PC2 First Impressions......

[PaulH]

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

 

[blackcelica]

I bought it blind hoping for another race sim that would give me all the things missing from my favourite game Assetto Corsa. I had PC1 but it was short lived. I went for the deluxe edition of PC2 and initially I had mixed thoughts running through my head about it and was mindful of the steam 2 hour refund situation. I stuck with it and gave it the time it deserved and it took most of the 2 hours to set up my controls. I'm so glad I invested the time in a proper set up as I've now had some excellent races and it looks and feels great. The game engine runs like a dream on my rig at almost everything maxed out staying above 60fps at all times with 24 car grids. Ive only just scratched the surface but PC2 is in for the long haul. Love it. Highly recommend.

 

[mister dog]

Posted this on the AC forum too, but one of the best ways to get to know the game and dial in your FFB is by doing the community event with the Caterham 620 @ Knockhill.

Great combo!

 

[Brandon Wright]

I'm pretty pleased so far, I've only done hot lapping, some online, and getting the settings dialed in. Got the FFB feeling pretty good too, it's not quite as good as the big dogs but it's pretty close and overall pretty satisfying. Same with the physics. So far I'd say it's as good or better than I had hoped but doesn't make the other sims irrelevant. IMO it may lack a touch in simulation value but it pretty much makes up for it in fun, flexibility, variety, and ease of use. Haven't encountered any real bugs yet other than some micro stutters but I think I mostly got it dialed out.

8/10, would recommend to most people.

 

[Mikedem]

Way better than I was even hoping for. Mostly play RRRE and Automobilista but I have probably put 6 hours into this game in first day of owning it and so far, nothing bad. Looks better, physics are better, AI is better, FFB is better. Career mode is actually quite fun and I never usually play that in any sim.

 

[Ian Anderson]

Well it maybe a little unfair to give this the thumbs down after only playing for just over 10 hours.
My fav track is Oulton but I can not get either my Momo wheel or Xbox gamepad to give me an enjoyable drive.

Spent sometime with the Xbox gamepad but with vibration set to 100 I have little to no vibration when either hitting something or going slightly off track.......in PC1 I got a very nice feel and rumble on corner strips.

Graphically the cars do look nice but some of the scenery is distracting.......something happens in the trees like a shadow or pop up, On one part of the track (Oulton) I noticed in my mirror the tyre wall just poping out of view with other trackside objects......haven't seen that in PC1.

As for the AI I noticed if I don't get a good start off the grid the car behind just rams me (rolling start helps prevent that).

As I say this is just on my favourite track Oulton and hopefully things will get sorted but right now I'm back on PC1.

 

[ermo]

For me, no.

When I go to track, the HUD/menu/track map show, but the rest of the screen is black.

One thing is I think maybe I don't want "surround" configured via Nvidia - I might just need to retry configuring PC2 with just plain old triple screen setup.

FWIW, I get the same issue (both with and without EyeFinity -- I already reported the bug in the dev forum with a video shot from my phone) and I'm using an RX Vega 64 w/ 1280x1024\1920x1080/1280x1024 monitors.

It's almost as if the 3D renderer doesn't get passed a reference to the surface it's supposed to render to...

EDIT: Just noticed that Kyle says that SuperSampling may be the culprit. Will try with MSAA instead and report back.
EDIT2: Success! Turning off SuperSampling and using MSAA instead is indeed a usable workaround for now.

 

[Matteo Pagin]

After a few more hours, some more fine tuning of the FFB I'm starting to feel more what the cars are doing, making the driving experience more predictable and just making more of what happens "make sense"...I still prefer AC, but after some tweaking I think that PC2 isn't any bad either.
I strongly suggest everyone who says that rain/night aren't important in a sim to try this title..the way the puddles build up, the way you have to change your lines progressively and watch out for the aquaplaning, the way you have to understand as quick as possible how much grip is there available make for an incredible experience IMO.
Night as well is nice, though probably even more difficult ( my opinion) as in tracks with a lot of elevation changes you really need to have every inch of the track in your memory and takes a couple of laps at least to adapt to.

 

[Lars Hansen]

6 hours in and......
Well, it's a giant step up from PC1, I'll give them that.

Let's start with the good bits.
It's very well designed, so the whole menu set-up is clear and concise.
Controls installed automatically, no problems whatsoever
Sound is okay-ish. Though granted, once you're used to R3E sound it's a little hard to get impressed.
FFB is excellent after a little fiddling, very impressed with that.
Same goes for the Livetrack thingie. Watching the dry line slowly disappear when the rain starts is something else.

The not so good bits.....
It seems buggy as hell.
I can't, for the life of me, get something as simple as the Virtual mirror to stay in place.
I can set it up for a race, but once I change sessions, it's disappeared again.
Same goes for saving set-ups. I can save an overall set-up for all tracks for each car, but it won't let me do a set-up for a particular track. It simply gets overwritten.
Then there's the AI.......
The single biggest thing wrong with PC1 was the abysmal AI.
It's better in PC2, much better. You no longer get rammed off the track by kamikaze drivers.
But they're just so inconsistent, making it almost impossible to find a good AI level to race at.
And they're completely incapable of driving in the rain, making it harder still.
Then there's a bug with the qualifying, if you try to go to 'end of session'.
While you're away from the qualifying session, everybody dons their tights and capes and produce insane qualifying times.
Ginetta Jrs at Knockhill had me in P1 by 0.4 seconds after 6 qualifying laps. Then I ended the session. Come race-time, the entire grid had out-qualified me by ten (10!) seconds.

There's a lot to like about PC2. It's not going to lure me away from neither R3E or AMS, but it's a good game in its own right.
But I think I'm going to wait for a few patches before trying again.

 

[Nestoche]

Hey, Ian Bell added in a option to flight simulate as an added bonus!..Sneaky SOB.....lol J/K

https://instagram.com/p/BZYHomNn0WmzXee2I0agUnUNhFGPe3TlQ0KlDI0/

Not entirely sure this is supposed to happen? lol

 

[ionONE1]

Mh, took the Porsche GT3 for a spin online. (imola)
Its very laggy whenever someone joins the server not sure yet + micro stutter sometimes. Im able to close the engine radiator to 10 % ,engine temperature is fine and im much much faster. You have endless grip, like i dont even know how to spin the car out of a corner (no TC). Im so early on the throttle its unreal, not even wait for the car to rotate best feedback i get is a small slide.

HUD elements do not work, get randomly removed all the time. Tire temps are barely effected by my driving, i over drive .. try to slide around temps stay the same. Worst are the tire sounds when you brake, its 1 sound volume no real feedback.

Track rules do work, its really easy to get your lap deleted.

Driving is fun, but goes against everything i learned in the other games^^ (16 hours played)

 

[Bwana]

I wish i can comment on how pcars 2 is but I cant seem to map the pedals to the game:/ (DFGT+csl elite) Everytime i try to assign throttles,brakes or clutch it doesnt detect it, and sometimes the settings bugs out.

Be sure to map pedals before going to calibration. I had same issue and this sorted it

 

[Chobonator]

Driving is fun, but goes against everything i learned in the other games

Can you expend on that?

 

[Vimal Ana]

Be sure to map pedals before going to calibration. I had same issue and this sorted it

Oh i did try that! I clicked throttle and pressed on the pedals but it somehow doesn't map it? Any other button it maps. (Aka i can assign throttle to lets say the F key but cant assign it to the pedal axis) so weird. Any other sims it works fine.

 

[69Harder]

Bought the Deluxe version !
Looks amazing maxed out on my GTX 980 !

Only thing I miss is FFB ala AC !

 

[Matteo Pagin]

Bought the Deluxe version !
Looks amazing maxed out on my GTX 980 !

Only thing I miss is FFB ala AC !

I donìt know which wheel you have, but with jack's FFB files, alternative med and low FXs I got it closer to AC at least

 

[RaceWasGood]

Anyone has a solution to lock the camera to the horizon, its like a roller coster at the moment i tried all the camera options. Feels like the g forces are still applied at 0.

In PC1 you set "world movement" to 100 (which is confusing ), so you might try that.

 

[Trebor901]

One other thing I don’t like is the fact they got rid of the central cockpit camera I used to think that was a great view and gave a really good perspective would have been nice to have seen it stay and the roof can be taken out as that is one that I think is pointless when you have bonnet cam

 

[Piotr]

In PC1 you set "world movement" to 100 (which is confusing ), so you might try that.

Correct. This the is the way to get rid of lock to horizon.

 

[scrawley82]

Some very contrasting thoughts so far
Before I pull the trigger I was wondering how you would compare this to AC, gran turismo and older games like race07/ gtr2

I love AC but would like more sense of achievement via a career mode or involving multi class championship

 

[Matteo Pagin]

Some very contrasting thoughts so far
Before I pull the trigger I was wondering how you would compare this to AC, gran turismo and older games like race07/ gtr2

I love AC but would like more sense of achievement via a career mode or involving multi class championship

IMO the career gives more of a sense of achievement than AC does, in general this aspect is more developed and has the "game" feel that AC lacks, it seems less something as a preset amount of races and more as an "experience" like the other games you mentioned.
For example you have to sign a contract, you have invitational events, you have to "convince" tha various manifacturers to hire you and so on... Worth mentioning that right now there are some bugs in it, but they're probably going to get fixed.
As far as the AI is concerned, at the current state AC's is better, driving feel after some tweaks also sligthly better for me, but being so used to it I guess it's probably also a matter ofadapting to the different way FFB communicates staff (not entirely different, but still ), since every hour I spend on PC 2 I seem to feel more and more what the car does, how it reacts to inputs ecc.
Basically I think that if they will update it and keep supporting it the game has a good potential