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In practice, I found it did make the game feel somewhat less rewarding because hard work doesn't result as often in "you have unlocked this feature." Your mileage will vary if you're more into the Pokémon-style of collecting things instead of a desire to have a game punish you for not being good enough ala Ninja Gaiden. It should be noted that being able own a Mclaren F1 LM after merely half an hour of playing is very cool.
 Sadly, the single-player mode feels cut in half from past Project Gotham Racing titles. This is partly due to how time attack is set up, or should I say buried in the menus. Bizarre Creations has the distinction in my book for shipping the Xbox 360 launch title with the worst user interface. Filled with "you can't go there from here" moments, the UI cripples both the single-player and the online racing.
Standing like a beacon of hope and light against the evil—that is the user interface is one killer feature of PGR3 that hasn't received nearly enough attention: the in-car racing view. It took decades (and a few false starts ala Driving Emotion), but finally we have the graphical horsepower to render the steering wheel and dashboard; even hands too!
On paper, this may not sound exciting, but believe me when I say that Bizarre Creations has set the bar for this viewpoint. There's no other racing game that captures the feeling of being inside a rocket on wheels racing car. Subtle effects like dust on the windshield, reflections on the mirrors, and animated shifting ensure that I will never accept another "bumper cam" view again.
Other cool things to do when not in Rome
Of course, you don't have to sit behind the wheel if you don't want to as two traditional behind the car views are available. If that's not enough for you then hit the start button at any time during a race to slip into full on photographer mode. From here, you can put the camera anywhere in the world and snap shots of your beloved car. A full suite of picture taking options allows you to tweak these photos to your hearts content, but much to my annoyance there's nothing you can do with said pictures.
The fact that there's no actual potential for gamers taking photos is a shame, because to me, a perfect opportunity here was overlooked: Project Gotham Racing 3 features beautiful garages from around the world to stash way your cars. Given that users can already walk around these garages in first person why not let players hang their photos on the wall? Not that many people will be spending much time in their garages doing anything else besides playing Geometry Wars!
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