8 Things I've Learned From Playing 'Project Cars'

‘Project Cars’ is a racing game developed by ‘Slightly Mad’ studios and was released in 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. With 74 cars and 30 locations, including go-kart circuits, famous GP circuits and two point to point roads. Here is what I’ve learned after a while of playing it.

1. It’s a motorsport game, not a racing game

Yes, motorsport is racing, and yes, the whole point of the game is racing. But while most cars are actual race cars and all cars have race liveries, it’s somewhat different. All but two of the locations are circuits and the two that aren’t – have no traffic. On top of that, there is a system of the flags you get in a real event and even have a race engineer or a team manager over the radio (even though he’s really buggy).

2. Physics is everything

You get the impression that the main focus of the developers was physics. There is quite a difference from the handling of a V8 supercar and an LMP1 car. Every car category has its own driving characteristics. With that, there is also a tuning menu – you can change springs and dampers, fuel load etc. but not power. Driving when two wheels are on the road and two are on the grass does give what you’d expect from a physics-focused game but the only let-down I have in terms of physics is crashing. Of course, you’re not meant to crash much, but when you do there isn’t much going on. 40 mph crash and 100 mph crash feels the same and both don’t do much visual damage.

3. Weather is fun, but incomplete

The weather and time are changeable. You could race at nights with thunderbolts or drive in the hazy afternoon. You could also have it being changed during the race, which is a huge bonus. However, setting the rate of change is really confusing, and the option to sync the weather to the race simply doesn’t work! So many times I’ve tried to race with changing weather and either the weather didn’t change or it changed every 5 minutes. This has to be the biggest (and plausibly the only major) fault with the game.

4. You could tune your car just right, if you know what you are doing

The tuning menu, as mentioned before features every aspect of the car except power-related. The main things to tune are alignment, suspension, steering ratios and so on. This could transform your car immensely. Take for example the Mitsubishi Evo that has very soft dampers. Quick tune in the tuning menu and you have almost a different animal. Some would complain that the tuning menu is a bit complicated, and I’d agree; if you have no idea on what everything means, it’s hopeless. In one sentence, then, if know what everything means it’s a great feature, if you don’t – then it’s absolutely useless.

5. Selecting car and track isn’t easy

The most famous tracks, including the Nurburgring, Spa Franorchamps, Monza, and Silverstone etc. are there. Choosing a track is easy, with so many options and variations of the tracks. Choosing a car, however, is rather different. Because each car handles almost completely different than the other it’s a bit difficult being specific. I often find myself scrolling up and down trying to pick a car but usually I just don’t really want any. 17 cars are Le Mans Prototype cars, and 24 are GT cars, so choosing inside a class is easy, but there aren’t enough classes. If only there was balanced amount of cars in each category, more categories and more cars, it would be easy to pick a car.

6. Strategy is second to racing

Because the physics are very close to reality and because there is weather and time system, you can win or lose a race by planning it. Calculating fuel consumption and tire wear while expecting rain, can lead you to focus on choosing the right time to pit. So times I lost a race because I pit in the wrong time, or won because I decided not to pit. Even more than that, I was going off-track because I had slicks instead of rain tires. And the funniest – ran out of fuel in the middle of the race. Strategy and planning is an important factor that can’t be ignored.

7. Race engineer is unfinished

He does not ruin the gameplay much, but he has some really weird moments. Saying that rain is expected, and later the whole race is dry, telling us that he’ll call ‘green’ when the race starts and ‘forgetting to’ and there are even worse examples. On the other side, I really wish he’d warn me about running out of fuel or indicating tire wear, he does none of that. The idea is good and I really like it, the execution is rather unfinished.

8. Career mode is really boring

I’m not going to say too much about it because I haven’t played it enough. But I can say that the reason I haven’t played much of it because I tried and gave up early. The idea is that there are motorsports to race in. You start in karting and progress up to Le Mans, single seater racing or so on. You have to race a number of times until a scout sees how good you are and signs you in their team, which is either different motorsport or better team in the same motorsport. This feels so boring and repetitive, that I stop playing it. You don’t feel like you’re moving somewhere and I rather stick to arcade mode.

Overall Project Cars is a great game and different from Forza and Gran Turismo, having great gameplay overall. This game does not suit anybody; it suits mainly people who’d enjoy motorsport. Unlike other racing games today, this is the ‘serious’ one with ‘grown up’ gameplay which some may find boring. If you like watching motorsport, this may be the game for you. To sum it up, this game is more on the simulator side than a game, and it would be hard for me to recommend unless I know you’re into that.
It does have its weaknesses but overall they are not as significant and recognizable.
If you’re into motorsport and want a simulation type of game, this is the game for you.