So, this past Saturday my US Copy (I also purchased the UK Limited Edition for the metal box and book, hasn’t arrived yet) of PCARS finally arrived along with my pre-ordered T3PA-Pro Pedals (These things are really heavy compared to the stock T300RS pedals).
So, lets see, we had 2 PS3’s and a PS4 so I thought it would be great, we could share the PS4 (My Son just got a new game and that idea went out the window)
Needless to say I went out Sunday and purchased another PS4, so now it’s 2 PS3’s and 2 PS4’s.
We all know the sadly familiar story, I had the G27, that’s not compatible with PS4/PCARS so, I purchased T300RS, I wanted the Leather wheel, so of course I purchased the "TM Leather 28 GT Wheel Add-On”.
When I think about it, I have actually invested a lot of money in PCARS:
Thrustmaster T300 RS Wheel $399.00
TM Leather 28 GT Wheel Add-On $149.00
Thrustmaster Wheel to Logitech Pedal Adapter - By Ricmotech (Used with G27 Pedals for a few days) $19.99
Thrustmaster T3PA-PRO $149.00
PCARS US $59.00
PCARS UK Limited Edition $103.02 USD
PS4 $399.00
So Now, I mount my T3PA-PRO, the T300 and 28 GT Wheel were already in place and ready to go, Should be in for some real fun right……Not!!
1). So I put the wheel in PS4 mode, I switch it to inverted GT Style (The actually feel really good, more like what I’m used to driving), slap the PCARS disc in and when it starts up it doesn’t see the Wheel, of course the wheel did the normal initialization when the PS4 powered on. I was completed puzzled, rebooted the PS4 after swapping the wheel and DS4 inputs, nothing, eventually I pressed the PS button and was able to select the wheel, Wow, that was frustrating, never had to do that on the PS3 with GT5/6 or any other game for that matter.
2). I then went on to calibrate the wheel and made the mistake of going into the button assignment screen, WTF, again Wow, after attempting to assign some familiar buttons, I tried to exit the menu and received the following message: "Not all required controls are assigned”, It didn’t indicate what buttons were required and I kept trying to set more and more, this was extremely frustrating, I wasted a half hour stuck attempting to get out, I finally went internet and someone had posted a work around to get out of this mess, horrible!!!
3). I was determined to not let this put a damper on my fun with PCARS so I went to do a Free Practice run on the California Highway (Cant lose with that right???). When the run started, I completed lost all sound to my Dolby Digital 5.1 Roccat Kave Surround Headphones. I went through the entire run with now sound, as soon as the event was over, the sound returned, again Wow!! The second run was fine, all sound was normal, not sure what the heck that was.
4). Speaking of sound, as stated, I use Surround Sound Headphones and noticed that there were voices coming from the speaker in the DS4, I could just barely here it due to having on sealed headphones. Is there a setting to have everything come through the surround source???? I went through the options and couldn’t find anything.
5). When watching the replays of the Free Practice run, the replays were very jittery, it looks horrible, am I the only one with this issue??
6). And yes, I noticed the Blurry/Ghosting issues and no, I didn’t have to look for it, it is just there, needs to be corrected, this is Next Gen.
7). I couldn’t find a way to adjust Field of View while in the cockpit, can this be done??
When I started the game, there were the 3 modes (Amateur, Novice and Pro), I started with Novice as there has been some advice from VVV to start off with some assist before going nuts and overall it felt decent, It should be fun when I start turning off more assist and having fun racing.
There are lots of things that need to be fixed, but since so many have said this is the best console racing simulator ever, I will reserve judgement until I can get more time in.
Sorry about the long post.
Ruapuna Park Raceway here in Christchurch New Zealand is coming as DLC, about 20 mins drive from home
