It seems like it was just a couple of months when I was raving about how much I loved the Microsoft published racer, Forza Motorsport 2. I couldn`t get enough of the different races and amazing online community, to the point where I was looking forward to playing it every spare minute of the day. But here we are just a few weeks later and Microsoft is back with yet another solid racing game. This time around it`s Project Gotham Racing 4, the sequel to the popular arcade-style racing series that has you racing through real cities at breakneck speeds. While this new game looks great and plays like a dream, part of me has to wonder if it`s a little too soon for Microsoft to flood the market with similar racing experiences.

As the title suggests, Project Gotham Racing 4 is the sequel to one of the Xbox 360`s best launch games. This time around we`re given a new set of cars, the ability to drive motorcycles, cool weather effects, a bunch of new cities, a new campaign mode, and a brand new Geometry Wars sequel. It`s a full package that will keep you interested for weeks to come. But while this is a competent racer, it`s hard not to compare this game to the superior Forza Motorsport 2. There is nothing particularly wrong with Bizarre`s newest racer, but part of me wonders if Microsoft should have spread these two similar games out a little more.

Either way, Project Gotham Racing 4 is a solid game no matter if you`re playing with friends or all by yourself. This time around the game is split into two different single player modes, one that resembles what we found in the first three PGR games, and another mode that has you using a calendar to schedule events and compete in exclusive competitions. No matter how you play the game, you will get your money`s worth when playing the game by yourself.

The biggest addition this year is something called the Gotham Career; the object of this mode is to create a racer and go from the bottom of the ranks to the top. You do this by using a calendar that has a number of different tournaments and other events throughout the year. The trick to this mode is that you can`t possibly do everything in one year, as you go along you`re going to have to choose from several different events to compete in. Unfortunately once you`ve beaten that event it`s on to the next week, so you will have to wait a full virtual year for those other events to pop up again. While I certainly like that the developers were trying something a little different with this Project Gotham Racing sequel, it`s somewhat annoying to have to play through races you have no interest in just to complete all of the races and win this mode.

Thankfully the races you encounter are as fun as ever. If you`ve played any of the previous Project Gotham Racing games then you will know that this series is about more than just three-lap races. While the game does have standard races, a lot of your time will be spent dodging cones, racing for kudos, weaving between gates and much, much more. This is the kind of racing game that is hard to get sick of, since you`re always being asked to do something different. There aren`t really a lot of new ideas found in these various events, but it`s hard to be too critical when pretty much all of the different race types are fun.

The gimmick of Project Gotham Racing is that this is about more than just getting to the finish line first, it`s also important to finish the race with as much style as possible. "Style" is counted with kudos points, when you perform something daring or tricky you`ll earn a small amount of kudos points for your trouble. The trick is to combine these stylish moves (which can include everything from popping a wheelie, performing power slides, passing other vehicles, perform a perfect lap, among other things) with each other, so that your kudos count will continue to grown without a break i...