Project CARS

The Intro:

Simulators are notorious for having a punishing learning curve. They mostly appeal only to the hardcore fans of the genre they’re simulating. Project CARS is a simulator, and by its very nature, it won’t appeal to everyone. The casual gamer who doesn’t really care too much about the nitty-gritty of handling a car or how it is put together, or the physics of racing a monstrous vehicle at breakneck speeds won’t find too much to enjoy here. There aren’t too many slow-motion wrecks punctuated by a pulsating soundtrack. Through Project CARS, developers Slightly Mad Studios have created a faithful representation of what it would actually be like to take a souped-up vehicle and ride it around the toughest racing tracks around the world. It’s brutal and tough, but it’s by design. Your victories and losses are based on pure science and management, and there are no easy victories or cheap defeats. And that’s a good thing.

As far as simulators go, Project CARS is surprisingly accessible to the average gamer. Even if you haven’t played a game of this nature before, you will be able to quickly get the hang of the interface and tweak it to create an environment conducive to your skill level. For the geeks, Project CARS has a ridiculously deep set of options and tweaks that you can play around with. The cars feel real, the graphics are amazing and the soundtrack is just right.

The Game Play:

You have all of the usual assists – braking, cornering and stability, but the options don’t stop there. You can tweak everything from the location of the on-screen map to removing the wheel that you see on your screen. Even the AI has several notches of difficulty – 100, to be precise. You can slide up and down from a difficulty level of 0 to 100 to find just the right level of opposition for your current skill level. If you’re racing on a track which has fewer options for overtaking, just increase the number of laps. While other contemporaries like Forza Motorsports feature some of these difficulty gradations, where Project CARS wins out is in the sheer variety of its options. If you want the best experience, set the difficulty slider to a point where you’re just narrowly winning, if at all. When every millisecond gained on a hard turn feels like a victory, this game truly shines. On the other hand, if you want a runaway victory where you lead the entire pack by three laps, you can do that too. But that isn’t nearly as much fun.

Project CARS features an exhaustive career mode with different race types like touring, GT racing, prototype racing and open wheel racing. Each of these race types have their own progression ladder. But if you choose to, you can jump into whatever level of progress you want to. If you want to start at the bottom and work your way up to the professional circuit, you can. If, on the other hand, you want to cut the line and head straight for the pro circuit, you’ve got the option to do that too. As you progress through the game, you will receive offers from various teams who want you to race for them. Just accept the one which takes your fancy, and you’re off to the races. As part of a team, you don’t have to purchase any cars. You can focus on the driving instead of worrying about placing first enough times so you can accumulate the money to buy a new car. You can juggle multiple careers, and each career has three goal levels for you to attain.

Project CARS looks fantastic on all the platforms it has been released upon. The attention to detail is astounding. You won’t really notice cars ahead of you rustling up leaves, but when you look at it as a whole, every little detail contributes to a truly immersive racing experience. Sunlight peeks through little gaps in the foliage and objects react realistically to your slipstream. The cars themselves are impressively detailed and hold up to any contemporary racing game. The roster available to you is extensive and features prototypes, classics and even some toys. While other games like Grid Autosport do a better job with roster management, there’s still an impressive variety of cars you can drive around in Project CARS. The one aspect where Project CARS wins out over almost every other racing game out there is in the handling of each vehicle on the roster. Each of the cars available to you feels like its own entity with handling and steering characteristics that are markedly unique from the others. The difference between a GT car and a prototype vehicle isn’t just cosmetic. You feel it once you’ve driven both of them.

The Conclusion:

Project CARS does what a good simulation is supposed to – it puts you in the shoes of a racing driver. When you’re in the middle of a tough race and you hear your engineer speak about a minor technical problem that might cost you a few seconds, you feel it in your gut. Each pit stop is crucial, each turn a new battle. You feel the highs and lows of a tough race, much like you would in the real thing. And if you have a steering wheel, this is the closest you can get to being a real race driver from the comfort of your living room. If you’re a fan of the racing genre or are passionate about cars, give Project CARS a whirl. You will fall in love with it. Written By: Brandon Perton