Project Gotham Racing 4
Project Gotham Racing 4 (PGR4) continues its track record of speed with style. This is an arcade racer, so forget about tuning cars and buying spare parts - just pick up the controller and step on the pedal of whatever vehicles available. You can now ride tricky motorcycles to challenge the usual selection of fast Ferraris and other super cars, and drive in rain and snow to give your opponents the slip. But the key PGR trademark remains: Fast and furious driving, with a strong emphasis on racking up Kudos - bonus points that function as the game's currency. Speed, slide and steer like the devil to score Kudos. There are 15 achievable Kudos - making a spinning turn around a tricky corner or driving like hell without hitting any barriers are but two types of Kudos to earn. The stash lets you buy new vehicles - there are over 100 available - and even unlock hidden race tracks. A new Gotham Career mode in PGR4 is a welcome addition to the regular single-player arcade mode, and lets you emulate the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 rookie, Lewis Hamilton. This means you can compete in races around the world in order to attain the number one ranking.

The single-player events are not always about crossing the finishing line first. Some events require you to overtake six cars ahead of you or to knock down as many cones as possible on the roads. The sheer variety of events makes the game fun and often challenging, but adjustable difficulty levels means that even the worst drivers will not hit a dead end. PGR4's visuals are a testament to what sharp and vibrant high-definition graphics should be. Cities in the game like Tokyo and Shanghai are almost postcard perfect. The engaging music soundtrack - available on "radio stations" you can tune into during races - has several compilation CDs worth of great tunes. There is a comprehensive online mode for racing with other Xbox Live players, as well as "ghosts" for downloads - basically, translucent cars uploaded by expert players that record how they drive a particular track. You can race against these ghosts in your single-player games, and learn from their driving. But for the three out of four Xbox 360 owners who do not play online, rest assured that the single-player game has enough meat to eat up days and weeks of your life.

Besides racing, you can also take all of the cool cars you unlock for a leisurely test drive - without the obligatory car salesman to bug you as in real life. In the ranking of Xbox 360 games that are not Halo 3, PGR4 deserves at least plenty of Kudos - if not the pole position.