PC3 Project CARS 3 | Latest Screenshot Previews And Gameplay Mechanic Insights

[Paul Jeffrey]

Slightly Mad Studios have dropped a few more content teasers from Project CARS 3 in the last few days, revealing some interesting motors set to feature in the new game.

• New images feature mix of road and race cars.
• Accolades system revealed

We are well aware that the current feeling amongst the community about Project CARS 3 is rather split at the moment, with some of us interested to see how the proposed new direction of the series pans out, while others are less keen on the potential shift towards a more arcade focus for the franchise.

With Slightly Mad Studios taking the opportunity to drop a few more (rather admittedly pretty) screenshot teasers from the game, we get the chance to have a look at some of the content that will be heading our way on release day, and get a little teaser about some further gameplay features within the title.

Alongside the images revealed on Social Media, Slightly Mad Studios included the following informative captions, which gives players some idea of the gameplay mechanics that will form part of the Project CARS 3 experience.

• Chase that perfect lap, win that one race everyone wants to win, make history for consecutive race wins. Your driver’s journey in #ProjectCARS3 is tracked by the Accolades system, so you have the data to back up your bragging rights. Collect them all!
• In #ProjectCARS3, you have a wide selection of motorsport and community-inspired liveries and stickers that will guarantee your racing machine stands out on the grid—make your mark!
• Your garage is your home away from the track. Access the showroom, customise your cars, personalise your drivers, and admire your career achievements.

Love it or loathe it, it looks like Project CARS 3 is certainly heading a more 'gameplay' style direction than previous iterations into the franchise, but it remains to be seen if this will suitably detract from the simulation aspects of the title to turn off current fans, or if SMS will be able to tread that fine line between appealing to arcade fans, whilst still satisfying those wishing to engage in a simulation experience.

Only time will tell...

Project CARS 3 will release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC this summer.

Want to discuss this new game with fellow sim racing fans? No worries, head over to the Project CARS 3 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and start up a new thread!

 

[JPL083]

No. Not even SHIFT was "just another Need for Speed". It might be another SHIFT, but not your average NFS full arcade.

Well.. Shift was NFS and that said, their effort to come "closer" thus still really really far from more like towards sim racing, but only from the handling side. So, they have removed tire wear.. refuelling.. and pitstops totally from pcars. So.. What is left? Simcade handling, and if you think futher.. If there wouldnt be any official tracks, but only fictionals that there is. Whats left? Simcade handling, a bit of weather that doesnt affect anymore like it used to, Random race cars, road cars with tunings etc. And you can really follow your career like from win to win, really can sit there and admire your achiewments.. That says to me, this is very much like Need For Speed. And only arcades what i have ever mostly enjoyed was early NFS's on Ps1/2/3. But still i say this is NFS's twin.

 

[Ben Lee]

I played GTL and GTR2 with an analogue pad, basically a PS2 pad copy for the PC, so aside from the disadvantage of a digital throttle and brake input, I could hold my own in online races, so I think it’s largely a myth that you can’t have “sim physics” on a joypad.

 

[ermo]

Well my recollection is much different, if you said anything negative about pCars1 you were met with
a slew of shareholders, experts and novices alike telling me and others that it would get much better ,
" you can tell by all the updates they do " aka it would improve

Now like magic just as many say whole 3 are simcade ......which is no news to me

i say again core physics do not change in a engine you can tell them apart like black/white
Fool yourselves updates can fix any physics in any sim including rF2

You're not really a programmer are you?

Because if you were, you'd know how silly that assertion truly is.

 

[turbo86]

Well.. Shift was NFS and that said, their effort to come "closer" thus still really really far from more like towards sim racing, but only from the handling side. So, they have removed tire wear.. refuelling.. and pitstops totally from pcars. So.. What is left? Simcade handling, and if you think futher.. If there wouldnt be any official tracks, but only fictionals that there is. Whats left? Simcade handling, a bit of weather that doesnt affect anymore like it used to, Random race cars, road cars with tunings etc. And you can really follow your career like from win to win, really can sit there and admire your achiewments.. That says to me, this is very much like Need For Speed. And only arcades what i have ever mostly enjoyed was early NFS's on Ps1/2/3. But still i say this is NFS's twin.

I doubt you have played either any SHIFT game or any NFS game other than SHIFT. You'd have to be an idiot to say that SHIFT was like any other NFS game....or you simply don't even know what you're talking about because you never played either SHIFT or any other NFS game or maybe neither...

 

[Keetchyboy]

How is PC3 going to outsell those GIANTS?

Cross Platform. That was my point.

Codemasters are firmly looking on capitalizing on the possibilities of the future with next gen consoles and streaming services, as they have seen with the F1 franchise and esports, cross platform is the way to go. The very fact that Sony were forced to enable crossplay for Fortnite and minecraft because their sales were being impacted is a clear indicator of this.

Just because something is big doesn't mean it's better or it can't fail, just look at how Sony toppled Sega and destroyed its former partner Nintendo in the console market. Microsoft had zero market share when it released the XBOX, though admittedly only has 35% now.

In my opinion I don't think PC3 will outsell these titles in their own back yards, especially when Microsoft and Sony will bundle these games with their next gen consoles, but I'm sure Codemasters aim when acquiring SMS was not to play 'second fiddle' to these titles in the long term and to find a way to steal the market away from them, and selling on platforms their competition can't touch is a distinct advantage.

Just Saying.

 

[turbo86]

I played GTL and GTR2 with an analogue pad, basically a PS2 pad copy for the PC, so aside from the disadvantage of a digital throttle and brake input, I could hold my own in online races, so I think it’s largely a myth that you can’t have “sim physics” on a joypad.

Well, the "sim physics" will be there, but you can't experience them and use them in their entirety. So in a sense you can't have sim physics without the proper controller. A steering wheel with FFB.

 

[turbo86]

Cross Platform. That was my point.

Codemasters are firmly looking on capitalizing on the possibilities of the future with next gen consoles and streaming services, as they have seen with the F1 franchise and esports, cross platform is the way to go. The very fact that Sony were forced to enable crossplay for Fortnite and minecraft because their sales were being impacted is a clear indicator of this.

Just because something is big doesn't mean it's better or it can't fail, just look at how Sony toppled Sega and destroyed its former partner Nintendo in the console market. Microsoft had zero market share when it released the XBOX, though admittedly only has 35% now.

In my opinion I don't think PC3 will outsell these titles in their own back yards, especially when Microsoft and Sony will bundle these games with their next gen consoles, but I'm sure Codemasters aim when acquiring SMS was not to play 'second fiddle' to these titles in the long term and to find a way to steal the market away from them, and selling on platforms their competition can't touch is a distinct advantage.

Just Saying.

Sega? Nintendo? When i say GIANTS i'm not talking about companies i'm talking about the games. Forza and GT are GIANTS. Meaning, they offer everything a simcade fan wants or needs and no other game comes even close.

Cross platform doesn't mean anything if the game doesn't have anything to offer compared to the competition. Nobody's going to care if PC3 comes to PS. 200...300 cars and weird physics...? Not even going to bother. They have GT to satisfy their every need, including eSports.
Nobody's going to care if PC3 comes to XBox or even PC either, because there's Forza. What part of it don't you understand? PC3 has NO advantage. NONE. I would say that it would have some advantage if it was the only with customization, but Forza covers that as well.

Again, for PC3 to steal the simcade market away from Sony and Microsoft....it needs to be 4 times bigger and better than Shift 2. I don't know how many cars/tracks it's going to have but i highly doubt it will have as many as GT or Forza.
In the world of simcade,content and features are KING.

 

[stenovitz]

I hope PC3 will improve on from the predecessor in the following terms
- tyre model
- FFB model
- brake model
- free setup of offline mixed chamion series for both shorter junior distances up to full endurance lenght with day/night/sun/rain/moon/etc.
- open for free mods to add

I will not judge the game before it's in my hands.

 

[justfdl]

i say again core physics do not change in a engine you can tell them apart like black/white
Fool yourselves updates can fix any physics in any sim including rF2

Well, AMS2 is using the same engine as PC2, and personally I think it's a pretty well done sim, so it can be done with the same engine.

Also I can't follow your argument about updates not changing the physics, did you follow the development of AMS2 from EA to release? I would say they changed a lot of the physics for the better. And in a surprising short timeframe I would say. ACC would be a second example, they basically rewrote the tire pattern on the road to fix the curb issue, which is pretty deep into car physics.

 

[Marlonracer]

Nice gatekeeping, and you people wonder why simracing is a niche

Said the gatekeeper...

 

[laurent7979]

There is room for PC3
GT Sport is boring as hell and updates will stop because focus is on GT7 now
FH4 is open world arcade cruising
Grid has zero online players and is DLC based
ACC on consoles is terrible
F1 is outdated every year
I want a fun game. On consoles only FH4 PC2 and Wreckfest are really enjoyable. I believe PC3 will be too.
I mean if you want a sim, get ACC on a good pc, spend hours watching Aris on YT explaining the very complex setups or stick with AC/RF2/R3R

 

[Paul McCluskey]

May turn out to be great fun and think we all need a bit of that during this virus thingy, No full race replays no buy.

 

[Deleted member 241736]

That PC3 could work fine for us simracers - plug in and play with a nice graphic fits to times like these where „time“ is a valuable resource

 

[Momperface]

Just saying......

https://imgur.com/bsm9QwN

 

[Rendelius]

My hunger for simming is catered by Automobilista 2 and Race Room Racing Department. A more "grown up" Forza Horizon of Forza Motorsport could be entertaining. I am not sour because they take this route...

 

[Stuntman Daz]

Out of everything I've heard so far, this is the least inspiring news yet. Just sounds like marketing copy on the back of the box

 

[TrumpetReich]

I see the pic of NSXs on a street and that looks fun. You can say it's too similar to NFS, but it SHOULD be, that's where arcade racers flourish. Then I see that pic of an F1 car at what looks like RBR and ehhhh, that's a turn off. Why would I care about race cars on a race track of it's an arcade game focused on upgrades?

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Food for thought.

Back 8-9 years ago, NoGripRacing used to be the place for mods and the hub for discussing racing sims, kinda like what RaceDepartment is now.

Even with its' handling quirks, Shift 2 developed a pretty massive following on the site because it was the only Forza/GT style game on PC, and remained that way until 2017. It also wasn't too grindy, wasn't full of filler cars you'll never drive, and didn't bombard people with DLC packs.

The two most common mods for Shift 2 fell into these two categories:

• More cars, usually just filling out the car roster with brands that weren't in the base game (Ferrari), fleshing out brands that didn't have much representation (Chevy, Dodge), or outright race cars to compliment the mostly complete FIA GT1/GT3 roster.
• Tire model mods. There were at least three ongoing tire model projects from various modding groups to dial out the slideyness and make the game handle more in-line with a traditional sim.

It's also worth noting that the download counts for these mods were insane, and kind of indicated that while publicly people bashed Shift 2 for not being hardcore enough compared to GTR Evo, rF1, etc, almost everyone in the sim community bought it and played it leisurely.

SMS basically just built Shift 3 using those above points as an outline. More cars and a sim-oriented tire model. Based on what the modding community did with Shift 2 and the volume of downloads for tire model mods and add-on cars, this is what a lot of people were unironically asking for even if they weren't outright stating it on the forums.

I personally wouldn't have called it pCars 3 because that's a bit confusing to the consumer, and I would have made an effort to retain pitstops/fuel/tire wear, but at the end of the day that's not my call.

 

[TrumpetReich]

Food for thought.

Back 8-9 years ago, NoGripRacing used to be the place for mods and the hub for discussing racing sims, kinda like what RaceDepartment is now.

Even with its' handling quirks, Shift 2 developed a pretty massive following on the site because it was the only Forza/GT style game on PC, and remained that way until 2017. It also wasn't too grindy, wasn't full of filler cars you'll never drive, and didn't bombard people with DLC packs.

The two most common mods for Shift 2 fell into these two categories:

• More cars, usually just filling out the car roster with brands that weren't in the base game (Ferrari), fleshing out brands that didn't have much representation (Chevy, Dodge), or outright race cars to compliment the mostly complete FIA GT1/GT3 roster.
• Tire model mods. There were at least three ongoing tire model projects from various modding groups to dial out the slideyness and make the game handle more in-line with a traditional sim.

It's also worth noting that the download counts for these mods were insane, and kind of indicated that while publicly people bashed Shift 2 for not being hardcore enough compared to GTR Evo, rF1, etc, almost everyone in the sim community bought it and played it leisurely.

SMS basically just built Shift 3 using those above points as an outline. More cars and a sim-oriented tire model. Based on what the modding community did with Shift 2 and the volume of downloads for tire model mods and add-on cars, this is what a lot of people were unironically asking for even if they weren't outright stating it on the forums.

I personally wouldn't have called it pCars 3 because that's a bit confusing to the consumer, and I would have made an effort to retain pitstops/fuel/tire wear, but at the end of the day that's not my call.

Good analysis

 

[JPL083]

I doubt you have played either any SHIFT game or any NFS game other than SHIFT. You'd have to be an idiot to say that SHIFT was like any other NFS game....or you simply don't even know what you're talking about because you never played either SHIFT or any other NFS game or maybe neither...

I think you quite dont get it.. And sorry to disappoint you but, just turning 37 soon, been playing since around 88 with different systems, and if this track -->

still today is on my playlists in home, car, where ever i go.. So i think you will take some words back.. I was there when the TRUE NFS's came out back in the day's in day 1, and thru 2000's. But NFS has lost its thing a long time a go already, its the bling bling now that matters.. bwoah... In the past, take a mag in your hands, see example a Lamborghini Diablo SV there, then the little boy started to dream.. Only way to live the dream was, to put a disk in the machine, go to the menu where a guy with hes cool voice tells things about your dream car, then you here that music, you listen it time after time after time and you watch the slideshow... Until you go to select a car and road on the countryside, or up to the mountains, and have a go, flatout.. Back then that was so exiting. You, supercar, road and play some cool music. Now bling bling tune s..t out of whatever and have a nitroboost crash pingpangpong in citystreets or something like that..