Project Cars Thoughts

"McChiken116 - Patrick H." (mcchiken116)
05/26/2015 at 14:44 • Filed to: Games, Reviews, Project CARS

So, I was going to write up a full review of the game for Hooniverse, but someone else ended up doing it and did one of the better versions of the game. But I did want to collect some thoughts on the game here.

Now, these are all about the Xbox One version of the game. I have no experience with the PC or PS4 versions.

The one thing that immediately took me were the visuals, which look frankly better than any other racing game out there right now. That and the frame rate was consistent, except the game seemed to slow down in a weird way after heavy braking and then getting back on the gas. Like the game had to think about what speed it needed to show. It is definitely a better racing sim than Forza 5 was, but with a gamepad, it was almost impossible to turn any of the more hardcore options on. Even with the Xbox One’s force feedback triggers it was almost impossible to sense when the car was going to let go or hook up. The game is definitely catered to being a sim.

The lack of street cars is testament to that fact. It’s pretty much all race cars all the time. But on the flip side, there is a ton of motorsports options, again, showing that it has a much different focus than Microsoft’s in-house racer. The most notable absences in the car lineup are the Ferrari’s and Porsches of the world. And while it does have “F1” it didn’t get the license for the series, so it has a few fakers. Which are fine, and let you map DRS and KERS to buttons, allowing for their manual deployment. Getting to blast around the ring in a McLaren GT3 car was probably the most fun I had with the game. But, that only lasted a few hours.

I found myself, after dealing with the terrible karting physics, insane sim options that have no good middle ground, and a completely unforgiving “No rewind, no restart” system going back to Forza 5 if I wanted to lap something around a track. For my taste, Project cars is a good Sim, but not a good game. If you want a game, go back to Forza, or maybe even pickup Forza Horizon 2 if you want the best arcady racer on the new console. If you want something super hardcore to use your new racing wheel with, pickup Project CARS.

DISCUSSION (13)

djmt1 > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/26/2015 at 14:55

Good sim, bad game. Sums up my thoughts on Project Cars perfectly. That said I reckon my enjoyment would be so much more if it wasn’t so damn buggy. I honestly can’t remember playing a racing game at launch in such a terribly state. Seriously how do you let a bug that randomly locks the steering through in a RACING game.

asindhidude > djmt1
05/26/2015 at 15:03

did you miss driveclub? I think it was worse.

Frank Grimes > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/26/2015 at 15:07

so would the game be much easier with a wheel?

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > Frank Grimes
05/26/2015 at 15:08

I think it would, but with the cost of the current Xbox one wheels I don’t know if it’s worth it

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > djmt1
05/26/2015 at 15:08

Oh shit, I didn’t even mention that bug. God dammit that one caused me to have to restart so many races

djmt1 > asindhidude
05/26/2015 at 15:10

Yup, no PS4.

Frank Grimes > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/26/2015 at 15:10

I havent even lookd at xbox one wheels the mad catz is like 300 and then the german wheels are even more. I miss my xbox brand force feedbak wheel but it got asploded

citizennick > djmt1
05/26/2015 at 15:17

For the most part they fixed the controls with the last patch but there has been a few times now where the wheel stays locked, so frustrating.

citizennick > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/26/2015 at 15:19

I just purchased a wheel because of this game. I want to love it, and believe they’ll continue to make it better, but this game got released with some really bad bugs. The audio issues when on the brakes is annoying, as is the steering still getting locked in one direction at any given time, even though they kind of fixed the controls with the latest patch.

Don't even bother with the karts, those are just terrible.

citizennick > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/26/2015 at 15:22

Another thought:

If Forza added a practice/qualifying option to online races as well the ability to create online series’, I would go back to it.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/26/2015 at 15:31

PS4 version is a bit better, none of those stupid bugs. Although I did get frozen in one camera view yesterday but I was about the same pace so that’s no biggy to me. I’ve logged 25ish hours into it. I wish I had a wheel but I don’t PS4 enough to spend that kinda money, maybe if I had more PC access I would.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > citizennick
05/26/2015 at 15:43

See, I like the get up and go about Forza.

citizennick > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/26/2015 at 16:16

These options can be disabled in Project CARS for people who want to just race.