What a month for games this has been. Hot on the heels of Bioshock came the fabulous Halo3, followed up by the excellent SKATE. This week it’s going to be Half Life 2: Orange Box. But last week, the fantastic PGR4 hit the 360, and what a gem it is. It’s had a graphical make over which really makes it a treat for the eyes – now running at a nice crisp, detailed, 720p instead of the “600p” fudge of PGR3, it simply looks stunning. Add in weather and lighting effects that transform the visuals from merely pretty, to utterly convincing representations of the real world and you have a very pretty game.

It’s not all about the visuals though – the weather adds significantly to the gameplay since it’s more than just a rain filter applied as an overlay. In addition to the obvious visual impairment that rain and tyre spray add to the proceedings, puddles reduce grip, often at approaches to corners or just over the crest of a hill, even snow and ice line approaches to the occasional corner. Not only does this all look jaw-dropping, but it dramatically affects your racing line.

On top of the weather and the prettier graphics, PGR4 introduces two new elements to its core gameplay. The first being motorbikes, which seem to be a love it or hate it affair – I personally love them. Their starting point was apparently inspired by the handling of the motorbikes in the GTA series, though it’s far deeper and more involving. It’s certainly not MotoGP, but it’s a far cry from Test Drive Unlimited, and to me it feels just right – especially on the faster sports bikes like the CBR600 and GXR1000 rather than street bikes such as the Speed Triple. Tellingly I’ve spent more time on a bike in PGR4 than in a car.

The other significant change is the overhauled career mode. The tedious medal challenges of past PGRs have moved to arcade mode – so if you’re in the mood for that sort of challenge, it’s still there. Career mode instead asks you to proceed through a series of events inspired by the medal challenges, but regardless of how you perform, you move onto the next event anyway, with each event raced just once – retries are not an option. The more successful you are, the faster you’ll climb the career ladder with the goal being to reach #1. The result is lots of variety and a total lack of frustration. You’ll progress through several seasons, each providing new events (or allowing you to have another go at past events) and each running from September to September, providing weather appropriate to the relevant calendar month and city.

It’s the best racer to hit any system in a long time. It’s not as sim heavy as Forza2, instead providing big smiles and lots of powerslides. Reaching 200mph on a bike in heavy rain is exhilarating, as is drifting a Dodge Challenger around Quebec, or pushing a CLK GTR to the limit in New York. It’s without a doubt, one of the best games I’ve played in a long while. Better than Halo 3? Quite possibly.