Project Gotham Racing 2 is an intriguing name that features even more intriguing gameplay. The title claims that it takes more than coming in first place to win this race and to be honest that isn't exactly true here. Xbox's answer to Gran Turismo returns, complete with full Xbox Live support featuring online play, downloads, scoreboards and even ghosts of other players to race against, in what isn't your average racing game... or is it?

The main different between the average racing game and PGR2 is the interesting Kudos system, which challenges you to race with style to gain what are called Kudos Points, an idea that I think is brilliant. These points are used to earn new cars, elevate your rank and give you a nice big number next to your name to show off to other players online. What a concept; utilizing racing skill and technique to earn points instead of just coming in first and the best thing is that gaining these Kudos points actually comes quite naturally.

The main ways to earn Kudos during a race include racing behind a car and overtaking using the speed gain you make from driving in their wake, known as driving, power sliding around corners and other small things, all of which are done frequently in most, if not all, other racing games. Perhaps the only move you can't earn without trying to is the 360, a move that usually will guarantee you to not get first place unless you have a huge lead. Fortunately, crashing into walls causes you to lose any Kudos you are in the process of earning, so racers who are used to the arcade style of taking corners at 120mph and smashing around them are in trouble if they're worried about their Kudos points and winning the race. A second after you have finished a power-slide, overtake or whatever you were just doing, the Kudos is banked and so crashing won't affect it then. Worth noting is that bumping other cars while earning Kudos points will not make you lose your stash and that coming in first or racing a clean race gives you a nice Kudos bonus.

In single player Kudos is important; quite a few of the goals actually rely on you getting a set amount and one type of challenge even requires you to get a Kudos Combo for a lap, or even multiple laps. Kudos Combos are simply doing multiple Kudos-earning moves that gain Kudos within a few seconds to get extra points, similar to most extreme sports games. Hitting a wall during a combo will cause you to lose the combo bonus points, which is usually quite high, but you will still receive the points for doing the moves, thus it acts as a buffer for making one mistake and so adds a second advantage to getting combos.

Online things are different however; Kudos isn't actually that important, except to players that pay close attention to their rank. Each player has an online Kudos rank, which is gained by earning Kudos points in races. Each level (from 1 and up) requires a large amount to reach the next level, sometimes ranging from 20,000 Kudos points and higher. Each time you level up you get some points that can be traded in for cars in the showroom, however you only get a couple of points for it, while in single player you can easily earn more of the same points much faster.

So what's the main point of trying your best to earn lots Kudos in the online mode? Well... uh... a high Kudos rank sure looks good! Unfortunately, this rank is determined by how long somebody has played and not how well they race. Granted, coming in first gives you a decent amount of points but the person who plays the game 10 hours every day, 5 days a week is going to have a huge rank, regardless of skill. This doesn't really bother me, as it's just a game for fun, but people who obsess over rankings and strive to be the highest rank are going to be disappointed by this.

The gameplay is actually very good in PGR2, combining a large amount of elements of a simulation racer with an arcade style. This is the kind of racer that everybody can play, as it is not amazingly realistic or unrealistic but a perfect balance that allows you to sometimes be a little reckless but not completely lose control. However, PGR2 is heavily based on taking corners correctly; going too fast around a corner usually results in your car getting friendly with a wall and the other cars passing you by. Once you get corners down you'll be pulling out wins often. Correct cornering is the secret to passing other drivers and taking the lead; if you consistently corner well on every turn than you'll consistently win. Power sliding these corners is actually quite dangerous and takes practice to get right but don't worry if that scares you, power sliding is mainly used to get Kudos points (though sometimes it is a little faster if done right). Taking corners with the normal brakes will not only earn Kudos but will also be less dangerous and allows you to quickly come out of the turn to zoom away.

With my few gripes about the Kudos system aside, I'll move onto an area of PGR2 that is honed to perfection - the single player mode, or should I say, modes; not only are there dozens and dozens of goals for you to complete but there are also arcade mode races and time trial challenges to complete that will take you quite awhile to finish. Not only will that give you plenty of replay value but each challenge has five medals you can earn (steel being the lowest, platinum being the highest and I'm sure you can guess what the other three are). Finishing the main single player mode with all of one type of medal earns you a special car, the highest (platinum) being the TVR Speed 12. Is it easy to get? Excuse my language, but hell no! For most players it will be extremely difficult, time-consuming and frustrating to earn.

Getting platinum in the first league is mostly easy but as you progress to the other leagues it becomes a challenge to consistently get gold or even silver. The leagues are divided by car-classes, which range from super cars, American muscle cars, ultimate, extreme, track specials, coupes, classics and more. The cars vary from a Ford Focus to an Enzo Ferrari and everything in between; however these vehicles are not customisable or upgradeable, so if you're playing online in a race that allows players to use any car you'll definitely get smoked if you use anything but the top cars, which is unfortunate for fans of the classic cars like myself. Don't worry though, the host has the ability to limit the car class so all racers have to pick a certain field of cars, but still, if you don't have some cars in that field unlocked other than the defaults then you'll still be left in the dust.

So how do you get the better vehicles? You can quickly trade in your Kudos points in single player when looking at the car lists or you can go into a virtual showroom, which you navigate in first person mode. The showroom looks very sharp and it's easy to navigate the rooms, which are divided by car type or manufacturer. Also in the showroom are multiple empty areas labelled "Xbox Live", which I assume will be for new downloaded cars available in the future. As of this writing no cars have been released for download, so I don't know if they will require you to trade in tokens. While the showroom doesn't do anything you can't already do, it is very cool to wander around and explore, looking at all the different cars.

Whilst the 30 plus tracks all are designed very well and feature real landmarks throughout the 10 plus cities and countries, the tracks themselves lack standout graphics and lighting. Although at night the tracks look good and often feature very good weather effects they seem to just lack something. Car designs, reflections and damage however all look superb and match up against today's best looking racers. PGR2 also excels in the sound department and while the cars may not all sound completely unique or intense, they do sound very good and it's a joy to be racing along and suddenly hear the roar of another car creep up behind you, followed by the screeching of your tires as you brake and glide around a corner, only to smash into the wall with plenty of impact. Worth noting is that cars will also backfire, especially the older classic cars; an addition that doesn't do anything for the gameplay but looks and sounds very cool, and I love it. The soundtrack is huge, so huge that the list has to be split up in groups by alphabet. You can choose which songs to leave on or turn off, select one of the soundtracks already in the game, use your own soundtracks, or build a soundtrack out of songs on your hard drive and the ones included with the game. To top it off, you can play these songs in one of the game's radio stations, complete with different DJs and station ID breaks. This is surely the most comprehensive use of the Xbox's soundtrack system yet and a benchmark for other titles.

Project Gotham Racing 2 has replay value and plenty of it. The online mode alone adds plenty of replay value itself, and does, with lots of courses, vehicles, Kudos rank, up to eight racers at once and even custom games that players are creating with their imagination that are actually quite fun. However, the single player modes themselves can take a long time to complete and remain fun, making this a game that is essential whether you have Xbox Live or not. You don't just race other cars over and over, some goals have you doing Kudos combos for an entire lap, exceeding a certain amount of speed and one on one races. To top it off you're always connected to Live (if you have the service) while in single player, so every time you complete a challenge your score is matched up against other players via the huge scoreboards. You can view the top 10 scores for that challenge and even watch or compete against their ghosts and also check out how your friends did on a particular challenge. This addition is simply brilliant and very fun to look at and see how you match up against the top players or just your buddies.

Time Trial mode allows you to watch anybody's ghost who has competed in the current course and you can race against it as well, even if your best buddy got last place on the scoreboard you can still download his ghost to check it out. Unfortunately the scoreboard is determined by total Kudos on a challenge and not the lap time (except in time trial mode). This means most ghosts you download will showcase a player doing dozens of 360's before crossing the finish line to boost up his Kudos total, which is unfortunate.

Project Gotham Racing 2 has a single player mode that is deep, long, challenging and fun. There are leader boards for every event, the online games are a blast, as expected and will keep the game alive for quite sometime. New downloads will be coming out, there are plenty of tracks and cars to unlock, the soundtrack is huge, the sound and graphics get a big thumbs up and the Kudos system offers something different, even if it is a little flawed. PGR2 is without doubt the best racer on Xbox and one of the best online gaming experiences around, making it a very worthwhile purchase for everyone who owns that big black box.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).