PC2 First Impressions......

PaulH · Sep 22, 2017

So it's out!
What's your "first impression" on the game...

Me, I've tried it for 99mins, under the 2 hour Steam refund. Will I be refunding? Nope

Very positive so far

FFB - Big improvement, still needs quite a bit of tinkering, but out the box feels much better

Physics - Big big improvement over PC1, you now actually feel connected to the road, you can feel what the front wheels are doing(my biggest gripe with PC1), although still early days, much improved

UI - Much much better, like the way you can change game settings in the pits now, car/track/skin choices much better

Sounds - Much improved too, gear change sounds are much more mechanical sounding, engines sound better than PC1 but that wasn't hard

and lastly Graphics - Looks stunning!, crisper, light snow on the windscreen looks bloody real!

So, although early days, I'm feeling very positive........so far

Kurupt CDN · Sep 22, 2017

I agree with everything you said ....big improvement over pc1!
I am enjoying it...love the rally stuff and the Ford F150 havefun is a blast in the dirt lol
Still needs some tweaks hear and there, but the driving experience makes up for those.
Looking forward to spending some time with it this evening.

Norman Bruce · Sep 22, 2017

I'll have to wait until tomorrow because "people are trying to sleep

". But I had time to grab this screenie.

ionONE1 · Sep 22, 2017

6 hours played ...
Mixed weather is outstanding handling is predictable/believable! Both Ford and Ferrari GTE are amazing to drive even sound is good, GT3 mixed feelings atleast what i tried so far...
+ FFB is good

AI is extremly inconsistent, for example road america 1 sector fast .. next corner you have to drive around it. In the rain its much slower 2+ sec. Nürburgring first corner ai crashes everytime and more issues. Really a **** show vs ams/rf2/ac at the moment.

Multiplayer has no matchmaking, no races you can sign up for in advance (iracing style). Server still have no ping limits, have fun driving vs 300+ ping^^
Track rules are implemented, still on most of these tracks excessive cutting is possible. :/

Objects pop in noticeable in the distance, cars sound garbage when you use the tv cam man even formula e sounds better.
Not able to lock camera to horizon, tried everything. No setup sharing ingame.

Edit: Algarve track is well done and track rules work (someone keeps deleting my laptimes), GT3 Huracan is another car that is awesome to drive + sounds good onboard

I keep digging!

Copef1 · Sep 22, 2017

I thought I was going to hate it, but I don't. I agree that it is a lot better in almost every aspect when compared to Pcars1. I just spent an hour running the BMW LMP900 car around Daytona road course, and I enjoyed every bit of it. The ai is like most other sims ai, its good in some situations, not in others. But at the end of the day, it was still fairly enjoyable to race against. I am pleasantly surprised, because I figured by now I would already be asking Steam for a refund. For me the physics and ff were very good.

Nick Hill · Sep 22, 2017

I'm an unabashed PC1 hater - not an irrational vendetta (IMO), I just thought it was a meh game backed by a loud vocal minority of zealots. Got on my nerves just a tad!

PC2 is much improved - that's evident almost right away. Good enough I'll be uninstalling all my other sims? Nah. But I sure as hell won't be returning it, either.

Feels to be solid sim to me. I certainly wouldn't think to call it simcade by a long stretch. Absolutely gorgeous (no surprise).

Quality from car to car in my experience varies a lot IMO. I also found this to be true with PC1, but the difference is in PC1 for me the cars ranged from blecch to meh, whereas I've already found a couple cars in PC2 that are "wow" level good. On the other hand, I've tried a couple others that I felt were more meh.

I need more time, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

MPortnoy · Sep 22, 2017

It's a positive first impression for me.

Physics, FFB and tyre model are a big improvement.

In those 3 fields, to me PCars was comparable to Forza 6, while PCars 2 is more comparable to AC and RF2 and that is a very good thing

Without entering in a debate of which is better, let's just say i def see myself playing the 3 of them depending on my mood.

The only negative thing i found so far is that AI ahead of me was very competitive, but once i passed a car, they were long gone behind me. I like clean racing so i tested aggression only at 50%, I'll have to test it higher to see if that changes.

cpt_gandy · Sep 22, 2017

I have not played enough to give full first thoughts but my first thoughts on ffb with my Logitech G29.

With only changing the ffb to raw and changing no other setting ( it will need some tweaking ) i notice there is no ffb dead zone and the transition on turning left to right is smooth with no center ffb notch as it should be. Also and for me this is a big plus for me and my G29 is the ffb effects from the surface road when driving in a straight line so all those small imperfections and bumps on the tracks are translated through to my G29 which gives a nice feel to the track when i drive round them.

I had no issues with wheel setup as that was correct out of the box so that saved some time adjusting sliders to where they should be.

Nibiru Cataclysm · Sep 22, 2017

Refund requested.

Horrible optimisation and the same micro stutter exists as in pCars 1.

I am struggling to see the relevance of this game at all....same tracks, a few new cars, a slicker menu and shiny new puddles.

Sound is dreadful....everything sounds downsampled, clipped and compressed to ****. And the same fake "crowd cheering noise" underlies all the races.

1 out of 10 for the fancy puddles.

Back to Assetto Corsa, which in every way possible makes this dog turd look like it's an early access indie game (apart from the shiny puddles).

cpt_gandy · Sep 22, 2017

I didnt get any micro stutters so it could be your pc that has the issue and not the game. Some ssd's have been known to cause stutters in the past and there is also a bug in windows 10 where some users can experience stutters or micro lag in some game titles, Microsoft are planning a fix sometime soon.

I found the sound for the most part to be very good except the tire squeal ( it could do with a little rework i feel ) from the cars i have driven. What audio chip does your motherboard use as they are not all equal and will process effects differently if its one of the lower end audio chips.

Back to my first thoughts.

Racing tires, Slick vs Hard

I found with the 650s GT3 ( Silverstone GP ) that there is a noticeable difference between the grip levels when tires are up to temp between slicks and hard racing tires with the slicks given me a similar feel to on the ffb to what i get in AC with the same car on soft tires and maybe with some fine tuning of the ffb in pCars 2 they could almost be matched.

One thing im not that happy with is that in pCars 2 i can not adjust the finial drive ratio on the 650s GT3 unlike AC where i could. No idea what one is real or not on that setting.

Rob · Sep 22, 2017

God I love this community! I took today off and am downloading as we speak. I'm purchasing because @Ian Bell promised ovals, and delivered. But the review from ISR makes it seem like ovals were (again) an afterthought. I'm not going to critisize SMS because they have led the way on the console and included ovals, but I will give my honest impressions (as an IndyCar and oval fan) later.

I am rooting for this game. I have told @Ian Bell that I was wrong for assuming SMS was wasting the IndyCar license, but they are really trying, IMO. What makes me pause, even if the game is flawed, is the tremendous support they showed after the release (to console players) of PC1. That was something that we all took to heart. And it showed they want to please us. Much more that I can say for @kunos.

I hear they screwed up the oval AI, but that was from a You Tube review. (ISR). I will always give SMS the benefit of the doubt because they have proven to me they are dedicated to the console.

cpt_gandy · Sep 22, 2017

I believe the ISR review is based on an older version of pCars 2 as i have not seen any of the graphical issues that he commented on in his review.

thepharcyde · Sep 22, 2017

Nibiru Cataclysm said:
Refund requested.

Horrible optimisation and the same micro stutter exists as in pCars 1.

I am struggling to see the relevance of this game at all....same tracks, a few new cars, a slicker menu and shiny new puddles.

Sound is dreadful....everything sounds downsampled, clipped and compressed to ****. And the same fake "crowd cheering noise" underlies all the races.

1 out of 10 for the fancy puddles.

Back to Assetto Corsa, which in every way possible makes this dog turd look like it's an early access indie game (apart from the shiny puddles).

Lol - I'm yet to try later today!

Wu ! · Sep 22, 2017

Nibiru Cataclysm said:
Refund requested.

1 out of 10 for the fancy puddles.

Back to Assetto Corsa, which in every way possible makes this dog turd look like it's an early access indie game (apart from the shiny puddles).

The Nile is a beautiful place, or so I've heard...

cpt_gandy · Sep 22, 2017

Rob said:
God I love this community! I took today off and am downloading as we speak. I'm purchasing because @Ian Bell promised ovals, and delivered. But the review from ISR makes it seem like ovals were (again) an afterthought. I'm not going to critisize SMS because they have led the way on the console and included ovals, but I will give my honest impressions (as an IndyCar and oval fan) later.

I am rooting for this game. I have told @Ian Bell that I was wrong for assuming SMS was wasting the IndyCar license, but they are really trying, IMO. What makes me pause, even if the game is flawed, is the tremendous support they showed after the release (to console players) of PC1. That was something that we all took to heart. And it showed they want to please us. Much more that I can say for @kunos.

I hear they screwed up the oval AI, but that was from a You Tube review. (ISR). I will always give SMS the benefit of the doubt because they have proven to me they are dedicated to the console.

Im am no Oval expert and its been quite a few years since ive watch any type of Oval racing but the default setup for the Honda is not that good. Its a loose setup and the car feels light and loose when racing on the track so it seems it will need to car setup to get the most out of it i feel. The default light and loose setup does make the ffb feel a little on the light side but i could still feel the grip and i could still tell when i passed the limits of grip on the tires with my G29. I do not have ffb setup yet so still using default settings. I dont think or feel that Oval was an afterthought but i do think that they could of gave us a better default car setup and maybe increased the ffb for that car on Oval tracks. It is possible that a good car setup would also fix the light ffb feeling

I had none of the shadow issues that ISR did when racing Oval ( i tried 2 tracks ) and all the shadows came in nice and smooth for my settings and the blurry mess he was on about i didnt see that at all but i have motion blur turned off so that could be why. I dont like motion blur in games or sims.

I have not raced with AI as i dont have time to do a full race as i have to go out soon

Oh i should also add that i race on pc and not console.