PC1 We won't be fooled again

[sniper420]

In my honest and humble opinion, I bought this game expecting a great game.

Nearly ALL of the previews were amazing, and the (understandable) PR and feedback was great. I was someone who felt like this deserved every cent they could get!

...Then I played the game.

What a mess.

For me, this has the most amount of bugs I have ever seen in a racing game and I've been playing since the late 80's...

We are now way beyond any kind of 'patching phase' and the game is still fundamentally broken in so many different ways.

The members of the SMS / WMD who comment on this forum seem stuck to their beliefs that this is the best thing since [sliced] french bread...

We Have members of their forum commenting and trying to discredit us, the players, telling us we have "agendas" et al. They deny any bug, they private message us telling us to be quiet!

I tell you now, I have no agenda apart from wanting a great game for full price. I want(ed) what was sold to me, what I was told to expect...

I got sold a dummy.

This studio / developer had mad respect from me until I realised their agenda, which is clearly about making money and it has nothing to do with me, the player.

I PAID good hard earned money to play this bug-ridden game... You just have to look through the recent posts on this site to see just how abundant and game-breaking those bugs are...

I've mentioned this before but honestly it feels like I paid $100 to BETA test this game... The least they could do is patch the many, many issues!

But no. Instead we get members of their forum coming here and telling us that we're the ones who are wrong. The same members who skite about how much money they are making. The exact same members who try to belittle anyone who criticises ProjectBUGS.

If anyone has an agenda, take a look a those who are profiting ...

I will NEVER trust this company with another cent.

Why would I?

 

[Zytok]

For crying out loud, no-one, I repeat no-one is forcing anyone to hand over any money at any stage, particularly 3 years prior to release. Believe it or not, some people like to be involved at the early stage and will happily pay to do so again. If you don't like it, don't play it, simple as and stop dragging down every bloody thread on this forum with negative bile.

It's a game, it's not perfect, nothing is, certainly not AC, RF2 or GSC. What it is is an effort to try and bring a more sim-orientated racing game to the masses which it does pretty well and that is backed up by generally good scores across multiple review sites. Yep, sure there are still issues but everyone cried like mad when they postponed release, it's got to be released at some stage and patches are fixing most of the issues raised. It's got way more content than most of the other sim-racing titles on the pc unless you count all the half-assed rfactor1 conversions that flooded AC.

I can't believe that some people are so opposed to a company actually making money out of something, are we all closet communists in here and believe that they should release the game for free and continue to work on it until 2050? Don't all studios work on multiple projects at once?

SMS have categorically stated that a decent bunch of staff will be kept on to continue to develop PC1 but needless to say the texture artists/track builders etc will be better suited to working on new content for the new title rather than sat on their ass or being laid off.

I'd love to know why there is this continual derision of Simcade etc. Are the likes of David so qualified to know exactly how a million dollar car should behave on a virtual $400 wheel or have you really nothing else better to do?

 

[Andy_J]

Are the likes of David so qualified to know exactly how a million dollar car should behave on a virtual $400 wheel ?

It appears so. They should have employed him.

 

[Rob Every]

I don't really think fans of sim gaming have an issue with any one team making money.

What they might have a problem with is attitude, hype, over zealous PR and the marketing approach.

THAT is what got them the sales they enjoyed, as the vast majority of people who bought the game were console users. They were probably unlikely to be WMD members or able to be involved in any of the testing side of things.

SO, what that shows is that the game was very appealing to those who own next gen consoles.

Clever marketing because right now there is nothing available on the Sony version that matches this and the Xbox really either.

I applaud them for that, that is clever marketing and exploitation of a market. But the PC version is clearly a struggle for a lot of guys, the vast majority of PC reviews I have read say it looks great but is soo buggy and the FFB is too poor to be considered a rival for other proper sims on PC.

But why should WMD care, you are the people that QA tested it for them, you paid for all the development, why should they give a damn about you, especially when YOU are not the prime market the game was designed for, YOU are just a gopher.

That is the reason for the moaning, the bans, the ncessant chat on forums. Not a lot else.

 

[Serj]

For today pCARS still horrible PC performance.They need concentrate on optimiztion of bugs,stutters,flickering and so on. When I race different tracks, I have a feeling that some tracks developed and builded some other devs team every time. Very unbalanced imo graphical environment that need serious pc machine, but why?....Still opened question. GPU does not work with full load, many varieties of anti-aliasing that completely odd and giving to you compromise but not a good picture. U can start only from DS6X, but if lower there will be no so good picture. Very strange fps drops on some areas fo tracks, frozen debris of tyre in air))).....For now I really dont see final release, the game looking like another no so good quality build.

 

[Emerson Meyer]

There are every type of conflicts you can imagine. Soon, they will say that the problems are due to the Solitaire card game.

I´m done. Spend more time tweaking the damn game than racing... and the stutters are still there.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

I'd love to know why there is this continual derision of Simcade etc. Are the likes of David so qualified to know exactly how a million dollar car should behave on a virtual $400 wheel or have you really nothing else better to do?

David isn't the only jackass who thinks this is simcade
I'm also a promoter of proper sims, you know, the ones that actually work well with our steering wheels
Also, if it's case that I can't have an opinion because of my toy wheel, then neither can you

 

[SnappyDEe]

Project CARS works fine with a wheel. Why 6 weeks later still complaints about FFB?

 

[Jake Fangio]

I'm sure this horse is dead now,and we can cease in flogging it,as in the subject.Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggg.

 

[William Wester]

Project CARS works fine with a wheel. Why 6 weeks later still complaints about FFB?

A lot of the problems, at least on the computer, I believe came from the fact of exposing so many FFB options. I too spend a lot of time tweaking since release (and during dev) but when I changed my focus to something else (racing!) I found the default FFB settings fine in the vast majority of cases (TX wheel). I saw the same thing happen with R3E when they exposed more FFB options, and with R3E I now just start it up race - feels great.
For the most part the default FFB (maybe some minor tweaks) in R3E, Project CARS, Dirt Rally, rFactor 2, Stock Car Extreme, and AC feel good - some better than others but none have FFB I can't live with all much better than no FFB.

 

[Lawndart]

I think there are a couple "decisions" that where public facing that started to shape a public image. These decisions or circumstances if you want to be super polite happened while everyone was waiting on patches...

1) Paid DLC before the first post release patch.

2) DLC doubled in price the next day

3) Patch 1.4 had new game breaking bugs equally as severe as the ones they fixed

4) While everyone who bought the game on day one where waiting for fixes, steam summer sale had pcars at 40% off...

5) Nothing at all wrong with starting dev on pcars 2, the industry does this all the time but starting a public funding campaign so early while pcars 1 is clearly not in "good" condition? That was very presumptuous. Everyone waiting for patches, but they get a diversion instead? Perception is something a company needs to be aware of.

6) Where is the free car for June?

7) Calling the second patch a full version update? V2.0? So are they fully admitting v1.0 was a botched job? Have we seen a proper v1.x? The game industry has firm rules that pertain to version changes to comercialy available games. Bug fixes have nothing to do with it.

All in all SMS has been highly communicative but not giving anyone what they want... Witcher 3 and pcars came out at the same time, Witcher 3 has had 5 (!) patches with another about to release, on all platforms... Pcars has had only 1... "Day one patches" don't count.

These issues effect some more than others, but likely everyone has an issue with at least one of these and that's all it takes for the "majority" to start sounding off...

I think things will work out in the end, but SMS are bringing this on themselves. Communication isn't a substitute for results.

This post isn't meant to be inflammatory, just a summary of circumstances that have so many upset...

 

[Tim Lundy]

I think there are a couple "decisions" that where public facing that started to shape a public image. These decisions or circumstances if you want to be super polite happened while everyone was waiting on patches...

1) Paid DLC before the first post release patch.

2) DLC doubled in price the next day

3) Patch 1.4 had new game breaking bugs equally as severe as the ones they fixed

4) While everyone who bought the game on day one where waiting for fixes, steam summer sale had pcars at 40% off...

5) Nothing at all wrong with starting dev on pcars 2, the industry does this all the time but starting a public funding campaign so early while pcars 1 is clearly not in "good" condition? That was very presumptuous. Everyone waiting for patches, but they get a diversion instead? Perception is something a company needs to be aware of.

6) Where is the free car for June?

7) Calling the second patch a full version update? V2.0? So are they fully admitting v1.0 was a botched job? Have we seen a proper v1.x? The game industry has firm rules that pertain to version changes to comercialy available games. Bug fixes have nothing to do with it.

All in all SMS has been highly communicative but not giving anyone what they want... Witcher 3 and pcars came out at the same time, Witcher 3 has had 5 (!) patches with another about to release, on all platforms... Pcars has had only 1... "Day one patches" don't count.

These issues effect some more than others, but likely everyone has an issue with at least one of these and that's all it takes for the "majority" to start sounding off...

I think things will work out in the end, but SMS are bringing this on themselves. Communication isn't a substitute for results.

This post isn't meant to be inflammatory, just a summary of circumstances that have so many upset...

Thanks for bringing a huge heap of common sense to the discussion. There are real, practical issues with the game, but IMO it's nowhere near a write off as a lot of people assert (pc version here). I've had very few issues with the game and nothing game breaking. I think you're right that public perception is being distorted by flaws in marketing and the timing of DLC, the way the Support Forum is being handled etc. There are changes I'd like to see with the game so I've signed up for PCars2 to try and actually do something about them. It's a unique opportunity and I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Kevin Jay]

7) Calling the second patch a full version update? V2.0? So are they fully admitting v1.0 was a botched job? Have we seen a proper v1.x? The game industry has firm rules that pertain to version changes to comercialy available games. Bug fixes have nothing to do with it.

Looking at your list I see some issues that may be debatable in regards to being an SMS problem.
However, I thought it was particularly odd to have an issue with the patch numbering. Personally, I couldn't care less about the number. They could call it v10.0 All that really matters is if it works.
I'm not trying to call you out on this. I just found it interesting.

 

[LacSlyer]

Thanks for bringing a huge heap of common sense to the discussion. There are real, practical issues with the game, but IMO it's nowhere near a write off as a lot of people assert (pc version here). I've had very few issues with the game and nothing game breaking. I think you're right that public perception is being distorted by flaws in marketing and the timing of DLC, the way the Support Forum is being handled etc. There are changes I'd like to see with the game so I've signed up for PCars2 to try and actually do something about them. It's a unique opportunity and I'm looking forward to it.

I wouldn't call it a write off at all, however with the numerous issues still being experienced (hopefully most of them are rectified by today's patch) it's understandable why people will be put off by them. It's not just the fact that there are issues, but how dramatically the issues effect game play. And, as I've said before, just because you haven't had issues doesn't mean people don't have a right to complain about them.

The marketing aspect you mention is correct, however that shouldn't absolve them of the piss poor PR they're dealing with at the moment. I mean honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of backlash wouldn't have existed if they simply chose more appropriate (read: intelligent) timings of their announcements. However, Ian Bell is a hilarious example as to why they should hire an actual PR spokesperson rather than rely on him, and I don't think any explanation is needed here.