PGR3 Developments at Bizarre Creations
Project Gotham Racing 3 by Bizarre Creations wasn’t unexpected when it was released. The classic was already a hit on the Xbox. Fans have however been enjoying extra goodies from the developers ever since via downloadable content, in addition to the sequel that’s already planned and tournament play that will tie in directly with Gotham TV. The PGR100 event is also one of the cool extras of being a PGR fan. The competition is being held in order to find the top 100 PGR3 players and reward each with a Limited Edition Black Xbox360.
During an event a college caught up with Gareth Wilson, design manager on the Gotham Team, and Ben Ward, web developer at Bizarre, to discuss Project Gotham Racing 3 as well as a few key tidbits of what could be seen in Project Gotham Racing 4.
You’re getting onto Xbox Live to play PGR3 fans as part of the PGR100 event. How did this event come about?
Gareth Wilson: Microsoft came to us with the idea, and since we’ve always wanted Gotham to be a really competitive community experience it was a great fit for us. With Gotham 3 especially we’ve tried to get a lot more competitive elements in there, so events like the PGR100 are fantastic for us and the players. Although we’re a little worried that we’re going to get battered.
Ben Ward: It really goes hand-in-hand with game because it’s all about beating your opponent in the most stylish and most extravagant way possible. We’re really excited about it and we’re really looking forward to getting beaten a lot!
Are you finding that the PGR3 community is brilliant at the game?
BW: Absolutely. They’ve had the benefit of playing Gotham 1 and 2 to death and, since we made Gotham 3 as an extension of 2 in terms of handling and difficulty, they’ve really stepped up to Gotham 3 with a headstart. The new players have really proved themselves too, but the experienced guys have really gone to the next level. The community is also pulling together well and doing things like lap competitions, and that’s great for us to see.
GW: We’re seeing people do things with cars that I didn’t know could be done. One guy has managed to hit 257mph in the Ultima GTR, and I know that car can’t go that fast. They must have gone around the track in a particular way or something. That shows the dedication and the skill of Gotham players. It’s just frightening how good some of the players are.
How do you rate your chances today then?
GW: Really badly!
BW: I told Gareth before we came down here that I hadn’t been practising, but I have! It’s a bit of a setup…
GW: I’m too busy to practise!
How often do you guys get to play in the office?
GW: We still play a lot in the office, but there’s lots of things happening at Bizarre right now and our time for playing is getting shorter and shorter!
BW: Yeah, it’s a really exciting and fast moving time at Bizarre right now and everyone’s really focused on the future as much as the past. Unfortunately, there’s not much time to look back and say, “Hey, that was great”, so we can’t play it as much as we’d like to.
So you’re working on new projects right now?
GW: Yes!
Xbox 360 projects?
GW: Can’t say! We’ll get killed!
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Project Gotham Racing 3 by Bizarre Creations wasn’t unexpected when it was released. The classic was already a hit on the Xbox. Fans have however been enjoying extra goodies from the developers ever since via downloadable content, in addition to the sequel that’s already planned and tournament play that will tie in directly with Gotham TV. The PGR100 event is also one of the cool extras of being a PGR fan. The competition is being held in order to find the top 100 PGR3 players and reward each with a Limited Edition Black Xbox360.
During an event a college caught up with Gareth Wilson, design manager on the Gotham Team, and Ben Ward, web developer at Bizarre, to discuss Project Gotham Racing 3 as well as a few key tidbits of what could be seen in Project Gotham Racing 4.
You’re getting onto Xbox Live to play PGR3 fans as part of the PGR100 event. How did this event come about?
Gareth Wilson: Microsoft came to us with the idea, and since we’ve always wanted Gotham to be a really competitive community experience it was a great fit for us. With Gotham 3 especially we’ve tried to get a lot more competitive elements in there, so events like the PGR100 are fantastic for us and the players. Although we’re a little worried that we’re going to get battered.
Ben Ward: It really goes hand-in-hand with game because it’s all about beating your opponent in the most stylish and most extravagant way possible. We’re really excited about it and we’re really looking forward to getting beaten a lot!
Are you finding that the PGR3 community is brilliant at the game?
BW: Absolutely. They’ve had the benefit of playing Gotham 1 and 2 to death and, since we made Gotham 3 as an extension of 2 in terms of handling and difficulty, they’ve really stepped up to Gotham 3 with a headstart. The new players have really proved themselves too, but the experienced guys have really gone to the next level. The community is also pulling together well and doing things like lap competitions, and that’s great for us to see.
GW: We’re seeing people do things with cars that I didn’t know could be done. One guy has managed to hit 257mph in the Ultima GTR, and I know that car can’t go that fast. They must have gone around the track in a particular way or something. That shows the dedication and the skill of Gotham players. It’s just frightening how good some of the players are.
How do you rate your chances today then?
GW: Really badly!
BW: I told Gareth before we came down here that I hadn’t been practising, but I have! It’s a bit of a setup…
GW: I’m too busy to practise!
How often do you guys get to play in the office?
GW: We still play a lot in the office, but there’s lots of things happening at Bizarre right now and our time for playing is getting shorter and shorter!
BW: Yeah, it’s a really exciting and fast moving time at Bizarre right now and everyone’s really focused on the future as much as the past. Unfortunately, there’s not much time to look back and say, “Hey, that was great”, so we can’t play it as much as we’d like to.
So you’re working on new projects right now?
GW: Yes!
Xbox 360 projects?
GW: Can’t say! We’ll get killed!
BW: I can repeat the press release if you want. It’s multi-platform, it’s an all new game and it’s published by Sega.
GW: And I’m working on another project that I definitely can’t say a thing about. And we’re working on some other things as well, so there’s lots going on at Bizarre!
Okay, back to PGR3 for the moment then. What other kind of new things have you seen the community latch onto in PGR3?
BW: One thing that’s gone crazy so far is the Photo Mode. People have been literally taking photos in the game, then pointing a real camera at the screen and sending us the pics. These are incredible shots – we’re looking at them thinking ‘wow, is that our game?’ Some of the images are things we didn’t even think were possible and even our screenshot guys thought they’d been Photoshopped afterwards, but they’re totally legit! I don’t know how they’ve done it but it’s fantastic.
GW: Not so much new games, but people have been refining the types of things they were doing in Gotham 2 and having much more fun with the new handling and physics.
BW: And we’ve added lots of official new game modes like Capture the Track [where players win sections of the track by posting the fastest time] and Last Man Standing [where players are eliminated if they’re in last place at the end of a lap], and people are still playing Cat and Mouse – albeit without the Mini!
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