PC3 Project CARS 3 to Change Focus?

[Paul Jeffrey]

Slightly Mad Studios Head Ian Bell recently revealed PCARS 3 is in development, and now hints have been dropped that the direction of the title might change for the next release.

The Project CARS series of games have, up until this point, been heavily focussed on a wide selection or road and race cars from a wide variety of different disciplines of motorsport - giving players the opportunity to drive such varied machines as top tier open wheel cars, to stockcar, touring cars, GTs, historic and road going performance machines.

Although the scope of the previous two versions of the game are indeed admirable, some could argue that potentially Slightly Mad Studios looked to become a jack of all trades with their game content, and as a result became the master of none.

This appears to have been noted by the decision makers back at SMS, as Ian Bell once again took to the internet to drop a few hints about the next release - suggesting that maybe Slightly Mad Studios would look to return to their roots somewhat, and produce an experience more akin to the earlier Need for Speed Shift release of 2009.

“I’ll let you know that pCARS3 will be more ‘focused’… More ‘fun’…" said Bell over on the GT Plant forums. "We went to insane lengths with variation in pCARS2 and with that comes infinite balancing issues. We’ve learned a lesson here and although we have no intention of reducing content, we know what we need to fix, where we made design decisions that were, let’s call it, ‘sub-optimal’…​

“pCARS3 will be more of a spiritual successor to Shift, but with all of the sim goodness everyone appreciates… The key focus though is on fun and not biting off more than we can properly chew and digest.”
​

Ian Bell does refer to the desire to retain the "sim goodness" of PCARS 1 & 2, however the shift (ha ha) towards an experience more closely aligned to the Need for Speed series does suggest that the new title could take itself a little less seriously than has been the case in the past, and leads one to wonder if a more arcade slant is to be applied to the title than has been the case in the past.

With PCARS 1 & 2 failing to match the quality of other sim racing titles the likes of rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa, RaceRoom and AMS, and with new games from Reiza Studios and the Early Access Assetto Corsa Competizione from Kunos in the works, a move towards a more fun and light hearted experience is probably not a bad idea for PCARS and the new title - quite how the end result will pan out remains to be seen.

One thing is for sure, however SMS pitch the new title, it will be very interesting to hear and read what is said on the build up to release of what is surely going to be another very interesting piece of software from the prolific game studio.

Check out the Project CARS 3 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for more news, discussion and features on this sequel release to the hugely popular Project CARS franchise of games.

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[wicken]

Before people jump into further conclusions, the recent comments from Ian Bell should be taken into consideration.

It's more 'Shift' in terms of us giving you less of a 'sandbox' and more of a fun game. Aside from that we plan to really go to town on sim goodness...

As he also said that they plan to make the tyre physics even more detailed.

I'm glad that they're considering going down this path as the "Need for Speed Shift series" were my intro into the simulation games.

 

[protonv5]

They can keep it, I've got several other high quality sims on my PC, thanks

 

[JJSCA]

Lol they still haven't understood the point... They have a golden base to build the ultimate sim to blow all the competition... All the content all the licenses, all the weather and that good stuff. All they need to understand that they need to finish the product before they ship it and take some care about buidling the physics, it all just needs to be properly dialed in and not throw generic numbers in the physics...

PC2 can be a marvel as well as a joke at times if they would bother to deliver it has so much potential... I personally have had great moments in PC2 but then the next race it felt like trash. Makes me wonder what if they would take the time. Seems they are more interested with the money of console sales than delivering though...

 

[ChaosZeroJK]

They stopped being relevant when they started bribing people with blogs so that they would stop spreading negativity towards them.

 

[Dobermann92]

Lol they still haven't understood the point... They have a golden base to build the ultimate sim to blow all the competition... All the content all the licenses, all the weather and that good stuff. All they need to understand that they need to finish the product before they ship it and take some care about buidling the physics, it all just needs to be properly dialed in and not throw generic numbers in the physics...

PC2 can be a marvel as well as a joke at times if they would bother to deliver it has so much potential... I personally have had great moments in PC2 but then the next race it felt like trash. Makes me wonder what if they would take the time. Seems they are more interested with the money of console sales than delivering though...

I think the physics are mostly okay in PC2 and the base is great as you mentioned, just a little bit of polishing, bugfixes, dedicated online servers and lobbies could make a big difference.

 

[StillRiver]

Project Cars 2 has more content than most racing games and in my eyes does not fall short to its competitors at all. Many other racing games have only been successful because of hard working moding community. I will be really looking for their third title.

 

[StillRiver]

I think it would be nice if they were to leave aside Rallycross and Karting, and make even more tracks for the main disciplines.

 

[Andor]

I'd be happy if the car's cornering physics would change!(The car would turn from the front wheel, not from the middle.)
In addition: Full FIA GT 2004 season (or 2003/2005)
and Retro Car Racing Series (similar to GT Legends)

 

[Jason Mullin]

More sims to choose from the merrier.
Bring it on.

 

[whip]

i don't think sms are capable of making a good feeling sim, look how many games they've tried now, pcars 3 will be no different and will just have less content, i bet you a million bucks they bring out a seperate dirt game to milk customers

 

[Neils on Wheels]

I think the physics are mostly okay in PC2 and the base is great as you mentioned, just a little bit of polishing, bugfixes, dedicated online servers and lobbies could make a big difference.

Just my opinion but I don't think they could make it that much better.
I had some fun in VR using the caterhams as rally cars, overall though i just prefer other sims.
As a one player game it was disappointing, the ai was only useful in the dry. I think it was an impossible task for them to get the Ai right in this game with all the weather & the given hw limitations.
The physics wasn't bad but it was rare you didn't have to change the setup.
They ruined the historic cars with putting modern tyres on them & using a clutch system for game pad users.
The replay system was so lame in vr i wanted to cry.
The FFB always felt a division lower than every other sim i have despite spending way too many hours trying to fix it & some cars felt worse than some of the crappiest AC mods i have tried.
I'm not interested in shift/pcars3 as it doesn't sound like my type of game but i hope its a good game either way.

 

[DJankovic92]

i don't think sms are capable of making a good feeling sim, look how many games they've tried now, pcars 3 will be no different and will just have less content, i bet you a million bucks they bring out a seperate dirt game to milk customers

But they will still charge you 59.99 for it even with less content

 

[Andrew Harper]

I know I'm in the minority on RD with this but I do race on PC2 a great deal, have done various leagues, won races (which I've never been able to do on other sims) and had a great time racing on it.

No it's not perfect and it does have issues. Oddly I've never experienced any crashes or major bugs. Maybe just the occasional glitch with lighting with the 24 hour races but nothing major. Although I did lose a race once with a frame stutter at Long Beach! lol

From a purely visual point of view it does a lot right, the weather, time scaled races, and general graphics quality is very good.

The selection of vehicles is great too. Racing on the classic Le Mans Layout in the Gulf Porsche is great fun.

By comparison the one thing I will admit to is I can't get on with Assetto Corsa. A great sim but for some reason I can't deal with it's tyre physics. So most of the complaints I read are usually racers going from AC to PC2. So sometimes maybe it's purely just personal preference, FFB feel and so on. Which is fair enough.

I race on RF2, Raceroom, and ACC as well. They all have their good points and bad points.

My worry with this announcement though (and I admit I read it quickly) it sounds like they want to dumb the game down? Make it more arcade like.

As others have mentioned above, this isn't really needed. Just spend time and effort ironing out the issues that people mention, the title is pretty good it just needs to properly sorted and maybe (just maybe) the sim racing crowd will have some trust in them again. The game has the potential to be one of the best, they just need to sit down and work on it.

I've signed up for an endurance league, with full weather and time scale. No it won't be state of the art physics like RF2 for example but I'll have fun and that's good enough for me.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

“pCARS3 will be more of a spiritual successor to Shift, but with all of the sim goodness everyone appreciates…"

So basically take the base of pCars 2, and add these things from Shift back into it:

• Driver XP
• Corner/Track Mastering
• Car buying/selling/upgrading
• Maybe an in-game livery editor if we're lucky
  
• Forza Motorsport 2-style Career Mode

This is the exact progression taken by Codemasters when they went from DiRT Rally to DiRT 4.

 

[ears]

Sounds like more 'this will be amazing for everyone' marketing claptrap to me.

 

[Sonoafafayon]

I know I'm in the minority on RD with this but I do race on PC2 a great deal, have done various leagues, won races (which I've never been able to do on other sims) and had a great time racing on it.

By comparison the one thing I will admit to is I can't get on with Assetto Corsa. A great sim but for some reason I can't deal with it's tyre physics. So most of the complaints I read are usually racers going from AC to PC2. So sometimes maybe it's purely just personal preference, FFB feel and so on. Which is fair enough.

.

I am 100% the same as you here. I too really like PC2, and PC1 was the game that really pulled me into enjoying sim racing and GT racing in general, which I now live for. I tried to play AC, mostly due to the mods and praise it got, however I simply cannot get a good feel for it, unlike my ties with PC2.

I know people will bash me for saying I prefer PC2 over AC, but that's just me. And before people say "oh that's because you're just casual and like simcades", I am currently finding ACC to be amazing (bar the bugs) in terms of driving and physics.

 

[aka2k]

They should recycle the Shift 2 formula. It was a great game.

 

[ATGinCT]

Ironically I dusted off Pcars 2 today having played with my new steering wheel for a week with my go to Sims.

I lasted all of 5 mins; it's shockingly terrible or I had the new wheel setup completely wrong.

With RRE, I just plugged in my wheel, loaded the default profile and away I went.

I'm gutted it's not as good as my other Sims as the content, eye candy (apart from the terrible AA) it really has a lot to offer.

So if anyone has any tips on how to setup a TS-PC, coming from a T300, please let me know.

Back on topic, I wish them well in their new venture maybe it will be third time lucky - allow modding and potentially will be on to a winner

I went from T300 to TS-PC a little less than a year ago, for FFB I use a combination of approaches, I use the Jack Spade profile for the volume/tone values and then adjust gain per car and I use either the
Thrustmaster & Fanatec FFB Project CARS 2 - v5.1, or the
Project Cars 2 FFB Custom Settings v1.8 for T300/TX, both found on this site. Both are excellent from my perspective and I switch between them, I wish I could figure out how to incorporate the best aspects into one file honestly.
As far as the general sense of anti PCars hostility goes, yes it's real and yes it's found here very loudly. Frankly I have all the top sims, hundreds of mods and apps for them all and pretty much all I play is Project Cars 2, that doesn't make the others crap, I never mocked the players that preferred other games even when they came across as cultists instead of gamers, I mean why bother?
I try to financially support all the studios since they produce what I enjoy playing, driving games, I even buy the NFS type games even if I don't ever play them, because they all move the genre forward.
It's a cheap hobby really esp compared to my "investments" in the pursuit of largemouth bass, good rod/reel combo's, 19ft boat, 90hp motor, lures, hooks, jigs etc etc, nevermind the travel and lodging, so yea sim racing is cheap, buy and support them all as it only helps us all have something to do after a nice day on the water.

 

[Durge Driven]

New year and already tired of the constant division

How insane when all we want is the most realistic driving model

But when you try to examine another possibility, like sims working together to produce a superior engine you get abuse almost like you talk heresy !

" Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs...... "

Basically you saying having 10 sims that all exhibit different physical characteristics is realistic

 

[Pepper606]

I get the sense that project Cars isn't 'pure'. Not really accepted in the sim racing world...I just looked and I've done exactly 600 hours in PC2! I really like PC2; Jack Spades mod really helped the game IMHO.

Accept the game for what it is and enjoy it, the sheer diversity in cars and eras has to be applauded.
Very welcomed by myself and I pray for another road/road race sim.
763 hours into AC and I'll bet most of that is in the road going cars too