There are two types of racing games in this world: fast and furious, arcade speedsters that only use physics as a means to stop cars achieving orbit after a crash, and rigorously accurate simulations that attempt to make gaming as real as your morning commute… Project CARS is most definitely placed in that latter column. In this case however, this is certainly no bad thing.
The game does offer a career mode which allows games to put themselves in the shoes of a real life racing driving. With so many types of motor racing available the game will take you through a journey as you become champion in all of them and though you can choose where you begin your career, to start from the very beginning will put you behind the wheel of a go kart as a nice and easy way to get you going. Funnily enough, these early stages are in fact some of the most fun in the game and in online play, karting does offer some quick and furious action that helps break up some of the technical monotony involved in more advanced races. As your career progresses you will win races and be invited to join teams with faster cars and get involved with faster races, building from your early karting days, right up to the extreme speed of Formula cars. In each race the game does prompt you to go through the ordinary stages of racing, from practice through to qualifying, in order to gain as high up the starting grid as possible and then onto the main race.
Of course, the game is all about the racing and this is where it excels. Driving can be punishing for those who are less experienced, and even switching to a new type of car will suddenly put you on a whole new learning curve. Personally, since I am generally terrible, I take full advantage of the games features for less advanced drivers, such as guides to find the perfect line around the track and prompts for when best to brake, yet while these offer a huge amount of assistance they are not enough to get you around the track flawlessly every time. The slightest error on your part will quickly send you spinning off the track, as will the slightest nudge from another vehicle. Changing weather conditions and tyre temperatures are even taken into consideration. Rain is not just there to look nice, as anything from a light drizzle to torrential down pour will force you to change your driving style, and a track and car you thought you knew well will suddenly become a white knuckled hell ride. Get stuck behind another car in wet weather and you will find your visibility plummet from kicked up spray mist. Meanwhile you will most definitely want to get your tyres warmed with some extra braking during your first lap of qualifying or the cool, slick rubber will have you sliding all over the track just as easily as an ice rink.
Graphically the game is gorgeous, with both the exterior and interior of all vehicles given special care and attention, as are both the real life and fictional tracks in the game. It does have to be admitted that the PC and PS4 versions have better visuals that their Xbox counterpart, but that is generally normal. The one thing that is clear in all three however is the amount of care and attention put into the game, and perhaps even more so in the wet weather conditions, which at points make the game hard to differentiate from real life when the weather is severe and visibility is hiding some of the more obviously computer generated points.
Take the chequered flag...
What are your favourite racing games? Does this one grab your fancy? Let us know in the comments below!