zerolight

So I’ve had a few days with PGR3. Am I still enjoying it? Oh yes! True it’s little more than an evolution of PGR2, grabbing the best bits from the series, all the way back to MSR on the Dreamcast. But it’s refined everything to near perfection. Bugs aside (there are a few bugs and annoyances, but these relate to the interface rather than the gameplay). What’s so special about it?

First up, the graphics are astounding. Really. I reckon that Tokyo is the stand out city, where often the views are photo-realistic. Especially on an HDTV. The cars themselves are utterly jaw-dropping to look at. The detail, both inside and out, is terrific. There’s a lot of nerdy fun to be had walking around your garage looking at the cars you own , or playing around with the camera in photo mode. PGR3 adds an in-car-view or cockpit view to the series. Some will have no fun in this view because you’re vision is clearly restricted by the dashboard (and occasionally the roof). Others, probably car nuts like me, will love it for 2 reasons.

One. It’s very immersive. It really conveys the impression of being in a car, in that city. The glass effect on the windscreen and the quality of the graphics really enable the immersion here. The windows even get dirty, and display real time reflections of the environment (most noticeable at night where neon lights reflect off the windscreen).

Two. It really makes each car feel different. Think about it. When you play on bumper-cam all the cars might as well be the same. OK, so the handling differs from car to car. But the difference between some cars is very subtle. Jump into the cockpit view though and you’re immediately going to love the interior of some cars over others. Some cars, as motoring journo’s like to point out, are just nice places to be. Others are less impressive. A 25th Countache may handle as well as an F430, but it’s a miserable place to be. The F430 on the other hand just looks the business. Of the cars I’ve raced so far, the F430, Sagaris, Koenigsigg, Atom, and Enzo spring to mind as cars that are as much a pleasure to drive visually as they are in terms of handling. The Sagaris has a particularly striking interior, albeit with a very narrow windscreen. The Atom or Radical on the other hand are open topped race cars with an interior which really conveys the ready to race nature of the car. I find myself choosing a car based on the mood I am in. Bumper-cam just feels so same-y in comparison.

The gameplay is terrific. If you’ve played PGR2, and I’m assuming you have, then its much the same, but refined. The exaggerated sense of speed is gone, it’s not needed, all the cars are fast, or stupid-fast now. The cars are beautifully responsive, easy to pickup, difficult to master. It’s even a joy to play online. I could go on forever, but I have work to do, so I’ll end it here. Go buy it, select cockpit view, Tokyo, Daytime, and have a blast.

There’s been much said in the press over the past 6 months regarding Xbox360. Not all of it favourable. I collected my Premium Pack system on Friday 2nd December… the launch day for the 360. I can tell you this. All those Sony fuelled remarks like it’s really just Xbox 1.5 are totally unfounded. The 360 is without a doubt Next-Gen. It’s stunning. Unbelievably powerful. Definately real competition for the fanboys favourite, the Playstation 3.

So, where to start? I guess with the games. I picked up PGR3, Perfect Dark Zero, Madden 06, Call of Duty 2, and got Condemned for free. I can honestly say that I’m not disappointed in any of them. PGR3, or Project Gotham Racing 3, to give it it’s full title is simply breath-taking. Seriously. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the Caped Crusader. PGR3 drops you in a super car, any one of 85 super cars actually, from a Ferrari 355 to a McLaren F1 LM. It gives you a choice of cities, New York, Tokyo, London, Las Vegas, and the Nurburgring. And you just hammer the car around the track at breakneck speeds against the CPU cars, or upto 8 racers online on Xbox Live. What’s so different in comparison to other racers? Wait till you see the graphics, especially on an HDTV. Never has a racer looked this realistic. The detail of the cities is nothing short of spectacular. The cars, utterly realistic, right down to the dials in the incredibly detailed interiors. The game is wonderous. And it plays superbly well. This is next generation gamings killer app.

Perfect Dark Zero is a game that’s had mixed press pre and post launch. Is it any good? That depends on your point of view. Does it better Halo or Halo 2? Visually, yes. Gameplay? Maybe, it’s a different animal. Perfect Dark Zero plays like Perfect Dark and Golden Eye on the N64. It’s got quite an old school feel. If you liked Perfect Dark and Golden Eye, chances are you’re going to like this. Played on Perfect Agent (Dark Agent won’t come till you beat the game on Perfect Agent) it’s a really tough challenge. It’s got that hardcore toughness that made Perfect Dark on the N64 both joyous and frustrating. It’s also retained the just one more try thing that kept you struggling along with its prequel (or should that be sequel?). It even has online co-op. How cool is that? I’ve not really tried to the multiplayer side of things yet, but I did play in a match with 8 players and 24 bots. Yes, 24 bots. Manic. This is a great FPS game, it has superb graphics, and its a lot of fun to play.

There’s not a whole lot to say about Madden. If you’ve played it on Xbox or PS2 you know pretty much what to expect. Gameplay remains mostly the same, with a few minor tweaks to the camera controls, and excellent play selection screens. However what will take you back is the graphics. Again the visuals are unbelievable. The player models are scarily realistic. The crowds are now fully animated, and made of polygons rather than sprites. It’s a very impressive show piece. And for the first time in the UK, it’s online on Xbox Live. Madden fans will love this.

Call of Duty 2 is ridiculously impressive visually. Very detailed landscapes. Impressive looking character models. Huge numbers of soldiers on both sides create some very impressive WWII battles. There’s just so much going on in this game. It’s definately the definitive WWII FPS game. I had a quick play online in an 8 player game set in a farmyard. Graphics were mind blowing, and a lot of fun was to be had creeping around with a sniper rifle, looking for head shots. Online it feels a lot like Ghost Recon, but with graphics that really wow.

Condemned is a game I’ve barely touched. It’s had very mixed reviews. The general impression I get is that it is visually and aurally stunning. It’s scary. It’s short. And it’s far too simplistic. Time will tell. It was free after all. I expect this to be traded for Kameo over Xmas.

OK. So that’s the games discussed. I’d say that all but Condemned are must buy games. What about the hardware? Well, it’s much more than simply a box for playing games. I’ll not go into the specs of the hardware, you’ll find that all over the net. Imagine taking the most state of the art graphics card available, upping it’s spec still further, then bolting it onto 3 powerful Apple G5 workstations and you’re probably in the ballpark for the consoles next gen power.What impresses the most however is what it does other than just games.

Take the media functionality. It can connect to Windows XP to stream music and pictures for use in the console. So you can listen to your MP3 collection or display a photo album on the TV. It can connect to Windows Media Centre to additionally stream AVI based movies. Music can be streamed whilst playing games, allowing you to choose the backing track for the game, not the developer. You can even stream music from an iPod. And of course you can watch DVD.

You can setup a private chat channel with anyone on your friends list, then talk to them using the Xbox Live Headset whether you’re playing the same game, a different game, or no games at all.You can download classic (and entirely new) arcade games from Xbox Live Arcade (I downloaded Galaxy Wars and Gauntlet) which can be played solo, or with friends online. You can download game demos such as Kameo or NBA Live and try them before you buy.

Enough. There’s just too much to talk about, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Go buy one, if you can. Find out for yourself.