There have been many developers who tried to master the art of racing simulation games; in the 90s the market was heavily dominated by Gran Turismo on the PlayStation, then with the launch of the Xbox you had Project Gotham Racing and after the 360 was released they replaced that with Forza. Each of these games were iconic and arguably the best games available on their exclusive console, but that was their main issue, they were exclusives. How can you truly compare which was the better game when you’re inevitably going to have Sony fanboys crying about Gran Turismo and the Xbox guys and girls who refuse to believe anything beats Forza? Well you need a game that crosses all platforms to do this realistically and I believe Project Cars is the game that will finally bring people together and say “this hands down beats any other racing game I’ve played”.
Now I’d forgive people for not giving Project Cars a chance since its release was delayed so many times and it let a lot of people down who had gotten all hyped up for it. Nevertheless when you look at games like Assassin’s Creed Unity which was obviously rushed to market and happened to be one of the most buggy games I’d played, you can sympathise with the developers for wanting more time to perfect their new title. Still maybe it would be better to wait until you are completely satisfied with your creation before releasing it rather than setting a date and having to keep pushing it back. Anyway despite the extra time taken there are some minor flaws in the game which is inevitable as nothing is perfect, but I do think the positives highly outweigh them so lets move on to find out what they are.
Project Cars isn’t a game which is radically different from the titles I mentioned earlier, it works in a very similar fashion just with fewer official tracks and cars available. Some tracks you will recognise but will have different names and you will also have completely fictitious tracks, but having said that it does well to promote other tracks which don’t get the recognition they deserve such as Donington Park (famous for hosting the Download Music Festival). There are also fewer cars available and unlike the other games there isn’t the same level of customisation available for you to upgrade vehicles and give them fancy decals, but there are go karts (which by the way are extremely difficult to drive). Like the tracks this is again countered by adding some fictional cars which you sit looking at and wish they existed. The lack of official content available will be down to licensing issues where the likes of Forza has secured exclusive rights, but despite that Slightly Mad Studios have done well to still capture some great content themselves.
Where the game lacks in official content though it more than makes up for in realism partly in thanks to the Madness physics engines used for the game, also used apparently in the Need For Speed Shift games. Not sure how well those games were as I gave up hope for the Need For Speed games shortly after Underground 2, but the engine has been utilised well in this game for the most part. The cars are tricky to handle at high speeds especially the go-karts as I mentioned earlier, oversteer or understeer and you will know about it as you’ll be off the track and into a patch of gravel before you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Getting out is tricky as well, because unlike other games where your car just essentially loses speed until you crawl your way back onto the track, here it really feels like you have no control as our wheels spin under you and you see your opponents just getting away. To combat this I did find some suggested settings from a Reddit thread which may help some of you which can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/t4EkXY_dQj41aoHWC3LzAgg/htmlview#gid=0
One area where the game doesn’t shine with regards to realism though is the way the weather effects races. It all looks pretty (probably better if you’re playing this in 4k on your PC) the water trickling down your windscreen, glistening puddles on the track, grey clouds in the sky, but the game doesn’t perform as if that were the case. I’ve seen enough F1 and WRC races to know that when it’s pouring it down then all hell can break loose. I mean drivers can’t see where they’re going, they often lose control of their cars and these are professionals, so it should be the case in the game right? Wrong! It seems as though you can continue racing at full speed as if it were a lovely sunny day, you still need to break at corners and such but it isn’t much different from your bog standard race on a dry track which for me was a bit of a let down. Obviously if you’re racing in 1st person then the view will become somewhat restricted with drops of rain on your front window but you can still see clearly, even with cars in front of you which should be obstructing you further with splash back off their tyres.
As for the graphics of the game, well they’re so damn good. Everything is designed with it being as close to perfection as possible; environments are breathtaking, cars are works of art and like I said above, the raindrops running down your window are just so detailed it is unbelievable. Unfortunately the weathers beauty doesn’t replicate the reality of what it is like to really drive in a downpour. That’s a minor flaw in the overall scheme of things though because the main thing people care about are the cars, you’ve got everything from high powered go-karts to swanky BMW’s and the realism hits again as they are pretty much mirror images of the real thing, almost clone like down to every bolt and strand of fabric in the seatbelts. In fact you could probably put some in a catalogue next to the real photo and you’d struggle to tell them apart. The team have especially done a good job on the fictional racing cars which all look spectacular; it can’t be an easy job, after all the people in the car industry are paid thousands to do it and they still come out with terrible ideas like the Fiat Duplo and Vauxhall Agila, so I think the people at Slightly Mad Studios deserve a pay rise or could look at a career change in the future.
Overall this is a game which its rivals should definitely take note of; I mean you don’t want to deliver too much in your first game, especially if you plan on releasing more of the series and it seems like that is what Slightly Mad Studios have done here. They’ve not held back completely but they have definitely left space for improvements and new content to be added in the future. The game is beautiful and the realism is unbelievable until you introduce the physics for the weather that is, but that takes nothing away from the fun you’ll have playing the game. I think the people on older gen consoles and the Wii U have really missed out by not getting this title and it’s probably one of the first games I have played which if I hadn’t have bought them already, would convince me to go out and buy the new generation. So yeah this game is totally worth every penny and a message for the devs of Gran Turismo and Forza, you best watch your backs cause Project Cars is coming for you.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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