Everyone was WRONG about Project Cars 2

Just sharing some of my thoughts on the history of Project Cars. Enjoy!

[paulbyrne]

Still one of my main go to VR games and I love the ffb on the Fanatec wheel. Sad to have no one in the lobbies anymore and yes, I believe people are missing a great game that deserves a revisit.

[tmoshamo]

I regret not getting all the dlc. I kept waiting for a sale then one day boom! Game gone. I still enjoy pcars2 solo in vr. I think its a great experience. Thank you for the video dave. Peace✌️

[Myosos]

Just a comment regarding the investment part. I was an early backer for PC1, and unlike ANY other crowdfunding project, we were considered as investors, so not only did I get a great game for the 40€ I gave, but they also sent me returns on the investment and in the end they ended up sending me back twice the amount I gave them initially.

I never considered myself betrayed because they made a second one and I'll never be bitter about investing in PC1. Thanks to Ian Bell and his team I got 2 awesome racing sims, the best career mode available on PC and a great engine that lives on in AMS2

[simracer]

Still one of my favorite racing games. It was cool to be able to use The Crew Chief app with it on console as well.

[Ryzza]

I was an original 'notInvestor'. We were not screwed out of anything. We voted on key decisions including extending release dates and changing release platforms.

[EProject]

I love it and I still play it all the time with friends. So so fun!!!

[Krautastic]

I picked this up on pc years ago for a few dollars. My pc was never good enough to run it properly, so I played on console where I remembered it having good physics underpinning.

I returned to it a few months ago and it's now my favorite circuit racer. I think the physics are really good and ffb is really good with some tweaking (I actually prefer vanilla to ffb mods, but vanilla has some weird bugs like curbs pulling the wheel too hard). The physics bend just slightly arcade, mostly an over exaggeration of grip, but it makes for a more enjoyable drive that I'm not constantly dancing on the transition from grip to understeer. The cars have a great weight to them and you can really push them hard. I didn't get into online racing or hot lapping, I know there are tuning exploits and such, but for a solo experience it really is good. Many cars benefit from some tuning tweaks.

I will argue with anyone that it has the best rally physics of any modern title. The cars have such a good feeling of weight and weight transfer. The differentials and tires and suspension all feel so natural and those cars make wicked sounds. If I could get those car models and physics with some proper stages, it would finally dethrone Richard burns rally.

I think the graphics have really held up too. The car models, lighting effects, the whole thing. Weather effects are especially good. The only faults are with older textures, especially in off track elements. But, I'll say I much prefer cars 2 Bathurst over ams2 Bathurst. Ams2 the track feels empty. I cars 2 you've got grandstand and billboards and the heat waves off the tarmac.

What a gem of a game. I still play ams, ams2, raceroom, and acc depending on what type of car I want to drive, but since I mainly play offline, pcars 2 is where I spend my time now.

[SpeedNash]

Finally more people are saying this. Ive been saying it to everyone since 4-5 years ago when i played it on my setup. I've sold my wheel now cause of less hours of playing games & i just game on keyboard and controller. Nevertheless this is timeless and im blessed i bought both 1st and 2nd before delisting.

[chinodigitalbath]

Great Video, good thoughts. 😊

The prices for digital keys (Steam Key Resellers) are skyrocketing...

[jamesrather]

Unlike vanilla AC, this sim always felt like you had actual rubber tires under the car thanks to the SETA tire model. CSP fixed this for AC but IMO PC2 was better off the shelf, and probably the most complete racing sim ever made.

[DragonFlySlayer-wfne]

After PC2 became discontinued, I was newer and didn't know anything about PC2. So I searched for a Steam Key and found a deluxe version and a Eastern add on as well. So I loaded it into my Steam account and viola, it works perfect. I'm running this in 4K, Just recently I started to observe the FFB setting. I'm running a Fanatec GT-DD pro with a CS 2.5 RIM with Podium paddles. For pedals I'm running a full set of VRS
Now the FFB felt not so good when I'd try to turn it up a bit within game settings. After further review within the game's settings I discovered three modes of operation being RAW, Custom, and Immersive. Of the three "Immersive" with all the games settings to Max changed everything! With all my Fanatec's GT-DD base unit settings maxed out the game feels so smooth and I can actually feel the tires rolling along the pavement. I can feel everything sliding if or when I break loose when hitting the throttle. In Custom mode when I'd try to turn it up it felt mike it could damage my wheel base as it felt most unpleasant. I've been so impressed with these VRS pedals too that I am building a VRS wheel base to jump from 8NM to 20NM. I couldn't believe the difference. In Custom mode I thought it was maybe because the sim is older and left behind, but in Immersive mode, my gear rides FFB better than any sim I've driven. I was having trouble setting up one of the F1 rides as I kept breaking loose and the car was fighting me! But after I set my gear up in Immersive mode then the car's settings in the garage were better dealt with and made sense. I can't believe how it's handling now. It's sad that some Mod squad hasn't jumped into PC2 and worked with it like AC. Too bad licensing laws discontinued this sim. Now days large companies want to sell to a larger market as opposed to a sim market so we get sim-cade.
I still found some live online racing at the Ring "Nurburgring" a few weeks ago.

[sparey]

I still play this, dude! I’m happy to jump on any time if you want to mess about online at any point in the future? 😂

[utvoltz]

Good video! I agree with a lot of your points. No game has ever captured the atmosphere of being at a race track like PC 1&2. The selection of lesser used race cars and tracks was awesome, and made it stand out from titles like Forza Motorsport. I even bought the full edition of PC2 on Xbox with all of the DLC's because i believed it would be a top tier game.

But when i hit the track however, all of this just faded as i couldn't understand the physics model. I like competitive racing, thus being on the limit of what a car can do. Project Cars however doesn't simulate this well enough for me to understand. I was constantly spinning and flipping the car whenever i tried to push to a certain limit. If Project Cars had the Assetto Corsa physics engine, it would've been the best sim racing title out there. With weather, easy to use ui and a good selection of cars and tracks. Project Cars could've been like a very heavily modded Assetto straight out of the box. What a shame.

[Sonny]

Project CARS 2 was really special, it had things a lot of sims still don't have (the stuff you mentioned with weather, the choice of tracks, cars etc.) and it was also drivable with a controller if you can't afford a wheel. It's a shame. I would still do some racing, championships and in general produce content including even making car skins, but without a community for the game it's not really worth it anymore. The 3rd installment of the series ultimately killed it and yeah, you cannot buy pCARS 2 in 2024. Well, at least we can still turn it on whenever we want.

[Nothinf-kv]

Great game, fantastic physics, untapped potential

[DragonFlySlayer-wfne]

AMS2, from where I sit doesn't compare to the driving action within PC2. With my gear in PC2 I can feel the tires on the track surface. I can feel the car drift a bit or break loose. In AMS2 it feels like I'm driving on a wet track on a sunny day half the time. People tell me that PC2 is Arcade compared to AMS2. I say Bullshit. I think it also depends on the gear your using and setting both your gear + the set up from the garage.AMS2 has improved but even one other thing I also noticed too... racing on Imola in PC2 or RaceRoom or iracing, the track is long and fast. In AMS2 "Imola" the straights are shorter and turn radius's are smaller or tighter. Totally weird feeling. It's like two different tracks.

[mikem.]

Project Cars 2 is beautiful and lovable, and like you said, at least to me, it has it all - weather changes, day and night (real or accelerate), you can even do long races and have the AI take over for you for a while. So many kinds of cars, kinds of tracks. And lets not forget Long Beach - enough said.
I got in "late" in 2018, so I never had the experience of being let down with the first one. But I'm always amazed that the big "streamers" always dump on 2.

[barstoolpreacher]

What happened to soft lock on pc1 and 2 nothing matches your wheel input on pc don't know about consoles. If the engines the same for AMS 2 then why can't someone come up with the fix for pc2?

[Oyster-KAI]

After PC1/PC2 "killed" by EA, I was lucky to buy Steam keys for both games. I've played AC, ACC, Forza Motorsport, AMS2, and WRC, but PC1/PC2 are truly interesting and are the two racing games I've spent the most time on. However, the unfortunate end and the rocky development process of Project CARS make me doubt whether Ian Bell can genuinely dedicate himself to the players with the upcoming GTRevival, haha.

[RogueBrit]

I think although your point has merit, Project Cars 1 was fully featured and nothing except some cars and tracks were missing /not featured. There was dlc and insure there was stuff that probably due to time constraints they couldn't include, which turned up in 2, it the game had massive bugs no weather etc then I think your argument would hold up. Personally both are fantastic esp in VR with beautiful cockpits and weather.. Yeah ffb was off but everyone got their monies worth