It's funny. Now that the end of the year is coming, game companies are releasing their biggest titles. I've been calling up the distributors for review copies, and those are pouring in, with many brilliant games waiting for me to unwrap and start playing them. I don't see this happen any time soon, however. The problem is easy to summarize: Project Gotham Racing 4. I've had this game for a few weeks now, and even though I have been playing it practically every day now, I'm still as excited about it as when I first fired it up. It's almost like the damn thing is glued inside my Xbox 360, refusing to budge for any other game, laughing in the face of other racing games coming out and quietly waiting as I do my best to get all 50 achievements. If this game was a drug, I would have been put in an anti-drug clinic already days ago, to follow their strictest possible program.
The problem with this game is that it's pretty much perfect. Great, marvelously laid out tracks, wonderful cars to drive around in and a career mode that you can spend months with without getting bored. Then there's the extensive Arcade mode and the almost always exciting online play, which all make you feel like the controller has become an extension of your hand, impossible to put down without using a knife to cut it away.
I'm steadily making my way up the ladder in the career mode. I've just entered the top ten, and realise very well that it won't be long before I'm more or less done with it. I both look forward to, and dread this moment. With the really great games, you cannot stop playing them, with completion the only thing on your mind for the time it takes you to reach that goal. But then when you reach the end, the inevitable black hole appears, as you realise that it's all over, and all that rests is playing the game again. Of course, with a racing game like Project Gotham this is not as dramatic as with a game which is based purely on a story, but I know the drive to get better and better will simmer down when I've reached top position. And looking at the pile of games waiting for me to play them, that might not even be that bad a thing.
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