Project Cars Preview - April 2015
Available on PS4 (tested), Xbox One, Wii U and PC
Project Cars release date: May 2015
I admit it, last time I played Project Cars I came away so disheartened that I was actually a little worried to play it again. As you can read in my previous preview below, there was so much wrong with the last build of Project Cars that it made even the single-player mode near impossible.
It made it even worse that I believe that the current crop of consoles could do with a truly realistic racer, something to complement the Forzas and the Gran Turismos already available. Project Cars developer Slightly Mad has its ear to the ground, trying to address the issues gamers have with other racers – for instance, by introducing a customisable HUD – so this has become a bit of a community-driven project.
And thankfully, things are looking up.
Previously, I’ve played Project Cars on PS4 and PC, but at Bandai Namco’s Level Up event it was time to try the Xbox One version. This has been one of the more elusive versions of Project Cars and something I’d been keen to try, as I believe the Xbox One is the best platform for racing games if you’re not donning a full racing wheel setup. That’s down to the Xbox One controller, with it’s rumbling impulse triggers, which let you feel your car’s grip on the track in your very fingertips.
Just like the PS4 and PC versions of Project Cars, this is the most graphically realistic racing game available right now. The weather effects are seriously impressive and the cars’ bodywork catches the setting sun so perfectly that you might even reach for your sunglasses.
But I’ve never had issues with Project Cars’ graphics before. They’ve always been the most notable of all Project Cars’ features, aside from perhaps the sheer range of vehicles on hand to power around the circuits.
See also: PS4 vs Xbox One
One of the main issues I had with the earlier builds of Project Cars was the AI behaviour. More often than not, instead of being rammed by my competitors, they ended up driving up on to my roof, or underneath me – rendering me immobile until I reset the race.
Thankfully these issues have now been completely rectified. No matter how many times I tried, the other players were crashed, bashed and generally battered by my car of choice every time. That was much to the annoyance of my in-ear race coach, who was warning me of my reckless driving like a panicked driving instructor.
Unfortunately we still couldn’t test out the pit stop functionality of Project Cars, but hopefully that will come in another build or, of course, when we come to review the game in full.
See also: Best PSN Games 2015
What’s also been fixed in the latest console build is the issue I was having with handling. As you can read in my earlier preview, I was having serious problems with random, invisible items on the track that caused my car to jump when I hit them.
It was an extremely big deal for me at the time, because it totally took away from the realism that Slightly Mad has achieved with the tracks, weather effects, day/night cycles and the cars themselves. There’s still nothing better than playing around with the various race settings of Project Cars and letting the game show you what it’s really made of graphically.
So if Slightly Mad has fixed the AI and random bumper issues, why then do I still feel like Project Cars is missing something?
Well it’s about the vehicle handling and Project Cars’ ability to capture the personality of the cars themselves.
The little karts are great and the supercars are unruly and headstrong, but it’s that middle tier of cars, like the 2012 BMW 1M Coupe or 2013 Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG, that just lack some of the throaty growls and Top Gear-esque excitement that I was hoping for.
These aren’t your Ford Fiestas, your Peugeot 206s or even your Fiat Cinquecentos. Those middle-tier cars are beasts that should have your triggers rumbling around the corner, and let you feel the power as you accelerate into the straight. I was almost bored at one point as I realised there was still another couple of laps of a race to go and my fellow racers lagged behind me.
Hopefully, the handling will be tweaked a little more before launch. I definitely feel like this game has come a long way since I saw it last, and repeated launch delays are definitely in favour of the game and its future players.
Revised Impressions
Everything is on the up for Project Cars, as it no longer feels like a broken game. Now Project Cars has the potential to be the definitive racer – especially for those looking for a simulation with some seriously impressive graphics. All that’s left to do is fine-tune the handling before launch.
See also: Best Xbox Live Games 2015
Project Cars Preview - January 2015
While there's been a number of racing games launch on new gen consoles in the past year, Need for Speed: Rivals aside, there's not one cross-platform driving game that has made us want to go back for more.
Project Cars, which launches in March for Xbox One, the PS4, PC and even the Wii U is hoping to change that with the aim of being the most realistic simulation racer you can get your hands on.
Project Cars is competing with the stunning racers like Forza Horizon 2 and DriveClub, and playing it on PS4 I can hands down say it will be the most realistic, and beautiful, racer on the market when it is released.
For my opening race, I found myself in the Dubai Autodrome, wrestling with an Audi R8 in the middle of a thunder storm, with rain pouring down the windscreen in gullies.
The large raindrops drip onto the screen in third person view, making visibility almost impossible for navigating the track.
It was only after I’d struggled around three laps of the GP circuit that it was recommended I avoided racing during the thunderstorms due to the handling not being quite right yet. It did feel like the car was trying to turn corners on a sheet of ice, even at painfully low speeds.
See also: Best Racing Games 2015
The same can be said for other weather types too. I particularly loved driving around the tracks by the light of the setting winter sun; the golden hues painting the sky and highlighting the beauty of the tracks.
Tracks are impressively accurate too. You’ll feel your car picking up some serious pace as you descend the mountain at Bathurst and the thrill of the high speed Curva Grande at Monza.
I had immense fun trying out the sheer amount of vehicles on offer and experimenting with the weather and time of day to see how beautiful the game could really get.
One particular highlight was racing around Silverstone at night, lit by nothing other than the headlights of our track day car and our rivals.
The realism is added to by the fact the game has been developed using the expertise of Ben Collins (a.k.a The Stig), Le Mans Series championship leader Oliver Webb and former European Touring Car Cup and Renault Clio Cup racer Nicolas Hamilton (brother of F1 Lewis Hamilton).
See also: Best Games 2015
That’s also reflected in the fact that pit stops are essential to winning a race. Unfortunately they weren’t functioning correcting in this build, but the race coach was constantly prompting me to consider changing my wheels before another rainstorm.
Despite the help of the race coach, Project Cars still feels like it has a major flaw – handling.
I can appreciate that it's a game built around being the most realistic racing simulation game to date, but it feels like the look and sound of the game has been prioritised over the way the cars actually drive – or at least in this preview build and others I’ve sampled before it.
See also: PS4 vs PS3
Even when driving in completely clear weather conditions and keeping within the racing lines, cars flick out of control for no reason. A slight twitch even on a straight stretch would send my car spinning off the road.
Then there’s the issue that my car would often hit invisible bumpers or objects in the road, making my car leap suddenly as if I’d hit a wall at high speed.
If you are the kind of racing car gamer that finds keeping to the track hard at times, you can forget about getting back to the racing lines in time to keep your position. I found as soon as my tires even got a wiff of a grass verge I was out there in the rough, finding it nearly impossible to get back to the track even at a low speed.
The AI though have none of these issues whatsoever. They stick to the track like glue and if they do get forced on the verges, they spring back to the track with elegance and ease.
See also: Xbox One vs Xbox 360
If you steer towards other cars in the road, the AI will literally veer away from you like your vehicles all have opposing magnets attached to them. It seems very unrealistic that it’s near impossible to have a collision or a crash with another vehicle during a race and that the AI-controlled vehicles simply don’t behave the same as the one you’re driving.
We also noticed that the weighting of some vehicles is a little off. At one point in a race with 15 other Ford Escorts, I (finally) managed to drive into back of one of the cars. Instead of turning the back of his car into a crumpled mess, I just drove straight up his boot and plonked myself on the roof. This happened several times, with different vehicles too, to the point that some of the races were impossible to finish because I would get stuck underneath a competitor’s car.
First Impressions
It might just be a case that we need more time with Project Cars to make the most of the ultra realistic handling, but there are definitely issues that need to be fixed before launch. Cars shouldn’t be jumping after hitting thin air, or driving on top of one another.
Project Cars looks and sounds the part, it just needs to have the handling fixed before it can get the green light.