I recently travelled to Bandai Namco’s headquarters in London to try out a pre-release build of Project CARS.
Having only sampled the game very briefly at the F1 2014 preview day, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the Slightly Mad Studios title.
For those of you who are not familiar with Project CARS, it is an up-coming racing game scheduled for release, following a delay, in March 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
The project started on a kickstarter site, before securing financial backing. Those who donated to Project CARS got early access to the game and played a part in the development stages. Several racing drivers were involved too, including Nicholas Hamilton (Lewis’ brother) and former Stig Ben Collins.
I had access to the free race and free practice modes on the preview build, but decided to stick to the former. The first thing I noticed was the stunning graphics, with incredible attention to detail. However, my focus quickly changed to the AI scampering off into the distance, as I hadn’t realised I was running with a manual gearbox.
Once I got to grips with the controls, I started to get into a rhythm. Later on in the preview session I changed the settings to an automatic gearbox and felt much more comfortable. However, that didn’t stop me from struggling to keep the cars on the track – especially on the exit of slow corners.
Project CARS is very different to previous racing games that I have tried out, like F1 2014 and Forza Motorsport 4 – two titles I regularly play on my Xbox 360. The handling was difficult to get used to, but I really enjoyed the challenge and found attempting to (finally) get a specific corner right quite addictive.
In F1 2014, I am used to making few corrections through turns and having plenty of grip. It is easy to exit corners and there is very little sliding. But, this is because the F1 games are in the middle of the arcade to simulation spectrum, whereas Project CARS is very much aimed towards the latter.
It makes the races challenging for more casual gamers (like myself) who are used to arcade-style racing titles. I had a few good and fairly successful drives, but it was a shame that I failed to complete a few of them due to the game crashing.
The AI are also quite competitive and often make mistakes, meaning the wheel-to-wheel racing is more fun. You can add a considerable number of vehicles to races and at times that can be fun. However, slow first corners can be a bit of a pain when you start at the back of the grid. There was a decent range of cars to choose from and I tried out a number of different types, although the single seaters were particularly enjoyable to drive.
The number of tracks available is also impressive, although some are called different names (for example, Azure for Monaco) due to licensing. There is a lot of race customisation, with the weather features being very interesting to try out. You can set different patterns and even re-create the weather from real races from the past.
The graphics in the preview build were not perfect. There were a few small glitches and fixes, but overall they were quite spectacular. The sparks and sunlight glints are nice touches, and the game looks even better in the rain with droplets streaming off the screen and the detailed spray being kicked up by the wheels.
I didn’t think the preview build could match the graphics seen in the numerous Project CARS trailers, but it certainly did. Overall, my first impressions of the up-coming title were very positive, despite a few small issues. It certainly lived up to the hype and I really enjoyed trying out a slightly different type of racing game to the titles I usually buy. It is just a shame I won’t have the right console to play it when it is released.
 |
| © Project CARS |
For those of you who are not familiar with Project CARS, it is an up-coming racing game scheduled for release, following a delay, in March 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
The project started on a kickstarter site, before securing financial backing. Those who donated to Project CARS got early access to the game and played a part in the development stages. Several racing drivers were involved too, including Nicholas Hamilton (Lewis’ brother) and former Stig Ben Collins.
 |
| © Project CARS |
I had access to the free race and free practice modes on the preview build, but decided to stick to the former. The first thing I noticed was the stunning graphics, with incredible attention to detail. However, my focus quickly changed to the AI scampering off into the distance, as I hadn’t realised I was running with a manual gearbox.
Once I got to grips with the controls, I started to get into a rhythm. Later on in the preview session I changed the settings to an automatic gearbox and felt much more comfortable. However, that didn’t stop me from struggling to keep the cars on the track – especially on the exit of slow corners.
Project CARS is very different to previous racing games that I have tried out, like F1 2014 and Forza Motorsport 4 – two titles I regularly play on my Xbox 360. The handling was difficult to get used to, but I really enjoyed the challenge and found attempting to (finally) get a specific corner right quite addictive.
In F1 2014, I am used to making few corrections through turns and having plenty of grip. It is easy to exit corners and there is very little sliding. But, this is because the F1 games are in the middle of the arcade to simulation spectrum, whereas Project CARS is very much aimed towards the latter.
 |
| © Project CARS |
It makes the races challenging for more casual gamers (like myself) who are used to arcade-style racing titles. I had a few good and fairly successful drives, but it was a shame that I failed to complete a few of them due to the game crashing.
The AI are also quite competitive and often make mistakes, meaning the wheel-to-wheel racing is more fun. You can add a considerable number of vehicles to races and at times that can be fun. However, slow first corners can be a bit of a pain when you start at the back of the grid. There was a decent range of cars to choose from and I tried out a number of different types, although the single seaters were particularly enjoyable to drive.
The number of tracks available is also impressive, although some are called different names (for example, Azure for Monaco) due to licensing. There is a lot of race customisation, with the weather features being very interesting to try out. You can set different patterns and even re-create the weather from real races from the past.
The graphics in the preview build were not perfect. There were a few small glitches and fixes, but overall they were quite spectacular. The sparks and sunlight glints are nice touches, and the game looks even better in the rain with droplets streaming off the screen and the detailed spray being kicked up by the wheels.
I didn’t think the preview build could match the graphics seen in the numerous Project CARS trailers, but it certainly did. Overall, my first impressions of the up-coming title were very positive, despite a few small issues. It certainly lived up to the hype and I really enjoyed trying out a slightly different type of racing game to the titles I usually buy. It is just a shame I won’t have the right console to play it when it is released.
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