Project Cars Review - Driving On The Edge

I'm hurtling round the twisting, winding bends of Laguna Seca Raceway in a BAC Mono open-wheel track day race car at 180mph on the edge of control.  The rain is pouring down whacking the top of my helmet as thunder and lighting crackles across the sky and I try to keep control of my car as it slips and slides all over the track, desperately trying to whittle my way through a pack of 19 other racers trying to do the same.  I need to change to wet tires.  Do I pit in and hope the rest does the same or risk it with racing slicks so not to give up my position.  This is racing on the edge of control.  This is Project CARS.

I am a huge realistic racing simulation fan.      In the last generation of consoles the genre was not well supported in all honesty.  There was games that were brilliant like Race Driver: GRID, Need For Speed: Shift and Shift 2: Unleashed, all of which fall more into to the simcade sub-category rather than full on sim, Gran Turismo 6, which is indeed a decent sim but long standing problems like non existent AI and terrible audio as well as PS2 era graphics in most of the cars and tracks plus it is utterly soulless and boring, and Codemaster's F1 series their only series that still remains a true realistic representation of the sport while others such as Dirt and Grid have been dumbed down for the casual market and instead of being a realistic simulation of Rally and multiple Motorsport disciplines respectively they are filled with American style drift and Baja racing.

So when I first heard about Project Cars I was immediately behind it.  A realistic racing simulation that features real world tracks and multiple racing disciplines from  Formula 1, 2 & 3, multiple classes of Touring Cars, Open Wheel Track Day Races, Professional Go-Karts, Supercars and Le Mans.  65 cars (or 73 if you buy the game digitally or managed to buy a GAME exclusive Limited Edition) and more to come with free DLC packs featuring new cars and tracks every month.  110 tracks from 30 locations the most ever in a racing game and each car and track deserves their place on the roster rather than its closest rivals Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport where most of the cars are all but useless and seem they are merely there to print impressive numbers when marketing the game before release.  Each car in Project Cars is recreated here in exquisite detail not just in terms of the genre defining visuals but also the physics of each cars handling is spot on and each feels different to drive and unique.  Each track is created with the same excellent attention to detail and deserves to be there.


The graphics are quite simply stunning and on-lookers would be easily mistaken if they caught you playing it and thought you were watching a real live race on television.  The trademark helmet cam Slightly Mad Studios developed first seen in the Need For Speed: Shift series is used to amazing effect here and is the closest you will get in a simulation to actually sitting in a real racing car.   The cars look absolutely stunning and the tracks are fantastic to admire as your speeding round.  The weather effects are truly outstanding as rain pours, splatters across your windscreen with a button set for turning windshield wipers and headlights on and off, you can hear the rain smacking off the body of your car, racers in front of you spraying jets of water from their tires back at you, when in a open wheel car splashing on the visor of your helmet and making the track a nightmare to control your car as it is wet and slippery like trying to ride an elephant over an ice rink.  At the time of writing I haven't been brave enough yet to try racing at night but I have raced in severe fog which arguably is even worse for visibility.  It was extremely challenging and the only thing to help you is if you have a car in front you can follow it's brake lights if you manage to stay close enough, if not or you are at the front its a nerve wracking game of edging round hoping you don't make a mistake and send your car careening into a wall.

A lot of people find realistic racing simulators sterile and boring.  This when speaking about Gran Turismo with its funeral procession AI or Forza Motorsport with it's more simcade handling and casual aimed car and track roster I can totally agree with even though I like both those series mostly due to lack of alternatives in all honesty.   Project Cars is simply leagues ahead in producing a realistic representation of motorsport.  Its twitchy, unforgiving car handling and physics, realistic and dynamic weather system, immersive helmet cam, outstanding audio and visuals including sun glare, fog, night racing and haze obscuring your vision and changing track conditions making the whole experience a truly tense and nerve wracking experience that is the closest thing you will get to being in the shoes of a real racing driver.  The AI is the best I've seen in a racing game they behave like real racers and will slip stream and fight with you to break your line and create space to try and overtake you.  They all behave differently as well most are good professional and courteous racers but you do get oddball drivers who will cut corners and nudge you out of the way.  This seems to be intentional rather than poor game design as former Top Gear's The Stig Ben Collins, who voices the pit chief on your in game headset, advises about certain drivers to watch out for.  My only bug bear is that while the player is penalised for such dirty tactics the AI gets away with it so hopefully this is fixed in a patch soon.

The sound design is rather excellent as well.  From the roar of the cars' different engines, tires squealing as they struggling to retain grip, aforementioned rain battering of the body of your car and spraying off tires, Ben Collins talking to you and offering advice throughout the race, the main title screen's chilling classical score well suited to the tension and nerve jangling sensation of racing and other audio effects like gear changes and other weather effects really help pull you into the experience.  Audio is very important in a racing car as it gives you audible cues like tire squeal and hitting the rumble strip and other engine noise telling you how the car is handling and when you are losing traction or your wheels are  locking and need to react accordingly.  The haptic feedback on the Xbox One controller's triggers and central rumble motor is used to great effect here simulating force feedback in the throttle, brakes and tires that adds even more to the experience and makes controlling the car's that bit easier because you know when to ease off.


Project Cars is quite simply the best realistic racing simulation ever made.  For all the reasons above and also it is worth praising Slightly Mad Studios for staying true to their vision and creating a true representation of motorsport that the community who helped fund the game asked for rather than pander to a more casual audience in pursuit of more sales.  That being said the game features a suite of driving aids so that even someone who has never played a realistic racing game like this before but wants to learn it is very accessible to them without detracting from the developer's original vision.  It is worthy of note there are still a few minor bugs here and there in the visuals and audio but nothing major and I have read a new patch has been released to the people who crowd funded the game so should be out for general release very soon.
It is a true labour of love, a stance against greedy bigger game companies with their game tailored to suit the casual players rather than the die hard fans who buy their games and £300 steering wheels, racing seats and multi-monitor setups expecting a realistic racing experience.
Who fill their games with as little content as they can get away with and charge extra for the rest with season passes and DLC.  Project Cars is a substantial package as it is, well worth the £49.99 I paid for it but with free additional content already being released and more promised in the coming months that I would quite happily have paid extra for is exceedingly encouraging and will provide new experiences to keep fans like myself satisfied for months if not years to come.

Project Cars doesn't just beat it's closest rivals on console Gran Turismo 6 and Forza Motorsport 5.  It laps them twice and sends them spinning off the asphalt into the dirt.
9/10

A good review mate of a good game.

Welcome to the team here!

Thanks mate! Anyone heard when the patch is out?

Here is the best controller settings I've found.

Project CARS - Best gamepad (XBOX controller) settings tutorial - YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3VCWf8fsJ0o

If anyone is on Project CARS Xbox One I'll be on shortly with some of my mates. Gamertag Big Angry Dad82

Nice review mate.

Splendid review mate.

I can see you are extremely passionate about your racers and that comes across well in your review.

Yeah racing Sims are my main genre I love 'em! Pcars is the best sim I've ever played they just need to fix the audio bugs sometimes sound cuts out when you brake and the default controller settings are too twitchy. If you use the settings I've posted above it is so much better.

Thanks for the settings guide. It's good to get advice on these things sometimes when you are wondering what the dickens to set everything at.

Well, this is a game I would have overlooked until your review but I will certainly consider it in the future now. I tend to like my racers with over the top handling like Burnout, And Outrun. I also loves me some Dirt.

Colne Crusader if you don't like racing Sims like Gran Turismo you might not like Project CARS. Its not pick up and play by any means. Its a difficult beast to master and takes a lot of practice and patience. Though when you do get there it us sublime and so rewarding because it takes so much more skill than arcade racing games. There are lots of driving aids to help get you up to speed and they actually help you in this game whereas with GT and F1 games I often find the driving aids make you too slow to keep up. I do love a good arcade racer mind like Burnout, Outrun and Split Second which was by far my favourite arcade racer last gen RIP Black Rock Studios.

If you love Outrun I'd highly recommend Outrun 3D on the 3DS!

I do like Gran Turismo etc too. Finding it tough to drag myself back to forza 5 though!

Nice review buddy, looking forward to checking this one out

Nice review fella, I enjoy a good racer. And have spent many hours playing the recent F1 and Forza games. I'm interested in this, but some of the comments I had heard so far had put me off a bit. This has now made me want to pick it up at some point.

Tbh the default controls are useless and that has put a lot of people off. I was really looking forward to this game ever since its inception so was willing to look up good controller settings and can look past the bugs. Once you do that its glorious and the bugs/controller issues will be addressed in a patch. I'm a bit more forgiving since its a lower budget crowdfunded game and its a labour of love from the devs and that shows in the game. I did a race in the career earlier. Practice was cloudy, qualifying had fog then it cleared up and was sunny for the race. The difference was astonishing. If you do get it Id recommend starting out practicing with GT3 or Formula Rookie they are easiest to drive and get to grips with the handling.

Excellent review of a great game.When they patch the controls it will be perfect.

Nice review mate, just looking forward to the patch being released

They've patched the controls now. I'm using controller input mode 2. I've also not noticed the audio bug when braking since the update. There is an issue where the patch might not download for you. You have to check your game file size in total is 18.5gb including day one DLC. If it is 18.1gb and you don't get a message to update when you start the game I'm afraid to say you have to delete the game hard reset your console by holding power button for 10 seconds until it switches off then boot it back up and re-install the game. Totally worth it though new fixed controls are excellent and they've updated a lot of tracks like Nurburgring's greenery is a lot more bright and vibrant now.

My update autodownloaded I didn't personally have the issue above but I had to check the forums to see the patch was out and read about the issue on there.

I had an update when I first installed the game, and was under the impression another patch is due to be released.

Check your game file size it should be 18.5gb including any DLC (DLC is only a few mbs). If it says 18.1gb the patch isn't installed and the only way to get it is by doing the above according to the forums some people are not getting the patch but once deleted fully including DLC (though save games are kept thankfully) hard reboot console then reinstall and the patch should be included. Note this was talking about the Xbox One version on the forum I read so might not be applicable on PS4 & PC.

My game size is 18.5GB, have tweaked the control settings and there has been an improvement, but still not perfect.

To be clear, NO patch has been released since the day one patch yet on XONE or PS4

Rumour is tomorrow for PS4, nothing yet on XONE as its still with M$ sadly.

Really? Well I've been using controller mode 2 and its excellent whereas it was too twitchy at launch and nigh on impossible. Maybe I didn't have the day one patch then and that's what the forums are on about. Still check your game file size is 18.5gb mine was only 18.1 so must not have got the day one patch then.

Yes you just got the day one patch.

The game drives MUCH better on PS4 as I have both versions

Just seen on Twitter that the XBone patch is/has been released today.........

Awesome cheers dazamann