Let me start with saying that I’ve been a long-time fan of the PGR series starting all the way back to Bizarre Creations' Dreamcast game Metropolis Street Racer (yeah, I know when dinosaurs roamed the earth). I then moved on to play PGR1 and 2, and was actually the WCG National Champ for the game way back in 2004. After playing this game for several dozen hours, it’s apparent they kept to the basics of what made the series so great.

Graphics: 10/10
The PGR series has always been a stand-out game, and this is no exception. There are more polygons per car than any console racing game ever made. There’s actually more polygons just in the cockpit than PGR2 had on the whole car, and you can now relish in the beauty of the actual cars interior by switching to the driver’s view mode with realistic touches like glare and dirt on the windshield and side mirrors that brake when you crash.

The background sets a new standard in racing games. Every city block is covered with apartments and restaurants that resemble their real life counter-parts. The people lining the racing events are individually modeled and run away when you are about to crash into them. Impressively solid 60 framers per second with no breakup, motion blur effects when you are really hauling, and the new driver viewpoint really add to the sense of speed.

But if you really want to just walk around and see the graphics, go buy yourself enough cars to get into the second garage. When you walk from inside to out, everything is white because your eyes are adjusting to the light. Go over to the water in the middle of the courtyard and be amazed by the rippling reflections. Walk back inside and it’s dark before you adjust. These little effects make the game that much more real.

Sound: 8 / 10
It seems the engine noises in the game are pretty accurately modeled after the real life counter-part and the bigger engines really sound beefy. Besides that, I’d say it’s pretty standard fare. The wheels chirp, cars grind and crash, etc.

What makes the sound so great is the variety of music you can choose from. From Japanese hip-hop to American rock and random foreign techno it’s got something for everyone. You can even rip your own tracks.

Controls: 10 / 10
Perfect. The cars seem to act appropriately with the rear wheel drive powerhouses over steering and the little go-carts sticking to the pavement. E-braking is not recommended.

The game reacts nearly instantly to your commands, even on the wireless MS pad.

Gameplay: 9 / 10
Single Player
The career mode has a variety of modes to go through, including cone challenges, car passing, and straight up races. It’ll keep you entertained with the variety and the steep learning curve to get the higher medals. I managed to get all gold in a couple days, but if you can take home the platinum metals, you’re a pro.

Multi Player
LAN play – Perfect. No lag, no problems, get a bunch of buddies together and play!
Online - I don’t know of any other game that you can play country-to-country without lag. You can literally play a guy from Taiwan, Canada, and Britain in the same room. There’s a match-making service to get you racing other players of your level in theory, but in practice your gonna have to look around to find other guys of your caliber since you rank up solely by playing more online.

Replay Value, Longevity: 9 / 10
Single Player
This will take an average player a dozen hours even on the easy settings. And if you’re looking to get the higher medals you can spend countless hours on this game. Since the AI always reacts differently, it keeps the game fresh after hours of play.

Multi Player
You’re not gonna get much out of split-screen play and it’s hard to find a LAN for PGR3. But if you’ve got Xbox live, you’re in for a treat. I don’t want to know how many hours I’ve got into both PGR2 and 3 on XbL.

Overall (personal bias): 9 / 10
Maybe I’m biased, but I’ve always loved these games. It may not have the realism of Forza or Grand Tourismo, but it is definitely more fun. That slight ‘arcadey’ feel of the power slides, the higher frame rate, better responsiveness, and overall quality make this one of the best racing games ever produced.

Side Note
Geometry Wars – in the garage there are two games. Geometry wars original and GW2. These are both really simple minigames, but they are super addictive and should add hours of fun to any old school video game fan.