Project Cars – Hands on with the PS4 Version

Have you ever been in McDonald’s looking at the pictures of whatever bad decision you’re about to make and thought “there’s no way my food will look as good as what I’m pointing at”? The same feeling comes over me whenever I see pre-release footage of Project Cars.

Every new trailer or image of the game has impressed me. Of course, these are produced either by the developers before the game is even up to speed, with a ‘best-possible’ scenario of an end product, or with an early build of the game running on an Optimus Prime PC, so I remained skeptical about how it might perform on new-gen consoles. Having played the PS4 version, expectedly, it looks nowhere near as good as the screens and trailers want us to believe. What is surprising, however, is that it also doesn’t drive as well as expected, either.

While Driveclub has (rightly) been receiving high praise for it’s amazing visual fidelity, Project Cars fails to come close. Environments are bland and lifeless, more akin to Gran Turismo 6’s personality-vacant effort on PS3. The static look of everything you drive by makes the world appear bereft of oxygen, while the urban landscapes include buildings lacking detail and depth. Race attendees included in certain tracks don’t do much to add to the atmosphere, as they appear to have stopped by after attending an old-gen wrestling match, and their scarcity only worsens the overall look.

It’s a huge disappointment that Project Cars fails to look anywhere near as good as any next-gen racer, considering all the hype. The fact that even the over-a-year-old Forza 5 comfortably outshines it in every aspect is a real shame.

The driving is better, if incredibly unforgiving. The experience behind the wheel can range from tricky to Bambi on ice. In high-end cars, like Formula As or Ariel Atoms, it’s possible to have a good race, where a balance can be struck between the car’s erratic behaviour and your own over-exuberance to go faster. However, in road cars, like a BMW 1-Series or Audi R8, it can be incredibly challenging to finish a lap in one piece.

The biggest issue is the steering. Trying to drag a car around a corner, kicking and screaming, is like maneuvering a fully loaded three-wheeled Tesco trolley round a corner onto the bread aisle. No matter how slow you’re going, the car never seems to want to take the turn, let alone come close to the apex. This can be an issue from the 125cc karts all the way up to a Pagani Huayra.

The inflexibility of assists doesn’t help matters, either. While other racers, including those catering for the more dedicated drivers, offer a wide range of assists, each with its own spectrum of influence, Project Cars simply hands the player the choice of having said options either on or off. Traction control becomes a necessity to keep the car on the road, but then as you get to grips with each car, it becomes a hindrance when trying to accelerate out of corners, affecting overtaking opportunities. Stability control is far too overbearing, kicking a car aggressively straight as I drift around a corner, to the point it leads to overcompensation and a quick loss of control, immediately running off-road. The lack of a rewind function, although a way of again fitting the image of ‘hardcore racer’, is a glaring absence, as rather than make me inclined to restart the entire race, it makes me want to walk away altogether.

On the other hand, the variety of feeling between each car is very good, and something rare among racing games. While other racers find difficulty distinguishing handling between its myriad cars, here, every motor has its own kinks. Some, of course, like the Pagani Huarya mentioned above, are practically impossible to drive. Even with traction control on, the car spins out of control at the smallest touch of the accelerator, even on straights, whilst others like the Bac Mono at least feel a little more stable.

The excellent tuning options counter this somewhat. The menus go into great detail as to how the changes will affect the car, and are explained for the layman so you will also understand why adjusting the brake balance is worth a try.

Being a preview build, it’s tricky to judge what AI behaviours on show here are due to bugs that won’t be final in the final game, but drivers currently do some bizarre things. There are times when I’ve turned a corner and a car is simply parked parallel to the track, more as an obstacle than an opponent. Other instances include multiple drivers fighting tooth-and-nail into corners, so much so that Formula A supercars are treated like dodgems, leading to big pile-ups. Again, hard to judge if this is aggressive AI or a bug, especially when in the previous kart race, which had a rolling start, I was given the green light with the kart driving over-and-over into a wall.

With only a couple months before the game’s launch, it’s difficult to see how the visuals will improve much ahead of release. While the handling will likely appeal to the most dedicated driving fans, it’s unlikely to attract casuals, or even those with a keen interest who play the likes of Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo with only a few assists. If the PC version can match the visuals of the trailers, perhaps that’ll be the only place to see the results of this project. But as things stand, it’s failing to make the grade.