Project Cars vs Assetto Corsa.

Having the latest build 99% complete Project cars and Assetto corsa as it is right now 1.04, I know which one I prefer......by an absolute mile.
Project cars screen.
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Assetto Corsa screen of same car/track/position.
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I am a little Assetto bias, PC feels like a racing game, Assetto feels like a simulator. What are your thoughts?
 
I have seen a few knocks against PCARS stating that it is more "arcade" like because the cars are easier to drive. While others feel that for a "game" to be a true "sim" the cars must be almost impossible to drive. Not having had a chance to sample PCARS, I feel that just because the cars may be easier to drive does not make it "arcade". There is a delicate balance between modeling things one can not feel when driving via a PC/Console. If the model deals well with the dynamics of racing/driving/track&tire grip/etc and yet makes the cars "easier" to handle; this does not necessarily make it an arcade. Since sitting behind a LCD screen doesn't provide the "seat of the pants" experience, some compensation should come into play to make the cars more manageable. I hope this is where PCARS will fall into place. I plan to have a home on my PC for both AC & PCARS, for the difference they both have to offer.

On the topic of moddable vs. non-moddable ... there is something for both. If the developers of non-moddable software continue to support it with added tracks and cars, then I can see where it can be a good thing. For moddable software, it's hit or miss. I can't tell you how many user added tracks have had "major" issues that totally ruins my experience. The opposite can be said for well made and supported mods.
 
last week the default FFB for many wheels was altered in pCARS to settings which would previously have required some tweaking to achieve. As a result you now get very lively and informative FFB by default... They were using a very linear but somewhat filtered default and this has now become less linear and more relevant for Logitech, Thrustmaster or Fanatec wheels.

Because pCARS has come on such a long way recently, in terms of FFB, tyre model, frame rates and AI, I'm finding myself playing it way more often. It's every bit as much of a sim as AC or RaceRoom, in fact it's more complete with proper weather, flag rules, etc... yes, default setups are stable and "safe", driver aids default to enabled, but go past that and you find yourself in a proper sim.

I was reading the feedback on WMD from a pro who compared the pCARS Formula A car to his own experience with F1 cars and real F1 simulators, and it was definitely not along the lines of "arcade rubbish". He wasn't paid to test, but came back with some good improvement suggestions and a general thumbs up for quality.
 
I have tried PC build 834 and take a few laps on Brands Hatch with McLaren P1 all assists off, it was just great.. If you ask me both games has their own positives and negatives. I still go with Assetto Corsa but I don't know what will happen after I try a completely done Project Cars.
 
I have seen a few knocks against PCARS stating that it is more "arcade" like because the cars are easier to drive. While others feel that for a "game" to be a true "sim" the cars must be almost impossible to drive.
It's not like that. It doesn't have to be difficult to be considered it has sim-worthy physics.
 
As someone new to pc sim racing I'm really looking forward to Project Cars for several reasons, among them good graphics, good physics, weather and time change, huge and varied track selection, good car selection, full flags, offline career and a bunch of other stuff. But mostly I'm hoping with it's fixed car and track selection it becomes a popular online racing platform. I love AC and think it's a wonderful driving experience, but the racing element leaves something to be desired. There isn't a ton of organized racing in AC and many of the online lobbies run the same combinations of GT class cars at FIA tracks. No flags, silly off course penalties, no crowds or creepy zombie spectators, a bunch of other deficiencies and just the general overall feeling of blandness that @Brandon Wright refers to above. It's like 12 cars cut the chain on a locked gate and snuck onto the track for a race only to get chased out by the cops as soon as the race is over.

As a new guy to the genre I didn't want to get caught up in a bunch of games so I concentrated on AC for the last 3 months or so and I'm glad I did. I'll start playing PCars at launch and if the online racing community really develops I'll probably stick to it pretty closely and split time with AC if it ramps up the racing aspect of the game. If PCars doesn't work out, I'm going to have to gravitate towards the games with the most active online racing. Not a fan of iRacing so far but as a last resort...

The other aspect of PCars that I think rarely gets discussed is that it has by far the greatest potential of any sim in history to be the most complete game ever for the simple reason that it's cross platform. PC only sims have very limited markets and will never have the same dev budget that a game selling on all three consoles + pc will have. If they can pump out 4-5 million units on all platforms combined, they'll have a dev budget for PCars2 that'll make the dev budget for AC and all other sims look like pocket change by comparison. I'd really like to see what SMS can do a $15-30 Million warchest, given all they were able to achieve with just a fraction of that.
 
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The problem with that logic is that you're assuming that Assetto Corsa isn't going to develop any further than it currently is. A new penalty system, flags and numerous other updates are on the way for the very next patch due in a few weeks time. It's not a stationary target, as the game continues to be updated.

Also, do consider that when a game is multi-platformed, it is great for the developers because they'll sell an astronomically higher number of units than if it were just PC, however the gameplay will suffer as developers have to make the game appeal to the masses, whilst retaining a high quality of performance on the consoles, which are the limiting factor. This means that developers often have to cut things out of the game that make life hard for the hardware in the Xbox and Playstation, and this often means that the physics becomes dumbed down in order to reduce the number of calculations the console has to make, which then results in a more "simcade" feel, which will in turn appeal to the masses (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

Developers for console games almost always find themselves in a "pick your poison" situation where they try to find the best solution as to how to allocate all the available memory that consoles have to offer.

I know that Project CARS players who signed up with their beta program agreed to only spread good information about the game, and even make it seem better than it actually is (which is a great marketing strategy, but ethically??). And contrary to what most of the beta testers will tell you, and certainly all of the developers, the videos of it I've seen on YouTube, the physics model looks at best, unpolished (about as generous as I could be on that one).

Exhibit A
You don't have to have to be driving to know that that is not how a car should handle.

The developers and fans of the game are saying it's a full sim, but it's pretty clear that they're going with the Sim-Cade style, and they'll undoubtedly sell a lot of copies, because all multi-platform simcades do, but I think it's wrong for them to be advertising pCARS as a full blown sim when it plainly isn't.

In the long run I'm sure it'll be a fantastic game, and I might even consider buying it at some stage, but with the current route they seem to be heading, I highly doubt it'll be a fantastic sim.
 
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I know that Project CARS players who signed up with their beta program agreed to only spread good information about the game, and even make it seem better than it actually is (which is a great marketing strategy, but ethically??). And contrary to what most of the beta testers will tell you, and certainly all of the developers, the videos of it I've seen on YouTube, the physics model looks at best, unpolished (about as generous as I could be on that one).

Exhibit A
You don't have to have to be driving to know that that is not how a car should handle.

The developers and fans of the game are saying it's a full sim, but it's pretty clear that they're going with the Sim-Cade style, and they'll undoubtedly sell a lot of copies, because all multi-platform simcades do, but I think it's wrong for them to be advertising pCARS as a full blown sim when it plainly isn't.

In the long run I'm sure it'll be a fantastic game, and I might even consider buying it at some stage, but with the current route they seem to be heading, I highly doubt it'll be a fantastic sim.

Hi Chris.
I am a tester (but I didn't sign up and I don't have to give out positive information ;) )
I will disagree though with your statement referring to assessing the physics via video, as I don't think that's remotely possible. You really need to test them yourself and you really know that to be honest.
I have tested the various builds, some are good, some are bad and I have said so. But I really do think this sim will be just that on the PC, a sim. The difficulty levels can be adjusted and I am sure with full on sim mode selected, the racing will be very challenging.

Many people seem to think that a sim must be difficult to drive or it's not a sim, well I don't go for that chain of thought. Having driven cars on trackdays at various British circuits, I can honestly say, they don't lose traction as easily as some of our sims do when all aids have been switched off. But I digress......Pcars can be just as hard, I know I have tested it. And at the ragged edge with out aids, its feels pretty good in some cars at this time. The FFB is still bad though and hopefully they are working on that aspect a bit more without users having to tweak this and adjust that too much.

For a start, PCars will have a proper career mode for offline play, full weather changing in real time, pitstops, and a massive variety of car types.
The damage moddeling is far superior to AC's too. (Lets face it, AC's damage modelling is worse than we had back the Papyrus Indy500 days). At the moment some of the cars drive really well and are just as challenging as the same type in AC, if not more so with proper damage moddelling and weather effects to take effect.

I am the last person to just glorify the game (just look at some of my posts in the Pcars section) but I will say that it is not as simcade as you say in most respects and perhaps really simulates motorsport a tadge better than AC at this present time. So that in itself makes it slightly more of a sim racer. I look forward to the finished result and can't wait to try it out properly with finished physics and FFB models.

regards
Andy
 
  • Deleted member 151827

I have ProjectCars and i don't ever remember signing anything that said i would only speak positive about it! lol handling in pcars is as much sim as ac or any other racing game that i have played for that matter. Not even sure why this thread is still open as it's all a matter of opinion! I spoke about this in an earlier post in this thread. ;)
 
There has been so much talk about PC vs AC, that I was counting days when I'm able to test it myself and deside whether it's good or not.

But now it seems it's delayed again to april 2nd:mad:
 
There has been so much talk about PC vs AC, that I was counting days when I'm able to test it myself and deside whether it's good or not.

But now it seems it's delayed again to april 2nd:mad:
Yep - confirmed by Ian Bell on WMD. It appears to be primarily the publisher's decision due to conflicting releases.

A couple of extra weeks means that the game will be that much more polished. Of course, that may give Kunos a bit more time too.:)
 
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Judging physics based on a video replay where one doesn't know what assists the player has turned on or off, is a poor way to judge physics. I have seen many other videos of pCARS where the physics looks spot on.... but then again, I am not judging the product until I can get my hands on it.
 
Judging physics based on a video replay where one doesn't know what assists the player has turned on or off, is a poor way to judge physics. I have seen many other videos of pCARS where the physics looks spot on.... but then again, I am not judging the product until I can get my hands on it.
You may have to wait a little longer, I can't see it making the release date based on the latest tester code. I think kunos know this and the dream pack is not so urgent anymore. This will still benefit everyone in the long run as normally the longer the wait, the shinier the polished product. Patience is the game.
 
Hi Chris.
I am a tester (but I didn't sign up and I don't have to give out positive information ;) )
I will disagree though with your statement referring to assessing the physics via video, as I don't think that's remotely possible. You really need to test them yourself and you really know that to be honest.
I have tested the various builds, some are good, some are bad and I have said so. But I really do think this sim will be just that on the PC, a sim. The difficulty levels can be adjusted and I am sure with full on sim mode selected, the racing will be very challenging.

Many people seem to think that a sim must be difficult to drive or it's not a sim, well I don't go for that chain of thought. Having driven cars on trackdays at various British circuits, I can honestly say, they don't lose traction as easily as some of our sims do when all aids have been switched off. But I digress......Pcars can be just as hard, I know I have tested it. And at the ragged edge with out aids, its feels pretty good in some cars at this time. The FFB is still bad though and hopefully they are working on that aspect a bit more without users having to tweak this and adjust that too much.

For a start, PCars will have a proper career mode for offline play, full weather changing in real time, pitstops, and a massive variety of car types.
The damage moddeling is far superior to AC's too. (Lets face it, AC's damage modelling is worse than we had back the Papyrus Indy500 days). At the moment some of the cars drive really well and are just as challenging as the same type in AC, if not more so with proper damage moddelling and weather effects to take effect.

I am the last person to just glorify the game (just look at some of my posts in the Pcars section) but I will say that it is not as simcade as you say in most respects and perhaps really simulates motorsport a tadge better than AC at this present time. So that in itself makes it slightly more of a sim racer. I look forward to the finished result and can't wait to try it out properly with finished physics and FFB models.

regards
Andy

agree with you, for me Pcars is what SMS want to do from the start with shift series, if EA had given them enough money and times of course.
personally I don't expect a miracle from pcars, because there is no way to make a game with such advanced graphics plus physics like assetto corsa or rf2 with our actual hardware I simply dont believe those who claim that pcars is as sim as others, thats why SMS put many tweak/settings to their FFB and many of them are there to fake some effect because their physics is not advanced to simulate them.
but I understand their will to do a balanced game between physics and eyes candy, I just dont expect too much as a pur sim.
 

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