PC2 Have Your Say: Project CARS 2 Three Months On

[Paul Jeffrey]

Project CARS 2 released across PC and console platforms back on the 22nd September to mixed reviews, now three months and a couple of patches we want you to 'Have Your Say'...

The latest racing title from Slightly Mad Studios continues to divide opinion throughout the sim racing community, often mixing the sublime with the ridiculous in equal measure as it constantly strives to achieve the lofty ideals set forth by an aggressive pre release marketing campaign.

Shipping in a sub optimal state and having since been in receipt of a sizable updates, the question for today is:

How do you feel Project CARS 2 has progressed since release day, and what are your impressions of the game now?

Have fun, stay respectful and enjoy the weekend!

 

[munckmb]

Uninstalled it last week. Graphics are very nice but I just coudn't enjoy the driving.

 

[Gevatter]

Y'all are farming for Disagree ratings from the WMD folks, aren't ya?

I tried to replicate a situation from real life last weekend. Street car, at night, in the snow, on a road I never drove on before. Sadly there is no Toyota Avensis SW in the game (shame on you, SMS!) so I took the AMG A45 to the Azure coast track... and the game crashed. As my real car did not crash that snowy night, the game is in no way representative of real life. 0/10

Jokes aside, the game became better since release, some bugs were ironed out and I think the handling got improved somewhat. It is still not good enough for me personally to warrant its price point, even the 35€ it cost on sale some time ago. With all the potential it has, and judging by the progress between pC1 and pC2 I think it would take at least two more iterations to be fleshed out, so I'll have another look at pC4 in 2021. I think Michael Hornbuckle said it best:

Meh.

 

[Deleted member 241736]

Uninstalled it last week. Graphics are very nice but I just coudn't enjoy the driving.

oh, with 3 or 4 racing sims on your rig you have to divorce from one. Don't think so you should kick off the prettiest girl

 

[paracletus]

Haven't played it, but it is unusual that PC3 hasn't been announced yet.

 

[Ricky78]

With the latest update I can finally appreciate it (I had a lot of troubles finding a decent FFB setting), so I bought also the season pass, but it's still a raw product.
At the time of it's release it was like an alpha version, neither the first pCars was so unpolished; now it's better but some things are still better in the first episode (for example still no soft lock).

Maybe when they will release the GotY version it will be as good as it should.

 

[Dady Cairo]

Shitty FFB,inacurate Tracks,no joy of immersion.59 bucks for ...Ian.
DC

 

[larre90]

My say on pCars 2?
Haters gonna hate!
DD

 

[cr4wl3r0]

I am absolutely in love with Project Cars 2 and I can' t understand why one can find so much negativeness about it on the net.
I have simply erased Assetto Corsa and RFactor 2 from my ssd because I could not bear to revert to worse graphics and perhaps even worse ffb .....once you have properly configured and understood it...
[and it could really take some time to tune Pcars 2 ffb.... so be patient or...go away...]
I am a regular (and old) everyday car driver from about 30 years; I have quite huge experience in real driving and in Pc-Simulation (my favorite hobby and passion...) and I suggest this to you:
"Thanks to market competition sim-racing software has greatly improved during last years and also customers have became more and more demanding...... but TBH most products on the market now can provide a quite decent sim-racing experience. Project Cars 2 however has raised the bar (in some fields, first of all graphics..., but I think also about live track featur.... astonishing...)
I also feel pretty confident that SMS Team will continue to upgrade/patch the code. Since release (I am a first day purchaser....) there have been a debate on PCars 2 forum about the various bugs/faults and I can say that the in game experience is greatly improved now. I can' t speak about online multiplayer because I don' t make use of it, but I can say that driving experience is worderful with PCars 2.
Off course, you need decent rig and decent gear (wheel/pedals greatly recommended ......)"
Best regards !!

 

[Luca Antinori]

I enjoy the game, actually. At the beginning I was playing mostly in career mode. The AI were quite inconsistent, in terms of speed and general handling. After the last couple of patches have improved considerably. Recently I have started playing more multi-player, in the lobby and here in RD. I think the competitive license system is the right way to go and I had some enjoyable and satisfying races in the lobby as well.
Very important to me is the VR support. I think it is excellent and even better than Assetto and iRacing, overall.

 

[JPL083]

Owned PC1. But what i think about PC2? Mostly amazed that PC3 haven't been announced yet! After 1 they unveiled 2 after 2 week's, but now it has gone already 3-month's. There's some development! Hate/like-relation's with first, maked me expecting way much more on second. But... After seeing the mess, even tho they might have fixed many problem's, but... I stay away, maybe give it a try later with sale's but it's a no from now. I enjoy million time's more even to drive 1-car alone in RF2 on one track round and round and round... than anything else. Even tho these have been done more like fun factor inmind, but i guess i'm now mostly after real feel as much as possible. After seeing all kinda stuff after year's. Craphic's are not the thing that pull's me toward's, they are trying too much there forgetting the rest. I have my sim. Dont need a game.

 

[Bert Austen]

one word........ "rubbish" ask my mony after 2 hours back

 

[Pol Schmukler]

I enjoy the game. It gets less playtime than Assetto and rF2, but more than the rest of the titles I have (all, except iRacing). AI is not great but not as bad as many claim. On three screens and nearly maxed out, looks really good and immersive. FFB is good for me as well.

 

[apex11]

Well I knew it would need patches, so waited few months and picked it up for £26 plus 3 patches in.
For that price was pretty happy and dialed it all in to look pretty good and run good and then decided with the £20 saving to get the season pass which cost me £17.99.....

So yeah well chuffed at that price point to have it added to my sim collection.
I'd say its worth £26 for the graphics / weather alone.... tip drive a track at between 6am -8am to get a wonderful early morning mist....haunting..

 

[CobraCat]

Tried the PC2 demo, I found the FFB to be lackluster, made multiple adjustments, didn't noticed any dramatic improvement. I uninstalled PC2 demo a few days later and promptly went back to driving Assetto Corsa and Automobilista. PC2 has decent visuals yet a 2003 era replay interface, makes no sense !

If I had sum up Project Cars 2 in a single word, soulless would be the best descriptor.

Its curious, once upon a time these folks knew how to make a proper racing sim, GTR, GTR2, GT Legends ! Perhaps they're spending too much time chasing small green pieces of paper. Hmmmmm

 

[SovietSenna]

The game is OK, it's a lot better than the 1st one.
It's still lacking when it comes to FFB and driving physics, but at this rate, Project Cars 3 should be perfect !

 

[apex11]

I am absolutely in love with Project Cars 2 and I can' t understand why one can find so much negativeness about it on the net.
I have simply erased Assetto Corsa and RFactor 2 from my ssd because I could not bear to revert to worse graphics and perhaps even worse ffb .....once you have properly configured and understood it...
[and it could really take some time to tune Pcars 2 ffb.... so be patient or...go away...]
I am a regular (and old) everyday car driver from about 30 years; I have quite huge experience in real driving and in Pc-Simulation (my favorite hobby and passion...) and I suggest this to you:
"Thanks to market competition sim-racing software has greatly improved during last years and also customers have became more and more demanding...... but TBH most products on the market now can provide a quite decent sim-racing experience. Project Cars 2 however has raised the bar (in some fields, first of all graphics..., but I think also about live track featur.... astonishing...)
I also feel pretty confident that SMS Team will continue to upgrade/patch the code. Since release (I am a first day purchaser....) there have been a debate on PCars 2 forum about the various bugs/faults and I can say that the in game experience is greatly improved now. I can' t speak about online multiplayer because I don' t make use of it, but I can say that driving experience is worderful with PCars 2.
Off course, you need decent rig and decent gear (wheel/pedals greatly recommended ......)"
Best regards !!

2nd time i've read that someone has apparently uninstalled other sims since playing PCars 2.
I find that, in a game context, very sad.... I have all the sims and have never ever felt the need to uninstall any of them, why the hell would i?
I play all the sims, some get more of my time but all give me something in return which is a good experience with my sim gaming rig.....
I frankly don't believe people are uninstalling perfectly good games....

 

[Graham Botha]

The down side:

• AI is not great,
• Performance in VR is not great (Rift),
• FFB a bit on the meh side without the Spade files (T300, TH8RS, G27 pedals with GTEye mod).
• Cannot get the wheel on screen to match my wheel if I calibrate it on 900 degrees rotation. In order to get it close I have to use less rotations.
• No soft lock on the steering which would have been a good touch.

That being said, physics is definitely better than PC1.

• graphics = great,
• triple screen support = amazing. IMO the best triple screen implementation to date, as it supports my 27 - 34 - 27 screen setup without any issues without having NVidia surround configured.
• There are small details like having dust inside the helmet visor (in VR), ambient sounds like birds and wind to mention some that add that special touch to the game.

One can by no means call me a fanboy and it is far from perfect, but I can categorically state that its quite acceptable as a hot lap sim at this point. I am fortunate to have a motion rig and the final touch is that the telemetry data going to my Prosimu T1000-3 gives it an edge over AC in that regard (and I love AC, 1538Hrs so far and counting). With the Rift and Prosimu, PC2 has a sense of speed that AC can unfortunately not convey. So I'd give it one thumb up but it still has a long way to go. Try the demo first to see if you like it.

 

[gamer19]

The latest racing title from Slightly Mad Studios continues to divide opinion throughout the sim racing community...

http://store.steampowered.com/app/378860/Project_CARS_2/
Recent Reviews:
Mostly Positive (356)
All Reviews:
Mostly Positive (1,749)
To me it seems pretty much "positive".
Maybe you mean on some other... "community".

Have fun, stay respectful and enjoy the weekend!

NEVER AGAIN, SMS. you SUCK. now come here and try deleting my post...aahahahahaha

Yeah, so much about it...
Very mature behavior I must say.

To me... the game is fun. It's not perhaps most realistic of them all but, like F1 2017, I turn it up when I want to have some fun, in small amount of time I got. I used to spend a huge portion of my life on Grand Prix Legends you know... and if you didn't do that... you just can't have a slightest idea of what I'm talking about here.
Frustration from that game to put up just one good and mistake less lap... was tremendous. And the reward, for the very same reason. Cause that game (ok a simulation, sorry) is damn hard.
But now... fast forwarding some decade later... really got no time for those kind of *hit you know... I just want to have some fun and to spend my time better, with family, on bike or whatever I feel like.
Then there comes Project Cars 2.
Just turn it up and have some quick fun. Still got rF2 (hell I even had rF ONE until some month or two ago, then after realizing I really won't be playing it anymore, I uninstall it. with heavy heart), GTR2, GT Legends Richard Burns Rally (oh boy), Live for Speed!, and some newer titles such as Assetto and Automobilista.
But to be completely honest... my hand goes toward PC2 (and F1 2017) most of the time.
Can't tell exactly why. Maybe cause I'm getting older (also smarter I heard someone is yelling in background) and got no time for all those setup screens, tweaking and stuff you know... just fire it up and enjoy. And then afterwards relax and have fun watching it all in amazing replay. (Kylotonn guys, you hear this?)
Patches did improve the game. And I know further will make it even better. I have trust.
And in case you wondering, yes... I still got Grand Prix Legends on my hd.
It will never be gone.

 

[F1Aussie]

I must be easy to please as I reckon it is awesome. I don't have any of the frustrations others are talking about.

 

[Queequeg]

I quite like it. I skipped over Project Cars 1 and I only started playing this recently with the recent patches, so I can't comment on the earlier state of the game.

As a sim its biggest selling point is the career mode that is done nicely with a good balance between rigid progression and freedom for the player with lots of different events thrown in. The AI is OK, not as good as in rFactor2 or AC, but not far off the AI in Automobilista and good enough to enjoy Career Mode.

I like the Force Feedback in PC2 a lot. Set on "Immersive" in the options it gives a very similar feel to Assetto Corsa for me, but I prefer "Raw" because it has less canned effects and reminds me more of a real car (my old MX-5 with manual steering to be precise).

I haven't driven any of the cars in this game IRL, but compared to their renditions in other games, they often feel a bit easier to drive (only a bit), but mostly very believable and they can still bite you quickly. It varies between car classes though. The Group A cars feel very similar to those in RaceRoom and AC and are amazing to drive near the limit, but the GT3s feel a bit lifeless in comparison to those games.
The game has a lot of cars and tracks. The tracks are not accurate to the centimeter from what I can tell, but they are close enough to make you feel you are driving the real Hockenheimring, Imola, etc. and not just some lookalike. The number of tracks included is much greater than in most other sims

Multiplayer doesn't have many dedicated servers to race on, but a decent number of active lobbies. I haven't noticed excessive lag or warping cars in my playtime. It takes ages to build up safety rating though and therefore most lobbies do not discriminate against players with low ratings for better or for worse. My advice: Avoid unrestricted GT3 lobbies like the plague!

The weather effects are done nicely and the water puddles are awesome! Having to think about your line to avoid aquaplaning in them adds a lot to wet weather racing. On the other hand, sometimes weather conditions seem to bug out and not all players in a multiplayer lobby receive the same weather.
I haven't experienced that myself, but I was pretty frustrated with a career mode race in snowy Bathurst (Wtf, do they even have snow there?) where the AI didn't seem to be affected by the snow at all. I ended up DNFing that race after half a lap of my own accord.

In conclusion, I wouldn't want to miss this game mainly for its career mode which is a unique feature in today's simracing market, and for the great wet weather racing experience. I like the FFB and think it can compare to that of other sims favorably. The AI and physics are good enough to not detract from that. It has lots of content and I especially like the wide variety of tracks it comes with. Multiplayer is decently populated and works fine, but could profit from scheduled races.
The game can be a good start into the simracing hobby or a worthwhile addition for experienced simracers who want to try the career mode or experience the weather effects and huge amount of content.