The Xbox 360 has finally arrived, and UK's own Bizarre Creations have released the eagerly anticipated Project Gotham Racing 3. The franchise has come along way from the early days of Metropolis Street Racer on Sega's Dreamcast. Their previous outings on the original Xbox also proved to be popular; Project Gotham Racing redefined the arcade-racing genre, and Project Gotham Racing 2 took it one step further by taking the popular racing franchise online.

Now in PGR3, we have near enough all the best stuff out of PGR2, apart from a lot of the slower cars, which unfortunately have been dropped from the game. That means no more of the famous cat and mouse games online; I really liked that as well.

All of the cars featured in PGR3 go over 130 mph, also featured are some of the incredible supercars; 80 are featured in the game, including the McLaren F1 LM, Lamborghini Gallardo and the Ferrari F430. There are also some new features as well; you can now design your own race circuits, and watch or be watched on Gotham TV.

Gameplay

The game play pretty much remains untouched from PGR2, apart from some tweaking to make the handling a bit more realistic. All the racing maneuvers are here, you can do power slides, 360s, draft, get air-time and driving on 2 wheels will earn you points for driving in style. The competitors A.I. on normal for me was overwhelming at first, as I was spending too much time looking at the scenery; once you've finished gawping at all the landscapes and crowd then you immediately get hooked into the game.

Graphics

There’s nothing to fault here, the graphics are nothing short of stunning. It really does look so realistic, especially the cockpit view; the attention to detail inside the cars is amazing, you can see your steering wheel, gear shift and you can also look around inside whilst your driving. You can turn slightly to look at your rear-view mirror or you can turn completely left or right and look out of your windows. The attention to detail though is really shocking; you can see the dirt that has gotten onto your windows and the sun shines right onto the window, blinding you with the reflection. That’s just the in-car view!

The crowd is modeled in 3D and reacts realistically to the situation; if you crash into a barrier at full speed they will move back quick in shock. All buildings are highly detailed and look photo realistic. The graphics truly shine though when watching your replays or watching people from around the globe race on Gotham TV Live. It's almost like your watching it live on TV; well you are, but it's a game!

Sound

Racing comes alive in true Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound; you feel every crash, you hear the massive pile-up behind you and you can hear the rubber burn. All the engines of each car have been individually recorded adding to the realism. When you crash at full speed trying to power slide around a corner you can hear the glass shatter around your head convincingly. This is real, then the race ends and then you realise it's just a game.

Longevity

This game should keep you hooked for months; once you complete the single-player career, you can mix-it up with the online career mode; going against random players of similar skill, or you can just compete against your friends. You will probably find that you toggle from the single and online career modes; trying to beat your friends best lap times. If that wasn't enough you will get into Gotham TV, just watching some of the worlds best leave their skid marks on the tracks and this is also handy for picking up some pointers along the way.

Overall

Ultra realism and spectacular attention to detail combined with all the elements of the previous games and some new features thrown in for good measure. The offline career is a little on the short side, but you can put the difficulty up to make it more of a challenge. Once you're done with the single-player career; you can rev-up your engine again and take your career online and compete with the rest of the world.

If you are a racing-nut then I highly recommend this game, it has everything; superb gameplay, spectacular graphics, fantastic sound and to top it all off, the usual but addictive Xbox Live play. If you like you’re racing games and were hooked on PGR2 for months on end, then expect similar results here. This really is as good as it gets.