About the game
Project Gotham Racing 3 is a 2005 arcade-style racing game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is the third game in the Project Gotham Racing series and came out only on Xbox 360, as a launch title in November 2005. The sequel, Project Gotham Racing 4, followed in October 2007.
The game is set in Las Vegas, London, New York City and Tokyo, plus the Nurburgring. It has roughly 80 licensed cars from more than 30 manufacturers, including Ferrari, Dodge and Lamborghini. Of those, 71 are available at the start and nine have to be unlocked. Cars are sorted into five performance classes, A at the top to E at the bottom.
You earn Kudos for stylish driving, such as drifting, drafting or getting the wheels off the ground. Combo bonuses are lost when you hit a barrier, but the base Kudos are kept. The cockpit view, with a detailed interior, was one of the things reviewers singled out.
You can play with up to two players on one console, or more over System Link. Online, Xbox Live Gold members can race against up to seven others, in a ranked career mode or an unranked playtime mode. As in Project Gotham Racing 2, the garage has two arcade cabinets running Geometry Wars demos.
Metacritic gives it 88 out of 100. Official Xbox Magazine named it Xbox 360 Game of the Year for 2005. It was nominated for Racing Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay at the 9th Interactive Achievement Awards, and it earned ELSPA's Platinum sales award for at least 300,000 copies in the UK.
Three downloads followed in 2006: a free Cadillac V-Series, a Speed Pack in April and a Style Pack in July.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 88 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: IGN 8.8/10, GameSpot 8.8/10, Edge 9/10, Electronic Gaming Monthly 9/10, Eurogamer 8/10, Game Informer 8.5/10, GameTrailers 8.5/10, Official Xbox Magazine (US) 9/10.
Extra content
Three downloads came out in 2006. Two of them were title updates that added achievements.
- Speed Pack: Tournament access, new features, fixes and new cars.
- Cadillac V-Series: A free Cadillac V-Series download.
- Style Pack: More cars and features.
Good to know
- It was an Xbox 360 launch title, released November 22, 2005 in North America.
- Of the roughly 80 cars, 71 are open from the start and nine are unlocks.
- The garage has two arcade cabinets that run Geometry Wars demos.
- Title Update 1 added one achievement and Title Update 2 added four, so the 20 on the original list add up to 900 gamerscore.
- Tournament Qualifier, from Title Update 1, is the rarest achievement, held by about 2 percent of players.
Made by
Director Martyn R. Chudley, Director Craig Cook, Director Philipp Teschner, Producer Peter Wallace, Producer Peter O'Brien, Producer Chris Pickford, Producer Julie Elizabeth McGurren, Designer Chris Novak, Designer Ged Talbot, Designer Gareth Wilson.
