Project CARS

For the most part, Project CARS runs reasonably well, looks good, sounds nice, plays well and will seemingly be supported for a long time to come with community support, DLC, rolling events, and steady online service. However, and this is the kicker, the game just does not do anything to stand out and ends up being just another racer.

Project CARS - that’s Community Assisted Racing Simulator - is brought to us by veterans of the racing genre. It’s developer, the British Slightly Mad Studios, have a legacy that does as far back as GT Legends for the PC as well as Need For Speed: Shift and Test Drive for EA and Atari respectively. So, it’s no real surprise that the game plays rather well. Obviously, if you prefer Burnout or Need For Speed, this 100% simulator is not going to be for you, but stood up against Gran Turismo, Forza and especially DriveClub, the driving feels pretty good. Well, from a casual player's perspective at least. My more Gran Turismo inclined friends seem reasonably satisfied, however. There is, of course, a learning curve with how it works, but that is to be expected.

The first thing you’ll notice is the lack of car types in the game. There is no Ferrari, Porsche or Honda but does feature enough stuff. 125cc & 250cc karts, all the Formula cars, Caterhams, Ariel Atoms, BMWs, Lotuses, Pagani, and Renault. It’s not amazing, but not quite as good as games on the market. As for tracks, Project Cars fairs better. There are ten fictional tracks that span the globe, each with multiple layouts. For real tracks, you’ve got Le Mans, Laguna Seca, Donington, Spa, Nurburgring, and Monza. Again, fine, but there is better on offer in other games.

Unless it’s genre contemporaries, Project Cars takes more a sandbox approach to how you play. Upon popping in the disc, you’re granted access to every track and car in the game to play however you wish. You can start all the way down at 125cc go-karts to formula one cars and everything in between. While it’s a great way of giving total freedom, the game lacks a sense of direction. In a game with so much depth, it would have been nice to have been given a push in the right direction, even an explanation of what and how everything works that isn’t just a quick bit of VO. While some may enjoy the open nature, I’d rather be eased into the experience with, well, even a THIS IS HOW TO DRIVE A CAR section. On top on that without any sponsorship deals or monetary concerns nothing in the career feels of any consequence. Outside the career, it’s just time trials, free laps, and online tournaments and no real unique modes. Therefore, the only emotion I had going into the game was, “Meh, I could race”. Not great.

With a limited range of content to show off, driving games are always bound to be technical showcases for new consoles. Project cars, well, is passable. I’ve heard better things about the PC and PS4 versions, but the Xbox One version I played did not have the most reliable framerate, dropping well below 30 at some points. A framerate that doesn’t hitch when you are maneuvering around tight corners on Monza, even more important is the controls, which you don’t want to bug out and stop working halfway around a track. I sure you can guess what's coming next. Yes, numerous times a session the controller just stopped taking inputs. The cars look nice and sound rather accurate, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that is just about works.

Writing this Project Cars review is kinda hard. It’s one of those games that just exists. It’s fine. There is nothing necessarily to praise or to complain about. The game does nothing to stand out. It is just another racing game. Apart from probably a few missteps with the technical running of the game, it’s entirely non-offensive. If you’re a fan of simulator racing games then you could do worse than Project Cars, but to be honest you’ve probably already been playing better.