But it's the physics that will make it or break it.
Physics mean nothing if the gameplay is lacking. PC sales will probably amount to maximum of 5% of the sales (and on PC has the problem of self proclaimed "hard-core simracers") and physics have never been the determining factor of any successful game ever.
Assetto Corsa is a good example. There are so many disappointed people when it comes to AC due to it's gameplay severely lacking. Luckily it is getting a lot better lately but at release it was basically a "driving simulator".. not at all a racing simulator. Results? A lot of people uninstalling the game and being very critical about it (and rightly so), no matter how good the physics are. Okay, granted it can be called fairly successful in terms of PC sales and some reviews but if it was released on consoles right this minute it would be absolutely DESTROYED in reviews and sales would be ridiculously poor.
But fear not, the physics are solid in pCars. Just make sure you drive FAST ENOUGH! Have seen so many "OMG this is way too easy to drive!!" comments in the past, only to see the people commenting being more than 10 seconds (!!!!) slower than average. This is not iRacing.. if you drive slow and safe the supercars and heck, any car,
will be easy to drive. Drive at the limit however and you are going to notice the difficulty. You will not constantly crash though as it's easier than ever to recover from mistakes but you will be severely penalized in lap times. This is one area where I think pCars is much more realistic than other simulators.. small mistakes don't result in an immediate crash, which makes you push a lot harder which in turn makes you realize that you are over driving each corner and pushing in a wrong way.. which in turn makes you a BETTER racer and you really start to appreciate the subtle details in the physics.
Heck, it's funny but my 500+ hours of driving pCars has actually improved my driving on the other simulators. My iRacing laptimes went down quite a lot when I finally understood optimum steering lock angles + speed through the corners. I didn't learn this in iRacing because I was constantly under the limit by fear of crashing and when I did get over the limit the FFB just didn't give me any clues to the laptime penalty I was getting. pCars shows me immediately when I'm overcooking a corner, even when I take it just a tiny bit too fast or have a tiny bit too much steering lock (causing an unoptimum slip-angle).
.. so yeah, the physics are rock solid, if not slightly on the too conservative side when it comes to grip progression (in my opinion). Then again some cars a lot less grippy and a lot more frightening in pCars than they are in for instance AC.
Anyways, the awesome AI and completely dynamic weather pretty much guarantees great gameplay which hopefully makes this title a hit, which in turn gives it longer life and more content for us players.. and perhaps even pCars 2 and pRally in the future (imagine this highly complex tire model on gravel! Would finally be a great successor to RBR!).
