales-milestones-for-console-and-games/
  26. ^ Campbell, Colin; Keiser, Joe (2006-07-29). "The Top 100 Games of the 21st Century". NextGen. Future US. Archived from the original on 2007-10-28.
  27. ^ "Activision buys Bizarre Creations". DevelopMag.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
  28. ^ Coulson, Josh (2022-06-13). "Forza Horizon Devs First Pitched A Project Gotham Racing Reboot". TheGamer. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
  29. ^ McPhillips, Andrew (2022-06-15). "Xbox Reportedly Turned Down a Project Gotham Racing Reboot Pitch". Game Rant. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
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