Remembering Project Gotham Racing, Microsoft's first great racer

Motorsport has been a significant part of my life from a young age and it quickly translated into gaming. Going manner back, nosotros have game changing titles similar Virtua Racing, Sega Rally and Gran Turismo, all of which I adored, only 1 franchise really cemented my love of racing games — Project Gotham Racing.

Nowadays it is merely a fond retention, yet it'due south one of the most important franchises in gaming for me, shaping what was to come up over the next two decades.

Early ancestry on the Sega Dreamcast

Dreamcast Source: Windows Central

Projection Gotham Racing (PGR) actually began life on the Sega Dreamcast as Metropolis Street Racer (MSR). Microsoft wasn't involved here, with the championship adult by Bizarre Creations and published by Sega, but it was the start of something special.

MSR blended real-earth, licensed cars with street racing and the kudos 'currency' system. It looked brilliant, it was a heap of fun to play, the soundtrack was pretty awesome and all that is without considering you could drive an MGF.

MSR was essentially a pattern for what would come to Xbox in PGR. Of grade, now published by Microsoft and bearing a different proper name, simply anyone who'd played MSR knew where they were. That wasn't bad at all. MSR was, for its time, an absurdly good racer.

An antidote to Gran Turismo

Project Gotham Racing Source: Microsoft

Before Xbox and PGR came the Sony PlayStation and Gran Turismo, dubbed the "real driving simulator." By mod standards it's a long style off, but at the time, Gran Turismo was a revelation for motorsport fans.

MSR and and so PGR were an antidote to this. Gran Turismo was quite serious, but Projection Gotham was, well, just fun. It'south this lighter, more casual approach that hooked me in.

PGR was still a challenge, as were the next three games in the series. But a different kind of challenge. The focus wasn't just on winning races and having the best car. The kudos system rewarded you for driving with style, which meant a lot of tapping the handbrake. And that's a smash when you're a kid.

The environments looked stunning, the cars were incredible, and all of this simply improved through the subsequent 3 sequels. While technically each game that followed was 'better', the original is still that landmark moment.

Today, one of the closest experiences to that first time playing Project Gotham is the Filigree reboot by Codemasters. Information technology has a very like feeling, with gorgeous cars, brand believe street circuits, and plenty of scope for flamboyant driving.

Forza Horizon's spiritual predecessor

Forza Horizon 4 Source: Windows Central

Sadly, Projection Gotham Racing pushed out its final panel game in 2007 with PGR4 on the Xbox 360. Information technology had been an absolute boom, but then it came to an stop. It was a while before Microsoft would fill the void, simply you tin argue that Forza Horizon, coming in 2022, picked up the spirit of PGR and ran with it.

You tin can all the same encounter glimpses of influence in Forza Horizon today. Tell me the skill points system in the Forza Horizon games doesn't remind you a whole lot of the kudos system in PGR?

Forza Horizon of course amped up the street racing experience by adding in an open world that has progressively became larger and more interactive, mixing gorgeous environments with stunningly recreated real-world cars.

Whatever happened to Bizarre Creations?

Bizarre's only post-PGR racing game, Mistiness.

In September 2007, Activision acquired the developer of the Project Gotham Racing series, Bizarre Creations. Despite making the series for Microsoft Game Studios, information technology remained independent, and produced other titles alongside such as Geometry Wars and The Club.

Activision also then appear that Projection Gotham Racing 4 would be the studio'south terminal game for Microsoft Game Studios, though the latter retained the rights to the franchise.

In an Activision-endemic life Bizarre went on to make one more than racing game, 2022 release Blur, and then in 2022 Activision closed the studio down. And Microsoft hasn't done anything with the franchise since. The actual last PGR game to launch wasn't fifty-fifty on panel.

Project Gotham Racing on the Zune and Windows Mobile

A fun little tidbit: Did you know Microsoft really released a PGR game for the Zune? Neither did I until recently. Had I known at the time it could have been the divergence over buying Apple!

Check it out in the video to a higher place.

A lasting impression

Project Gotham Racing Source: Windows Central

While Project Gotham Racing has resigned to the history books, the franchise'southward importance will never exist replaced. Without its influence on the genre, who knows what we'd be playing today. Who knows what I'd be playing today.

The spirit of PGR lives on though. The Forza Horizon series is an obvious comparing, merely elsewhere, Codemasters' reboot of GRID is probably the closest modern title to capturing the magic of this bang-up series. And we're fortunate that we have these among a slew of amazing racing games to play on the current and future Xbox consoles.

There may not be a place for PGR in the mural anymore, simply in my heart it's the one title I want to see reborn above all others. Alas, that'south a far fetched dream, only at least what we did get left a mark and tin be played yet today.

Which is exactly what I'm going to exist doing having finished writing this post. If you've got your ain PGR memories to share, be certain to drop them into the comments below.

New Windows 11 preview build brings improved taskbar for touch users

New build!

New Windows eleven preview build brings improved taskbar for touch users

It'due south time for another Windows 11 preview build, and this week is some other big one. Today'south build is 22563 and features even more taskbar improvements, this time for tablet users. Microsoft is introducing a new auto-hide Taskbar interface that'southward similar to the touch-offset taskbar that was first introduced on Windows 10X and the Surface Neo.