Project CARS 3: General Discussion Thread - Out August 28th, 2020 on XB1/PS4/PC

[AlexWilmot]

Any news on the next update or a roadmap on DLC and updates?

How full are the multiplayer races now a few weeks on from launch?

Wondering whether to sink money into this or not but the way discussion on the official forum and discord is going doesn't give me much confidence in this along with the mods attitude to some questions and opinions irks me

 

[strela]

How full are the multiplayer races now a few weeks on from launch?

On Xbone it doesn't look good. But I guess you are on PS4 that have way more players.
Just a small comparison with PC2. Right now you have 25 lobies on PC2 with at least 10 with more than 5 players. On PC3 you have 7 lobies and only 3 have more than 5 players. Ok, you have schedule races but today I raced 1 guy this morning and 3 in the afternoon. Not much action.

 

[Bloodytears]

I feel like can't play it anymore. Yeah, everything is easy and light, but not fun at all anymore. Got to find a strength to get a platinum and move on, to be certain back to PC2 that still kicks. The most frustrating and annoying what I can think of are AI that fast on enter and break check on exit and 'course this half of events that have nothing with my car of choice, and I forced to buy skip to have at least some connection with my car.

@AlexWilmot It is the same as mentioned above on PS4. 10 lobbies at peak times, but most of them something weird combinations. Even usual for this type of game GT3 lobby very rare and usually 5-6 people including weirdos who still struggle with controls. Scheduled races is something that I only once could join and play with 6 people out 20, when again 3 of them were brain dead, one was super fast, and our trio had 12 tiresome laps. Just that, 12 laps of going forward for 10k xp as a prize.

 

[Animera]

After 2 weeks and 110 hours I've completed the career mode and there is no desire to play it again.
It was fun to play but I feel like I've completed the game and now there is nothing else to do.

Online is dead, there are cheaters in the rivals events, and I can't bring myself to play long custom races against the AI with no fuel usage, tyre wear or pit stops where there is no need for any strategy. The AI are also the worst of the PCars games so far. They have no idea when you are near them and will just knock you off the track.

It was fun to play, but now it's over for me.

 

[Wolfe]

Online is dead, there are cheaters in the rivals events, and I can't bring myself to play long custom races against the AI with no fuel usage, tyre wear or pit stops where there is no need for any strategy. The AI are also the worst of the PCars games so far. They have no idea when you are near them and will just knock you off the track.

The AI are one of the leading reasons why I'm not very sure about the long term prospects for this game in my rotation.

Every single race I configure seems to be about the same thing -- a globby blob of a pack that constantly bunches up on itself, will not spread out, and rubberbands to let the player recover the lead after some pretty significant losses of time. They're quite slow around many corners, impossibly quick in a handful of exceptions to that rule, cannot keep up in weakling cars, and fly off in cars that dominate their class.

They're too bunched up, too slow, and too fast, in a mix that has not gelled with me.

 

[Zeitoss]

On the positive notes, after two full weeks of playing it, I think that PC3 probably has now the best implementation of the handling with controller, at least among all titles I played so far.

And for handling implementation, I don't mean only the input from the player to the game, but also all feedback from the game to the player.

Through a very integrated mix of camera shakes, visuals, sounds and controller vibrations, in PC3 I can always feel what the car is doing, how is behaving, predicting and adjusting my inputs accordingly.

Talking about the two competitors, I never got this full embracing feeling when playing Forza or GTS with the joypad.
Both compared to PC3 are too "flat" in the way they communicate with the player.

For example, in PC3 I can start feeling the tires losing their grip very clearly and gradually, while in Forza or GTS is much more difficult to get the same (it is more sort of "on" or "off").

AC has sort of this richness in the feedbacks, however it is much more difficult to dial in a satisfactory controller handling valid for all cars.

Your thoughts?

 

[the13PeSK]

As my PC has decided to die on Saturday (never buy RX 5700 XT - constant problems until it dies completely) I thought that I will have a little bit of a break from gaming for now (no other choice as I'm currently stuck with late 2012 Mac Mini and Surface Go ) until Xbox Series X will arrive. I'm going to preorder on 22nd of September and should be delivered on 10th of November. I'm curious how the game will develop until that time...

...TBH, I might buy some cheap Xbox 360 for now just to revisit Forza 4 I think 💡

 

[strela]

Sorry to hear that @the13PeSK . I'm also thinking of a month or two break. I'm really tired of having bad moments every single time I play the game.

Like yesterday. I had a few hours for myself. Start the game. Back to unfinished events in career. Nope, still can't finish them. Ok, than let's grind a little bit. Still want to buy all the cars. So I'm about to finish 50 laps of Indianapolis and suddenly the game froze on lap 48. Ok, not a biggie. Just need to redo the race. I know it's possible to avoid the freeze so I'm pausing the race every 5 laps until lap 40 and after that every single lap until finish. Managed to complete the race, but I'm asking myself... what am I doing? I got the money so I'm trying not to think much about it. Let's do some scheduled racing. That can be really fun if lucky enough. I have 20 minutes to qualify, so let's not waste any more time. Had a good feeling since there are 8 other players and I'm in P3. The race start... black screen and back to home page.
I have no desire left to start another session. Turning off the Box and back to watching TV instead.

I can deal somehow with graphics issues, dumb AI or dull handling. I just can't tolerate all the freezing and crushing anymore.

 

[the13PeSK]

Sorry to hear that @the13PeSK . I'm also thinking of a month or two break. I'm really tired of having bad moments every single time I play the game.

Like yesterday. I had a few hours for myself. Start the game. Back to unfinished events in career. Nope, still can't finish them. Ok, than let's grind a little bit. Still want to buy all the cars. So I'm about to finish 50 laps of Indianapolis and suddenly the game froze on lap 48. Ok, not a biggie. Just need to redo the race. I know it's possible to avoid the freeze so I'm pausing the race every 5 laps until lap 40 and after that every single lap until finish. Managed to complete the race, but I'm asking myself... what am I doing? I got the money so I'm trying not to think much about it. Let's do some scheduled racing. That can be really fun if lucky enough. I have 20 minutes to qualify, so let's not waste any more time. Had a good feeling since there are 8 other players and I'm in P3. The race start... black screen and back to home page.
I have no desire left to start another session. Turning off the Box and back to watching TV instead.

I can deal somehow with graphics issues, dumb AI or dull handling. I just can't tolerate all the freezing and crushing anymore.

Funny enough my GPU has died exactly after a black screen in a scheduled race...

3 laps in, black screen, PC reset, code 92 on the POST screen (which indicates a problem with PCIE device in Dr.Debug on ASRock MoBo), tried different PCIE slots, nothing. Went to Cex, they've tested the card, nothing.

Thankfully the card is still on warranty and has already been sent back to Amazon, now I'm just waiting for a refund (which will cover the cost of Xbox Series X preorder ).

My plan was to rebuild this PC anyway and get rid of this card so I think that the solution came automatically now ...

 

[cosme]

Just as most of you here my in-game time has drastically decreased. I've got 5 trophies left but it looks like some of them are bugged. Hopefully they will fix that in the patch. I understand why it takes so long because the amount of things that needs fixing is extremely high, but still very disappointing to see and play a game in such a state.

Well, I knew it was a risk buying this day one.

 

[PJTierney]

I’m still playing daily, and I’ve just finished setting up my Xbox club which will race every Monday evening

We had a full lobby last week and plenty of fun races.

 

[Wolfe]

@Zeitoss -- I've always relied the most upon motion for feedback of what the car is doing, and the PCARS cockpit cam is not as communicative as I would like. PCARS3's chase cam offers more feedback for me.

As for the implementation of the analog stick steering, I would say it is close to the mark in what it should do, but it's somewhat too heavy-handed and restrictive. It has been an obstacle to drift transitions and some other desired changes in direction that would unsettle the car -- I know, game; I expect the car to become unsettled!

What really helped the most are the improvements to the intelligence to "Speed Sensitivity" or whatever one would call it now, and general refinements across (apparently) the whole car list. No more shoddy compromise with twitchy sensitive steering just to gain access to enough countersteer to recover slides (regardless if you can control it!). No more unrealistic, spastic overcorrections on small slides that would be trivial to navigate with a wheel.

 

[PJTierney]

As for the implementation of the analog stick steering, I would say it is close to the mark in what it should do, but it's somewhat too heavy-handed and restrictive. It has been an obstacle to drift transitions and some other desired changes in direction that would unsettle the car -- I know, game; I expect the car to become unsettled!

This may seem odd, but have you tried going into the wheel options with a controller and using the Calibrate Wheel option? Turn all the way to the left, then all the way to the right.

Some say it helps a lot.

 

[Jamesways]

Did I see correctly they were adding IMSA cars and liveries? Or are they already in the game?

 

[Wolfe]

This may seem odd, but have you tried going into the wheel options with a controller and using the Calibrate Wheel option? Turn all the way to the left, then all the way to the right.

Some say it helps a lot.

That does seem oddly unrelated to what I've observed, but I'll give it a try later. I already adjusted my deadzones.

 

[Bloodytears]

Did I see correctly they were adding IMSA cars and liveries? Or are they already in the game?

To Lexus? You mean LMP? Because GTE have IMSA for Corvette exclusively, and I though it is too much work to SMS to add the most simple this season Porsche livery.

 

[PJTierney]

To Lexus? You mean LMP? Because GTE have IMSA for Corvette exclusively, and I though it is too much work to SMS to add the most simple this season Porsche livery.

Probably more a licensing thing than a dev thing really. Game has tons of liveries for some race cars.

 

[Bloodytears]

Probably more a licensing thing than a dev thing really. Game has tons of liveries for some race cars.

This is obvious in one way, and weird in other, at least some new replicas would not hurt, but RSR for example still have only 2 liveries. They saved so much on LM24 and Spa tracks, this would be enough to buy IMSA whole season, if not entire licence for the series with tracks, except Lexus, I suppose

 

[PJTierney]

This is obvious in one way, and weird in other, at least some new replicas would not hurt, but RSR for example still have only 2 liveries. They saved so much on LM24 and Spa tracks, this would be enough to buy IMSA whole season, if not entire licence for the series with tracks, except Lexus, I suppose

Depending on the game, some manufacturers will block you from adding extra liveries.

Ever wonder why the Audi Sport quattro S1 E2 only has one livery in DiRT Rally 2.0, and doesn’t even have a plain black/white paintjob?

 

[Bloodytears]

Depending on the game, some manufacturers will block you from adding extra liveries.

Ever wonder why the Audi Sport quattro S1 E2 only has one livery in DiRT Rally 2.0, and doesn’t even have a plain black/white paintjob?

Honestly no, but I suppose due Audi strict policy on this car and it's historical value. Doubt this is the case, but in other hand might understand if Customer Racing isn't allowed, but IMSA is a part of Manufacturer program, so why do they do it?

 

[Wolfe]

Depending on the game, some manufacturers will block you from adding extra liveries.

Ever wonder why the Audi Sport quattro S1 E2 only has one livery in DiRT Rally 2.0, and doesn’t even have a plain black/white paintjob?

Yup. I don't know what Audi's logic is, but despite being one of my favorite Group B cars, I have quit using the Sport Quattro in any game with custom liveries/paint that forbids me from using the feature.

 

[T0MMY3688]

I though it is too much work to SMS to add the most simple this season Porsche livery.

I don't think manufacturers allow devs to add in a new livery to a older variant of the car, they are only allow to get other livery of the same year. I think same thing happened to the Bentley GT3 back in pCARS 2, SMS licensed a bunch of 2015 and 2016 livery but Bentley wanted them on specific variant of the car so we get 3 Bentley GT3 in pCARS 2.

SMS could have licensed a few more 2017 livery for the Porsche I guess.

Honestly no, but I suppose due Audi strict policy on this car and it's historical value. Doubt this is the case, but in other hand might understand if Customer Racing isn't allowed, but IMSA is a part of Manufacturer program, so why do they do it?

Yup. I don't know what Audi's logic is, but despite being one of my favorite Group B cars, I have quit using the Sport Quattro in any game with custom liveries/paint that forbids me from using the feature.

As for Audi, I remember back in pCARS1 WMD SMS mention Audi only allow fictional livery on customer racing cars. Cars like the Audi 90 IMSA GTO, Audi R8 LMP900, Audi Quattro S1 E2 and Audi V8 DTM is restricted to only official livery while the R8 GT3 gets a mix of official livery and fictional livery (I made a livery for the R8 GT3 back in pCARS 2, I think it is still in pCARS 3).

 

[Wolfe]

Has anyone seen SMS make any comment about putting some work in on the AI? Just curious.

With the game arguably in a better state than PCARS2 was at launch, for now it's kinda easy to forget that SMS has not yet been given the chance to revise this game like everything they did for PCARS2. Between the good, bad, and ugly (literally), the good is great.

 

[losbuttcheeks]

I'm on ps4 and my g29 doesn't work as of yet. Still waiting for the patch.

 

[byoung]

Even with the graphics as they are I really like this game playing with a controller. Classic LM races on historic Monza some of the most fun I have ever had in a game.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

I love this game but has anybody else noticed that it runs hot, the fans are constantly going nuts on the menu's (standard PS4), in race it's not too bad.

 

[Nacho Libre]

What is it with this game? In spite of its bugs and visual downgrade, it has become my daily racer of choice over more polished or acclaimed games (FH4, FH3, FM7 and its predecessor.)

 

[Scaff]

What is it with this game? In spite of its bugs and visual downgrade, it has become my daily racer of choice over more polished or acclaimed games (FH4, FH3, FM7 and its predecessor.)

Can’t say the same, I do the daily and that’s about it. With WRC9 and the new DLC for Wreckfest, along with the continued existence of PC2, AC and ACC, it just doesn’t have a draw at all.

 

[Nacho Libre]

Maybe its because essentially is easy to pick and play, and the gameplay do has some substance, certainly not as a motorsport "simulator", but as a racing game. The proof is that you just can't ridge race your car around any track or road course and get away with it. While more forgiving, make a mistake and it will bite you, but drive it with restrain and it will reward you.

 

[FuriousDemon]

What is it with this game? In spite of its bugs and visual downgrade, it has become my daily racer of choice over more polished or acclaimed games (FH4, FH3, FM7 and its predecessor.)

The reason I’m playing it is because of how good it is with a controller and like you said above, it’s simulation enough. I tried GTS again today with some tweaks to settings, but it’s still not on the same level.