Project Cars 2 mini review

[little P]

I could write a long post about my thoughts and opinions of a game I refunded then re bought and decided to keep but all I will say is this. If you have VR buy project cars 2 and come play with us. If you don't have VR buy project cars 2 and come play with us!

Okay I understand you'll need a bit more info than that.

Project Cars 2 a perfect blend of simcade that is just so damn fun to play and an unexpected welcome relief from the more serious sims. It'll never replace the big full on sims for chasing that extra tenth and perfecting your lines but it's not supposed to, and once I understood that the game clicked for me and those of us who are having a blast with it.

The single player career is surprisingly satisfying too, with a particular highlight being the way you talk to your race engineer and from your feedback he/she suggests some specific changes to the setup. If you choose to accept them you go out and test then you can either revert back or carry on tweaking, again, based on your feedback to the engineer. I've never seen this feature in a game before and it actually makes practice sessions very fun and worthwhile! Another excellent career feature is that nothing is locked. If you choose to start your PC2 career racing prototype cars at LeMans you can do that. I am choosing to start at the bottom with the Ginetta Juniors (which if you watch the BTCC coverage you would know provide some excellent close racing!) and work my way up. Something I am enjoying very much as you can customise every single aspect of the difficulty, aggression of other drivers, race length, session inclusion and length, pretty much anything and everything can be customised to your personal preference. I love it.

So, Project Cars 2 really is two games in one for once. You get the multiplayer aspect of it which has a rating system locking you out of higher license requirement races online (ensuring the wreckers never get to play in those lobbies) until you have done your time and got that licence level, and the single player career which is the best I've seen to date.

You can get it through cd keys dirt cheap and I wholeheartedly recommend it! It's joined an elite very small group of games that I have re-bought after refunding and then kept to enjoy (my original reason for refunding was that I was expecting it to be like iRacing or Assetto Corsa - a mistake on my part and not the game's fault).

The only thing that would make it better is more people to play it with, so if you have Project Cars 2 and are looking for some people to play with, or have been thinking about it but not sure if anyone was going to play with you fear not! We are here and ready to bump panels with you in the rain while day turns to night and night turns to day. Love, love love this game so far

 

[Noodleguitar]

Thanks for the review @Cpl. Punishment. I've seen a few images and videos and the graphics do look awesome. The career play style sounds really nice but unless they have really well-done AIs it wouldn't entertain me for long.

I haven't played an arcade-like racing game in a long time except for GRID 2, but after being really used to iRacing I would feel every single thing that isn't as realistic in iRacing would annoy me greatly. Especially if it would mean you could do silly stuff while driving and still be faster than when picking an adequate racing line for example.

 

[little P]

Ah, I can help you with that. I was driving Ginetta Juniors at Oulton Park and in 5th place. I was pushing and felt I could take turn 4 at a much higher speed as I'd been going in too hot and getting oversteer mid corner. So... I decided to make a much more aggressive line and got understeer, then oversteer at the next apex as I went too far off line, went off the track and lost 6 positions. Within two laps I knew what I'd done wrong, and nailed it knocking nearly half a second off my lap time and could hit that line every lap which I was commended on by my team over the radio - "nice consistent times, now try and push for that extra tenth but don't push your tyres too hard" was the call (did I mention the radio chatter is very immersive? But you can customise how much or little you want to hear). And so I did to finish 3rd and on the podium with a big smile on my face as I completed my cool down lap manually and into the pits for parc ferme

I would definitely say it mimics real world handling as I have something to compare it to in real life as you know. I would say that it's a lot more forgiving than iRacing and Assetto Corsa but it's by no means easy or arcade in it's handling model, especially if you turn the assists off (or authentic depending on real world car assists which is an option). Like I said I have a great time just in practice mode turning laps and giving feedback to the engineer so we can tweak the setup and see how it feels, repeating the process until I'm happy with a setup I can use come race day. You don't have to do that, but it's bloody good fun

Using Grid 2 as a comparison as you mentioned, it's nowhere near as arcade as that. The good thing is you can tailor it to be as realistic or as arcade as you like, I've never see a racing game with so many options (that are very well explained in game) to carve out exactly the kind of experience you feel like on any given day. To me as a PC gamer, I have to respect that and I actually applaud them for giving us complete control over what kind of game we want to play.

I felt like you re: the comparison to iRacing (also Assetto Corsa for me personally) and it was my initial reason for refunding. But once I understood this is a game and not a hardcore simulator, it clicked for me and I was just having a bloody good time with it. There's definitely a place for Project Cars 2 in any motorsport fans library, you've got your iRacing for when you want ultra realism and got your serious head on, and you've got your Project Cars 2 for when you want to chill out a bit more and just have fun but still get that motorsport rush we all know and love.