Our partners in crime at AutoblogGreen -- just like Autoblog, only with more miles per gallon and fewer emissions -- have discovered that Project Gotham Racing 4 is set to feature a very interesting racing challenge. Part of the game's invitational series of races, the challenge is called "Electric Vs Petrol Showdown" and allows players to "take the wheel of a two-seater, silent, electric sportscar (the Tesla Roadster) and face-off against a gas-guzzling, noisy, mean machine (the Ferrari Testarossa)." For those that don't know, the Tesla Roadster is reportedly a damned impressive piece of kit, boasting the ability to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about 4 seconds. The environmentally friendly super car can also travel 200 miles on a single battery charge. The best part, thanks to PGR4, is that you won't have to spend $98,000 (base price, mind you) to try one out.
Talking with the crew from Bizarre Creations, Eurogamer learned that a Project Gotham Racing 4 demo is planned to hit the Marketplace sometime (it has to pass through Microsoft cert first silly) and that it'll be worth downloading, because it offers a few exclusive bits not found in the retail game. The five cars / bikes, Arcade mode only Macau portion of the demo will features these exclusive challenges not seen in the retail build. The demo will also include a PGR 3 favorite Nurburgring Snow Time Challenge with full leaderboard support, so you'll be able to gawk at your friends' or enemies' rather poor racing skills in the demo. No word to when the PGR 4 XBLM will drop, but October 12th is the retail release so hopefully it'll be available before then. Race on kids, race on.
Posted Sep 13th 2007 1:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
We are proud to announce that Bizarre Creations is proud to announce that Project Gotham Racing 4 has taken its final step to completion and has officially gone gold. This of course means development on PGR 4 is complete and that it is being mass produced for release to retail shelves in the US on October 2nd and October 12th in Europe. Also, Bizarre announced the launch of their official Project Gotham Racing website PGR Nations, where fans of the franchise can get the latest updates, media and news about PGR 4. It's the official website, so go check it out because it's official and stuff.
Grease your wheels, air up your tires and top of your gas tank, because we've got a gold PGR 4 releasing in less than a month. Vroom, vroom!
Gather around kids, it's time for some new Geometry Wars video! Embedded above is the first gameplay footage of Bizarre Creations' latest Geometry Wars installment oh so interestingly named Geometry Wars: Waves. First and foremost you must know that Waves will only be available within' Project Gotham Racing 4 and will not see a separate XBLA release. Secondly, let's look at the gameplay footage since that's the point of this post. From what we see, it looks like Waves is pretty much based off of Retro Evolved (which we fully expected), but with the addition of new enemies and behaviors.
The video is rather short, but we get a glimpse at some new triangle enemies that shoot from one side of the map to the other, some double square looking shapes that just sit there and our old friends blue diamonds and green squares. We also noticed that the multiplier system has been tweaked over Retro Evolved allowing players to rack up a high score pretty quickly. Go ahead and give the video a watch to decide whether or not PGR 4 is worth purchasing just for this little beauty we call Geometry Wars: Waves.
Posted Sep 10th 2007 5:15PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Earlier today, Bizarre Creations decided to share Project Gotham Racing 4's achievements with everyone and give a little back story to how they were decided upon. Learning from their PGR 3 days, Bizarre opted to make PGR 4's achievements a little more varied, less focused on difficult to obtain achievements and more fun in general. Our favorites include "Buy an Achievement", "Back it Up!" and "Beat Bizarre" where you have to beat a member of the Bizarre Creations dev team in an online game or someone who has already done so. Also, there are a few secret achievements thrown in for good measure like the "3CZV657" achievement, DeLorean anyone? Complete list, explanation and attached Gamerscore for all of PGR 4's achievements is available after the jump.
Eager to show off their pretty new camera effects and in-game car models, Bizarre Creations decided to shed some light on Project Gotham Racing 4's new and improved Photo Mode. First off, Bizzare has added a few new photo filters and effects including tunnel, vehicle blur and an odd little filter that turns your photo into a 3D image when using a pair of red / blue glasses. Wicked odd, yet utterly nifty. The other Photo Mode improvements come from how a racer's photos will be shared with the rest of the PGR 4 community. Using PGR on Demand, gamers will be able to upload their photos, search others, share and rate eachother's photos with ease. It's like a mini PGR 4 Flickr account.
There's no denying that Bizarre is focusing on creating more of a tight knit PGR community this time around and with the enhanced Photo Mode options we think they're headed on the right track (pun intended). Also, don't forget to check out preview photos of the types of images you'll be able capture in PGR 4 after the break.
Talking with Pro-G at the Leipzig Games Convention, Bizarre Creations confirmed that a new Geometry Wars game will be exclusively bundled with Project Gotham Racing 4. The new geometry shooter will be called Geometry Wars: Waves and will not be available on the XBLA like it's older brother Retro Evolved, instead it'll stay attached to PGR4 for the long run. Bizarre Creations also mentioned that the new Waves is based off of Retro Evolved and is not officially considered to be the next game in the series. Whatever that may entail or mean, we know that we're getting a new Geometry Wars on October 2nd. W00t!
MS just sent out an announcement that Project Gotham Racing 4 will be arriving on October 2nd for the MSRP of $59.99. To sweeten the deal, the also announced some more vehicles in the game, both those with two wheels and four. Personal favorites at X3F Towers in the most recent bunch include the Ariel Atom 300 Supercharged, making a return since being introduced in PGR2, and getting "High Def'd" in PGR3. Since it would be boring to use some stock PGR4 logo as the image for the post, we're grabbing the Ariel's segment from Top Gear and spreading the love. Full list of announced vehicles after the break.
Rumors have been circulating the internet lately telling of Bizarre Creations being constrained by the DVD format's storage capacity and therefor not being able to implement day/night textures into Project Gotham Racing 4. But today Bizarre put such evil rumors to rest telling everyone that no, they have not been limited by DVD for PGR 4 in the slightest.
Commenting on the issue, they said that the facts got spun out of control when certain fanboys commented on the day/night feature stating that there was no room on the DVD to hold all the textures for both day and night in the game. Instead, Bizarre says that not only are they NOT constrained by the DVD format, but they actually opted for transitioning day/night textures in the game instead of two sets of "fixed" textures.
So, PGR 4 was not nor ever has been limited by DVD's storage capacity, it was never an issue and PGR fans will be treated to transitioning day/night textures as proof. Case closed.
Posted Jul 30th 2007 4:15PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Today, in their latest Studio Update, Bizarre Creations released the names of all ten locations you'll be driving on when Project Gotham Racing 4 hits retailers in September. A complete list of all the locations is viewable after the break, but highlights from the ten location set include Las Vegas (sin city baby!), Quebec (Canada in the house), and Macau, China (China FTW!). Bizarre also talks about "racification" and the subtle changes they made to PGR 4 tracks that make them oh-so-sweet. Enough reading of our commentary already, the complete list of PGR 4 locations is posted after the break.
Microsoft says Project Gotham Racing 4 will be available in September. We're sure Bizarre Creations -- makers of PGR4 -- don't want to make liars out of Microsoft. That said, Bizarre's business director, Brian Woodhouse, admits they may have to do just that. In a recent press briefing during E3, Woodhouse told Eurogamer that PGR4 would not be rushed (something he admits happened to PGR3). "This one," said Woodhouse, "we're not letting go 'til it's done." Woodhouse's comments were directed towards the rather unbalanced difficulty of PGR3. We can tell you from firsthand experience, the game looks amazing. If Bizarre needs a little time to make it perfect, we say let 'em have it.
At the Media Briefing, Bizarre Creations' Craig Howard and Brian Woodhouse showed off Project Gotham Racing 4. The game will include manufacturers Honda, Ducati, and Suzuki for motorcycles, which can race alongside cars, of which there are over 120. When riding the motorcycle, you can pull some fancy tricks, wheelies, endos and taunting maneuvers. On the Live side of things, for the first time, gamers will be able to share photos and videos with what's called "PGR On Demand". We can't wait to get some hands on time in the coming days.
Rumored last week thanks to the released box art -- and confirmed in recent playtests -- Bizarre Creations has posted an article detailing the motorcycles gameplay featured in Project Gotham Racing 4. Along with this revelation comes a load of new screenshots. The shots show off some particularly nice motorcycle and rider models. Bizarre has also revealed that motorcycles will be capable of lots of kudos earning tricks that cars naturally can't do. These will be accomplished with a new "Stunt button" that initiates tricks. Never fear though, if you hate the idea of motorbikes, they are not mandatory. If cars are your thing, PGR4 still has you covered. Check out a gallery of the new PGR 4 motorcycles below.
Today, Bizarre Creations released the official box art for Project Gotham Racing 4 (viewable after the break) featuring a closeup of a red vehicle sporting a PGR 4 emblem. It's quite the interesting choice for box art as we're on the fence about the design. But if you look closer you'll see something that's very interesting. Behind the PGR 4 logo is the reflection of a motorcycle blazing past the car. Does this mean that motorcycles will be drivable in the fourth edition of the PGR franchise and is this Bizarre's big exciting announcement? We aren't sure, but we'd be liars if we didn't say that we're a little uneasy about including motorcycles in our PGR franchise. Here's to hoping Bizarre Creations knows what they're doing.
Earlier today, Bizarre Creations decided to share Project Gotham Racing 4's achievements with everyone and give a little back story to how they were decided upon. Learning from their PGR 3 days, Bizarre opted to make PGR 4's achievements a little more varied, less focused on difficult to obtain achievements and more fun in general. Our favorites include "Buy an Achievement", "Back it Up!" and "Beat Bizarre" where you have to beat a member of the Bizarre Creations dev team in an online game or someone who has already done so. Also, there are a few secret achievements thrown in for good measure like the "3CZV657" achievement, DeLorean anyone? Complete list, explanation and attached Gamerscore for all of PGR 4's achievements is available after the jump.
Talking with Pro-G at the Leipzig Games Convention, Bizarre Creations confirmed that a new Geometry Wars game will be exclusively bundled with Project Gotham Racing 4. The new geometry shooter will be called Geometry Wars: Waves and will not be available on the XBLA like it's older brother Retro Evolved, instead it'll stay attached to PGR4 for the long run. Bizarre Creations also mentioned that the new Waves is based off of Retro Evolved and is not officially considered to be the next game in the series. Whatever that may entail or mean, we know that we're getting a new Geometry Wars on October 2nd. W00t!
Today, Bizarre Creations released the official box art for Project Gotham Racing 4 (viewable after the break) featuring a closeup of a red vehicle sporting a PGR 4 emblem. It's quite the interesting choice for box art as we're on the fence about the design. But if you look closer you'll see something that's very interesting. Behind the PGR 4 logo is the reflection of a motorcycle blazing past the car. Does this mean that motorcycles will be drivable in the fourth edition of the PGR franchise and is this Bizarre's big exciting announcement? We aren't sure, but we'd be liars if we didn't say that we're a little uneasy about including motorcycles in our PGR franchise. Here's to hoping Bizarre Creations knows what they're doing.
