A couple of other modes have been included in PGR3 which are fun to play around with. Gotham TV lets you watch other online races featuring people around the globe! The new Heroes Channel lets you watch the top ranked racers online at that moment and it all feels a bit voyeuristic as I don't think they know that you're watching them! It's an excellent feature though and will come in handy for online tournaments. The other cool feature is Photo Mode. In any of your races you can hit pause and enter Photo Mode where you can save photos of your favourite PGR3 moments. It's possible to swap camera angles, rotate, zoom and even add camera effects such as blurring, depth of field or exposure and then save them to the Xbox hard drive. They can be then viewed at any time from the Gotham TV menu or watched in a slideshow. My only complaint is that for a series that's always tried to bring new features and redefine the Xbox Live experience, the inability to share these images is a real let down. It's easy to create amazing looking photos but all they're good for is looking at on your television. It would have been fantastic to be able to email them to yourself to use as wallpaper or publish them online somewhere to share with the rest of the world.

The Photo Mode is so much fun to play with and this is mostly due to the fact that the graphics in PGR3 are incredible. Most of us have seen the test/teaser images that Bizarre Creations released online over the past year or so and usually images such as these are a 'development target' (such as that Madden 360 trailer from E3 2005). Well, PGR3 does not disappoint. The cars are so detailed that it's possible to create images in Photo Mode that actually look like photographs of real cars, they look that good. Each car also features a complete interior this time as well and switching to the interior camera view creates a sense of immersion rarely felt to this level. My favourite car in PGR3 is the supercharged Ariel Atom, an open wheel, open roof 300 horsepower absolute beast of a machine. Switching to the cockpit view in this (or some of the other open tops) car while hurtling around corners at insane speeds is truly something to experience and a highlight of the game.

Reflections are all real time and ultra smooth, the cities feature amazing amounts of detail from everything to the buildings right down to the crowd that even reacts to what's happening. After hitting the wall in once race I was amazed to see the crowd shy away from the impact, which no doubt you would if a sports car hit a wall at 200kph only 3 feet away from you! The images in our PGR3 screenshot gallery are fairly indicative of what you'll experience in the game and on top of the extreme detail in the tracks and cars, the lighting just tops it all off perfectly. After going through a tunnel in New York there's even a quick lighting adjustment as you go from the darker tunnel back outside into the outside part of the track that simulates how your own eyes would react. At night in Las Vegas the ritzy Casinos are lit up in all their neon glory and if you've ever been there you'll be able to identify the key landmarks immediately. While another city or two would have been welcome, the amount of detail in the included cities is outstanding and apparantly there's more polygons in the Brooklyn Bridge in PGR3 than in the whole New York level in the original game.

As you progress through the game and purchase cars, garages become available as you fill them up. You start with a lowly barn and eventually open up other garages such as a cool desert home being my favourite. At any time you're able to walk around them in first person mode, take photos, and if you like, take them for a test drive. All up there's about 80 cars including 9 unlockable concept cars so there's plenty to aim for. While the car count might seem low compared to other racing series you end up not using most of them anyway and they're merely eye candy for your in game garages. If you rack enough cash to purchase all the cars from particular manufacturers you even unlock Xbox Live achievements such as the 'Ferrari owners club' which contributes to your Gamerscore, and of course it looks pretty cool walking around a garage filled with nothing but Ferrari's or Lamborghinis.

To go with the great graphics Bizarre Creations have successfully included all the unique engine sounds from each of the cars and power sliding around the tracks while hearing your Enzo Ferrari wind out sounds absolutely fantastic. I've never been that interested in going out and buying larger speakers for my TV system but PGR3 and other next-gen games are going to see my bank account severely depleted in the near future I'm afraid. Even if its just a simple 2 speaker and subwoofer set up, these games, and PGR3 in particular, are just crying out to be played as loud as possible as you will want to hear every gear change and tyre squeal. If there's one complaint to be levelled at the sound in the game it's the soundtrack. Gone are the radio stations from each different country (a great feature of PGR2) and in their place we just have a series of generic rap, rock, hip-hop and even some classical scores but you can stream your own play lists through the game if you prefer to.