PC2 Project CARS 2 Released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC

[Paul Jeffrey]

Highly anticipated racing simulation Project CARS 2 has been released today, marking the return of the best selling franchise to both console and PC systems.

Developed by Slightly Mad Studios and community backers from the world of sim racing, using the experience of professional race drivers the likes of former Top Gear Stig Ben Collins and sometime Renault Clio racer Nicolas Hamilton, Project CARS 2 looks set to be the most ambitious racing project yet from the British based development team.

Featuring over 180 cars and 60 locations on launch and benefitting from live track technology, advanced weather effects and class leading graphics, Project CARS 2 looks very likely to become yet another best selling release across all platforms following release today.

Unfortunately we have not been able to get access to an advanced copy of the game prior to launch, however in constant quest to bring you all the news and opinion from sim racing (haha, well actually because I cant resist a racing game) I will be purchasing testing this thing thoroughly tonight, with a view to writing up an article over the weekend with my first impressions.

About the Game

• 180+ licensed cars from iconic manufacturers
  
• Full 12K & VR Support
• Tested and tuned by pro racing drivers
• All-new motorsports (IndyCar, Oval Racing, Rallycross) join old favorites incl. GT3
• LiveTrack 3.0: Dynamic surface & weather physics affect vehicle performance and handling in real-time
• New loose surface racing (ice, dirt, mud)
• Full 24-hour cycle featuring real-time atmospheric conditions and seasonal ambience
• State-of-the art physics model
• Revamped gamepad handling
• Class-leading Esport capabilities

Project CARS 2 is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Check out the Project CARS 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment to catch up with the latest news, engage in lively discussions with the community, download some mods and get yourself out on the track in online races for both PC and console.

Well it's here! What do you think? Win, Lose or Draw? Improvement over PC1? Serious rival for the main PC racers? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[hotak]

- unacceptable performances on my rig (770gtx 2Gb) even with everything on ‘low’

I can play in vr at 90fps with a gtx680 2gb + i5 2500k @4,5ghz, everything on low/off, so it should run good on you rig too (not in vr i can even set some things to high and keep 60fps)

 

[Ian Bell]

That's all well and good but judging by your own forum and the PS4 and Xbox sections, the Q and A team failed.... Ultimately you then have to patch what they missed. Bollocking in coming for them?
Also Ian why would top SMS staff not spend a few hours with console versions?
Even you, steal an hour or 2 playing console version of your game? Then you could of seen for yourself some issues before it's released..

It's the cleanest release we've had since GTR2. We have 5 strong and 20 minor issues. Most are fixed already and will ship in a patch next week. It's easy to overestimate bugs when they are constantly repeat posted and when some people see design choices and/or features missing they'd like, as bugs.

 

[apex11]

It's the cleanest release we've had since GTR2. We have 5 strong and 20 minor issues. Most are fixed already and will ship in a patch next week. It's easy to overestimate bugs when they are constantly repeat posted and when some people see design choices and/or features missing they'd like, as bugs.

Fair enough. One thing i will defend SMS for is listening to Nic Hamilton and Ben Collins in that racing cars do have grip and its kind of there point, you know to be highly engineered machines which can grip for days.
What i hate is these idiots who assume grip means 'arcade'....
Also not a massive fan of racing in snow but why can't some people understand that if you put studded tyres on to a car it will grip like mad as the studs go into the ice thus creating great grip, its like football boots on damp grass, they grip, or running spikes, they grip....
You put Usain Bolt onto an ice rink and make him wear some smart black shoes and me in some running spikes i think i'd beat him in a race.

 

[jimortality]

The tradition split is that developers design and create the game, publishers take care of QA and marketing. There are exceptions to that of course but they normally have a large team of QA professionals (with all of the multifarious kit required) which they stagger across each game in their portfolio.

Ah, I didn't know that, I always thought you guys did everything apart from marketing, you learn something new every day.

 

[Jake Fangio]

Just had a great race around Long Beach in the iconic Lotus 72.Used a mixed grid with the 49's,and had no AI mishaps,i'm loving this game.

 

[rw3]

Just had a great race around Long Beach in the iconic Lotus 72.Used a mixed grid with the 49's,and had no AI mishaps,i'm loving this game.

Impressive, you'd struggle to get an incident-free human race with that particular combination.

 

[Jake Fangio]

Impressive, you'd struggle to get an incident-free human race with that particular combination.

The AI were good,but I hit the wall a few times.

 

[Satangoss]

Very useful the number of "reviews" from haters who never played the game or made up they "refunded" before two hours. I suggest psychological treatment as soon as possible for those.

Well. PC1 is very bad indeed. PC2 is much better. It's a bit demanding to fine tune the FFB but when you get, it's good. Physics are a step below than rF2 and AMS but they're very convicing.

And it's a dynamic sim. In constrast to Astatic Corsa, with their standstill time, weather and no night, pC2 has everything. It's alive.

 

[Andy_J]

Very useful the number of "reviews" from haters who never played the game or made up they "refunded" before two hours. I suggest psychological treatment as soon as possible for those.

Do you have positive proof of that or have you made that up and are you another trouble making troll?

 

[Flip-Flop Driver]

I don't think Project Cars 2 is as alive as some people say.
In a real life racing track we get seagulls, lizards, groundhogs, deers, dogs and priests.
But given the troubles with the AI if they were to add this life to the track I don't think it would have a convincing behavior.

 

[apex11]

Very useful the number of "reviews" from haters who never played the game or made up they "refunded" before two hours. I suggest psychological treatment as soon as possible for those.

Well. PC1 is very bad indeed. PC2 is much better. It's a bit demanding to fine tune the FFB but when you get, it's good. Physics are a step below than rF2 and AMS but they're very convicing.

And it's a dynamic sim. In constrast to Astatic Corsa, with their standstill time, weather and no night, pC2 has everything. It's alive.

OK so you slag off people who have refunded PCars 2, but at the same time you go on to say that rf2 has better physics...
I for example refunded PCars 2 as i have rf2 so felt it was pointless getting into PCars 2.
Also all this "pcars 1 was rubbish" well it really wasn't, back when all i had was a console and not even AC was out on console PCars 1 was my route back into really enjoying racing games. Lets not be too hard on PCars 1.... frankly PCars 2 is not that exciting to me precisely because i spent 600 hours on PCars 1 and they aren't that dissimilar...

 

[apex11]

It's the cleanest release we've had since GTR2. We have 5 strong and 20 minor issues. Most are fixed already and will ship in a patch next week. It's easy to overestimate bugs when they are constantly repeat posted and when some people see design choices and/or features missing they'd like, as bugs.

I think one of the other issues aside from the pretty awful release of PCars 1, is that you paid off the chap over on pretend race cars.
He trash talks a lot of games and trash talks the sim 'community' whatever that is and also uses some pretty foul terms and has a lot of nastiness around him and his site.
I am amazed that you'd want someone like that attached to your brand to be honest.
So he seems to of been trashing other titles and bigging up PCars 2 so people maybe just are a bit angry as he causes divisions and such like so by the time your game comes out you have a bunch of people who are divided and angry instead of just happy we have so much choice.
Although i do agree with Austin regards racing cars not being as hard to handle as many sims like to make out, but he is a bit cancerous and an odd bed fellow for a massive grossing franchise like the Project Cars series.
He in my eyes represents Project Cars 2 and everytime he slags off iRacing or AC or raceroom or RF2 he is doing so as an SMS representative.
Paying someone off simply to stop them being nasty to you and your game seems fair enough, but to then attach your brand to that person as they go on being nasty to other devs and sim racers seems a bit naive...

 

[BlindDeadMacSlow]

I'm really enjoying it. Had a riot with Project Cars 1 - having a riot with Project Cars 2 & of course, bugs get found & bugs get fixed. I've said it before, ranting about bugs solves nothing. Reporting them to the relevant department, calmly & clearly, gets them listed & ultimately dealt with. Think of it as ongoing development in which you can play a part, a process of feedback, rather than having your fragile soul mortally wounded by a dev. Everything ever conceived has had bugs from the Wright Brothers development of flight to the pc you are sat at ranting...just chill.

 

[rw3]

Have to agree with totheapex re PRC, it's a site that is often on the money in its critique of the sim-racing scene (which frankly needs to have its pomposity punctured once in a while) but the nasty alt-right stuff that goes on there, the constant references to cucks, use of foul racist terminology, really leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, and it does make it harder for those of us who like the game. I have enough issues with iRacing's morality, I'd like the game that replaces it to be a bit less dubious.

 

[BenCollins]

For all my disparaging posts, I've yet to read anyone saying the physics is better than Assetto Corsa, never mind Automobilista.

That surely is the first step, getting that right. No amount of ambient lighting or splashy puddles is worth a damn, if that car doesn't feel like it should.

Most reviews say it's better than PC1, but not as good as AC, AMS, etc. etc.

So, Scary Movie 2 is better than Scary movie 1 but not as good as Psycho, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street......you get my point.

 

[bmanic]

Plenty of people have said it's better or at least on par. It's just a certain simracing bubble that is going "LALALALALALALAALALALAL I can't hear nor see anything LALALALALA".

So you go right ahead and live in that world. Don't matter one bit.

 

[Avo77]

No, it's some people not paid by SMS with a lot of experience in driving powerful cars and an in depth knowledge of physics...

 

[rw3]

Here's the thing. The physics are good enough to do the job. Just as Assetto Corsas are, just as RFactor 2's are, as iRacing's are. They're different, just as each of those games is different. I sense that Ben's idea of good physics is 'whatever is most like the game he plays most often', in which case the only game that can win that game is his game.

If however we take the view that the physics in sims are now at a point where the differences between them don't amount to a hell of a lot, then we begin to focus on what being a racing driver is about.

For me, where PC2 nails it is the feeling of being in the car, of being in an event, of being a racing driver. It even gets quite close to iracing on the competitive front, with clean online racing. The point is that past a certain point of physics improvements you run into the law of diminishing returns. So we've simulated how the tyre responds if a bird passing overhead does a huge crap on it, including splatter physics, but we've forgotten to get the pit crew animated, or to have rain, or to just have some ****ing atmosphere.

Endlessly chasing the impossible dream of perfect physics is what has put sim-racing in the silly niche hole that it's in, where every game is an endless science project but not much of a meaningful experience, where basic features are left out in favour of more tyre wankery. Let's not do that, let's go and do what sim racing used to do back in the GTR 2 days and offer a complete and well-rounded package with the features that those who aren't living in mum's basement gently stroking their DD wheel would like to see.

 

[AadHofman]

...Let's not do that, let's go and do what sim racing used to do back in the GTR 2 days and offer a complete and well-rounded package with the features that those who aren't living in mum's basement gently stroking their DD wheel would like to see...

Hi Austin!

I love how the SMS-people and their fans tell us what we should like or not. Part of the marketing gig, I guess. I for one don't appreciate the fact that there are so many dud cars and tracks in the game. I mean what is the point of the features if the car drives like ****, and is on a circuit that is like an old, inaccurate rFactor-mod? A guy in a basement propably designed them in the first place.

 

[jimortality]

Hi Austin!

I love how the SMS-people and their fans tell us what we should like or not. Part of the marketing gig, I guess. I for one don't appreciate the fact that there are so many dud cars and tracks in the game. I mean what is the point of the features if the car drives like ****, and is on a circuit that is like an old, inaccurate rFactor-mod? A guy in a basement propably designed them in the first place.

Have you played it?