The world of racing games is generally divided into two different groups: Intricate Racing Experiences and Arcade Fun. The intricate racing experiences are games like Gran Turismo, Forza and F1 Racing. You get a healthy dose of real world depth and intense on-track mayhem. Licenses and racers are vital to their survival, as are real world tracks from around the globe. Tuning and changing cars on the inside and outside are also important drawing points to the above titles. When you play games like those, you’re in for a long ride (pun intended).
Then there are arcade racing titles like Ridge Racer, Need for Speed and Shift, which focus on the fun experience of the drive rather than depth. Arcade titles that tell stories or simply throw you into the mix, have a very safe place in my heart when it comes to the racing genre. They’re the cake without the effort of the bake. I can take that any day of the week.
So with that said, what if someone like Slightly Mad Studios decided that they were going to put together the best of both worlds in attempt at delivering one of the more epic racing games for this current generation? Well, they have certainly given it a shot with Project CARS. Let’s break this down a bit.
The PC version of Project CARS is probably the best out of the bunch, just to be blunt about it. I am not a PC guy by nature, in fact I just got into PC gaming about 3-4 years ago, but I’m impressed with how the PC version of the game handles itself both in visuals and gameplay.
On the gameplay side of things the controls seem to be far tighter than the game’s console counterparts. Having played Project CARS both on the PC and the PS4, I quickly turned in my PS4 controller for an Xbox 360 wired controller for my computer. The controls are tight, responsive and they turn on a dime when you need them to during a race. For example, the first race I played in the game was with a kart. The race had 13+ curves in .34 miles of track. On the PC side of things, the controls seemed to respond almost instantly with my thumbstick movement. I didn’t run off the track or hit a wall going around a curve in the first 5-6 races. I was nearly flawless. On the PS4 side, I had issues with constantly over turning or pulling too hard with the kart around curves, which either sent me into the sand area or pushed me into a wall. It was odd. I was using the same camera angle and essentially the same type of controls, so I’m not sure what the difference was between the two platforms, but regardless, the PC version was the way to go if you’re looking for smoother controls.
Having said that, the controls were something to behold when you go from different car types and different track types. They can be pleasantly frustrating (seriously), no matter the platform. When I say pleasantly frustrating, I mean that Slightly Mad Studios has done their homework to decide how each car is going to act on specific tracks, during specific conditions. For example, when I was driving a Caterham Superlight R500 on a flat Mercedes track, I had no issues with breaking around curves or moving and drifting between my opponents. On the flip side to that equation, when I was driving Pagani Huayra on a very turned-filled Le Circuit Bugatti track, braking and turning curves was a bit stiffer due to the cars design and actual real world handle. It was impressive to see the parity and it was a consistent parity, something you would find in a game like Gran Turismo. In short, expect good physics and track style accountability (as well as car design) to work with and against you during your races in Project CARS.
Let’s talk about modes.
The impressive part about Project CARS isn’t the large amount of tracks or cars that the game provides you with, rather it’s the the modes and how deep they can get. The first and deepest mode of the bunch is the career mode. The career mode allows you to play seasons in different types of races. If you want to create a Kart racing career, you can do it in this mode. If you want to go through an F1 career, it allows this to happen. If you are the type of person who likes Endurance racing, the game has you covered. There are so many different types of racing careers to choose from (16 in initial total) that vary in tiers. In short, Project CARS has a little bit of everything for any type of racer. That’s quite the girth for Slightly Mad Studios to hand out to racing fans. Each type of career has a season to go through with a system intact to adjust and replace your vehicles. You can also sign contracts and move up with racing teams as well. Again, amazing depth for a game that isn’t called Gran Turismo. You will, as I have, spend a lot of time in this mode.
The next mode of interest is the Solo mode, which is essentially just a quick race/free practice. This allows you to race any car that you have available and any track that is available. It’s a quick hitter that allows you to test out car and track conditions as you see fit. It’s pretty neat and it’s incredibly quick. Consider this the manual tutorial mode when you want to get used to something. Of course, this mode is the shallowest of the bunch, so don’t expect more than what you assume you get from it.
The last mode of interest in the bunch is the online mode. Granted, I haven’t played much of it, as there isn’t a large amount of ruthless players yet due to the pre-launch review session. It’s a step ahead of Drive Club, though, as you can indeed play online. That’s a huge plus. In all seriousness, though, the online play is solid, at least pre-launch. My first experience with online racing had me start the session in the middle of the race. I’m not sure what that did for me overall, but it was cool to see that option exist. Another nice option for this mode is having the ability to create your own race, select the cars and create the conditions for it. That’s probably in a lot of racing games, but with the amount of goods you get with this game, it’s going to be interesting to see what people come up with for online play. I will definitely come back to this portion of the review once a ba-zillion people log onto the game for online action.
Other mode-esque things to look forward to beyond the initial three is something called Driver Network. This is where you can go participate in community events, time trials and check in on the leaderboard. Much like the online portion of this game, I can’t wait to see this explode once the game is opened up to the consumers. I don’t have a great grasp on it, but will once the game gets populated.
Having laid all this out to you, the only concern that I have with the game is that there are currently a lot of ‘coming soon’ modules on the interface. While certainly you get quite a bit with the initial release, I’m curious to see what has been left out and what is missing from the experience right now. I can see a lot of DLC coming out for this game, so make room in your budget. BUT! Don’t cringe. As you can tell from the previous ramblings above, there is enough here to warrant the asking price. I just hate seeing so many empty spots.
Now, what’s not empty in this game is the amount of detail and presentation Slightly Mad Studios brings to the table with Project CARS. It’s easily one of the most gorgeous racing games to date. The lighting, shading, shadows, details of the cars — all of it is spot on and sets a new bar for racing games. Need an example? Change the camera view to the inside of the vehicle when you’re driving (doesn’t matter which vehicle) and you can see almost every readout is moving and showing life. Turn into the sun with the vehicle and see how the visibility reacts. Hell, enjoy the trees around your car as you’re speeding through and see how the trees work with the lighting. Visually, this is an impressive game to watch in action. The resolution is 1080p on PC with a solid (probably not locked, I don’t have anything to measure that — see Digital Foundry for details) 60fps. I wish there was an option to record the replay of my races, as they would certainly be a treat to watch.
The only knock in terms of visuals is the lack of carnage from bumping cars. I experienced my first ‘hood flying off’ when I was playing online, but didn’t really get much or any damage on default mode during my career. That’s not a big knock, but I know that game racing experts out there like damage. I’m not sure why, but eh. I do understand that dents and dings are part of the game, so the importance is there. Having a damaged car trying to race non-damaged cars should create a disadvantage. I just didn’t experience much of it during my career mode. It might have unintentionally encouraged me to drive the wrong way on the track, though, so maybe it’s a good thing.
All in all, Project CARS is a great racing game that contains the right amount of depth and the right amount of loose fun to make all types of video game racing fans happy. A new car certainly has entered the track and is about to give the bigger boys a run for their money.
To the summary!
