PGR 2 (Project Gotham Racing 2) is a masterpiece - and you need to play it

[Alex p.]

Hey guys,
so about half a year ago I bought myself an used OG Xbox with some games, and one of those was PGR2. Years ago I did play through PGR3 and 4 on the 360 and loved them. PGR1 looks neat, but very "early gen", so only PGR2 was left in interest for me. After having played through it on platinum (highest difficulty setting), I can conclude that this is one of THE best racing games EVER made.

The cars: 102 cars. (with out DLCs - this was one of the first game to feature DLCs). From hot hatches to supercars. The only real ommission is Lamborghini but all other major players are there. The car models for an Xbox game are great. The sound isn't too bad either (certainly better, than GT3,4,5,6). Features also some real rarities. So the car selection is truely superb.

The tracks: Again impressive for an OG Xbox game and mostly great flow. Featured cities are Florence, Stockholm, Chicago, Washington, Edinburgh, Hongkong, Sydney, Moscow and the Nordschleife (and more with DLC - Florida?). Very very modeled and detailed. Lovely selection really.

The game modes: An Arcade mode with fixed challenges (60), an online mode and the main mode: The Kudos championship mode. This is the mode I have played through on platinum (for the extra challenge and for the ego ) and while some challenges very rediculously hard (slalom challenge in Hongkong in the GT series, I did it in the 575 Maranello), they are also SO satistiyng to beat! You have hot laps (1 lap), time runs (2laps), head to heads, normal races against multiple opponents, overtake challenges (overtaking a fixed amount of cars in a fixed amount of time), speed camera challenges! and the hardest ones: obviously the slalom/cone challenges! Paired with the great car and track selection it makes for a LOT of fun and variety. This game just kinda flows.

The gameplay: Not much to say about it, except, that the handling is super intuitive and a great mix of arcade and sim, more on the arcady side though! More like Driveclub, less like NFS.

The A.I.: Honestly some of the most impressive A.I. I have encountered in ANY game. Very human like and super competitive (with out any rubber banding as far as I can tell).

The graphics: Quite superb for a 2004 OG Xbox game really.

The radio stations: Awesome feature: Depending on the city you're driving in, the local music will be played! In Moscow Russian, Florence Italian, etc. But don't worry you only English speakers, each city features multiple English songs as well! The track selection is pretty nice as far as I can tell. As I also speak Russian, but live in Germany and do not encounter much Russian culture, I am now a fan of some new bands, songs from Russia thanks to the game!

Conclusion: Everyone, who is even "half-heartedly" a racing/car game fan, owes it to himself to play this game, because it is simply a very well designed and super fun game! It also features a wide variety of difficulty settings and is thus suitable for everyone. I am uploading my platinum walkthrough of the game (first 5 of 14 parts are up), so if you're interested in that (or might need help in one challenge), you might check it out:

 

[MagpieRacer]

Yep, great game. There have long been calls to see a remaster or a new PGR game. Part of me feels the formula ran its course and PGR4 wasn't as well loved as PGR1 and 2. I personally loved all the series except 3. But 2 was very good. I always loved how you could wander the showrooms checking out the cars and hot the test track in them if you wanted.

I think its also why Horizon is so popular, particularly 4, there's a lot of influence from PGR (and I belive a lot of PGR dev team work for playground)

 

[TonyJZX]

The original XBox had a literal avalanche of extraordinary games towards the end. Its like as it MS spent billions money hatting devs to pour content into their console.

I remember you could literally buy games for like under $5 from the gamestop in your country or ebay. I think now that a few have backward compatibility on the 360 the prices have gone up. People want to go back to see what they missed.

The original Xbox did not have a long life and they machine had *some* rellaibility issues... I'm not sure mine would even work 20yrs down the track. Certainly the 10gb hdd would be kaput??? I had to pull the leaking clock capacitor out of mine.

There's at least THREE games I'd to revisit. PGR2? Rallisport? Sega GT? Outrun 2006?

 

[MrCrynox]

The original XBox had a literal avalanche of extraordinary games towards the end. Its like as it MS spent billions money hatting devs to pour content into their console.

I remember you could literally buy games for like under $5 from the gamestop in your country or ebay. I think now that a few have backward compatibility on the 360 the prices have gone up. People want to go back to see what they missed.

The original Xbox did not have a long life and they machine had *some* rellaibility issues... I'm not sure mine would even work 20yrs down the track. Certainly the 10gb hdd would be kaput??? I had to pull the leaking clock capacitor out of mine.

There's at least THREE games I'd to revisit. PGR2? Rallisport? Sega GT? Outrun 2006?

You'd be surprised, they are quite sturdy machines, (providing the clock cap has been removed).

I loved playing Forza, Rallisport Challenge 2, RBR, PGR 1/2, Outrun 2 & Coast to Coast, CMR 3-5. It was a brilliant machine for racing games, I'm sure there's some I've missed.

 

[TonyJZX]

PGR2 is better than PGR4 and I would probably rank PGR2 around the same as Forza 4 and Horizon 1 and probably a tad under say... Gran Turismo 4.

These games I would call the "genesis" of the racing sim world. They did it first, they did it better and in many respects, is still unmatched even today.

I think PGR2 had the capability to force a HD, lets say 720p image thru component cables?

I remember how awesome it looked on my ancient 720p only 32-43" type early gen flat panel LCD tvs.

I look at YT vids and I find the GFX kind of... meh today but like what do you expect from that NV1 type video card tech.

But I do feel like the PGR2 gfx was good for the day.

 

[MagpieRacer]

You'd be surprised, they are quite sturdy machines, (providing the clock cap has been removed).

I loved playing Forza, Rallisport Challenge 2, RBR, PGR 1/2, Outrun 2 & Coast to Coast, CMR 3-5. It was a brilliant machine for racing games, I'm sure there's some I've missed.

Rallisport Challenge 1 and 2 were outstanding. Would love to see new versions of that series. Sega GT 2002 was also fantastic as well.

 

[GroupB]

The tracks: Again impressive for an OG Xbox game and mostly great flow. Featured cities are Florence, Stockholm, Chicago, Washington, Edinburgh, Hongkong, Sydney, Moscow and the Nordschleife (and more with DLC - Florida?). Very very modeled and detailed. Lovely selection really.

The two DLC cities were Paris and Long Beach, California

 

[SestoScudo]

How does pgr2 play on the xbox 360??

Good or bad because im going to buy it so I can experience the game myself. I have pgr3 and pgr4 but never played pgr2.

 

[MrCrynox]

I've heard it's buggy but not tried it myself. Perhaps someone else can chime in.

 

[SestoScudo]

I've heard it's buggy but not tried it myself. Perhaps someone else can chime in.

The music of the game does not work, there seems to be some slow downs also there is a black screen when choosing cars.

Still I dont mind trying the game.

Im watching @RandomCarGuy17 pgr2 videos it seems most of the time its smooth with a bit of lag. Which is normal for a BC title. I gotta try this pgr game thats for sure since I have a xbox 360 which I bought used which is in good condition.

 

[GTxForza]

Yep this game is still awesome!

 

[MrCrynox]

What I like about it is just how challenging it is. Sometimes it's quite hard to get gold's but platinum is something else.. The handling is spot on and I do remember the AI putting up quite a fight, I love it

 

[TonyJZX]

Sad that the paris, long beach DLC will never see the light of day.

Is there even any footage anywhere? It lives only peoples' 20yr old 10gb hdds!

 

[SestoScudo]

Sad that the paris, long beach DLC will never see the light of day.

Is there even any footage anywhere? It lives only peoples' 20yr old 10gb hdds!

I heard it can be downloaded the thing is it might require the console getting modded.

Only way to access delisted dlcs from xbox 360 is to jtag it which means a full ban. Seriously should have got the dlcs for pgr and forza never knew such things would disappear.

I think the same applies to the original xbox.

 

[TonyJZX]

There's movement on the emulation front too.

I personally have no issue with whatever JTAG or whatever needs to be done on the original Xbox or the 360... they are two generations down at least and MS doesnt want to support these any more so whatever needs to be done to get them running is ok with me.

I'm a fan of emulation and 'software preservation' and I dont really even care about piracy to be honest however I draw the line at that sort of thing on the just past Xbox One because that is still an ongoing concern.

But yeah if MS doesnt care about their old titles then *someone* should.

 

[SestoScudo]

There's movement on the emulation front too.

I personally have no issue with whatever JTAG or whatever needs to be done on the original Xbox or the 360... they are two generations down at least and MS doesnt want to support these any more so whatever needs to be done to get them running is ok with me.

I'm a fan of emulation and 'software preservation' and I dont really even care about piracy to be honest however I draw the line at that sort of thing on the just past Xbox One because that is still an ongoing concern.

But yeah if MS doesnt care about their old titles then *someone* should.

I agree there to be honest. They are already abandonware still dont get why they get butthurt about it.

 

[MrCrynox]

Sad that the paris, long beach DLC will never see the light of day.

Is there even any footage anywhere? It lives only peoples' 20yr old 10gb hdds!

If you have a soft modded OGXbox you can install the DLC, I have it in one of mine. The cars and tracks are only multiplayer though so outside of that you can only time trial them, still good though.

 

[Alex p.]

Yep, great game. There have long been calls to see a remaster or a new PGR game. Part of me feels the formula ran its course and PGR4 wasn't as well loved as PGR1 and 2. I personally loved all the series except 3. But 2 was very good. I always loved how you could wander the showrooms checking out the cars and hot the test track in them if you wanted.

I think its also why Horizon is so popular, particularly 4, there's a lot of influence from PGR (and I belive a lot of PGR dev team work for playground)

A new PGR (or a remaster/remake) are some of my bigest video game dreams. And yep I loved that garage stuff features! I'm gonna upload a video on that in April. The best garage of ANY game to this very day, has PGR3. I LOVE how the cars look in these special lighting conditions, etc. It really oozes with atmosphere.

The original XBox had a literal avalanche of extraordinary games towards the end. Its like as it MS spent billions money hatting devs to pour content into their console.

I remember you could literally buy games for like under $5 from the gamestop in your country or ebay. I think now that a few have backward compatibility on the 360 the prices have gone up. People want to go back to see what they missed.

The original Xbox did not have a long life and they machine had *some* rellaibility issues... I'm not sure mine would even work 20yrs down the track. Certainly the 10gb hdd would be kaput??? I had to pull the leaking clock capacitor out of mine.

There's at least THREE games I'd to revisit. PGR2? Rallisport? Sega GT? Outrun 2006?

Raillisport Challenge 2 and Outrun 2006 were the other games I bought.

You'd be surprised, they are quite sturdy machines, (providing the clock cap has been removed).

I loved playing Forza, Rallisport Challenge 2, RBR, PGR 1/2, Outrun 2 & Coast to Coast, CMR 3-5. It was a brilliant machine for racing games, I'm sure there's some I've missed.

Lovely list! I'd add Burnout 3.

PGR2 is better than PGR4 and I would probably rank PGR2 around the same as Forza 4 and Horizon 1 and probably a tad under say... Gran Turismo 4.

These games I would call the "genesis" of the racing sim world. They did it first, they did it better and in many respects, is still unmatched even today.

I think PGR2 had the capability to force a HD, lets say 720p image thru component cables?

I remember how awesome it looked on my ancient 720p only 32-43" type early gen flat panel LCD tvs.

I look at YT vids and I find the GFX kind of... meh today but like what do you expect from that NV1 type video card tech.

But I do feel like the PGR2 gfx was good for the day.

For me, it's a tie between PGR2 and PGR4.

How does pgr2 play on the xbox 360??

Good or bad because im going to buy it so I can experience the game myself. I have pgr3 and pgr4 but never played pgr2.

It's okay. Has some slowdowns, but mostly nothing major. STRIBBERS GAMING has a PGR2 Platinum walkthrough played on a 360:

The music of the game does not work, there seems to be some slow downs also there is a black screen when choosing cars.

Still I dont mind trying the game.

Im watching @RandomCarGuy17 pgr2 videos it seems most of the time its smooth with a bit of lag. Which is normal for a BC title. I gotta try this pgr game thats for sure since I have a xbox 360 which I bought used which is in good condition.

You need to play the game really. Nice challenge as well.

What I like about it is just how challenging it is. Sometimes it's quite hard to get gold's but platinum is something else.. The handling is spot on and I do remember the AI putting up quite a fight, I love it

While I agree that the Platinum challenges are SUPER tough (at least the cone challenges that is), but some licence tests in GTs and especially the diamond times of Lewis Hamilton in GTSport are quite a bit harder imo.

Sad that the paris, long beach DLC will never see the light of day.

Is there even any footage anywhere? It lives only peoples' 20yr old 10gb hdds!

There is some YT footage I believe.

If you have a soft modded OGXbox you can install the DLC, I have it in one of mine. The cars and tracks are only multiplayer though so outside of that you can only time trial them, still good though.

The Xbox I bought used is/was actually completely modded with games on the HDD etc

EDIT: part 6 of my Platinum walkthrough is up:

 

[Alex p.]

Am now through with the entire game on platinum, and edited the most important videos. Enjoy

 

[FerrariF1GT]

Bumping the thread to say I finally got my hands on an original Xbox and this game. Over the long weekend I played through Kudos World Series (I did the arcade races earlier). This is the result:

Aside from some of the cone challenges and speed traps, getting all platinums wasn't too frustrating for me. Nevertheless it was a satisfying accomplishment and I'm glad that I got to play through such a good game. If only there was a free/custom race mode with the ability to mix-and-match cars and classes like in PGR4...

 

[Alex p.]

Bumping the thread to say I finally got my hands on an original Xbox and this game. Over the long weekend I played through Kudos World Series (I did the arcade races earlier). This is the result:

View attachment 1096418View attachment 1096423View attachment 1096424

Aside from some of the cone challenges and speed traps, getting all platinums wasn't too frustrating for me. Nevertheless it was a satisfying accomplishment and I'm glad that I got to play through such a good game. If only there was a free/custom race mode with the ability to mix-and-match cars and classes like in PGR4...

Crazy you did it over a weekend! You must be one talented bloke!