Completing a race will reward you with more than a new race to run; you will also earn credits and kudos. Credits are awarded for completing a race and the total awarded is based on the difficulty level that you selected. Credits are basically the game’s form of currency and are used to purchase new cars. The game is pretty liberal in its awarding of credits, so you’ll be able to buy plenty of cool cars to use in the races. Kudos are awarded for driving well – running sections of the course cleanly, using a power slide to make it around a tight turn, catching air, etc. Kudos are used to unlock concept cars for purchase and are a testament to your drive skills – do you win pretty or do you win ugly?

PGR3 is built around Xbox Live, even when you’re playing the game in single player mode. After every race your score will be compared to everyone else who’s played the same race while connected to Xbox Live so you can see how you stack up against your fellow PGR3 players. Of course the game has full support for multiplayer racing as well. The game will even evaluate your skill level in attempt to match you against gamers with a similar level of skill. You race online with the cars you’ve bought in the single player game, so you’ll need to spend some time with the single player game first before going online if you want a fast car. The races are divided by car class, though, so you won’t find yourself constantly blown away by players that were able to buy the most expensive cars in the game.

PGR3 includes a novel feature in Gotham TV. This feature lets gamers watch races between the top players live as they are happening. It’s more of a novelty than anything else as odds are you won’t want to spend much of your game time watching other people play. It’s not that useful as a way to pick up new techniques as there’s no way to tell much about players’ techniques with the gas and brake from watching their cars.

The racing is exciting in the game, but there is no question that it is made more so by the game’s incredible graphics. The detail level is amazing, not just in the cars but in the cities and the crowds watching the races, I can talk about lighting (wait until you see your first night race!), textures, and the like, but it’s more effective if I simply ask: when was the last time you played a racing game in which you could see the instruments on the dashboard through the car’s rear window?

If you are the least bit interested in racing games, then you owe it to yourself to check out PGR3. It is an excellent first ride into the world of next-gen racing.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 92%.  Welcome to the world of next-gen racing.

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