Hey fellow duders, so I noticed Patrick dropped a video of Project CARS in Worth Reading and I suggest you watch that video to get an idea of how that game looks graphically in an artistic light. As I write this, I am rendering a video of how the game looks running off my machine from a more action oriented perspective.
So I've been seriously into racing sims since the first Gran Turismo. I remember buying a Dual Shock just for that game and once I heard the Chemical Brothers remix of Manic Street Preachers’ Everything Must Go, I fell in love with the genre. So I played Forza Motorsport and Slightly Mad’s take with Need for Speed Shift and dug what each company brought to the table. Slightly Mad Studios' taking another crack at the genre with the crowd funded Project CARS. And I must say it’s looking and playing pretty good. Now I didn’t mention PC racing simulators because Project CARS will also be available on consoles as well.
Now know this, the game’s still in development and as such still has some missing features. The game pretty much has exhibition race mode, freeplay, and multiplayer. The career mode has placeholder screens, but I can say this game will have you going from Kart racer to full fledged F1 Racer with everything in between thrown in there with the exception of rally driving. Something’s got to give and the community voted to remove it so the studio can focus on what’s in the game already. Also, the game seems intended to be used with a driving wheel which a very good thing, and as such in earlier builds of the game controllers were not fun to use. Now the game controls way better with 360 pads, but I still feel like the controls can be tightened up a bit more.
Now on to the elephant in the room the graphics. Simply put, the game is beautiful. It’s funny for me because I have seen the game with both unfinished graphics, models, textures, and tracks, yet they manage to amaze with each build when they refine something as small as the UI to completing a full track. The weather and environment effects are amazing as well. You have the option to race day, night, or go from sun down to sun up while the weather cycles from a clear night to a stormy dawn. The functional interiors are some of the best I have seen so far in the genre, this is a game I WANT to play from cockpit view (actually, I prefer the 1st person Helmet cam. It’s awesome to say the least.)
I can say that as development has went on the game has been optimized pretty well. In the beginning I had to run the game at medium settings to maintain 60fps while later builds I was able to run high settings and keep the 60 fps (I have a similar setup to Jeff’s PC he built with the Tested guys in 2011 using a GTX 580.) Nowadays, I have a GTX 770 and run the game in between high and ultra settings, and I’ll suffer some small dips in framerate here and there mostly due to extreme weather effects while in the cockpit. With the windshield wipers going, and the car’s lamps shining extra light. It’ll go from 60 to 40 frames per second nothing too bad, considering the games projected release is at the end of the year.
One thing I have to mention before I embed my video, yes this is a crowdfunded game similar to Broken Age, Star Citizen, and etc. I must say that I have been the happiest with the interaction with the developers of this game more so than the others I have contributed to. Nearly all of the liveries on vehicles are actually created and voted to be in the game by the community. So while most of us are just reporting bugs, there’s guys and gals out there making stuff for the game and having it actually being used. I’m sorry if I come off as a snake oil vendor, but I feel I’m in a unique position to show a game that doesn’t get much coverage on regular mainstream gaming sites.
PS this recorded using Nvidia Shadowplay
PPS I made some slight grammatical edits.
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