PC2 Rate the Sims: Community Edition | Project CARS 2

[Paul Jeffrey]

We are looking to crown the 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite' racing game - get your votes in now for our next game on the list... Project CARS 2!

Our dear RaceDepartment community. You folks are the most mighty fans of sim racing, often displaying an immense amount of understanding and depth of knowledge when it comes to our favourite hobby.

With sim racing and eSports in such a wonderful boom period of late. Gamers looking to have some fun with their virtual racing machines have never before had such a wide and robust variety of software to enjoy.

Now occasionally I've been in a position to rate new racing titles that have come my way, and almost every time I've received a wide variety of folks agreeing, or strongly disagreeing with my own opinions.

Opinions are great, but sometimes the opinion of one person, with their own likes and dislikes taken into account, can often give a bit of a skewed picture (intentional or not) to the greater cause in which said person is trying to explain.

As such, rather than doing one myself, and in the spirit of engaging some interesting community discussion, I thought it could be fun to let our own community rate each of the key sim racing / racing games available today.

As always with these things, please do try and respect each other and their opinions, and let's try to see if we can give a fun, but fair shake of the stick to each of the games included in this poll.

For transparency, I'm going to be featuring the following racing games over the next weeks:

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Automobilista (AMS)
• DiRT 2.0
• F1 2019
• GT Sport
• GRID
• iRacing
• NASCAR Heat 4
• PCARS 2
• RaceRoom Racing Experience
• rFactor 2
• WRC 8
• Wreckfest

I'm going to launch the article each Monday evening, and keep the poll running for a full week until the next new article is pushed live. So get your votes in quick!

Once I've completed the full list of games, I'll publish a final results feature, and we can award the winning developer the lofty title of 'RaceDepartment Community Favourite'!

Have fun, stay sensible and let the voting commence!

 

[muzikant]

Good VR experience


everything else is to cry,
no longer on my hard drive

 

[2stains]

Good VR, good car/track content, good weather poor implementation.
No longer on HDD.

 

[Momperface]

i voted 5, great content, poor driving

 

[Syndrami]

Pros:

• Good VR
• Nice weather effects
• Huge selection of cars and tracks
• Almost every racing series is present in some way
• Setup can be changed like no other sim I have seen (What the hell are spools and why can I adjust it?)
• Setup Engineer (Tell them whats wrong and they can fix it)
• Hybrid systems are "present" on certain cars

Cons:

• Sound of some cars are like someone is scratching your ear drums (Think of Formula X on full speed)
• FFB is lacking.
• Customization in setting up a race is lacking (Cannot select specific cars, only groups for example)
• Multiplayer license (and experience overall)
• Mod selection is limited to only models and paint jobs
• Setup Engineer is very time consuming (only really tiny adjustments which are not always noticable)
• LMP1 / LMP2016 cars feature a hybrid system which also lack customization (LMP1 is only activated when pedal pressed beyond 75%, LMP2016 is only activated with a press of the button, very tiring for long stints)

 

[melanieuk]

Error It says
Rate NASCAR Heat 4 out of 10 - 10 is highest, 1 is lowest

 

[michelforest]

Bought it, fooled around with it for a while and asked Steam for a refund (and received it.)

A clear example of an approach that, I believe, no longer works in simracing: the sim that tries to include all types of cars (open wheelers, GT, rally, etc.) The level of details now expected from designers and programmers is getting so high that a « jack of all trades » kind of game ends up disappointing most people. ACC has the right idea: focus on one type of cars and do it well. Even R3E, a game that I love, has a hard time getting it right with open wheel cars. The upcoming Porsche DLC, however, will probably be great because they really know how to simulate these cars.

 

[PGSM]

Great game. If they only perfected the FFB we wouldn't really 'need' anything else.

 

[Ole Andreasen]

First top score from me. I simply love PC2. I know, I know... it´s not a fashionable opinion these days, but F... it. PC2 is pure fun, pure immersion, GREAT game. FOR ME!!! Not for most, I acknowledge that, but I hey... I am entitled to my opinion, and there you have it.

 

[Craig Dunkley]

The post above is spot on (for me) ..It is one of my "chill out" games, but if the only fixed FFB it would become a whole lot more.

 

[Craig Dunkley]

The post above is spot on (for me) ..It is one of my "chill out" games, but if the only fixed FFB it would become a whole lot more.

haha someone posted just before me ..it is PGSM post that I make reference to.

 

[Enagee]

FFB turned into science for the consumer on Pcars 2 and had to rely on a man jack spade for FFB tunning.

Best VR experience though from the start.
Good selection of cars but some cars felt a bit off. Great sound track.. Love the music.
Multiplayer life wasn't as strong as it could have been look at AC.

Overall the lack of long life support means it doesn't stay on the hard drive as long as it should.
Means a 6 for me.

 

[DND]

Looks great..plays something less than that

 

[EduCalza]

My vote is 8. Awesome graphics and gameplay with weather, but FFB is very strange. but it's a good game.

 

[Deleted member 113561]

The post above is spot on (for me) ..It is one of my "chill out" games, but if the only fixed FFB it would become a whole lot more.

Have you tried to custom FFB files available, ie. Jack Spades ones?

 

[Dobermann92]

It is a mixed bag, but I kinda like it, especially for all those vintage content and track selection.

 

[dreamer al]

Looks great..plays something less than that

Yes, that sums it up for me. Wonderful graphics. It is still played, but much less than my other Race Sims.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

4 from me. Looks ok, sounds ok, feels very strange. I never felt any kind of connection with the car, and when it slides it kind of slides in a pre-programed way, like an old arcade racer with 'steering helper' activated.

What a missed opportunity.

 

[MrLonguinha]

My vote is 8. Good gameplay, variety of cars and tracks. Aid customization. I have some criticism, if we may say so. Not being able to create your own championship offline and choose your opponents (cars and skins). Not being able to race in Le Mans with 54 opponents as in pCars 1 in both career mode and single race mode. For a pCars 3, maybe more categories, more clues, both classic and current.

 

[sentry87]

One of my regular sims of choice among with rf2 and ACC. 8.5 but I'll round up to 9 to cancel out the biased 1's and 2's this sim will get on rd.com

pros:
-great car selection
- great track selection
- great graphics
- great vr implementation
- nice dynamic track implementation ( rubbering in, dry lines, dirt patches
- dynamic time of day and weather, best effort so far with any sim. Sunsets are gorgeous.
- nicely optimized, my mid range pc runs everything on max
- overall very immersive sim.

Middle ground:
- default ffb is so so. Christiaan's custom ffb mod changed the game for me.
- car handling feels spot on with some cars misses the mark on others. Obviously because of the wide selection if cars, not everyone was probably dealt the same attention as others.

- A.I. is decent in most cases, depends on the class.
- multiplayer needs a rework next time around especially with the netcode but fun for pick up and play.

Cons:
- car sounds are lamest of every sim I own
- Better testing prior to release and further fixing post release.
- lack of mod support.
- no custom grids (unless you have mod) or championship