Could Project Cars 4 be on the way?

Could Project Cars 4 be on the way_.jpg
Ian Bell the former Slightly Mad Studios CEO has tweeted today “If PCars 4 is awesome it was all me. If it isn't. I left 6 months ago”

This is the first time Ian Bell who left Slightly Mad Studios 6 months ago has mentioned Project Cars 4 in over a year and yes it’s not much, but you could assume that he knows what’s going on with the PCars 4 project.


It’s been two years since Project Cars 3 came out, the third instalment in the Project Cars franchise didn’t go down well with fans of Project Cars. The first two Project Cars titles were hardcore sim racers and though they had their flaws (as do all sims in some way), there was a loyal following.

During the two years since Slightly Mad Studios released PCars 3, the studio was sold to Codemasters and then Codemasters was bought out by Electronic Arts.

Most fans of the franchise would agree that they don’t want another Project Cars 3, however it would be fascinating to see what the madness game engine is capable of on the latest generations of console.

Would you be excited for Project Cars 4?
About author
Damian Reed
PC geek, gamer, content creator, and passionate sim racer.
I live life a 1/4 mile at a time, it takes me ages to get anywhere!

Comments

Sums him up in 2 words - prima donna
Remember a film director called Josh Trank, remember the fallout he had with Fantastic 4 - this tweet is so similar
It's about time this diva stroke grifter stroke con artist disappear into obscurity
 
Premium
What I am wondering is, will EA continue their efforts to kill Slightly Mad Studios?
 
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Quiet a dishonest comment, "if it's good, I did it, if not, they did it wrong.after I left!". With the cash he earned from the sale of sms, I'm sure he's not allowed to express such bad opinions against his former company.

Anyway, I'd rather pay 30 euros for a full fix of pcars2 than paying for a 100 euros full content (and full bugs) pcars4. As this won't happen, I'll wait for pcars4 reviews and buy it on sale even if it's good, this is what the series deserves. AMS2 is a really good alternative and deserves attention.
 
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The Madness engine is by far the most advanced racing game engine on the PC market today. (GT being probably it's equal, but its only for PS). It's a shame that is withering away with the slow pace of the directionless and underfunded Reiza effort, and the last appaling installment of the PCars series, that undid many of the good things of PCars2.

Ian Bell is not at the helm anymore, and i have the sneaking feeling that EA will just try to reframe the game like a competitor of GT and Forza. Which can be good or not, it all depends on the execution.
 
I enjoyed the first 2 Project Cars games. I didn't really care that they weren't "hardcore" simulators. I think a majority of the community was hoping PC3 was going to be a refined version of PC2. Ian Bell completely misread the market on PC3 or they should have at least not used the Project Cars name. If they do it right this time, it could capture that old feeling again. That said, for as much as I didn't trust Ian Bell, I have even less faith/trust in EA than I did in him.
 
Don't worry guys, I'm sure PC4 will be amazing, and if it isn't, then I'm sure PC7 will be amazing.
 
Yes please! If it is good and ground breaking, it will be good for sim racing/driving fans, if it's another flop, just don't buy it and just wait for PC5 :)
 
I'm cautiously optimistic. This is the first Project Cars game that'll be entirely developed under Codemasters, so I don't think it'll be like Project Cars 3, too many redundancies with the GRID series. However, this is also the first Project Cars game that'll be developed under Electronic Arts so it can always find different ways to disappoint.
Yep, the fact that it is the first P. Cars under EA is more worrying than anything else...

What I've read about the upcoming F1 2022, also an EA game, is also sort of worrying.
 
Dear Damian,

You wrote "The first two Project Cars titles were hardcore sim racers"

I always read everywhere that they were simcades, hence I never bought them.

Should i go ahead and pick them up? but only if the physics, fbb, handling are as good as ac/acc/RF2.

Please advise.

Thanks.
 
Dude, whaaaaat? Did you just go for Gran Turismo's engine here in this scenario? lol
I did yes.

In terms of features simulated, graphics, and total package, those two are now the best there is.

Altough we dont know much about the underlying physics calculations of GT7, the weather effects on the driving make up for the details that we dont know/can't see.
 
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I think it's worth getting excited for pC4. Can't say much obviously, but with the GT Planet leak I posted on the previous page, I don't have to pretend it hasn't been worked on in some fashion since super late 2020.

Testing tire compound behavior for pC4 was the last thing I did for them prior to my life temporarily being upended by some literal schizo, but beyond that, it was so absurdly early in development that I don't have any juicy info on like cars, tracks, features, etc, because they straight up weren't designed yet.

I think they are in a pretty good place. It'll be a day one pre-order for me and it'll take intentionally bad decisions to mess it up. One of the coolest things I did for them was put together like a mini sim-racing bible that was like 40 pages of how to spot AI gremlins, the big handling quirks in modern racing sims and how to trigger them, how to check if AI are on the right pit strategy, comparing AI pace with real world times, etc. Basically, stuff I could do for YouTube as like a sim racing analytical series, I instead gave to SMS. They did not ask for this but I had a gut feeling Mr. Jacoby would **** my ass and I wanted to make sure the core team had that info in the event HR decided to side with a domestic abuser and cast me aside. I really hope that PDF did not get "misplaced."

Furthermore, what people don't realize about pC3 is that it fixed and/or refined a lot of "under the hood" stuff to prepare them for a great pCars 4.
  • Gamepad handling was fixed in a big way. David Kirk is a genius.
  • FFB strength was normalized across all cars.
  • Little typos or oddities in tire compounds here and there fixed.
  • AI speeds normalized, which was a huge issue in PC2.
  • Car-to-Car contact improved.
  • Scheduled Events system similar to iRacing, created (they just need a number to show registered players in the UI)
  • Avatar Customization
  • Livery Customization
This should theoretically be a great game.
 
I enjoyed PC2 to some point, what pulls me off was the irregular Ai... Something that even reiza haven't figured out yet.
Not keeping my hopes high for this game, actually wishing to see next vr open sim (ac2 or Rfactor3) and all the sorts of mods the community can bring, or at least see an evolution in current ones.
And please please please a modern open sim for rally, a worthy successor to RBR.
 

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