PC2 Youtube footage

Boby Kim · Apr 27, 2017

Is it correct that i can watch actual Pcars 2 footage on You tube? If so...oh my...what a
embarrassment...

. Shift 3 has arrived

bmanic · Jun 23, 2017

dcully said:
Sounds great, it really does but i read countless similar posts in the build up to pcars release and i believed it and wasted money on a terrible game.
Im not saying this isnt the case or that you a re a liar or anything
I really hope it turns out to be a solid title or amazing as people are already claiming.

Hope you understand my skepticism and thanks for your feedback on what you played.

This is something that is bugging me a lot lately. Can somebody PLEASE show me evidence of this supposedly massive hype around pCars 1? Here and over at reddit and some other forums this keeps getting mentioned, yet I have not found any real evidence for this with google and internet archive.

I'd actually argue the opposite. Slightly Mad Studios were given a horribly one sided, massively negative and skeptic view (rightly so, I may add) from most of the community.. even before pCars 1 became reality. Ever since Ian Bell announced the plans for a stand alone SMS title at nogripracing.com forums, the backlash was pretty darn heavy. Naturally this was to be expected as their previous work was the Shift titles.

Is it really this easy to forget the truth and the past? Is it this easy to disrupt reality and choose to see only one side of the coin? I've asked for some evidence of this supposedly massive hype for pCars 1 over at reddit/r/simracing and we'll see if somebody is successful there but here's what I found:

1) The main "hype" was probably due to some high-profile names like Ben Collins and Rene Rast approving the content and recording some videos. Ben Collins comments were quite clearly from a non-simracing perspective and thus obviously from a very different point of view. Not sure about Rene Rast and his simracing experience prior to pCars so his comments are harder to pin down. Nicholas Hamilton is an avid simracer so his comments could indeed be counted as "hype" but the only problem was that he only posted on the WMD forums as far as I could tell.. so the hype he created was mainly over there.

2) Most of the hype just before (and after) the release was coming from the fully dynamic weather systems and the information that pCars had a completely new tire model (same core idea and model in pCars 2, yet highly refined and things added to it) that was "better" and more complex than the brush tire model that Eero Piitulainen had created for the Shift 2 game. Eero was of course a legend in his own right due to his involvement with Richard Burns Rally.. so this may then have translated to a feeling of "omg! it could possibly be better than the RBR magic physics".

3) The main evidence of "hype" from WMD members, except a crazy few who went all-in-fanboy, was in the form of a position of defense. Consider how brutally SMS was attacked on all fronts when it came to physics, even before the game itself was even announced, you can hardly blame sane WMD members who saw the passion and struggles of the developers every single day, for rushing out to defend the snowballing criticism and skepticism. All of this can be easily back tracked with google and the internet archives (way back machine, a highly useful tool for seeing the big picture).

4) Ian Bell himself was of course eagerly promoting his product but I didn't find any blatant "we are the best ever!" type posts. He did however say on numerous occasions that the tire model was truly advanced and on a next-level compared to most of the competition. He wasn't lying!. Keep in mind that complex and next-gen doesn't automatically translate to fully working or superb, as every iRacing enthusiast very well knows (r.i.p OTM).

In general, the overall consensus of the "hard-core" simracing community was pretty darn negative from the get-go and never really subsided. It was always very weird to read posts from people who had been negative and highly skeptical from the start who then stated "I bought this game due to the hype and got conned! It was crap! I want my money back!".. yet those very same people had no expectations to begin with. How did it get so easy to switch and bait? How did all the constant skepticism and negativity get forgotten? Why are we now talking about "massive hype" and how everybody got fooled? That was not at all the case if you look at it objectively.

The truly innocent consumers were the ones on consoles. They had it rough, no doubt and due to the strict console patch approval policies of both Sony and Microsoft, us PC users had to contend with patches that only came once a month. This was a tough thing to accept when we had grown accustomed to some great patching and fixing from some other developers like Reiza (who have been absolutely amazing all this time!).

5) Final point: What differentiates pCars 2 from pCars 1 is that already at this stage, there is much MUCH less criticism and concern over physics at the WMD forums than there ever was during pCars 1 development. Some members of the simracing community paint the picture that it was all La-La Land over at WMD and that everybody there who wasn't kicked or banned were singing pCars 1 praises and had rose tinted glasses.. well that was not at all the case. There were major concerns about the physics, FFB and the general chaos of developing a completely new franchise from the ground up. Many of us raised very honest and quite frankly "brutal" critique over a multitude of things we felt were off.. but we also understood that SMS had to release the title or have a very real possibility of true failure.

The feeling and general ease of mind over at WMD v2 is completely different to how I perceived it over at WMD v1 at this point in time. Pretty much everybody over at WMD v2 now agrees that the physics and FFB are much improved and that the cars overall make a lot more sense. They just feel more believable and real. Do we all agree that the physics are perfect? Of course not.. but are they massively improved? Yes, very much so.

TL;DR

There was this supposedly massive hype around pCars 1. I wasted a whole afternoon today and went out searching for evidence of this using google and the internet archive. Couldn't really find any massive hype (aside from the usual press releases and basic marketing that is common for every single game ever released) and instead found a lot of negativity and skepticism many years before launch and way beyond launch of pCars 1. As seems to be prevalent in the current world climate.. it's easier to make up fictional scenarios to drive an agenda instead of looking at the much more complex real picture and be honest about it. Where is the massive hype? Show me the evidence. Was that hype truly greater than the hype for Assetto Corsa? Was that hype truly greater than the hype for iRacing's New Tire Model? Was it greater than the hype for Codemasters F1 series before it launched? Was it greater than the hype for Reiza's sim before it launched? Was it greater than the hype for that magic final S3 upgrade for Live For Speed? No.. not in my opinion.

pCars 2 has about the same amount of hype behind it at this stage.. perhaps more because the feeling is different and is clearly changing even among the truly skeptic people thanks to videos like the one from John over at ISR. Is it deserved? I think so.. but the ultimate proof is in the pudding. Skepticism is super important and very valuable and I always admire skeptical an inquisitive minds. So I'm the last person to try to clamp down on being a realist.. on the contrary, I encourage it. Just make sure it's based on facts and reality, not a sheep mentality or group think were you side with others just for the sake of belonging.

Ian Bell · Jun 23, 2017

I like this one. Clearly overdone for effect (on the input front) but a good example of how different the handling is now.

blanes · Jun 23, 2017

Yeah that car really is sick fun when you flog it, the Sound FX are awesome too.

tlsmikey · Jun 23, 2017

I hope they dirty up the track a bit. It seems pretty much absent of any skid marks and the corner sausages are perfect without a black mark to be seen.

Kyle Pearson · Jun 23, 2017

tlsmikey said:
I hope they dirty up the track a bit. It seems pretty much absent of any skid marks and the corner sausages are perfect without a black mark to be seen.

Some of that will happen in real time. Since it's only solo driving in that video, there isn't enough action on the track to make it dirty at that time.

Sonoafafayon · Jun 25, 2017

Some of the best driving I've ever seen :o Glad to see the physics are looking good so far!

bmanic · Jun 25, 2017

That is some seriously good driving right there! Makes it look so fluid and "easy".. well, it's NOT that easy but definitely in a whole new world compared to the first game.

blanes · Jun 27, 2017

Very cool, nicely timed throttle control and great sawing action on the turns - not a big fan of drifting but that was very enjoyable to watch

Kyle Pearson · Jun 27, 2017

Andy_J · Jun 27, 2017

bmanic said:
3) The main evidence of "hype" from WMD members, except a crazy few who went all-in-fanboy, was in the form of a position of defense. Consider how brutally SMS was attacked on all fronts when it came to physics, even before the game itself was even announced, you can hardly blame sane WMD members who saw the passion and struggles of the developers every single day, for rushing out to defend the snowballing criticism and skepticism.

I think the main reason the sane WMD ~~investors~~ members formed a fighting retreat was to protect their investment in my opinion.The snowballing criticism and skepticism even came from sensible WMD members who were unhappy with how things turned out.
Any ways, here's hoping for a brilliant Pcars 2. It is certainly looking damn good so far.

dcully · Jun 27, 2017

Sonoafafayon said:
Some of the best driving I've ever seen :o Glad to see the physics are looking good so far!

Really?

I see better drivingon any AC drift servers every day of the week.

If you want to see great driving checkout Niels Heusinkveld the physics god from automobilista on youtube.

dcully · Jun 29, 2017

Why so sad Mr bell?

tlsmikey · Jul 4, 2017

Saw this one today. I like the historic Spa, but a couple things I find interesting. First, the Nissan doesn't seem to have much of a blow-off sound like it does in iRacing. The driveline lash coming out of the first corner is cool though. Second, the tire sounds....still can't quite get used to it. Sounds like someone stepped on a mouse.