Project Gotham Racing 4 Interview

Kikizo talks exclusively to Bizarre Creations & Microsoft about what's new - and what's next - in this brand new, in-depth look at the next big racing game for Xbox 360.

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Gotham 4 will also offer a load of new game features that will have all racing fans very excited indeed. It starts with a true career mode and customisation. "You're part of the worldwide racing field - you're the star," Kovach explains, "and that transcends into the online space, where for the first time ever, you can race as a team. So now you can race with your friends, not just against your friends."

This might sound like a minor addition, but Kovach explains the vision further: "When you look at other sports and other types of activities, how do we get people interacting as a team - or as a nation? We have the team element where you and I would have to race against each other event though we're friends, now we can try and beat the other teams together. Now, you can race for your nation; you can race for the UK, or the US... and feel it! We have the nation leaderboards, so even if your team gets knocked out, you can see the tournament - what we started with PGR3's functionality, we're evolving it, so that you can see that interaction happening on a worldwide scale."

When we looked at customisation, it's nowhere near as in-depth or as rich as in Forza 2, because it's not meant to be - but it does take the concept somewhere new: "Think of it more like a football jersey, where you've got basic colour pattern and a basic format. You'll see there are a ton of flags around the track; we wanted to make this game with a worldwide feel to it, like you're racing on a global circuit, and one of the things about the crowd is that you'll actually see your car's unique 'team jersey' on these flags in the crowd, so the crowd moves from just being fans, to being supporters - something that's very interactive."

Players will also be able to upload their entire replays to Xbox Live, not just photos. It's called 'PGR On Demand' and takes the place of PGR3's Gotham TV, which was all about seeing what the best racers were doing. "Who really cares about what the best racers are doing, unless you know them?" challenges Kovach. "Unless you know who the number one is, do you really care? But here, you can search for your friends and team mates, and see what they've been doing online, so if they've been messing it up and crashing, you can make fun of them, if they've done a really cool five star trick, you can ask how did you do this trick, or beat this track."

He sums up: "We've really focused on how we bring a community infrastructure around this - bringing people together as teams, bringing them together as nations, and also via PGR On Demand."

Bizarre has also put a lot of effort into tweaking the game's artificial intelligence system - or, how the computer-controlled opposition plays against you. "One of the things that we've always heard about PGR in previous games is that the AI is very mechanical; it always follows that perfect line and is very tight, it doesn't race for speed or style - we changed it this time around; the AI personalities are actually not perfect, so now you'll see them catch air, they'll be a little bit more risky. There are several different AI personalities we have in the game, with different factors of risk, technical skill and so forth - they will actually make mistakes as you play, and especially on icy tracks, if they hit the corner too hard, they'll spin out of control."

And music? "Music has always been an important part of the PGR franchise; we've always tried to expose people to new and upcoming artists. We have a unique audio soundtrack for PGR4, created by Prodigy, so this is exclusive to the game and something we've been working closely with Prodigy on."

As if all that isn't enough, Microsoft practically confirmed to us that extra downloadable content would be coming to PGR4 as well. "We definitely support Marketplace; the probability of having stuff on Xbox Live in the future is absolutely there, we do have a plan for downloadable content," said Kovach. "It's figuring out what additional gameplay elements can we add, so with PGR3 we added new tournament functionality. We were the leaders for downloadable content starting with PGR2, and we're going to continue that."

So that's PGR4, and it's looking ace. But we had a couple of more questions for Bizarre. Firstly, could they bring back the Free Roam mode? PGR3's 'Custom Route Builder' was similar to this, but it was so cool to drive around the cities with no constraints as in PGR1. "It's in there, as far as I know!" says Mealor. "The Survivor game mode uses free roam exclusively - you still have some barriers, but these are small - about one metre high," he confirmed.

Oh, and one more thing: could Bizarre please make sure Kikizo's new address on Charing Cross Road is included in London in PGR4? "No-can-do I'm afraid," Bizarre told me, adding: "But you can be safe in the knowledge that I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE." Time to get thinking about that review score, perhaps...

Project Gotham Racing 4 is scheduled for release at the end of September, but Bizarre has previous stressed an "as long as it takes" approach to finishing the game, so don't be surprised if it gets put back a little (in fact, at the time of going live with this feature, unconfirmed reports suggest it's been put back to early October - stay tuned for official news).

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