PCARS first impressions!

[synon]

Can anyone comment on how smooth the frame rate is on ps4? Does it stay at 60fps most of the time?

From Eurogamer:

"To re-cap quickly, Project Cars' read-out is typically 60fps in its career mode, with tearing and drops below 50fps once rain kicks in"

 

[Speedster911]

From all the expressions I've read so far, (and I know it isn't entirely compare it to a big budget production house like T10), I'm mildly disappointed with the sounds not being impressive. They don't hold up to F5, do they?

And I'm not just talking about specific cars from either game sounding good or bad, but the whole deal, the overall package.

So console owners, I ask you this: does PCARS sound barely better than Shift 2 or Race Pro?

I'm all for physics, and I don't mind just above average graphics, but the sound design for a driving simulator means the world to me (as it does to most dedicated sim fans I imagine).

Reviews will eventually come, and I'm going to check out as many as I can before deciding to purchase. But I need as many opinions from you console owners (specifically X1) as possible before I get it.

As always, motor on!

 

[mister dog]

I said before that it was silly that we couldn't chose the conditions before a career race. Well i'd like to retract that statement ; the weather/time of day/seasons are so diverse that it would take away much of the enjoyment, as people would always pick the same conditions more or less. And thanks to it being pre set, i think SMS did a great job at changing around how the circuit looks with each session.

Just hope that the weather differs from year to year, so if you have rain somewhere on 1 year, it can be dry the next.

 

[bleeder]

I said before that it was silly that we couldn't chose the conditions before a career race. Well i'd like to retract that statement ; the weather/time of day/seasons are so diverse that it would take away much of the enjoyment, as people would always pick the same conditions more or less. And thanks to it being pre set, i think SMS did a great job at changing around how the circuit looks with each session.

Just hope that the weather differs from year to year, so if you have rain somewhere on 1 year, it can be dry the next.

don't think the last point will happen though but if they put in the custom championship feature and have it brimming with options we should be able to create some nice championships ourselves.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Had a go with SLS GT3 around Brands Hatch. Car seems quite understeery, don't know much about how to improve setup so just kept stock mainly and added more downforce but it was still good enough to get provisional pole with a scruffy lap. Think with better setup and better lap, should be able to do a really fast time in the mid 1:22's. Surprised I'm ahead of Ti-tech85.

 

[Punknoodle]

Had a go with SLS GT3 around Brands Hatch. Car seems quite understeery, don't know much about how to improve setup so just kept stock mainly and added more downforce but it was still good enough to get provisional pole with a scruffy lap. Think with better setup and better lap, should be able to do a really fast time in the mid 1:22's. Surprised I'm ahead of Ti-tech85.

View attachment 364274

Well done!

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Well done!

Thanks, just need to do a decent lap with the Formula A now. Shame there is corner cutting on that one but I heard times will be deleted so that should move me up a few places. Still struggling to understand how to do last sector on that, I seem to keep up within a few tenths in the first two sectors, then lose over a second in the final sector to the fastest time. Just can't get the grip needed to attack the chicane, my car seems to spin out if I attack it so have to go tentatively there.

 

[LeastResistance]

Haven't played a huge amount so far (Can't. Stop. Playing. Destiny..... nyaaargh... I'm trying, but....) , but I've tried single races in the old Escort, the SLS at the Nordschlieffe, a Mustang, all great. Then I started my career in karts, twitchy but also very good. I'm playing the PS4 version with a pad - I have long pad experence on GT and consider myself reasonably expert :-). I'd love a wheel but I have serious space, budget and spouse issues to overcome before I can head down that route. Played GT for many, many years on a pad though, I don't even notice much anymore.

Now I come to my question; after a good season in the karts I got an invite to race a Ford Focus at a track I recognise from an earlier GT (4 maybe, can't remember the name), and... what the hell is the thing with the front wheel drive handling?

I know front drivers understeer, ok, but this did not feel right to me at all. From the cockpit view the whole car feels like it's crabbing sideways at turn in, like the rear wheels are steering in the same direction as the front. The understeer was really too pronounced, just getting the things to yaw was a struggle. Does this feel right to everyone else?

Otherwise I'm loving it. Sound, graphics, physics all very appealing, ranging from perfectly acceptable to excellent. And maybe it's just me on the front drivers, and the fact that I'd just come out of karts, but I raced a Megan cup car just afterwards, and that too felt like it was crabbing sideways instead of yawing properly... What say? Tried adjusting toe-in and LSD, didn't appear to do the job... Was thinking of toe-out on the rear wheels, but that seems pretty drastic to me...

 

[Tekku]

From all the expressions I've read so far, (and I know it isn't entirely compare it to a big budget production house like T10), I'm mildly disappointed with the sounds not being impressive. They don't hold up to F5, do they?

And I'm not just talking about specific cars from either game sounding good or bad, but the whole deal, the overall package.

So console owners, I ask you this: does PCARS sound barely better than Shift 2 or Race Pro?

I'm all for physics, and I don't mind just above average graphics, but the sound design for a driving simulator means the world to me (as it does to most dedicated sim fans I imagine).

Reviews will eventually come, and I'm going to check out as many as I can before deciding to purchase. But I need as many opinions from you console owners (specifically X1) as possible before I get it.

As always, motor on!

I've mostly driven the open wheel and GT cars, and they sound spot on. Each car really has its own unique sound. The Ginetta GT3 is like a roaring beast; the sound is so "meaty" and loud that it will almost hurt your ears driving it with normal volume. Same goes for the Formula A cars, I always have to turn the volume down when driving them because they sound so intense.

Anyway, most clips on Youtube have really good sound quality so they should be able to give you a pretty accurate answer. Here's a nice clip with the Zakspeed for instance (skip to 0.47):

 

[Johnnypenso]

Thanks, just need to do a decent lap with the Formula A now. Shame there is corner cutting on that one but I heard times will be deleted so that should move me up a few places. Still struggling to understand how to do last sector on that, I seem to keep up within a few tenths in the first two sectors, then lose over a second in the final sector to the fastest time. Just can't get the grip needed to attack the chicane, my car seems to spin out if I attack it so have to go tentatively there.

Nice lap:tup: I'm far down the list and not a big fan of open wheelers but that last sector is quite a challenge to figure out. Extremely tight right/left/right chicane type corners. If you do figure it out post a replay. Heck, post a replay anyway I think that event ends today though doesn't it?

 

[cotijuba]

Finally I managed to test the Project Cars!

The game has nothing like anything I had ever played. It really is expectable, even without having yet made any alteration in cars.

I just have a point that I missed: it was the cant persornalizar the room with a name to my taste (as in GT5).

Let's play!

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Nice lap:tup: I'm far down the list and not a big fan of open wheelers but that last sector is quite a challenge to figure out. Extremely tight right/left/right chicane type corners. If you do figure it out post a replay. Heck, post a replay anyway I think that event ends today though doesn't it?

Hopefully I will have some time to try again later, I know I should be able to improve by a few more tenths which should make a big difference in ranking. Concerned by the other one as well as I know there is chance of me doing high 1:22's if I got a lap without any big mistakes so will probably get likely beaten.

Only one person seems to know how to go quick through there at the moment and his name is also Johnny / Joni and has uploaded onboard of one of his early laps. Can beat that lap in first and second sector but I'm so much slower through the chicane. My car just sort of spins out if I try to take it that fast.

Video of his lap:

 

[jules283]

My first impression was that the game had too many bugs... BUT this game is slowly seducing me and I cannot deny the excellence of the physics. When the bugs are removed PCARS will be the best console racer ever. If you're holding back due to bugs and glitches... don't !

 

[mr_serious]

I got it today (for PC) , played for two hours.

Tried the karts, deleted that career, started on the open wheelers.

This is the game I have been looking for

 

[VXR]

I had to change the buttons to mirror Forza, I couldn't be doing with gear changes being on the LB and RB buttons. I then took the G40 out. I might have to work on a setup, because whilst it is competent, it's not very exciting and trying to find its limits results in sharply going past them. I want it to be a bit more playful into corners.

 

[FastFurious77]

First Impressions. The game is good. The tracks and track detail and atmosphere are really good and theres a good draw distance on the PS4. The animation of the crowds and objects and things seen far away. Theres a lot of detail in the tracks at distance look better that certain things close up. Still lots of detail though. You can clearly see less jaggies on PS4 and it runs higher Frame rates. Xbox One runs at 1600x 900 and PS4 at 1920X1080P. Some people are saying the aliasing is a bit too aggressive on PS4 and is cause for less sharpness and details outside the car in the distance. Other than the Helmet view on PS4 looking blurred the faster you go I don't see any issues with Detail on PS4. I certainly see in pictures people catching a Xbox One and PS4 shot and you can clearly see the lower resolution and less smooth edges of every object. And in the shots the PS4 looks better. I haven't seen in game videos or played the Xbox One version to know if the game looks sharper in the environments. To me the PS4 looks good and resolutionand aliasing more than makes up for smooth details. Anyway both games probably look good and I'm happy with the PS4 version.

Weather. I set it to random. And all I got was rain and more rain. I'm not sure what the duration between driving around the track is before the weather changes between, clear, sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rain, thunderstorm, fog, haze etc.. Rain is ok even though not as spectacular as Drive Club. When i was driving one of the Arial Atoms in the rain on California Coast I didn't feel the rain affecting the grip and making the track slippery. I didn't feel this while driving the car. It was raining quite a while and I'm not sure about this. I didn't feel like the car was skidding other than when braking and then accelerating I heard the car over revving to get grip which was good. But when cornering I didn't sense the road feeling slippery to the wheels. I didn't feel like the car was losing grip and sliding or losing traction in the Arial Atom V8 500. So maybe this could use some tweaking or maybe I haven't really looked for this and noticed it enough yet.

The Graphics of the cars are really really good and probably more impressive than Forza 5 in game play Car details even if the polygons are 300,000. I don't know what Forza 5 and Horizon 2 uses but they were very very good and still impressive. But then again I played Need for Speed Rivals absolutely when it was a release title for the PS4 and even though I couldn't play that game as an arcade game, the sounds and graphics of the in game cars were very impressive. But I would say the graphics are on par with Forza 5 maybe for pure detail and resolution is higher than Forza 5 so I think in terms of res better than Forza 5. Cars are certainly very detailed and Hi Res and tracks eve more Hi res and detailed than Forza 5. They honestly look awesome. The same with interiors. Everything here way better than GT6. Only you have a wider FOV so you can see more in PCARS interiors and the detail in cockpit view in every car is to the level of Forza and its brighter so you see more detail 100% more of the time of everything inside the car in that respect.

On PCARS the lighting in different camera modes I'm not sure about whether its as good as Forza 5. Certainly the shadows cast on to the cars hood seem less jaggy and more smoothed out than maybe Forza 5 but not as detailed or reflective?? I'm not sure.. Maybe because it was late in the day and Sunny on Le mans. Maybe this affects the reflections and shadows being more like a duller grey shadow effect on the car on PCARS or the fact that the bmw is a darker colour. Again this was on Le mans. The reflections though didn't seem as apparent and as bright as reflections on Forza 5 and Horizon 2. On Forza reflections seemed brighter and more like a polished mirror effect but brighter and more apparent. But where Forza 5 sometimes you could spot jaggies and not as crystal smooth lines PCARS was better here with aliasing. It may be down to the fact that Le Mans was late in the day and the lighting wasn't as bright and therefore reflections appearing less bright on the cars hood. it would be nice to drive the track early in the day with brighter sunlight to find out.

I like the fact that you can switch your car headlights and sidelights ON and OFF. But you can't switch between low beam, high beam or fog lights. Especially as SMS have taken the time to add complex weather with fog. Maybe the game or the cars just dynamically switch on at certain times to low beam lights as it gets lat in the day and only leaves full BEAM as a control option for the player to switch ON and OFF when it gets very late evening to night time. idk about this because I haven't driven long enough on any one track late into the day evening to night where it has changed to night time yet to see if the game switches low beam lights on at late times of day. I like the fact that you can switch window wipers ON and OFF even though when it rains, they seem to automatically switch themselves on. Not sure if the automatics wipers are slower and the the ones you switch ON and OFF are the same so I'm not sure why they allow you to have manual control other than maybe a gimmick.

It's been nice to drive the coastal highways of which there are too. Azure Coast in France and California Highway. But when you are not racing, it would be nice with standard production cars or even any car in fact if there were more coastal highways we could drive on from around the world. Country roads or famous ones, famous passes and routes etc.. If more of these were added to the game it would be more enjoyable when not totally racing around tracks in career mode but just as free practice or driving with friends online casually along coastal highways. So more coastal highways would be nice. Tracks in general though there are by far the best ever selection and variety of tracks ever put into a console racing simulation game bar none. So there is plenty of variety and they all look good with weather and day night time cycles. I've really only driven on 4 tracks so far, Dubai Autodromo, Azure Coast, California Highway, Circuit de la Sarth Le mans 24 HRS. All the tracks have loads of detail you won't find in Forza 5. They are better looking.

The sounds of cars are really good. Although the cars I've driven I haven't heard them in online videos or in real life so I can't make a judgement on how real they are. But they certainly sound better leaps and bounds over GT. Not sure about this when comparing certain cars to Forza 5. But I will certainly drive one car from Forza 5 or Horizon 2 and then drive the same car on PCARS to gain my own opinion on that. But yeah sounds seem really good. And with PCARS you get brakes squeaking which adds to a nice realism effect when braking. You can't hear the tyre screeching any where near as much as Forza or GT. Although it is there in PCARS but not as loud to here it. I have to say Forza 5 and Horizon 2 dealt with tyre screeching much better than their older games and it is less of an annoyance. But in PCARS you don't really here it as much as maybe you might in real life. All in all the sound effects are all there and they all add to a good soundtrack that feels like you are there. You here the weather like the wind and the rain which is really immersive and good although maybe not as loud as I would like.

The physics is by far the nicest and most accurate. The track is so detailed that you can feel every bump in elevation due to how SMS have designed different materials and layers into the tracks surface and bumps so that you feel ever corner and section of the road as you would if you'd driven it in real life. You feel where all the small little humps or bumps and dips are. You can see the suspension working on the cars and you feel it. The car rolling and leaning and the car jumping up and down and bouncing. You feel the car when handling struggling for grip and bouncing and swaying and rattling and so many things going on with the car. It's way better than Forza 5 in this regard as its in a whole new dimension different experience. Forza feels good in its own unique way but not as dramatic and intense and and you don't feel the car and track in Forza like you do in PCARS. I think for accuracy and physics of how the car reacts with the road is a on a higher level which Forza 6 needs to try and emulate some how. The handling on most vehicles feel good and really feels like its on a whole different level to GT by a massive mile in every way here.

I like how there are so many tweakable visual and control options and camera options not available on any other game. Some people might say too many controls and so much so that its bemusing and confusing and overwhelming. I haven't fiddled with car setup and tuning yet so I can't give my opinion on that. I wasn't wanting to be too negative in this review but I will say its not easy to skid cars or slide them around a corner. Also when you do slide or skid or brake you don't see the tyre skid burn marks very well on the surface of the road. They could stand out a little more. Also you don't see brakes getting hot and glowing orange when braking hard. Dirt and dust isn't accumulated enough to the level that its very apparent to see it on the car very well after its rained hard or you go off track into the sand. It would be nice if dirt and dust particles showed up more and were more see able on the cars wheels and body.

Other than the tyre appearing to go though the road which I noticed. The game is really really good and I really am impressed with this game. And honestly my negative bits are things that are still niggling but not a massive issue. I mean you could probably overlook these things and they may not stop you from playing the game. They may not affect your game playing experience or you might not even notice them like I have. Its only when you go looking for things that things like this pop up and are small annoyances that you wish weren't there when most of the rest of the game is pretty much perfect.

 

[PiotrGT]

Just got the game few hours ago. It's hard, very hard but it's a sim and I play with DS4. Graphics are the best I ever seen in a racing game (but I haven't played new ones for PC like AC), sounds are epic. I think it's an great foundation, if they keep adding DLCs.

 

[FastFurious77]

Just got the game few hours ago. It's hard, very hard but it's a sim and I play with DS4. Graphics are the best I ever seen in a racing game (but I haven't played new ones for PC like AC), sounds are epic. I think it's an great foundation, if they keep adding DLCs.

Don't forget to download the liveries and the free Lykan Hyper car from the PSN store.

 

[PiotrGT]

I did and I can't wait for more. SMS said that they will support PC for long time.

 

[FastFurious77]

I did and I can't wait for more. SMS said that they will support PC for long time.

Yeah they said they will add one free DLC car every month. I don't think they have said what other content they will release free or pay for DLC. We know we will either get Karts, Open Wheel, Indy car, Touring cars, production cars sports cars, super cars, hyper cars, track day cars, Formula A and maybe Formula 1 cars for sure. Not sure about tracks. I for one would love some more Coastal routes, or not neccessarily coastal routes but routes and passes of famous places. Like some of the passes Top gear have driven. Not sure if they're ever adding Goodwood. There are also no Pikes peak cars in the game or Hill climbing in general so this could be an area of content they could expand upon since its not rally it might be something the engine PCARS uses is capable of doing Hill Climbing.

Oh dear... what have I done! :/ First crash on PCARS! I'm trying to figure out how to get get my in game photos shared with photo bucket or something. I set up the photo sharing snapshots to my twitter account but the pictures are not high detail is this because the only way I could get the photos from twitter to here were via the copy image link. But the photos the game saves don't seem to be in hi resolution when they are shared to twitter. The only other option on PS4 is through facebook. Maybe the pictures will upload in higher detail if I use facebook? So how are others sharing their photos in such high detail and getting them from the PS4 to here?

 

[VXR]

@wraith of horus PCars isn't at a higher resolution than Forza 5. That game is 1080p60 and IMO, looks much better than what I've seen of PCars on Xbox.

 

[Johnnypenso]

@wraith of horus PCars isn't at a higher resolution than Forza 5. That game is 1080p60 and IMO, looks much better than what I've seen of PCars on Xbox.

I agree that Forza cars look great but are you really saying that cars in Forza, in game not in photomode, look "much better" than this?

It seems to me we've reached a point in next gen games that the visual differences between cars in game is so slight as to almost inconsequential to all but the most ardent photography buffs and microanalyzers.

 

[drivatar]

I set up the photo sharing snapshots to my twitter account but the pictures are not high detail is this because the only way I could get the photos from twitter to here were via the copy image link. But the photos the game saves don't seem to be in hi resolution when they are shared to twitter. The only other option on PS4 is through facebook. Maybe the pictures will upload in higher detail if I use facebook? So how are others sharing their photos in such high detail and getting them from the PS4 to here?

Transfer them via USB to get the best quality out of the PS4.

 

[Speedster911]

First Impressions. The game is good. The tracks and track detail and atmosphere are really good and theres a good draw distance on the PS4. The animation of the crowds and objects and things seen far away. Theres a lot of detail in the tracks at distance look better that certain things close up. Still lots of detail though. You can clearly see less jaggies on PS4 and it runs higher Frame rates. Xbox One runs at 1600x 900 and PS4 at 1920X1080P. Some people are saying the aliasing is a bit too aggressive on PS4 and is cause for less sharpness and details outside the car in the distance. Other than the Helmet view on PS4 looking blurred the faster you go I don't see any issues with Detail on PS4. I certainly see in pictures people catching a Xbox One and PS4 shot and you can clearly see the lower resolution and less smooth edges of every object. And in the shots the PS4 looks better. I haven't seen in game videos or played the Xbox One version to know if the game looks sharper in the environments. To me the PS4 looks good and resolutionand aliasing more than makes up for smooth details. Anyway both games probably look good and I'm happy with the PS4 version.

Weather. I set it to random. And all I got was rain and more rain. I'm not sure what the duration between driving around the track is before the weather changes between, clear, sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rain, thunderstorm, fog, haze etc.. Rain is ok even though not as spectacular as Drive Club. When i was driving one of the Arial Atoms in the rain on California Coast I didn't feel the rain affecting the grip and making the track slippery. I didn't feel this while driving the car. It was raining quite a while and I'm not sure about this. I didn't feel like the car was skidding other than when braking and then accelerating I heard the car over revving to get grip which was good. But when cornering I didn't sense the road feeling slippery to the wheels. I didn't feel like the car was losing grip and sliding or losing traction in the Arial Atom V8 500. So maybe this could use some tweaking or maybe I haven't really looked for this and noticed it enough yet.

The Graphics of the cars are really really good and probably more impressive than Forza 5 in game play Car details even if the polygons are 300,000. I don't know what Forza 5 and Horizon 2 uses but they were very very good and still impressive. But then again I played Need for Speed Rivals absolutely when it was a release title for the PS4 and even though I couldn't play that game as an arcade game, the sounds and graphics of the in game cars were very impressive. But I would say the graphics are on par with Forza 5 maybe for pure detail and resolution is higher than Forza 5 so I think in terms of res better than Forza 5. Cars are certainly very detailed and Hi Res and tracks eve more Hi res and detailed than Forza 5. They honestly look awesome. The same with interiors. Everything here way better than GT6. Only you have a wider FOV so you can see more in PCARS interiors and the detail in cockpit view in every car is to the level of Forza and its brighter so you see more detail 100% more of the time of everything inside the car in that respect.

On PCARS the lighting in different camera modes I'm not sure about whether its as good as Forza 5. Certainly the shadows cast on to the cars hood seem less jaggy and more smoothed out than maybe Forza 5 but not as detailed or reflective?? I'm not sure.. Maybe because it was late in the day and Sunny on Le mans. Maybe this affects the reflections and shadows being more like a duller grey shadow effect on the car on PCARS or the fact that the bmw is a darker colour. Again this was on Le mans. The reflections though didn't seem as apparent and as bright as reflections on Forza 5 and Horizon 2. On Forza reflections seemed brighter and more like a polished mirror effect but brighter and more apparent. But where Forza 5 sometimes you could spot jaggies and not as crystal smooth lines PCARS was better here with aliasing. It may be down to the fact that Le Mans was late in the day and the lighting wasn't as bright and therefore reflections appearing less bright on the cars hood. it would be nice to drive the track early in the day with brighter sunlight to find out.

I like the fact that you can switch your car headlights and sidelights ON and OFF. But you can't switch between low beam, high beam or fog lights. Especially as SMS have taken the time to add complex weather with fog. Maybe the game or the cars just dynamically switch on at certain times to low beam lights as it gets lat in the day and only leaves full BEAM as a control option for the player to switch ON and OFF when it gets very late evening to night time. idk about this because I haven't driven long enough on any one track late into the day evening to night where it has changed to night time yet to see if the game switches low beam lights on at late times of day. I like the fact that you can switch window wipers ON and OFF even though when it rains, they seem to automatically switch themselves on. Not sure if the automatics wipers are slower and the the ones you switch ON and OFF are the same so I'm not sure why they allow you to have manual control other than maybe a gimmick.

It's been nice to drive the coastal highways of which there are too. Azure Coast in France and California Highway. But when you are not racing, it would be nice with standard production cars or even any car in fact if there were more coastal highways we could drive on from around the world. Country roads or famous ones, famous passes and routes etc.. If more of these were added to the game it would be more enjoyable when not totally racing around tracks in career mode but just as free practice or driving with friends online casually along coastal highways. So more coastal highways would be nice. Tracks in general though there are by far the best ever selection and variety of tracks ever put into a console racing simulation game bar none. So there is plenty of variety and they all look good with weather and day night time cycles. I've really only driven on 4 tracks so far, Dubai Autodromo, Azure Coast, California Highway, Circuit de la Sarth Le mans 24 HRS. All the tracks have loads of detail you won't find in Forza 5. They are better looking.

The sounds of cars are really good. Although the cars I've driven I haven't heard them in online videos or in real life so I can't make a judgement on how real they are. But they certainly sound better leaps and bounds over GT. Not sure about this when comparing certain cars to Forza 5. But I will certainly drive one car from Forza 5 or Horizon 2 and then drive the same car on PCARS to gain my own opinion on that. But yeah sounds seem really good. And with PCARS you get brakes squeaking which adds to a nice realism effect when braking. You can't hear the tyre screeching any where near as much as Forza or GT. Although it is there in PCARS but not as loud to here it. I have to say Forza 5 and Horizon 2 dealt with tyre screeching much better than their older games and it is less of an annoyance. But in PCARS you don't really here it as much as maybe you might in real life. All in all the sound effects are all there and they all add to a good soundtrack that feels like you are there. You here the weather like the wind and the rain which is really immersive and good although maybe not as loud as I would like.

The physics is by far the nicest and most accurate. The track is so detailed that you can feel every bump in elevation due to how SMS have designed different materials and layers into the tracks surface and bumps so that you feel ever corner and section of the road as you would if you'd driven it in real life. You feel where all the small little humps or bumps and dips are. You can see the suspension working on the cars and you feel it. The car rolling and leaning and the car jumping up and down and bouncing. You feel the car when handling struggling for grip and bouncing and swaying and rattling and so many things going on with the car. It's way better than Forza 5 in this regard as its in a whole new dimension different experience. Forza feels good in its own unique way but not as dramatic and intense and and you don't feel the car and track in Forza like you do in PCARS. I think for accuracy and physics of how the car reacts with the road is a on a higher level which Forza 6 needs to try and emulate some how. The handling on most vehicles feel good and really feels like its on a whole different level to GT by a massive mile in every way here.

I like how there are so many tweakable visual and control options and camera options not available on any other game. Some people might say too many controls and so much so that its bemusing and confusing and overwhelming. I haven't fiddled with car setup and tuning yet so I can't give my opinion on that. I wasn't wanting to be too negative in this review but I will say its not easy to skid cars or slide them around a corner. Also when you do slide or skid or brake you don't see the tyre skid burn marks very well on the surface of the road. They could stand out a little more. Also you don't see brakes getting hot and glowing orange when braking hard. Dirt and dust isn't accumulated enough to the level that its very apparent to see it on the car very well after its rained hard or you go off track into the sand. It would be nice if dirt and dust particles showed up more and were more see able on the cars wheels and body.

Other than the tyre appearing to go though the road which I noticed. The game is really really good and I really am impressed with this game. And honestly my negative bits are things that are still niggling but not a massive issue. I mean you could probably overlook these things and they may not stop you from playing the game. They may not affect your game playing experience or you might not even notice them like I have. Its only when you go looking for things that things like this pop up and are small annoyances that you wish weren't there when most of the rest of the game is pretty much perfect.

Thanks for the in-depth review. 👍

This is exactly what I was looking for, complete with Forza 5 comparisons.

I think.... I'll pick this up.

 

[priesty_lfc]

Yeah they said they will add one free DLC car every month. I don't think they have said what other content they will release free or pay for DLC. We know we will either get Karts, Open Wheel, Indy car, Touring cars, production cars sports cars, super cars, hyper cars, track day cars, Formula A and maybe Formula 1 cars for sure. Not sure about tracks. I for one would love some more Coastal routes, or not neccessarily coastal routes but routes and passes of famous places. Like some of the passes Top gear have driven. Not sure if they're ever adding Goodwood. There are also no Pikes peak cars in the game or Hill climbing in general so this could be an area of content they could expand upon since its not rally it might be something the engine PCARS uses is capable of doing Hill Climbing.

Oh dear... what have I done! :/ First crash on PCARS! I'm trying to figure out how to get get my in game photos shared with photo bucket or something. I set up the photo sharing snapshots to my twitter account but the pictures are not high detail is this because the only way I could get the photos from twitter to here were via the copy image link. But the photos the game saves don't seem to be in hi resolution when they are shared to twitter. The only other option on PS4 is through facebook. Maybe the pictures will upload in higher detail if I use facebook? So how are others sharing their photos in such high detail and getting them from the PS4 to here?

You are using photo mode yeah and not the share button?

I upload mine to a dummy Facebook account then save them and upload to here.

I don't have a PC so do it all via my ipad

 

[Skython]

So I finally got to play PCARS today, so first impressions.

I tried to change my car's livery, and what the heck is this!? Find the car you want, hit vehicle info, find the small button on the top right, hit my garage, and then select a livery. Why is it so complicated? And if you select your car again it resets, and there is no little graphic to show the livery you selected, it just shows the car you've chosen (with the same livery) so you never know if it's worked.

Then I got onto track... Then off it because it felt awful... Then back onto the track, but with new wheel settings, still awful. Left to get some different settings, came back with them, and it was a lot better. 👍 FFB is good, physics feel a little odd, but I'll probably get used to it. I'll probably love it when I finally get the game set up right, or I won't because you aren't allowed to control your own car in the pitlane. 👎

 

[mr_serious]

This is sort of my 2nd impressions now.

After the missus went to bed (10:30) I fired it up again and this time took a good look at my wheel settings. I had the logitech profiler setup terribly, so sorted that out. Then read through some wheel settings threads.

Then I played about a bit raising the visual & graphics options. I then spent 3.5 hours driving the Azure coast and Nordschleife in a few cars: The Atom 300, Caterham R500, Ginetta G55 on random weather with a sunset start into the night.

These were the most sublime virtual driving laps I have ever encountered and I just kept driving & driving without pause (so glad I gave up smoking last year ).

I have encountered some bugs and glitches and some of the settings are in odd places. I wish I could setup fuel loads from within the free practice session for example. The menus are a bit odd also, so having a mouse handy is a must.
However these issues for me don't detract from the heart of the driving experience.

It has been a long, long time since a game made me want to drive for so long.

I utterly hated the helmet cam view in Shift-2 so barely used it. They seem to have implemented that much better in PCars. My favourite moments from the night were driving the Caterham 500 in helmet cam view through alll weather types early evening & into the night at Nordschleife - just awesome!

I really want a track IR now

 

[KamyKaze1098]

Yesterday did a full weekend of GT 4 with the M3 at Donnington National, starting with overcast and 3 random weather slots. It never rained throughout the 2 practice sessions + Qualify + race. But it changed a bit in terms of visibility. Awsome.

Qualified first, only to be overtaken by 2nd, and chase him a lot of laps trying some times to make a move. MAnaged to force him into going wide and he went to the grass, but got overtaken by 3rd

Then followed as my tires were going away and did a few slides and then a spin close to the end, and finished 6th in a 20 laps race.

Awsome feeling, a bit tired on the arms , I think I never felt so good racing against the AI. They are not perfect yet, but they are the most fun I ever had

 

[theapex]

I've still not made the jump to 'next gen' with Xbone, due to mixture between being a dad of t2 young kids (not much spare time), loads of games let on xbox 360 i need to finish or start and Forza 5 being a let down..... (have sooo much time invested into F4)
So PCars was the the game that was going to MAKE me take the plunge... For me as others its not just 40 quid, its that plus 300 odd for the system and then probably a wheel as thats the set up i have on xbox 360.....
So have i done it? Have i hell.
I suggested that the people saying "they are delaying it so as not to release a bugged game" was wishful thinking, it was more like "its a broken bugged game we need to delay it till its just less bugged and broken".
You expect problems yes, but the thing i did when the first delay hit was this. I dug out my old copy of SHIFT 2, put it in to my xbox 360, obviously turned off the online as of course that game for me was broke as i could not play it with internet hooked up...yes really... but i remember at times it was truly great, bugged and flawed, but almost the best ever racing game on 360....

That first play was a bad as i remembered, handling all over the place and that was wit a wheel, trying it on controller..no way. Then i googled some settings, thousands of threads all over the interweb with different settings, some odd, some good, some suggesting best way to play is with TCS on etc... SOUND FAMILAR?
Some people saying its awesome and stick with it, some saying its awful, some saying its good in places flawed in others, sound familar?
Over months i found some great settings and car tweeks to get SHIFT 2 actually playing brilliantly. I think SMS have just given us the same, shift 3 basically....but what im saying is that isnt such a bad thing..you just have to find the great game in there yourself.... annoying yes, issue i have is how history is just repeating itself and SMS cant blame EA this time.... no game should ship without a simple default control method, its daft. Theres a great game in shift 2 if you can be bothered to find it, same with PCars id say....but treally why should you be expected to fiddle around so much?

im out till a few patches as im still rebuilding shift 2...

 

[mr_serious]

Theres a great game in shift 2 if you can be bothered to find it, same with PCars id say....but treally why should you be expected to fiddle around so much?

im out till a few patches as im still rebuilding shift 2...

Shift-2 was very good in places, if you put the effort in. PCars definitely requires less effort to reap rewards.

But like with any skill based game, a bit of patience and practice does wonders.

When moving to a new racing game I just imagine I am a driver who has just changed formula or series into vehicles I am completely unused to and hence need plenty of practice to adjust to the handling differences.

I did get a shock in my first PCars race when I jumped the start and got an instant drive through penalty, excellent!