Project Gotham 3: Hi-Res Gameplay Vids

Seriously nice gameplay videos of PGR3 reveal just how stunning the Xbox 360 launch title. Prepare to be blown away!

Our recent hands-on time with the superb sequel that is Project Gotham Racing 3 has resulted in these lovely in-game videos which we highly recommend you download and drool over right away.

Our first-hand taste of PGR3 began back at the Tokyo Game Show, although the build that was shown behind closed doors was slightly out of date. Since then, the folks at Bizarre Creations have had over a month of optimisation time using 100% final Xbox 360 hardware, and the build that was playable at last week's X05 event in Amsterdam left no doubt about the quality the final game will boast.

Although at this stage it seems extremely unlikely that the final game will run at anything close to 60fps, the plain fact is that PGR3 still looks incredible. Perhaps the most arresting new aspect of the visuals is the in-car view, which adds a frankly spookly level of depth and realism to the action. You'll see a lot of the in-car view in these hot gameplay videos.

The thing about this frame rate issue is that the brilliant level of detail and effects more than compensate; the in-car view includes dirty windscreens and lighting and reflections that hit the glass and glares back into the "camera", with the sensation of a true-to-life bumpy ride and engine physics that you can almost feel like you were there. You can look out of your left and right windows, see the driver's hands as he steers, changes gears and uses the handbrake, the full detail of the speedometers and dials... the level of visual realism is quite staggering.

And although the build is running at around the 30fps mark, the integrated motion blur that has been included creates a smooth sense of speed that basically makes things look a lot cleaner, as you'll see in the vids.

Our videos came out a little bit on the bright side, and the audio is a little quieter than you'll experience in our new DOA4 vids, but basically you can still see how great PGR3 looks really well here.

We've published ten videos, including one gameplay video demonstrated by a member of the Bizarre Creations team, that show off all four major cities including the recently announced Las Vegas.

As for the other three cities, London, New York and Tokyo, we were able to confirm that Bizarre has deliberately chosen different parts of each respective city than you would have found when the flagship locations appeared in the previous PGR instalments, so you won't see places like New York's Times Square, London's Leicester Square or Tokyo's Shibuya - but nonetheless, there are hundreds of routes across miles of cityscape in PGR3, and all-new areas such as New York's famous bridges are also included, and looking sensational. As Bizarre is keen to keep reminding the media, a bridge in PGR3's New York uses more polys than an entire city in PGR2. Mental!

Watch out for our upcoming in-depth video interview feature, which goes into tonnes of detail about the masses of cool stuff you can expect in Gotham 3.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com