Welcome to PGR: Under the Hood, where we take a deeper look at some of the more interesting stats and news that our favorite game has generated. Keep in mind that stats do change, so some of this information will be out of date in the near future.

Milestones and a Serious Law of Averages

Let’s start with a couple trends sent in by the Fun-With-Numbers Department here at the home office.

According to the number-crunchers, sometime this weekend you guys will pass the 10-billion-Kudos mark. Collectively, you fanatic, fantastic PGR 4 drivers (so far numbering 173,788) have drifted, feinted, cornered, and wheeled your way to this milestone in less a month after PGR 4’s worldwide release.

Second, all countries are getting between 9 and 11 stars per race. No matter how many people a country has, no matter where the nation falls in the ranking, every country (according to our stats) ends up with nearly the same result.

So, congratulations, everyone, for reaching that 10 billion plateau.  As for the stars, there’s something a little odd about this one, so we are keeping an eye on it.

It Takes a Nation of Millions

Regulars to PGRNations.com know that players race under the flag of 25 nations. However, an interesting string grew up in the forums this week concerning allegedly racist attitudes among some PGR 4 online players. A few gamers, tired of the vile trash talk, hatched the idea of creating their own nation (populated by non-racism-spewing players, we imagine). Of course, when you found your own country, there a bunch of things you have to do: fill out a change of address card, call the movers, have cable installed, and get the international community to recognize you.

Breaking away to make a 26^th nation sounds like too much hassle; I mean, you have to design a flag and write a national anthem. Who has time for that? We’ve found it’s easier to mute the offending player and submit a player review via Xbox.com.

Worth a Thousand Words

Finally, we like to give credit where credit is due. PGR player Shinohara has taken time to track down and compare in-game shots to real life. We were impressed with Shinohara’s detective work, and how accurately Bizarre Creations captured landmarks, roads, and more in order to make PGR 4’s virtual tracks so close to real life that you can smell the fog in London or feel the humidity of Macau. If you have a moment between heated PGR 4 matches, be sure to check out Shinohara’s pictures.

And that was his first posting in the PGRNations forums. Not bad!