XBOX 360's Project Gotham Racing (PGR), is back to prove that there is still more mileage under its hood.
It takes the best of previous incarnations, from the kudos point system to arcade-style races across major cities, detailed graphics, authentic car replicas and power drifts.
It also allows you to pick the weather conditions of a race and to change the elements of a race track.
So if you pick snowy tracks, the road gets very slippery, while on wet roads, drifting becomes harder to control.
And if you decide to drive in a thunderstorm, not only will your car skid, the heavy downpour will also obscure your vision.
Looking for the next turn is not as simple as identifying the yellow markers. Watch out for that faint tail light of the driver ahead, to see if he went left or right.
And if you have ever driven across a puddle of water on the road, you know it actually slows you down.
NEW EXPERIENCE
All this builds a new experience for the older gamers, who would notice that little has changed in the handling and control of the cars in the game.
Mastering drifting is still the key in earning kudos points in exchange for better items.
The other addition is the use of motorcycles in races, where you can pit your skills on a two wheeler against four wheels. Like the race car counterparts, the level of details and number of replicas is pretty impressive, allowing you a choice of a BMW, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki or Yamaha.
PGR4 makes motorcycle handling as simple as the car.
The downside is that after making a few dozen laps on a bike, it hardly feels as exciting as when you first turn that throttle.
If there is one complaint about the game, it is that they have revamped the career mode, making it impossible to repeat a race event. Anyone who has played racing games know that the secret to winning is to ride that track again and again, to master each turn and drift.
Even if you manage to come up first in a race, there is a thrill in repeating the race, just to see if you can beat your own time.
The new mode, however, plays your career out in real time. Once you pick a race on a calendar date, the console automatically auto saves and moves to another race the following day.
It gives you no chance to try for another round or placing, which while similar to real life, is not something ideal for a racing game that takes skill, and requires constant training.
Despite this little hiccup, PGR4 is a great welcome addition to the racing genre and proof that come rain or shine, the race will still go on.