Project Gotham Racing 4

By Daniel Needham

At the X06 event in Barcelona, Microsoft and Bizarre Creations announced that Project Gotham Racing 4 is in production exclusively for the Xbox 360 platform. The game is being developed by Bizarre Creations, veteran developers of the Project Gotham Racing series, with Microsoft as publishers.

Although keeping the cards regarding core gameplay close to their chest, the team has tossed some tidbits of news in to their eager fans’ laps. The most prominent addition to PGR4 is that of advanced weather effects in the game. This can not only affect the visual feel of the game, but also the physics of the cars on the track. The weather is able to change dynamically from sun to rain to snow and to hail all within a single race. If logged on to Xbox Live, weather from the Weather Channel will be uploaded, allowing users to set in-game conditions to mirror current weather conditions in the respective cities.

The game will simulate ten distinct types of weather, from clear days to overcast, light to stormy rain, fog, snow, and even ice. In user created races, weather will all be customizable along with all the other race variations. In the game’s expanded and improved career mode however, weather will be predetermined and add an extra obstacle for players to overcome.

Recently, Bizarre Creations has released a video of the rain effects in St. Petersburg, which really illustrate how seriously they are taking this ‘dynamic weather’ feature. A second video, this time showing the snow in Nürburgring, is also available for viewing across the net, once again showing the potential beauty of the fourth edition in the Project Gotham Racing series.

Set for a release in late 2007, PGR4 is looking good thus far. Keep checking in with NZGamer.com and we’ll provide you with all the latest news, previews and reviews as soon as they come to hand.

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