Project CARS

We’re split over Project CARS. In our opinion it’s more of a simulator than a game but for die-hard racing fans, it’s a must. It’s fun to race but unless you’re a dedicated racing fan, you may find yourself getting bored quite quickly. It can be frustrating to play at times, there’s no doubting that, but for every frustrating game we had, we also had an enjoyable one, so its balanced on that front. Graphics, while far from terrible, aren’t up to standards set by the likes of DriveClub, especially with the dynamic weather system. The lack of a story mode, upgrades and unlocks may put some gamers off but as long as Slightly Mad Studios keep adding new tracks and cars, there may be an element of longevity to this game.

Project Cars has been one of the year’s surprise success stories, to the extent that Slightly Mad Studios has just announced a sequel while the first game’s barely two months old. It’s not hard to understand why. The partly crowd-funded racer has tapped an audience that other racers seemed to be ignoring. It turns out that not everyone wants a social racing focus, Top Gear tie-ins, American racing superstars or the world’s best photo mode, but lots of people do seem to want a game with a fairly straight race-by-race, championship by championship career mode, the option to play full race weekends, a realistic approach to tyre wear and damage and AI racers that are neither robotic nor psychotic. Project Cars delivers on all these counts.

Deep and demanding but incredibly user-friendly, Project CARS looks great, sounds fantastic, and feels even better. The action is ferocious and tactical, the weather effects are awesome, and it’s brimming with content to explore. This is real racing done right.