In recent years, more and more racing simulators have begun to appear , which are ready to offer gamers new opportunities. Someone continues to concentrate on arcade games, offering a huge selection of cars, dynamics of action and the brightness of graphic accompaniment, while others try to make the most of the progress that allows them to bring the gaming experience behind a virtual wheel closer to the real one. Thus, you can find the most diverse types of races, but at the moment you have to read about a specific game - Project CARS. The review will include information on what makes this game stand out so favorably against other simulators of this kind, how it is inferior to them, what system requirements it has, and much more. After reading, you can make your own opinion about this project and decide whether you want to try it out or not. It is possible that you don’t want to see Project CARS on your computer at all, the review does not guarantee that you will like the game, but there are no less high chances that this simulator will become not only your favorite racing project, but also your favorite game in general.
Brief introduction
So what is the new Project CARS simulator? The review will tell you all the necessary details, but it’s worth starting with the general impression that the game makes. What to expect for a gamer who wants to try his hand? What will he see there? First of all, it is worth saying that a lot of time and money was spent on creating this game, so expectations from it were more than high. And to a greater extent, she met the expectations that lay on her. Please note that a unique engine was developed specifically for the game, guaranteeing you an incredible driving experience - realism, brightness, speed (all this will be present in abundance), and you can feel what it means to be a real racer. Moreover, the game created the most realistic models of tracks, as well as damage, which accurately reproduce not only the visual impact of collisions on your car, but also the impact of these collisions on its performance on the road. Do not forget about the graphic element, which turned out to be no less magnificent. Even in the smallest detail, you can see the perfect working out, every tiniest reflection will be reproduced with maximum accuracy. Thanks to this, at any moment of the game, when you look at the screen, you will see a cinematically accurate picture that is impressive to the core. Well, of course, it is worth noting that the developers approached the creation of the game with all seriousness - several demo versions were released, each of which was then fixed in order to come up with an ideal game step by step, which was eventually tested not only by ordinary gamers but also professional racers. Moreover, support for Oculus Rift, that is, augmented reality systems , as well as support for incredibly high ultra-resolution, is what Project CARS boasts. The review will affect each of these elements separately and in more detail.
Minimum System Requirements
First, take a look at what Project CARS system requirements are, or rather the minimum border and recommended indicators. So, in order to run this game on your computer in general, you will need to make sure that you have the Windows Vista or 7 operating system installed - unfortunately, Windows XP is no longer supported by this game. As for the technical characteristics, you will need: a quad-core processor with a frequency of at least 2.5 gigahertz, at least four gigabytes of RAM, as well as one gigabyte of video memory. Naturally, you should understand that this configuration can only be used to start the game at the minimum settings. As you can imagine, you won’t be able to see all those wonders that have already been described above, and you won’t be able to enjoy incredible smoothness, all the chic effects, so it’s highly recommended not to play at the minimum settings in Project CARS. It is better to consider the system requirements that are recommended, as they will allow you to play the project that the developers have prepared for you ideally.
Recommended System Requirements
As everyone is well aware, this game is multi-platform, which means that it was released not only on personal computers, but also on consoles. Thus, this part of the review applies only to those gamers who will play this simulator on a computer, since there are no differences in the system configuration on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. So, if you own a six-core processor with a frequency of at least 3.5 gigahertz, eight gigabytes of RAM and two gigabytes of video memory, then you can not worry about whether this game will work on your computer or not. It is guaranteed to work at the highest settings, so that you can safely enjoy all those charms that have already been described and will be described later in the review. Just make sure that your hard drive has at least twenty-five gigabytes of free space, so that the game is quietly installed and running without problems and conflicts. Well, the owners of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are lucky - they only need to think about free space on their hard drive.
Financing
It’s worth starting with the fact that this project was not created by the developers on their own - they only submitted for consideration the idea of a simulator that would allow you to become any driver who can exist, drive almost any track that is on the world map, get incomparable pleasure. More than eighty thousand ordinary gamers funded this project through a crowdfunding platform created specifically for this. And all the money raised was aimed at creating a racing simulator that will be both better and better than all existing ones, and completely different in concept. Well, the developers' ambitions were very impressive, but they collected more than good funds for their implementation. But what is the game Project CARS really? Is it really so gorgeous and inimitable? Do Project CARS cars really have the most realistic models, damage, and tracks cannot be distinguished from real ones? Even the beta testing stage showed that the upcoming project is something phenomenal. It's time to consider the final version in detail.
Visual impressions
When you start the walkthrough in Project CARS, you will be amazed at how this game looks. Everything is dynamic here, and the world lives its own life, although this is not at all necessary, since all attention is focused on the races and the track. But at the same time the weather is changing, the time of day is changing, unexpected and sudden situations happen that decorate the gameplay. For example, you are used to the fact that changing sunny weather to rainy only makes you turn on the wipers and enjoy driving further. But in this game everything will be completely different - you will immediately have to go to the pit stop in the boxes to change tires there, and also rethink your strategy for the whole race.
Primary delight
In general, the appearance, vivid picture, unexpected decisions - all this causes a true delight, which can last several hours. But, alas, then you begin to notice some other little things that seriously spoil the impression of the game Project CARS. There is not enough mechanics in some places, and as for the outside world, in addition to a good picture, you get nothing.
Emphasis on motorsport
One of the main problems of this project is that it is just a race. Of course, the developers have repeatedly assured users that this will be a real immersion in the world of motorsport, but as a result it turned out that the gamer is immersed in the world of cars, and you can forget about any other components. An excellent example is the connection during the race - everyone knows that the driver does not win alone, he has a whole team. However, at the same time, you can always hear this team in other simulators, know that it is nearby, feel its presence and contribution to the victory. Here, except for identical phrases on the radio, you will not see and hear nothing. Even a stop at a pit stop is not an interaction with the team, but a simple menu in which settings are made. Project CARS looked very promising, and the game looks very beautiful and powerful even now that the release has already taken place. But at the same time, you can enjoy chic races if you are only interested in them - everything else remains behind the scenes, and you can not only interact with it, but even see it.
Modern innovations
But you have e-mail, and Twitter, and much more, but on Twitter you do not see anything other than repeated messages from cheering fans, and all kinds of nonsense also comes to e-mail. Only new contracts can attract attention, but they are monotonous - you simply choose sponsors at random, without receiving any goals for the season, or any other conditions. Everything becomes a bit more fun in the multiplayer mode, but even there the fun ends quickly, since even with friends primitive races still remain races.
Big variety
However, there must be something outstanding in the game that will attract everyone's attention and make you enthusiastic. Indeed, this project will simply amaze you with how deeply all kinds of races, races, championships, as well as the cars that the developers participate in, worked out. In total, you will find about twenty different championships covering absolutely all existing types of motor sports. The game also has more than a hundred different cars, each of which you can try yourself.
Career mode
However, at the same time, the existing career mode is simply useless, since it allows you to simply drive along the already accessible tracks in the specified order using Twitter and e-mail. There are no more differences in a career from regular races. Apparently, the developers decided that if they give the players a huge amount of opportunities, then they themselves will figure out how to use these opportunities. But this game is very far from a high-quality car sandbox. Despite the high level of car simulation, you will not be able to get an impressive driving experience in Project CARS, even the highest level steering wheels will not help you.
Physical theory
Well, it's time to move on to consider what the creators of this project are so proud of - car physics. And at first glance you will be surprised at how much everything here perfectly matches the real performance of cars. Apparently, the creators are firmly seated in theoretical books and have studied absolutely all the theoretical aspects of the cars involved in the races. However, pay attention to how the word “theoretical” is emphasized here. The fact is that really - all the cars are fully consistent with what is written about them in the technical passports, but not one of the cars has its own personality, its own characteristics. So if you meet two cars that have identical indicators on paper, you can be sure that they will drive identically in this game.
Practice
It was the practical approach that was not enough for the creators who boasted so much of their incredible and unsurpassed physical model. Yes, it was done just fine, an incredible job was done to transfer the technical characteristics of cars from paper to computer screens, but this is far from all that includes driving a car. Unfortunately, it was far from what was expected from Project CARS - you just don’t want to save the games because you always know what will follow in your racing career.