Project Cars First impressions

Well, I finally got my controls all set up and I must say that I am enjoying the game much more now.  There are a few little glitches here and there but overall I'm quite impressed.  The graphics are amazing but we already knew that lol.  The physics take a little while to get the hang of but part of that has been the twitchy controls.  Now that all that is sorted I have finally started to get a feel for the driving and I really like it.

I love the weather/night racing just as much as I thought I would.  For example, I was driving Silverstone yesterday on a 10 lap race.  The race started in the morning with heavy fog and the sun just in the tree line.  Lighting was amazing coming into the final 2 turns and the sun peaked through the trees and lit the fog.  Then a few laps in the sky clouded up and it began to rain.  Light at first. Wipers on.  Then it started to really comedown. Slick conditions forced me to pit and change to wet tires (pit was required in this race anyway).  Back on the track and doing my best to NOT spin out I fought the weather for several lap until around Lap 8 the rain lifted and I could put the hammer down again.  I finished 3rd that race (after more than a few restarts too lol) and but it was an amazing experience all the same.

Despite the small selection of car, the track list is amazing.  I have put in about 10 hours so far and only raced on tracks I know twice so far.  I love it and I can't wait to see what else this game has to offer. So far, very please with the game.

Just started season 3 and am choosing the open wheel ladder for my first full career so I'm beginning the Formula Rookie series.

Spent the better part of the evening working on a setup for the first race (Oulton Park Island) and I have to say I'm very pleased with how it came out.  Had the AI set to 80% and won the first race by 12 seconds and the second one by 20.  Will bump up the AI to 90% next race and see what happens. 

Here's a vid of the time trial I ran after I got the setup how I wanted it.  

Since the leaderboards pretty much suck on the console versions (at least the XB1) I try to compare my times to the PC Leaderboards.  Would have been good enough for 12th place currently.

You did it all wrong. I'm gonna have to take off 20 style points your drove by about 20 cones and if you want the most out of your run you have to accost the cones. Lol jk nice run.

S7 OC wrote:You did it all wrong. I'm gonna have to take off 20 style points your drove by about 20 cones and if you want the most out of your run you have to accost the cones. Lol jk nice run.

Yeah, there were some rough laps before that one, lol.

What wheel did you go with? I've been wanting to buy one for some time. I'd use it for Cars and future Forza games.

AtrumX wrote:What wheel did you go with? I've been wanting to buy one for some time. I'd use it for Cars and future Forza games.

TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition along with the T3PA ADD-ON pedals because of the conical brake mod.  I've been having much fun with it and will be even better once they fix the FFB issues.  I'll never play another racing game with a controller.

Nice man, I marked them on my amazon. Now to think of a pitch for the wife... lol

AtrumX wrote:Nice man, I marked them on my amazon. Now to think of a pitch for the wife... lol

Only advice I would give is that if you are primarily thinking of getting one for PCARS it might be a good idea to wait until they at least get the patch out that will resolve the FFB issues.  They are aware of them and are working on it.  That will give you some time to work on the wife a bit, lol.

An update on this:

"In terms of the TX & XB1 we're aware of the problems and are well under way with fixing them. Most issues will be resolved in the next update(1.3) and we are working closely with our hardware partners to resolve all known issues. Some issues will require coordination from Thrustmaster and Madcatz with firmware fixes to be linked in."

I've been doing the Formula Rookie series at 100% session length and 90% AI for the last couple of nights.  1 round (2 races) each night.  Have spent an unusual amount of time (for me) working on setups for each race.  Probably about an hour or so working on setups, then 30 minutes practice and 15 minutes qualifying.  At 100% length the first race of the night has been 10 laps and the second race 14 laps (if I remember correctly).  Normally my "routine" has been to push fairly hard for the first few laps to get away from the field and then just put in some consistent laps and keep from screwing up.  It's easy to get lulled into a false sense of security and make a mistake when trying to push too hard for too long.  As long as I can get away and stay in front I've been ok.  Once you get stuck back in the pack all bets are off as the AI can be very aggressive at times and can ruin a race in a matter of seconds.

I have to say that with proper (or at least good for me) setups it's been a cake walk so far.  I've qualified on the pole for each race and have easily won the races.  Will be bumping the AI up to 100% tonight for Donington and see how that goes.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the game since I've had the wheel even with the issues present in the game.

With that said I also haven't had to deal with any bad weather as of yet so I know I'll be screwed when I get hit with a rainy race considering the issues with the AI apparently not being affected much by the rain.

OneBadHuskerFan wrote:With that said I also haven't had to deal with any bad weather as of yet so I know I'll be screwed when I get hit with a rainy race considering the issues with the AI apparently not being affected much by the rain.

They really don't seem effected at all. A 5-7 second lead can easily disappear without any major screw-ups and one spin out can lead to disaster. Finally took a 3rd place finish after trying several times on a 10 lap Silverstone race (of which about 6 laps were in the rain). I'm sure I could have finished 1st but it would have to have been perfect in every detail.

*AI @ 80%

The more I hear about this game the more it seems like it might be above my skill level. Forza sounds more arcadey than this and I wasn't the best at that.

Also, not sure if anyone other than Zak got this for PS4 so I dunno how big of a draw it will be, especially since we have a small pack for PS4 to start with.