Project CARS 2

Armenius

Armenius

Extremely [H]
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Jan 28, 2014
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Surprised to find no thread was created for this yet.

A bunch of VR vids have been posted to Youtube in the past week. Looks like the game we were promised years before the first game was released.









 
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Some of the new tracks.

Historic Monza looks amazing.


In VR with historic roadsters in a short race.


Nordschleife showing off new snow weather.




EDIT: Removed two videos as they have since been taken down.
 
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All cars shown in the game menus as of the current build (758).


All tracks and variants.
 
Armenius said:
Some of the new tracks.
Historic Monza looks amazing.
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I'll admit it does look nice. I'm open to it being good, but I'm going to hold on to my money, until it has been released and I have read reviews from both journalists and players.
I own the first one and I completely stopped playing it some time ago due to a few issues I have with it, force feedback being one of them - compared to several other games.
...so I'm not getting on the hype train. If it's on par with 2 other titles I'll be comparing it to (or better), then they'll get my money, if not, I'll wait for product updates from elsewhere.
Reviews by people being paid by the developer or supported by them really don't mean anything to me these days. I often find it interesting to compare reviews by journalists to normal players on metacritic (in kind of the same manner as movie reviews on rotten tomatoes).
 
Assetto corsa just washes the floor with project cars. But still what really did this in was the terrible AI.
Honestly I'm not that impressed by the video. The car looks good but the track seems very rough, as in not enough detail. It actually reminded me of games from many years ago. Doesn't seem to be a leap forward, more like walking in place at best. Actually after looking at multiple videos the track graphics is just fugly.
I know it's hard to judge the physics on a video, but that too looks too arcade like to me. The lotus seems way too stable, only a bit of understeer here and there, that car is supposed to be much more fidgety. And the bottom out effect has to be one of the worst I saw in games.
 
The question is, is it a simulation? Because it's the only racing sim around that have that kind of physic.
 
I don't see why all of these games can't coexist together. The line drawing in the sand is ridiculous. Every game has their own unique draw to them. It would be like saying Battlefield washes the floor with Call of Duty, so should no one play Call of Duty since Battlefield is obviously the superior FPS?

I liked the original Project CARS because it gave me a unique feeling when driving that no other game on the market had provided in that it successfully suspended my disbelief when playing it that even the true sims on the market couldn't provide. When playing it, I didn't care that it wasn't an accurate representation of all the physics involved because it was fun and I could lose myself in it for hours. And that hasn't stopped me from enjoying other games like Asetto Corsa, Forza, Gran Turismo, Dirt, Codemasters F1, or any other racing game out there.
 
Armenius said:
I don't see why all of these games can't coexist together.
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Why don't we use two antivirus programs, or two email clients, or two file managers, or whatever?
If two pieces of software serve the exact same purpose then it's pointless to use both.
COD / Battlefield is not a good example because they are different games. But if both would have the exact same maps (tracks) same weapons (cars) and same opponents. Then you wouldn't want both, only the better one.
Gran Turismo is not a simulator it's an arcade racer, that's closer to COD than Pcars or Assetto corsa or similar simulations. You play an arcade racer for the campaign mode, you play a simulator for the pure enjoyment of racing / driving.

Sure games serving different genres of racing can coexist like F1/Rally/Touring Cars/... but why would I play two games that serve the same genre, where one is obviously inferior? If both would have their strengths sure, but to me PCars only had weaknesses compared to AC.
 
Seems like you really need a wheel and pedal setup with these games.

I tried to play them with an X-Box controller and it just was not that fun since I had limited control with them.
 
This is due out today and the early reviews are stunning if you can put the time and effort in!
It seems a wheel is a must.
I'll give it a go on a precise controller because I will play it much more (if precise enough), having a quick spin without setting up a wheel would be ideal.

Is there a disadvantage buying the DVD version?
There is confusion over the difference between the standard and limited edition.
It is claimed by a poster on steam that if the DVD standard version comes with a Steam key, the limited edition update will apply.
I dont feel thats right.

Looking forward to this.
 
Will find out in about an hour on PC. I would just buy it digitally, as the disc version probably only comes with a Steam installer with a key like most games these days.
 
I bought it from GMG and the key won't activate. Waiting to hear back from support. :(
 
Nenu said:
This is due out today and the early reviews are stunning if you can put the time and effort in!
It seems a wheel is a must.
I'll give it a go on a precise controller because I will play it much more (if precise enough), having a quick spin without setting up a wheel would be ideal.

Is there a disadvantage buying the DVD version?
There is confusion over the difference between the standard and limited edition.
It is claimed by a poster on steam that if the DVD standard version comes with a Steam key, the limited edition update will apply.
I dont feel thats right.

Looking forward to this.
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Controller... control... is pretty good this time around. I played it for a bit with my Xbox ONE Elite controller and had no issue jumping right in with the default settings. But I plan to play it this weekend with my wheel.
 
One tip if you're using a controller:
Don't try to countersteer with the joystick; use the throttle instead. If you start to slide, let the joystick come back to neutral and play with the throttle. It's more like using simulation steering in Forza Motorsport rather than normal.
 
Heh, thanks for the tip.
I prefer to keep all wheels in line but I can see it wont be so simple with this.
I ordered the limited edition for the same price as the cheaper standard edition from game.co.uk, woo.

Game pissed me off years ago by not delivering an order before christmas (presents) and even a month later no sign of the order.
Then I went to buy a game from a store after seeing the price online (but no stock) only to find that the in store price was much higher.
I vowed to never use them again but time heals old wounds.
/rant
Fingers crossed I get this :)
 
GMG sent me a new key, so I'm excited to try it out tonight with my Oculus and G920. The original game was fun with them but the graphics were absolute shit and the higher car classes were impossible to control.

Is the career mode in this any better than last time? Something similar to Forza where you're unlocking new cars and tracks and racing in championships and whatnot? The first game felt shallow and repetitive with everything available to you from the get go... there was no sense of progression or anything to aspire to.
 
Haven't dived into career mode, yet, but it's supposed to have more structure than the first game.

I got some track time before work this morning. Drove the McLaren 720S around Long Beach (the default selections in Testing on first run), the Cadillac ATS-V GT3 around Nurburgring GP, the Camaro ZL1 around Spa, and the GT40 Mark IV around Monza Classic Full.

I used the stock driving aids setting, default controller settings, and loaded the "OEM" setup on the street cars.

The movement in the street cars was jarring, at first. The weight movement might be a little exaggerated, as in both the 720S and ZL1 it was like there was no weight on the wheels when fully accelerating from 50-140 MPH. My tip about not trying to countersteer really comes into play, here. The two race cars had more positive directional control at all speeds. Each of the cars I tried were very easy to balance with the throttle and brake, though, which was very pleasant and fun to do.

As far as performance goes, everything turned to its highest setting in-game with medium MSAA had it running 130-200 FPS at 2560x1440 on the PC in my signature. I'm sure the framerate will be lower when you get other cars on the screen, though. Graphics don't seem to be much improved over the first game generally, but there is a lot more detail in the track surfaces which is greatly appreciated. Each of the tracks I drove seemed to be a much more accurate representation than the first game, too.

Can't wait to break the wheel out after work.
 
Thanks for making me drool.

I hope the VR experience is improved.
in PJ1 distant cars looked like blocks of pixels which I dont think they can help.
But to turn settings up a bit needed a 1080ti and was the reason I upgraded to one.
Pretty low settings to get 90fps stable without frame interpolation.
 
Graphics are a bit better in VR, presumably because of the in-game Supersampling option. I could never get it to work with 3rd party apps in the first game. Additionally, my G29 works well enough with the default in-game settings, though I'm sure someone on Reddit will have perfectly tweaked settings for it within a couple days.

Unfortunately the racing line feature is completely broken for me, and I'm rubbish in VR without it. For some reason it's only visible during corners, and even then, it doesn't show up for 75% of them. :(
 
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The FFB (G27) is muuuuch better than PCars 1. And I didn't even need to tweak a thing. I literally just changed some button assignments and was good to go. It's really really good, almost as good as Assetto Corsa IMHO. *Almost.*

I agree with Armenius that the graphics aren't greatly improved, but it is better in some spots. Most importantly though, the "LiveTrack 3.0" or whatever they call it is pretty amazing. You can watch puddles form dynamically in low points on the track (at low elevation points, at the inside of turns, along curbs, etc) and they will grow as rain fails, and grow faster/slower depending on how heavy the rain is. Once the rain slows/stops, the racing line will dry up (visually, too) and start to provide more traction again. It's pretty amazing honestly. No other sim has done this before.
 
Nenu said:
Heh, thanks for the tip.
I prefer to keep all wheels in line but I can see it wont be so simple with this.
I ordered the limited edition for the same price as the cheaper standard edition from game.co.uk, woo.

Game pissed me off years ago by not delivering an order before christmas (presents) and even a month later no sign of the order.
Then I went to buy a game from a store after seeing the price online (but no stock) only to find that the in store price was much higher.
I vowed to never use them again but time heals old wounds.
/rant
Fingers crossed I get this :)
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It arrived today and a Saturday, I am impressed! Free delivery as well so Game get a reprieve.
And it is the proper Limited Edition metal case with Japanese car pack code.

Downside, the sticky tape over the Steam code lifted most of the code off when peeled back, it was tricky looking at it in a mirror and piecing it together.
Not made easier by the B looking like 8 and 0 looking like O.
Its installing from 5 DVDs, projected time around 1hr 40mins. 12x DVD drive.
Completed on time (avg 5.8MB/s), now downloading another 10GB...
fyi
 
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This game is great on Rift I couldnt put it down.
Almost 6 hours straight playing, I've never done that with Rift before.

I played it on flatscreen first and it was tricky keeping up.
I was instantly 3 seconds per lap faster on Rift.
 
Nenu said:
This game is great on Rift I couldnt put it down.
Almost 6 hours straight playing, I've never done that with Rift before.

I played it on flatscreen first and it was tricky keeping up.
I was instantly 3 seconds per lap faster on Rift.
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Have you noticed any flickering while playing on the Rift? It didn't happen for me initially but it started after maybe the third race and hasn't gone away. I'm thinking it's a particular setting doing it. Between that and the racing line bug I can't really play it.
 
PiERiT said:
Have you noticed any flickering while playing on the Rift? It didn't happen for me initially but it started after maybe the third race and hasn't gone away. I'm thinking it's a particular setting doing it. Between that and the racing line bug I can't really play it.
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Yes, it became horrendous and didnt stop after I exited the game.
By monitoring CPU use I saw it was the NVidia user experience exe or something like that.
I found which exe it was and renamed it. Then killed the process.
 
I bought PC2 and I own Asset Corsa too, if I had to choose it would be AC and forget PC2. PC2 has bad AI that smacks into you in every race. They better fix it too. So, if you are looking for a new racing game buy AC and not PC2.
 
rezerekted said:
I bought PC2 and I own Asset Corsa too, if I had to choose it would be AC and forget PC2. PC2 has bad AI that smacks into you in every race. They better fix it too. So, if you are looking for a new racing game buy AC and not PC2.
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There's more to it than that though. I agree the PCars2 AI needs work, but it also has a looooot more features going for it than AC. Much better career mode, fleshed out series rules, complete dynamic day night and weather system. As much as I love AC, it is really just "hotlap and single race simulator."
 
Colonel Sanders said:
There's more to it than that though. I agree the PCars2 AI needs work, but it also has a looooot more features going for it than AC. Much better career mode, fleshed out series rules, complete dynamic day night and weather system. As much as I love AC, it is really just "hotlap and single race simulator."
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What? Did you miss the patch that was released that allows you to create custom race series? There was a mod that allows you to do that too but now it is built into the game. AC has ghost car and PC2 doesn't. Apart from weather I would say they offer about the same, well, except AC offers custom season which is a big plus for me.
 
rezerekted said:
What? Did you miss the patch that was released that allows you to create custom race series? There was a mod that allows you to do that too but now it is built into the game. AC has ghost car and PC2 doesn't. Apart from weather I would say they offer about the same, well, except AC offers custom season which is a big plus for me.
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Right, like I said, the career mode in AC sucks. It's basically either go through a number of canned events with no real relation to one another, or make "custom" events which is really just strung together quick races of your choosing. PC has an actual career mode.

I'm not trying to say PC is better than AC, it just offers a lot of things that AC simply does not have. In other words, if you choose one or the other you're missing out.
 
I've only just got PCS2 & also invested in a wheel (Logitech G29), I'm a complete noob to Racing sims but I've got to say i'm absolutely loving it :-D In a few weeks once I've had a good go with Project Cars I'll probably gets AC so I can see how the two games compare.

I've had a bit of an attempt as a review of Project Cars 2



I still need a lot of work to stop ending up in the barrier :banghead:
 
I was looking forward to this game, but I'm already getting fed up with it after 6 hours. The AI is still so bad, that it ruins the entire experience. Their cars are always faster in a straight line, you cannot keep up with them even in their slipstream, and they slow down for some turns so much, that you can't avoid crashing into them if you try to take the turn with any reasonable speed. But in the exit they leave you like your throttle is stuck halfway. And they don't seem to be affected by gear changes either, they just accelerate at a constant rate, no pause. I've tried both with manual and automatic clutch to no avail. Every gear change nets the ai at least half a car length advantage. It's not that they are unbeatable, as you can adjust their speed on a slider to match your skill. It's that they drive so unrealistically that it ruins the experience. You can't have proper wheel to wheel battles, due to the mentioned inconsistencies in their speed.

They are especially bad when in a pack, they will literally stop in the middle of the track out of confusion. And they are twitchy as hell, like they have predetermined racing lines, and if you are near them they start oscillating between them.

There is maybe a tiny spec of improvement over PC1, but it's still far from being enjoyable. The races / events where you have to start in the middle or back of the pack become utterly frustrating. It's no problem for races where you have qualifying and start from the front, but there are a bunch of invitational events you have to start at the back. This is supposed to be a simulation so I don't even know why there are events where you are thrust directly into a race, without allowing you to familiarize yourself with the car / track.

And the rule enforcement is nonsensically strict, as there are only two settings: On or Off. But if it's on, then if just one wheel goes off to the grass, or you overdo a corner, and go into the paved run off area you immediately get a penalty even if you gained no time by it. The only thing that matters whether your split time is worse or better than your best lap. And it's very easy to have a better split time than your best lap, when you're in the first or second lap of a race. It's OK for qualifying invalidate my lap, I don't care if I went off that lap is ruined anyway. But the same rules apply for races which is stupid.

I'd want rule enforcement, but not in this manner. Realistically, where you only get a penalty if you deliberately cut corners to gain time, not for running a bit wide and the wheels touching the lawn grid on the outside of the curbs. Which actually costs you time, since you loose grip and the car becomes unstable.

Another issue I have with the game, is that most of the cars I've tried so far felt like they have zero mechanical grip, it's like driving on ice, even with the most underpowered ones. The only car that didn't feel like utter shit to drive was a group 4 Porsche which was a dlc car.

As for the graphics, it's pretty meh, the cars are OK, the interior views are the best in any game I've tried. But the tracks are very outdated, not enough detail, some look outright ugly, it's at least 10 years behind the rest.

Another upside is wet weather. I mean I hate wet driving, but this game simulates the effects perfectly. Even down to the point that in the wet there is more rolling resistance so the car becomes slower in the straights. Never saw any game do that. Neither did I see aquaplaning done this well. As standing water starts to build up on the track, there are more and more dangers to avoid.

Overall the game would be brilliant, if not for the utter shite AI.

It's so sad that if I want to enjoy a race against AI drivers I still have to go back to LFS, which is a 2002 game.
 
M76 I have only played it in VR. Then everything makes "sense" to me. Otherwise I can't figure out the racing lines because the AI is constantly bumping into me like bumper cars. In VR I was able to enjoy myself for a bit as I could micromanage for the psychotic AI getting too close. I never bothered with the go karts as those were just too twitchy for me to control. With that said I haven't touched the game in a year as I had more pressing issues to deal with over the past year. So many things could have changed over the past year.
 
M76 said:
I was looking forward to this game, but I'm already getting fed up with it after 6 hours. The AI is still so bad, that it ruins the entire experience. Their cars are always faster in a straight line, you cannot keep up with them even in their slipstream, and they slow down for some turns so much, that you can't avoid crashing into them if you try to take the turn with any reasonable speed. But in the exit they leave you like your throttle is stuck halfway. And they don't seem to be affected by gear changes either, they just accelerate at a constant rate, no pause. I've tried both with manual and automatic clutch to no avail. Every gear change nets the ai at least half a car length advantage. It's not that they are unbeatable, as you can adjust their speed on a slider to match your skill. It's that they drive so unrealistically that it ruins the experience. You can't have proper wheel to wheel battles, due to the mentioned inconsistencies in their speed.

They are especially bad when in a pack, they will literally stop in the middle of the track out of confusion. And they are twitchy as hell, like they have predetermined racing lines, and if you are near them they start oscillating between them.

There is maybe a tiny spec of improvement over PC1, but it's still far from being enjoyable. The races / events where you have to start in the middle or back of the pack become utterly frustrating. It's no problem for races where you have qualifying and start from the front, but there are a bunch of invitational events you have to start at the back. This is supposed to be a simulation so I don't even know why there are events where you are thrust directly into a race, without allowing you to familiarize yourself with the car / track.

And the rule enforcement is nonsensically strict, as there are only two settings: On or Off. But if it's on, then if just one wheel goes off to the grass, or you overdo a corner, and go into the paved run off area you immediately get a penalty even if you gained no time by it. The only thing that matters whether your split time is worse or better than your best lap. And it's very easy to have a better split time than your best lap, when you're in the first or second lap of a race. It's OK for qualifying invalidate my lap, I don't care if I went off that lap is ruined anyway. But the same rules apply for races which is stupid.

I'd want rule enforcement, but not in this manner. Realistically, where you only get a penalty if you deliberately cut corners to gain time, not for running a bit wide and the wheels touching the lawn grid on the outside of the curbs. Which actually costs you time, since you loose grip and the car becomes unstable.

Another issue I have with the game, is that most of the cars I've tried so far felt like they have zero mechanical grip, it's like driving on ice, even with the most underpowered ones. The only car that didn't feel like utter shit to drive was a group 4 Porsche which was a dlc car.

As for the graphics, it's pretty meh, the cars are OK, the interior views are the best in any game I've tried. But the tracks are very outdated, not enough detail, some look outright ugly, it's at least 10 years behind the rest.

Another upside is wet weather. I mean I hate wet driving, but this game simulates the effects perfectly. Even down to the point that in the wet there is more rolling resistance so the car becomes slower in the straights. Never saw any game do that. Neither did I see aquaplaning done this well. As standing water starts to build up on the track, there are more and more dangers to avoid.

Overall the game would be brilliant, if not for the utter shite AI.

It's so sad that if I want to enjoy a race against AI drivers I still have to go back to LFS, which is a 2002 game.
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I agree with your points about the AI and tracks, but the game is still one of the most enjoyable I've played from an actual driving perspective. I don't get the impression of a lack of mechanical grip at all. Quite the opposite, actually. I think where this game struggles the most is with tyre grip, surprisingly. The developer has been constantly tweaking the tyre grip since the first patch for the first game and they have never been able to get it right for all cars.
 
I was amazed at the trrack quality when I raced Daytona in the Indy cars. The handling and the graphics were some of the best ive seen. It was very competitive AI... Try it... Wished IRACING tracks looked that detailed.
 
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