There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it: Project Gotham Racing 4 is essentially the same game as Project Gotham Racing 3. The only differences are the admittedly impressive rain effects and the shoddily designed motorcycles added to the racing mix. This may be enough for the series’ dedicated fans to be enticed into buying PGR4, but for everyone else, once was enough—the latest installment is just a disappointment.

The fact that Forza Motorsport 2, Microsoft’s critically acclaimed racing simulation, came out just a few months ago further highlights PGR4’s inadequacies. Compared to Forza 2’s rich feature set, which was a tangible leap over Forza 1, PGR4 is severely lacking.

First of all, many of the problems that turned some players off to PGR3 are still present. Kudos—the game’s points-based trick system which rewards driving on the edge—is still far too forgiving. The ease with which you can achieve the stunts and rack up points sucks all the fun and accomplishment out of the game. Because Kudos points also serve as in-game currency to purchase additional cars and tracks in the career mode, obtaining new toys is so easy that it soon loses its appeal.

More problematic is the line between racing simulation and arcade racer that this series continues to straddle. The physics engine is a maddeningly frustrating combination of hard-core racing physics—think Gran Turismo or Forza—and the forgiving fantasy physics of arcade favorites such as Ridge Racer. The player may be barreling down a track at high speed, making turns that would be impossible in real life, only to be rear-ended by another car and sent into a realistic tailspin. Bizarre Creations, the series’ developer, needs to make up its mind as to exactly what kind of game series PGR really is.

The graphics, while good, aren’t anything to call home about. The biggest change here is the rain—rain drips and beads on the hoods of cars, roads, and almost everything else in a realistic fashion, lending the game a beauty and style that heightens the feeling of speed. These effects are certainly striking, but they are the sole aspect of the game’s graphics that is worth noting. Not only that, but the rain effect is gratuitously overused, which gradually lessens its appeal. Everything is wet in this game, even the blandly designed menus.

The addition of motorcycles to the catalogue of vehicles does nothing to salvage the game. The bikes are a good idea in theory, and it might have been fun to pit them against cars if the two vehicle types were evenly matched in terms of pros and cons. However, cars are bullies on the road, making bikes frustrating to use in online multi-player races. If you use a bike in a race, expect to be slammed off the tracks, sent into tailspins that ruin your chances of winning, and generally out-performed.

Of more concern is the fact that the bikes don’t handle well. If you’ve played any dedicated motorcycle racers such as Climax’s great Moto GP games, you will instantly be put off by the light feeling of the bikes, as well as the strange disconnection between the movement of the head and the movement of the bike while in cockpit view. When a bike leans to one side during a turn, the head of the rider tends to turn to the other side far too often. This disparity in movement led to more than a few cases of motion sickness while I was playing.

There are some good parts to PGR4. The selection of cars is insanely large, the number of tracks will satisfy racing enthusiasts, and the community aspects of the game—such as tournaments and stat tracking—help extend the gameplay.

But one cannot help but get a severe case of deja vu while playing PGR4. Didn’t we just play PGR3 two years ago? More importantly, didn’t Forza 2 come out only a few months ago? This game has nothing worthwhile that wasn’t in Forza, and the market simply doesn’t need two high-profile racers released within five months of each other, especially when PGR4 is so inferior.

Hardcore racing fans will be let down by PGR4’s continued reliance on arcade-like gameplay, while gamers who just want to drive a fast car will be turned off by the game’s attempt to be a simulation. PGR4 has many of the flaws and identity issues present in its predecessors, and not enough redeeming qualities to stand out among better racing games. But there is at least one saving grace for PGR4—Geometry Wars Waves, an intense new incarnation of the popular Geometry Wars arcade shooter, comes bundled with the game.