PC2 Project CARS Release Confirmed for September 22nd, New Trailer and Porsche

[Paul Jeffrey]

Project CARS 2 will release this September 22nd it has finally been confirmed, plus Slightly Mad Studios reveal the first batch of Porsche cars coming to the game and a new trailer!

With the game widely promoted by Slightly Mad Studios over the past few weeks, excitement has continued to build amongst the sim racing community as fans eagerly await evidence that SMS have taken on-board the often justified criticism of the original game.

Expected to be bigger and better than its older brother Project CARS 1, the new title will continue the tradition of incorporating a wide and diverse selection of both road and racing cars from a number of different eras of automotive history. Coupled with the expected class leading graphics and a bunch of new features either expanded from the original title or brought to the franchise for the first time, on paper at least the new Project CARS 2 game does look to contain all the individual elements required for an instant classic release. However despite the overwhelmingly positive (admittedly self generated) hype around the game, many fans who perceived the original title to fall below expectations will continue to remain cautious until getting their hands on the game for themselves later this year.

As part of the upcoming E3 event Slightly Mad Studios have at least kept to the first promise made for the new game, with September 22nd now revealed as the official release date on both consoles and PC confirmed and in the bag, Initially teased by SMS Studio Head Ian Bell several weeks ago, September is officially confirmed alongside the list of Porsche cars scheduled to be included in the vanilla version of the title (see full list below).

Project CARS 2 Porsche Release List:

• 911 GT1-98
• 911 GT3 R (991)
• 911 GT3 R Endurance (991)
• 911 GT3 RS
• 918 Spyder
• 935/77
• 935/80
• 936 Spyder
• 962C
• 962C Langheck
• Cayman GT4 Clubsport

Project CARS 2 is very much shaping up to be one of the most potentially interesting releases of 2017 in the sim racing world, and with big budgets, big name drivers, big manufacturers and plenty of content and features to try out this September it will be interesting to see how the game stacks up to its immediate rivals September 22nd!

Project CARS 2 will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC 22nd September 2017.

The Project CARS 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment is the place to go for all the latest news and discussion around this exciting new game from Slightly Mad Studios. Check out the sub forum, get involved in the discussion and join our community as we await release later this year!

Looking forward to the new game? Excited to see Porsche coming to the sim? What new cars and tracks have you noticed in the latest trailer? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Shaun Clarke]

@Kyle Pearson Firstly, apologies, I didn't mean to actually let go of the stone, it was just meant to skim the surface. The only reason I said business plan, of course they have one, is that in that plan, it should have "fixed previous issues" which they clearly haven't, that's all I was suggesting.

Sorry my point didn't come across like that.

@Andy Jackson fair point. I didn't know about this Steam Refund thing, until somebody mentioned it about pCars2, oddly enough.

How does that work, how long do you get to test, you said 2hrs? When does the clock start, as it could take 2hrs to download HA HA HA

 

[Sonoafafayon]

@Kyle Pearson Firstly, apologies, I didn't mean to actually let go of the stone, it was just meant to skim the surface. The only reason I said business plan, of course they have one, is that in that plan, it should have "fixed previous issues" which they clearly haven't, that's all I was suggesting.

Sorry my point didn't come across like that.

@Andy Jackson fair point. I didn't know about this Steam Refund thing, until somebody mentioned it about pCars2, oddly enough.

How does that work, how long do you get to test, you said 2hrs? When does the clock start, as it could take 2hrs to download HA HA HA

It's 2 hours in-game time. So once you've gone over 2 hours playing the actual game, you can't refund it as easily. You can actually refund it over this time, it's just far more difficult, where as it's pretty much a guarantee refund under 2 hours.

 

[Tijmen]

Never driven a real racecar. But I do know that PC is class leading in graphics. AMS is class leading in FFB, AC has top notch physics, R3E has the best (5.1! surround sound), and Iracing the biggest online community. So please SMS, if you'd ask me take a look at the competition in these respective areas and up your game!

 

[Skidmeister]

I fully agree with what your saying.......tho you said it yourself. It took many hrs of tweaking....I've spent many hrs over the last few yrs wanting to like this title and constantly tweaking hoping to find the sweet spot some speak of but have yet to find it. That's, where the issue is, too much tweaking with less playing is gonna turn the majority off!
I really hope they address this in pc2, the game needs to have a good feel out of the box without spending countless hrs tweaking and spending $$$ just to make it feel decent. I've always believed a sim is only as good as the wheel your using and after hearing your feedback with an accuforce and watching "as close as it gets with Chris Goodwin" using a Vesaro motion rig, accuforce, 4k triple screen setup etc I finally realized what I was missing to get the feel I was looking for........a $$72k + setup!
https://www.vesaro.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=477&idcategory=338
I wonder if his feedback would be the same using my trusty Thrustmaster tx, static rig and single ultra-wide monitor or a basic setup like what the majority will be using?
Jokes aside, Pc1 overall was a good game, but feel what left a bad taste in many was the missing features/content, endless tweaking and how fast they moved onto pc2 before completing pc1, there's still bugs and issues and the last time they released a non vr update for the game was in jan 2016.
Releasing a final patch for pc1 with a with an updated base ffb settings prior to pc2 might win back some of the naysayers, until then its just the same promotional hype we saw prior to the first release.

I certainly get what you are saying David and agree in principal with what you are suggesting. In my early sim days I used to race with a flight yoke that had a button on each handle we used for the accelerator and brake. It was entertaining but not realistic. In reality if you could get the same amount of FFB from an inexpensive motor there would be no reason to make Accuforce, OSW, or Bodner type wheels. You only get as much out of a sim as you can afford to put into it, in both time and money. I hear a lot of guys complain that Pcars1 had no proper implementation of triple screens, and I hear your complaint that it isn't like the factory setup using your single screen and no motion. This is all true, but I am fortunate enough to have triples at home and want the most immersion I can afford. I don't really care for motion rigs but that is just my personal choice. The sim vibe is nice addition, but I don't always use it. I have a friend who has a full motion rig but seldom uses the motion when racing online. This is not to say that there is no joy in having less than the best and latest hardware. I have a buddy who does very well with a 2x4 rig and a Thrustmaster tx because that's what he can afford right now. I had many hours of enjoyable racing with what I thought was pretty good FFB with my Fanatec Clubsport setup. I started racing GPL with guys like Greger Huttu and he often beat me with his immense talent and what I considered at the time his absolute junk for equipment. I knew right then that it was more a factor in immersion than laptimes. And I feel that is what they strive with factory drivers testing these sims. Given the optimal situation how real can it get? It is left up to the user to get what they can out of that, doing the best you can with what you have to work with.

Some of the fun in sim racing is messing with setups and doing some testing for me. I definitely would not argue that the amount of tweaking I did on Pcars1 was excessive. But we need to consider where that line gets blurry. I hear guys say they want an absolute sim. This means that you should essentially be able to tweak everything in game that you could on a real race car, that's a lot of tweaks just to sim race. This doesn't account for the controller either, this is where there may also be a bad implementation of a driver for a particular controller, is it the fault of the software engineer or the company that provided the controller? Or do we want a plug and play setup? That's not really a sim then. I agree the stock setups should be easy to drive, but as any racer can tell you fast is loose and there is a multitude of options in between stable, fast, and un-drivable. The one thing I really enjoyed the most in Pcars1 was when you tweaked your setup the car really did feel different, just the way I remember from my track days. We choose our hardware on what we can afford and the perceived value it has to us, software should be no different.

I can say without reservation that if you can possibly save up for triples it is the single biggest factor for immersion when sim racing for me and the friends who have driven my rig. I don't feel VR is where it needs to be in resolution yet as I run my triple setup at 7710 x 1440 bezel corrected, and it adds a lot to any sim to have that kind of detail catching your eye. I consider high framerates critical to a smoothe driving experience just as much as FFB. When you consider the amount of diversity in PC hardware, software, drivers, etc. it is nearly impossible to test for every hardware configuration verses the same software running on consoles. That is probably the single biggest reason there are less problems on console games than on PC's.

With any company there is often turnovers in personnel, for whatever reason, budgets change, processes get refined, new teams are formed, new leaders and talent are often hired to explore new areas and to fix others. People are let go because they may have been the weak link in the last project, no pun intended. But I sincerely hope the community can get off their soap box and keep an open mind until we see the product. I have heard guys complain the graphics are too good, they should have put more time on this or that, really WTF?? Let us all form an opinion after seeing what is delivered, and not form a lynch mob mentality based on here say and conjecture of a product probably very few of us have ever tested. I want to try this as bad as the next guy but I'd rather see them polishing the final product than wasting time with a demo that may or may not perform like the final product. Let's be patient and see what gets delivered before making any comments about this product.

 

[Tijmen]

One important addition: PC really needs proper triple screen rendering like AC. For me a reason not to buy if not present.

 

[Skidmeister]

I totally agree with you! I have almost 1000 hours in pCars and I found and reported quite a few bugs and it felt like no one ever saw/realised them and even tried to solve them.

Anyways, looking forward to pCars2! Will buy it for sure and lets hope I will enjoy it for another 1000 hours

Anytime I can get 500 to 1000 hours entertainment out of any game or sim I feel it was money well spent. Just the cost of one night out can easily exceed the price paid for most of these sims. Not counting the hardware aspect, but that's usually spread out over several different sims anyways.

 

[Skidmeister]

@Kyle Pearson
f) Option for DLC, increase sales, increase revenue
Shaun

I am all for DLC
Slightly off topic but, I do really like the way R3E allows you to drive a few laps in a car before buying it. That's a fair way to try before you buy. You test it and if it meets your standards you can purchase the DLC.
I don't really like the way they sell the liveries a la carte but I get that some drivers only want one or two. But this ends up allowing cars with the exact same graphics on track in multiplayer which makes the replays all but worthless..

 

[Kurupt CDN]

@Skidmeister fully agree with your comments
Every game will only be as good as the amount of cash you put into it but they have to realize 98% of the users will not have high end setups, especially when the majority of users will be from the console side. The game has to feel good for all the generic wheel users and even better with options for addons to accommodate the high end users.

Up to a yr ago I was running a triple screen setup 24" 5760x180 and just got tired of constantly upgrading hardware and setting up the monitors with every driver update just to get decent fps.
Immersion was good but it didnt make me any faster.
I switched to a 34" curved ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor with headtracking and hood which blocks out any surrounding light and acts somewhat like a giant vr, all I lost was the extra viewing space but with a slight head turn I regain what I lost and more. GTR racing rig, x4 buttkickers, 7.1 surround/bose noise cancelling headphones and thrustmaster tx with gte rim.
Immersion wise i am extremely happy with it and its not breaking the bank to play video games so I can continue putting money into my other babies......audi s4 & jeep jk overlander
The biggest complaint across all 3 platforms in pc1 was the lack luster base ffb settings and endless search for good settings.....you mentioned that sims should have lots of options to tweak and I agree to a point but ams, rf2, ac and iracing are all sims and there ffb settings only have a handful settings to adjust and for the most part all feel great out of the box and just need a tweak to the ffb multiply to dial in a car. Raceroom has the second most ffb options but atleast all the settings have a simple laymans term description lol
If they simplify the ffb settings and have a good base feel, I fully believe pc2 could be epic!
..............and I better not hear PC3 development has started 2 months after the release

 

[Skidmeister]

@Skidmeister fully agree with your comments

If they simplify the ffb settings and have a good base feel, I fully believe pc2 could be epic!
..............and I better not hear PC3 development has started 2 months after the release

I agree give it some adjustability but don't require a PHD to setup your wheel. Between tweaking the in game settings, the Jack Spade files, and Sim commander all arriving on my racing rig about the same time it was a daunting task to know where to start. Most of the modern FFB wheels come with some sort of software that allows users to customize the settings somewhat outside of the game. I like the way they let you use different FFB% in R3E setup for each car. Very easy to customize or tame it down when needed without messing up all the rest of your cars and settings. I hear you on the PC3 development, I don't want to hear that two months out either. Hopefully they will work out any problems and keep adding DLC for much longer than that. However if there are no major bugs to iron out, (something that seems nearly impossible with all the possible hardware combinations available to PC users) I wouldn't be concerned about their next project. We hear a lot about DLC and that's a quick revenue source for these companies I am happy to contribute to as long as the main product is what we wanted, I will buy the addons.

 

[mister dog]

I hope people will spend time tweaking in the handling characteristics of Pcars2 to get the full benefit of it when released.

I fully agree with what your saying.......tho you said it yourself. It took many hrs of tweaking....I've spent many hrs over the last few yrs wanting to like this title and constantly tweaking hoping to find the sweet spot some speak of but have yet to find it. That's, where the issue is, too much tweaking with less playing is gonna turn the majority off!

That's been sorted, there's a couple of presets which you can select that contain 4 sliders and that's it. You might want to play with said presets and sliders to get it just right, but you don't need a degree in rocket science anymore, nor will you go crazy with the overload of sliders PCARS1 style.

To recap my thoughts about 2, it has seen a big improvement in FFB as mentioned above, the FFB works globally too now so there's no more odd feeling cars. Physics have improved, sounds have improved, menus have seen a big improvement, skies have been improved, night racing and wet weather racing has been improved, there's seasons, rallycross and pit crews now...

AC was my go to game before, but now it definitely is PCARS 2 so that should be saying something .

For those of you who have read me saying this on other forums, I'm saying it again here as I haven't shared my thoughts about it yet on RD.

ps. great post that I quoted from you @Skidmeister and you're right, we all share the same hobby and we should try to be supportive when devs try to give us what we desire even if it doesn't always work out as planned. If they would have cared about the $$$ only they would go the simcade GT/FM controller based route, but they don't and we should be happy for that.

 

[Skidmeister]

That's been sorted, there's a couple of presets which you can select that contain 4 sliders and that's it. You might want to play with said presets and sliders to get it just right, but you don't need a degree in rocket science anymore, nor will you go crazy with the overload of sliders PCARS1 style..

That's awesome, I am so happy to see WMD taking a cue from the community. Geoff Crammond could have taken a cue from that as he made some good sims but never listened to anyone.

AC was my go to game before, but now it definitely is PCARS 2 so that should be saying something .

we all share the same hobby and we should try to be supportive when devs try to give us what we desire even if it doesn't always work out as planned. If they would have cared about the $$$ only they would go the simcade GT/FM controller based route, but they don't and we should be happy for that.

Good to hear positive reviews on Pcars2 as I have been anxious to try it out for some time. And you are absolutely spot on about simcade. They could have easily gone the route of EA Sports with Nascar, but instead chose to make a consorted effort to deliver a sequel that would eclipse the original both in content and features. I say cheers for that !!

 

[Andy_J]

That's awesome, I am so happy to see WMD taking a cue from the community. Geoff Crammond could have taken a cue from that as he made some good sims but never listened to anyone.

GC wasn't really contactable via forums and dev blogs back then. I suppose you could have sent an email or an actual letter to him though.

 

[Skidmeister]

GC wasn't really contactable via forums and dev blogs back then. I suppose you could have sent an email or an actual letter to him though.

Yes we tried that too, he had some innovative ideas, but didn't seem to see the merit of multiplayer as his online code was terrible even for the day. I remember getting 4 buddies to bring their rigs to my shop to race GP4 I think just after it was released, it wouldn't even link up and one of the guys racing was an IT guy who just kept shaking his head.
Wheather contacting him or Microprose direct by mail or phone, nobody ever had the balls or courtesy of a simple reply. Really made you feel disconnected from the process when they just did what they wanted and said here it is like it or lump it. When I see the devs actually taking time to get on the forums and taking corrective criticism, and advice from sim racers, it makes me feel like we all really are the customers, and they are making it for us. That's a huge leap from even 7 or 8 years ago. And I say kudos to guys like Ian Bell for putting the customer in the design process. I hope everyone will realize the opportunity we can squander when just wasting him time with complaints instead of helping the project to move forward and improve. Let us as a community welcome and capitalize the opportunities before us. They probably sell a lot more of these games selling on console than PC nowadays, so let's not chase them away when they ask for our opinion, or pretty soon our opinions won't matter. In reality, checkers probably still sells better than chess, but I like to think of the PC crowd as the true multiplayer racer who wants a nice clean sim race with the best software available. I feel some of these devs are no different than us at heart, and want to play the product as well. I no longer have the time or resources to race real cars so Sim racing is it for me, and I like to see new developments in the works, that are tailored towards the customers.

 

[Andy_J]

When I see the devs actually taking time to get on the forums and taking corrective criticism, and advice from sim racers, it makes me feel like we all really are the customers, and they are making it for us.

No **** Sherlock. Seriously? We are the customers? Would never have guessed that one.

ps, what's corrective criticism? Never heard of that phrase before. And criticism and Bell do not go together either. But each to their own way of thinking on this matter. I look forward to seeing the results of their labour on this one.

 

[Skidmeister]

You just love it don't you? The community will be the judge of it and by the community I mean the sim racing community, not the console car crashing kids that make you your money. Great reputation to have Ian. Loved by so many. But I will take whatever you say with a very fine grain of salt.

Seems you told Ian that the Console players were his customer in this statement, and that the PC players were some deity to judge his work. While I feel everyone should form an opinion about what they like and don't like, I feel this comment only tells the Devs that they should concern themselves with the opinion of the console players and not those of us racing on a PC. I prefer not to be rolled into that group of know it alls. Please don't assume we all form the same opinion on that.

No **** Sherlock. Seriously? We are the customers? Would never have guessed that one.

ps, what's corrective criticism? Never heard of that phrase before. And criticism and Bell do not go together either. But each to their own way of thinking on this matter. I look forward to seeing the results of their labour on this one.

Apparently you would not have guessed it, because as you can see you have already stated the console players are the customer. Corrective criticism would be in the form of a specific problem or feature you feel they missed out on. For example in Pcars1 there was a problem where when mixing Ai cars as filler for the grid with real players, when the real players would quit and rejoin there were issues caused that would often crash the game or mess up the results. That is a criticism that can correct a problem. To say I don't like you, or trust you is not something that corrects issues in the software .We PC players are only a portion of the customer base, not the entire base. WMD is a business that needs to pay employees, stockholders, and feed families and produce a marketable product. If we choose to work with them we can improve the breed, or simply be naïve and believe that your 1 copy of the game will bankrupt the company.

 

[Andy_J]

I think you are trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. You just made up Corrective criticism.There is no such thing.
And it's a fact that SMS and Bandco aim their products at the console players now. Like it or not, we, the PC master race are small fish now and they couldn't care one jot if we buy their game on PC. They will sell loads on the consoles and make their money and the actual game will be just like Pcars 1 in my opinion. That's just the way it is.
Just my opinion.

 

[mister dog]

I think you are trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. You just made up Corrective criticism.There is no such thing.
And it's a fact that SMS and Bandco aim their products at the console players now. Like it or not, we, the PC master race are small fish now and they couldn't care on jot if we buy their game on PC. They will sell loads on the consoles and make their money and the actual game will be just like Pcars 1 in my opinion. That's just the way it is.
Just my opinion.

Your post is a bit contradictory as you put some wild assumptions as facts, and then say they are your opinion .

 

[Skidmeister]

By the looks of the video, Cars included, night/weather effects, graphics, all that is included: Indycar, GT3, classic race cars (Ferrari Daytona! Porsche 935! C'MON!, rally etc, this could well be the best racing game to date ever. If it's done right and the physics are there, there will be no reason not to buy this. Looks absolutely tremendous.

From everything I have seen this comment is absolutely spot on. With the sheer amount of content initially, the adjustable weather, improved online play, simplified adjustments, and the possibility of lots of additional DLC "there will be no reason not to buy this. Looks absolutely tremendous " I for one will be anxiously awaiting Pcars2.
In the meantime I will feed my curiosity and interest with any new info released.

 

[Andy_J]

Your post is a bit contradictory as you put some wild assumptions as facts, and then say they are your opinion .

It's relatively easy. Some are what I regard as facts, the rest is my opinion. And that's a fact in my opinion.

 

[johnny_91]

From my oppinion, its gonna be a ultra awesome game, from what ive seen in the last few days.

Multi class racing CHECK!
Dynamic weather CHECK!
Day to night transition in real time CHECK!
Proper 2017 graphics CHECK!
Driver swap CHECK!
Custom build championship CHECK!
Empty grandstands for private and pre season testing CHECK!
Manual rolling start CHECK!
Manaul pit stop CHECK!
Manual race ending into the pit CHECK!
Season changing during the year CHECK!

Maybe one of the completest racing games since GTR2 was released. Now tell me as endurance fan, how you not want to hardcore simulate a full endurance shedule in real time ?

This is what ive wanted for many years now, and from the 22. of september its gonna be possible, finally.