Retrospective: Project Gotham Racing 2

EDGE – The racing line can be a difficult concept to come to terms with. It’s one thing to accept that there is a theoretically perfect route around every corner – an exact angle of approach, an optimum window for deceleration and acceleration – that dictates exactly how fast it’s possible to go around this bend in that car. But then comes the realisation that this immutable science of cornering goes against everything you associate with the glamour of speed: smoking tyres, squealing skids, tail-twitching brinkmanship. If it looks fast and daring, it probably slows you down. That contradiction has traditionally split racing games into serious simulations on one side and wish-fulfilling drift rides on the other. But one series has succeeded in finding a thrilling synthesis of the two: Bizarre Creations’ Project Gotham Racing.