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

Paul Jeffrey

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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.

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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!
 
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After reading all the comments of the people who actually played the game and the ones of the people who just moaned against it without even playing it (LOL), well, I could give it a go, maybe buying one of those cheap steam activation keys you can find online. For sure I won't spend 59€ on it. 30€ is more than enough, for the budget I put in videogames.
I'm quite worried about the AI though. I play mainly offline, so a poor AI that rams out instead of overtaking you carefully on the sides, wouldn't be what I'm looking for.
I'm not in hurry to buy it. Let's see how many patches they can roll out in a week or two.
 
Back when Pcars 1 cane out on consoles, I needed to that game, it got me into 'sim racing' got the wheel and started sorting my rig out...fast forward to then going to PC route and iRacing RRE rf2 AC AMS GSCE.... Well simply put Pcars franchise is now irrelevant to me...I don't need it, If I didn't own a gaming PC yes I would need it... On PC no.
 
So I've reached my two hour window, I agree with a lot of the sentiments here, what's good for me
1) rain immersion, absolutely astounding. However on the flip side I was overtaking LMP1 cars in a GT3 car at le man's, Ai needs to be looked at.
2) content, albeit Ffb between can be good to this feels like pcars1

The Ffb does feel better, but I still cannot feel weight transfer like I can with RRE or RF2.

Not sure it's a keeper in my book, will sleep on it and make up my mind tomorrow.

I think it's been released now for fear of FH7 and Gt Sport taking their sales.

Night all
 
Over on official forum a post sums up PCars and it's customer base. Someone posted "aside from my wheel violently rocking from side to side down the straights and in the pits...I'm loving this game!! Thank you SMS!!!"
Slightly mad indeed....
 
Ya gonna need a patch or 3 a few issues on and off line. But must say the Panoz is worth the price of admission. Still trying to find happy place with the FFB and still cant believe I cant find virtual mirrors?? Why would they take them out? They were in PC1. But so far so good.
 
These nowadays "simmers"...
rolleyes.gif

they're like... oh I don't like the shirt
ezgif_save__12__by_just_a_doodler-d7ebao4.gif
on that guy in stands - refund.
Can't stand the sound
sherlock_emote___angry_by_just_a_doodler-d7jauui.gif
of that near by waterfall while I'm passing, ofc - refund.
It wasn't like that ...in those old days. You simply couldn't refund. :D So you've learn to really explore all of her good sides and concentrate on them so you forget about [all those] bad sides. Eventually... the damn game grows on you. Without exception. :sneaky:
Ahhh... the good old times...:inlove: Just wish I had this rig back then. :unsure: :p
 
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The VR wow just wow, it is superb way better than any driving game so far in terms of both graphics quality and clarity at distance. The cars interior sizes look and feel a perfect size. I should say this is specifically Oculus Rift for me. Pcars2 is worth £37 for the VR experience alone, many short VR only games cost as much as this.

I expected pcars2 to be as flawed as pcars but so far it is exceeding my expectations. In pcars the road cars were, imo, terrible and felt nothing like the road cars they are based on to drive. Hustling the Megane 275 Trophy and Civic Type R around the 'ring in VR tonight and they both feel just like the real cars. Until now Assetto Corsa was the only game where I felt I could really feel my way into the track the way I have to in real life, learning where I can push and carry more speed naturally. To my absolute surpise, I am able to this in pcars2 on the TX458 wheel with only a 10 digit increase in wheel weight required to give a realistic level of feedback.

A hugely positive initial impression after a couple of fun hours blasting round the autumnal 'ring. I am well aware of the AI issues so I'm not claiming it's perfect but for certain it is a big improvement of pcars.
 
These nowadays "simmers"... they're like... oh I don't like the shirt on that guy in stands - refund. Can't stand the sound of that near by waterfall while I'm passing - refund. It wasn't like that ...in those old days. You simply couldn't refund. :D So you've learn to love the game, really explore all of her good sides and concentrate on them so you forget about (all those) bad sides. Eventually... the damn game grows on you. Without exception. :sneaky:
Ahhh... the good old times...:inlove: Just with I had my rig back then. :unsure: :p

If you are a sim gamer who uses Sims as a tool to use in your down time away from track days, karting or racing cars for real then there are much much better examples in the genre on PC....if you just want to game on and have a bit of fun then PCars and Forza is perfect for that...
 
Over on official forum a post sums up PCars and it's customer base. Someone posted "aside from my wheel violently rocking from side to side down the straights and in the pits...I'm loving this game!! Thank you SMS!!!"
Slightly mad indeed....
Would be nice to have here Ian Bell (for what it's worth) to talk about what is missing in the core physics engine of PCARS2, to nail the level of simulation of the other sims such as AC or rFactor2, to name a few.

PCARS franchise would probably need a new phsycis engine and not an upgrade of PCARS1 engine.

Reading some reviews, it feels like the weight transfer of the cars is simplified and even "guided" in the most difficult situations, where the driver should make the difference, as if the software came to help. For example heavier cars like GT3s should be more communicative in the feedback they give.
Another issue is the "help" when the car exits from the corners, where you got the feeling this wagging the tail is kinda "visual" more than related to physics/dynamic engine, so you just need to be progressive with the throttle to drive smoothly.

Last but not least: too much grip... in the rain and snow. Bad!

That's a pity... I would have bought it instantly, but now I don't know since it's under par against AC or rFactor2 on the simulation side.
 
Really, the reason for my purchase was for the VR experience. But if it wasn't' for VR, I probably would have past on PC2. PC1 was fun some of the time and at others not so much...But I had no problems that I would regret the purchase, to me I looked at it as an arcade title to race around in single player. The same I look at PC2, so I don't have any regrets as well with PC2

I installed PC2 late last night and from just a little time I played and tested without VR (Still need to set it up) the AI is not good out of the box right now...it's awful! The starts are the worst, they crash on the first corners in some road courses..This is not good! (needs a patch for AI, no question). I also was disappointed in the career mode... again! I am a single player guy and nothing changed in the career mode for PC2....it's basically a glorified generic Championship Mode for each discipline racing series like PC1. It has no soul at all!. It doesn't seem you are part of any racing career at all. In PC1 even though it really didn't mean nothing, at least they had an attempt of a "Career" mode with the Social Media news tracker but that has been removed in PC2 unless I am missing it but I didn't see it.

If you have any doubts and can't stand to have obvious bugs in your racing games, then I would stay far away from PC2 unfortunately until they fix the AI and other parts that need patching.
 
Thought Pcars 2 might be a bit more optimized than Pcars 1, I dont have a top card (GTX 960 4gb) but was hoping it would be a bit smoother with less stuttering when playing on low settings, sadly still noticeable stuttering on tight corners, patches of track with a lot of shadows etc..
 
It's my favourite racing game ever, but they do have to work on the AI so more combinations of content work well together.

Highlights:
Renault Mégane Touring at Knockhill and Monaco
ALMS at Watkins Glen GP
Formula Renault at Fuji

Looks better, runs better, incredible weather implementation, easily adjustable FFB, raw and precise, amazing content and possibilities, best multiclass support, and it's just the beginning.
 
After spending a bit of time with pCARS 2 since launch and having around 100 hours in pCARS 1, in pretty much everything I've done in the game so far it is an improvement in almost every way.

The game appears to be very well optimised straight out the box for AMD hardware which I have myself (CPU & GPU) which is a nice surprise as pCARS 1 certainly wasn't, in terms of the graphics and the frame rate with pretty much everything on ultra I'm averaging between 60-90 fps which is across varying weather conditions, different times of day and includes races with 25+ AI cars at various tracks, I still don't get this kind of performance currently with pCARS 1 with such high settings.

The biggest improvements I have noticed so far is the FFB, this is vastly improved over pCARS 1. There are 3 different force feedback profiles to choose from which vary the feel you get through the wheel, I'm using the 3rd profile which I think is called "Raw" which sends unfiltered forces directly to the wheel. Car handling is very well detailed through the wheel, its a lot nearer to the likes of AC, rFactor and iRacing now than what we are used to in pCARS 1, they have certainly done a lot of work in this area.

The other area which is vastly improved which was already pretty good in pCARS 1 is VR. I've tried this with my Oculus Rift and it looks amazing and runs brilliantly, it is improved all round especially in terms of visible detail, distant object quality and performance. I run my Rift continually with 1.5x super sampling via Oculus Tray Tools although there is now an option to set this in the game which I've not tried, there are also a few other VR specific settings available now as well.

The car and track selection is wide and varied with some interesting combinations possible, with the time of day and weather system and the improvements in them it just opens the game up to so many possibilities in terms of league and club races, I do hope to see some of those appearing on here again soon.

The UI is better with a more user friendly layout. Relevant options now seem to be where you would expect to find them such as car livery options in the car selection screen which wasn't so easy and straight forward on pCARS 1 and was something that never made sense to me, also the ability to save multiple different car setups while at a track is a LOT easier as well, this is something I never really managed to work out in pCARS 1 it just seemed so convoluted.

Lastly the only thing I've found so far which isn't an improvement over pCARS 1 is the AI, it needs a LOT of work, they are either too slow, too fast, using incorrect lines on track, braking to early or to late for corners or running into the back of you there doesn't seem to be much consistency with them at the moment, this is one area that certainly needs a bit more polish.

So far I'm pretty pleased with pCARS 2 and the improvements over pCARS 1, the improvements I've seen so far, and what I have listed above make it a worth while purchase for me, but that's my personal opinion and I know others and their opinions will vary, I never bothered with the career in pCARS 1 mostly because of the poor feel and awful FFB, however on pCARS 2 I can see myself doing a career or 2 in VR which has to be currently the best way to play, appreciate and enjoy this game.
 
If I would summarize it in one word, I would say inconsistent. At times though, it's excellent. Driving at Le Mans at dusk with the sun in your eyes it's just so different from anything you can experience right now in any other sim. FFB and physics are decent, maybe lack a bit of "sharpness" and seem a bit muffled but it's a major step in the right direction and probably I can still play with the settings to improve the FFB even more than I manage in the few hours I played. Just as a note, purely from a physics and FFB perspective, when I compare the TS040 with the iRacing HPD through the Porsche curves, I would pick the PC2 TS040 any day.

There are also bugs like grass popping on the asphalt, shadows on "Ultra" look extremely sharp (completely unrealistic), GTE AI moving in front of you on the straight even if you are approaching with an LMP at a huge speed difference, like they try to take you out, and other small things that can be patched. But all in all, it's a positive addition to my sim racing library.
 
Ok so here are my initial impressions of PCARS 2, after a couple of hours fiddling about and flitting between different cars and tracks.

Is it better than PCARS 1? Yes, in many ways the game has improved, which is a positive.
UI? Much, much better than the original. Big plus for me on that side.

Performance? Not looked to tweak it too much atm, however out of the box performance on decent settings using VR with a 980ti is very good. Suspect I can push it further too, which I will check tomorrow. The VR experience is awesome btw, especially in difficult weather.

As many have said before me, the AI is woeful, with little in the way of awareness and lap one with damage on is basically a joke. I suspect this can and will be patched later however, so not a big deal long term.

Found a few bugs already such as damage carrying over even when a session has been restarted, and scripted weather not carrying over under restart session conditions too, plus the odd game crash. Again all stuff that can and hopefully will be fixed in future patches.

Now something I have noticed, and these things concern me and had me hovering over the refund button are the physics and FFB. Some cars feel decent, some are dreadful.

I've downloaded the Jack Spade tweak file and played with settings, however so far on my Fanatec CSW V2 the car feels a bit dead. Far better than when I tried at the Expo, and much better than PC1, but not even close to the other "big name" sims. No feel on the rear at all, and little in the way of communication regards to weight transfer. I remain hopeful this can be resolved by changing settings, of which I have posted a help request in the RD PC2 sub forum (hint hint CSW V2 owners :) ).

Physics feel a bit hit and miss across the car range at present, it still has that hard to describe "game" feeling of PC1, where I get the impression stuff happens to the car because it has been pre coded to react in a certain way rather than the reaction being a natural product of the situation in which I find myself. As a caveat to this, it could be down to my current FFB configuration and so I hold off final judgement until I've got a better setup going on.

I really want this to be awesome, but at present I'm very much not convinced, especially at the current price point.

All in all it reminds me of David Coulthard on a F1 quali lap. On paper everything looks good, however in reality it just fails to hit the mark in so many ways it actually makes you a little bit annoyed and slightly embarrassed on its behalf.

Overall I'm still holding out on my judgement of the game, however if I didn't have to run it in properly because I need to report on it for RD and if I was looking for a replacement for my main go to sims, I wouldn't bother looking to purchase this at this moment in time. Saying that, more time and commitment behind the wheel may change my mind, but so far the signs don't look at that promising...
 

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