Kudos: Air
Catching some air is an effective way to earn Kudos, whether you’re airborne for a fraction of a second or considerably longer. Whenever you hit a change in elevation at high speed, there’s a chance that you may go airborne for a while when the road dips or crests. As long as you can recover well from your landing without much loss of traction (and most Project Gotham Racing® 3 cars recover extremely well) you can bank some points from Air Kudos with a minimal amount of effort.
As you’d expect, some tracks are better for catching some airtime than others. A few are especially good for this tactic, especially ones that have increases in elevation that can be used as small ramps. The most dramatic is Tokyo’s Triangle Building track, which you’ll encounter on the third Nightfall championship race in Solo Career mode. (Look for a steep incline between the second and third turns.) If you look through the list of badges, you’ll see one you can earn by staying airborne for two seconds. The Triangle Building is a good place to practice for that badge.
Of course, you don’t have to take a major jump at top speed every time. You have a choice on whether you want to go for speed or style when you go airborne, so if you’re lagging behind a little in a race, you may want to consider slowing down a bit to time your jump just right. Aim for the middle of the track, and do your best to predict where other cars will be when you land. On larger jumps, you’ll need to make sure you don’t launch towards a wall when you jump – otherwise, the Kudos you would have earned will be wasted when you hit it.
We’ve spent some time cruising through that jump from the Triangle Building, and as you can see, it’s a remarkable place to practice. Whether you prefer to practice driving alone or with friends, it’s fairly easy to set up a race where you can jump this part of the track over and over again. Even in the third Nightfall race, we had enough time to turn around, drive back to the start of the jump, and then launch up it again. With Photo Mode, you can even pause the action Matrix-style to get a screenshot of your car, or multiple cars, jumping.
Airtime can slow you down in a competitive race, but if you’re driving for Kudos, or just playing in Playtime, a dramatic jump adds a bit of flash to any high-speed dash. Stalking the two-second Air Kudos Badge may take you a bit of time, but once you’ve spend that much time airborne, the results (and the pictures) are worth it.