SMS has put massive amounts of work into those physics, too, which given the ice driving option and the introduction of mud-slinging rallycross seems sensible.
The game includes a race engineer who asks you pertinent questions with multiple choice responses to help you improve the handling of your car – and it really does change the physics.
PROJECT CARS 2 PC LIST OF WHEELS DRIVERS
Real racing drivers don’t set-up their own cars, unless they’re skint – and here, finally, garage management has gone all realistic. Like all aspects of PCARS 2, it really makes you think about your racing. Yes you can drive a Lamborghini around Long Beach in the snow if you want to, but for real kicks try searching out a dry line on a damp-but-warming track and marvel at the detail as the puddles shrink lap after lap until eventually there’s enough adhesion to switch to slicks. Having previously mastered dynamic weather and daylight, PCARS2 also boasts dynamic track conditions and all four seasons. That being said, SMS’ new Livetrack 3.0 system really turns the experience up to 11 with its evolving track system. We found we had to work hard to find an XBox d-pad setting that worked well and though it’s better than the original game, the cars still don’t feel connected to the road as we’re used to with other games. The track imperfections are really well done, too – for instance the bump on the entry to the first corner at Knockhill will really throw the car off-centre, making you think about your approach all very real.Īgain, though, it’s not without flaws. The messaging and steering tension really allow you to place the car just so on the track, and with three different levels of feel from Informative to Raw. Inside these tiers awaits manufacturer contracts where you’re rewarded with demo cars, historic races and other goodies – what’s not to like about that?Īnd now on to the really important stuff: the handling is exceptional, at least with a steering wheel (I used a Logitech 920 on the Xbox One and PC preview builds). This takes you through every discipline on offer: there are six tiers to climb, and you have to earn access to the last three levels of each. Still, when the game is singing along, you feel like you’re really racing these guys, and all the realism really adds weight to the scaled-up career. Until this is fixed, then, you’ll have to hang around to the end or set an arbitrary starting position… There’s no option to accelerate time once you’ve recorded a time, just a ‘skip to the end’ button – which means you can put in a really fast lap which leaves you comfortably ahead of the pack, only to end the session and find that the entire field has now goes 3 seconds faster and dumped you to the back of the grid. Qualifying sessions, while essential, are also a bit of a pain to complete. Well unless you’re racing Sebastian Vettel. As with the first game you do sometimes see glitches with the AI, with cars driving into each other at Turn 1 for instance. This adds another element to the racing, and makes it unlike any other racer we’ve played. The NPCs will now go out of their way not to damage their cars and they also fatigue as a race matures.
This is a stroke of genius and we found it much easier to play nicely with the other cars as a result.Īnd there’s more. Where the AI in the first game was positively Mad Maxian, it can now be managed in two ways: by performance and aggression. The racing is considerably more rewarding, too. But an improved and cleaner interface helps simplify things, and there’s also a nice touch in the ‘pre-sets’ menu that allows you to choose your style of genre – say tin-tops or Ind圜ar – then just get straight on with the kind of racing you love. Like a massive DVD collection, there’s sometimes too much choice and you don’t know what to play first. SMS has also expanded the range of disciplines ice racing, rallycross and drifting join the improved multiclass endurance, single-seater and point-to-point styles from the original. It’s like getting in a time machine and living through moments you dreamed about as a kid.
All the classics are there, and with a lovely twist you can now experience the daunting original Spa-Francorchamps or the extremely fast Silverstone track that Keke Rosberg lapped at an average speed of 160mph in 1985, right in front of yours’ truly. The same is true of the track roster: there are more than 60 venues spanning some 130 layouts you won’t find this kind of choice anywhere else in console-land.
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