I'm not usually into this type of game, but since there was a free demo to download, and I wanted to play something new, without having to purchase another game, I decided to put the demo on. For a demo, it's amazing, four different modes of game play, my favorite was dodging roadblocks, and evading the police.

After playing the demo for SEVERAL hours, I decided that it was worth purchasing.

The full game is completely worth the price paid. The graphics are STUNNING, it runs in up to 1080i. The cars are beautiful to look at, and the surroundings you drive around in are very realistic. Even the physics of the world you are in are pretty accurate. If you saw the movie "Gone in sixty seconds" the game parallels this movie closely, instead of stealing cars, you're racing them.

The game play is great, it breaks down like this:

You're a street racer, you know, in those pimped out cars with huge spoilers (sometimes stacked spoilers even...lol), gawdy rims, and tons of viny to complete the 'rice' effect. You have no respect for public safety, law enforcement or your own vehicles for that matter.

The game starts off with a few minutes of narrative and video cut-scenes. You go up against the street's best racer, a guy named Razor. In the video scene, you're about to beat him, but he has tampered with your ride, and you lose the race, he takes your car.

You meet this girl named Mia, and she becomes your coach, she sets you up with a safe place to store your cars, and explains what you'll need to do to find Razor. You have to defy the law, reak havoc, to gain the attention of Razor's guys, when you've impressed one, you get to race them.

There are 14 'henchmen' and you have to beat each one, with Razor for the end.

The game play is amazing. The feeling you get from speeding down a cramped 2 way street at over 120MPH is amazing. There are some cool features to the game, like being able to slow down time (when you're traveling at a high rate of speed, trying to squeeze through a roadblock, you can hit a speedbreaker, which brings game play to slow motion, allowing you to surgically strike weak points in a roadblock), and being able to completely customize your vehicle down to the smallest detail like tinted window color.

I started off the game trying to keep my cars 'cool'. I quickly found myself going for neon green paint, with bright red and yellow vinyl flames! It's hilarious...

The city you play in has three areas, the first area is unlocked by default and it is HUGE. As you progress in the game and beat your oponents, other areas get unlocked, and the best thing is you can freely move between all three areas. You can drive for hours and not feel like you're seeing the same thing over and over.

The game has nice features like GPS navigation, so if you know where you want to go, set it in your GPS, and you're directed how to get there. This is good for gettng to races, your safe house, or more importantly the shop - where you customize your ride, both visually, and mechanically.

The cut scenes and introductions to new oponents is done very impressively. The whole game is 'overdone' in such a way that makes it feel right. The attitude and feeling you get from playing through the story is crazy how quickly you get into the game.

Each time you beat an opponent, you get an achievement. So you'll be bumping up your Xbox live gaming score almost every time you play.

The game also allows two player local, as well as xbox live play. I have not tried either yet, but will be doing so for sure in the future.

Hands down, check out the demo, at least, I bet you'll end up purchasing it.
 

When I got my Xbox, I was not a huge fan of driving games. I did want a game that I could enjoy playing with my daughter, and this game was one that I had seen and knew would have content that was ok for a younger child.

This game was like a good book, once I started it I could not put it down. The graphics are amazing in this game as well, and it says it runs up to 720p, but it really feels better than that.

The game play breaks down like this:

 You compete in a series of events in 5 international locations ranging from Las Vegas, to London.

 For each goal you achieve, you earn money, which you purchase vehicles with. You start off with a small 4 car garage, and as you progress, filling your garage earns you more spaces to store your vehicle collection.

 The cars in this game are amazing. Think of EVERY exotic car you've ever seen, it's in this game. From the Lamborghini Countach, to the Ferarri Enzo. They even threw in the AMAZING Ariel Atom (a 50,000 1 seater roadster that will do 0-60 in less than 4 seconds!).

 There are various types of races to compete in, race the clock, eliminator (last car is eliminated each lap), street race, cone challenge, speed challenge, etc.  The game does a good job of mixing up the challenges as you race, so it feels like it's always changing and does not get stale.

 Outside of the race environment, there are several things you're able to do. One of my favorites is when a race is over, you're actually able to go back and review the whole race as if you're watching it on television. You can even move cameras from each car, around the track, to your car, or as the race leader, it's so much fun to see what your driving looks like and how you improve as you play through the game.

 You can even walk around inside your garages, admiring your vehicles, it's crazy, fully three dimensional, like a FPS, you can even play the original Geometry Wars as there are arcade style video games located inside your garage.

 Then there are other things you can do like take pictures of your cars (not really sure why you'd want to do this... but....), create your own custom routes, view car details, etc.

 One of the funnest parts of PGR3 is the online integration. If you're connected to Xbox live, every time you compete an individual race, it will show you where you rank in the 'PGR3 world'. You can also race online against other people over the net. It's so much fun, I've come to realize that I suck at online racing, and I'm sure 10 year olds across the country like to spin me out. Heh.

 There is also a feature called Gotham City Television, and you can just watch 'the best' race when they're online.

This is a great game to purchase, I'd say it's a 360 staple, and should be part of your collection.