PC2 Rate the Sims: Community Edition | Project CARS 2

Paul Jeffrey · Dec 9, 2019

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!

Craig Dunkley · Dec 9, 2019

neuer31 said:
Have you tried to custom FFB files available, ie. Jack Spades ones?

Interesting ..I have not..he done some good FFB with PC2, I will try for sure.

Sporadik · Dec 9, 2019

Clearly some cars got more attention than others and feel amazing (Mclarens come to mind). Once you tweak the FFB (Jack Spade) like Pcars 1 it really comes alive. Sure FWD and AWD cars feel a bit strange, but that could be fixed if cars were allowed custom files like Pcars1. I've done many comparisons to other sims with the same car (including some well done mods in other sims) and for the most part the main differences are how each sim communicates FFB, tire model, and of course variance in the car setups otherwise they're pretty damn close.

This title does get people into sim racing. It is more accessible to people that aren't into sim racing or motorsports in general and intrigues people for something deeper. It bridges that gap between Forza and GT type simcade to proper sim like AC etc. I bought it for a friend on sale fox Xmas 2017 because they have VR, don't mind racers and enjoy sitting in my cockpit when they're over. They've already bought AC and the DLC as well as DR 2 and plan on building a rig in the future and taking some of my handmedowns.

Something that doesn't get mentioned enough is p2p online races (something every sim should have). I make a room invite a friend and go. We've had many cruises/business meetings in Pcars 2 (hey its funner than just a call, or skype etc.). IMO every sim needs basic p2p matchmaking and I was shocked years ago when I got into sim racing this isn't the case. I'm aware this is due to being on consoles, but AC never brought that feature over to PC when it was released on consoles years ago.

Yes its not perfect, but Pcars gets too much unfair hate. I can't wait for the 3rd.

(FYI my sims of choice are AC, ACC, RR, RF2, DR2 before the judging starts)

Augusto Dufloth · Dec 9, 2019

8

excellent VR

cars are hit or miss.I’m lucky that the cars that I like to drive are very good

Mike Smith · Dec 9, 2019

8 for me.

So much potential, and it lives up to that potential in many regards, but in others it falls short.

It's mind blowing to me that the same team that codes a racing title to accumulate mud on the track when it's raining and someone goes off track, could be the same team that allows you to shift every car without the clutch.

Or the same team that released an update for how much the altitude of the car affects the efficacy of its turbo, could be the same team that completely neutered engine sounds on countless cars (compare their Porsche RSR to any other sim's sounds).

With that said, what it gets right, it does extremely well, and some of my best sim racing experiences have been in PC2.

Looking forward to PC3 and beyond, I think a more focused car and track lineup would go a long way. It's great that they've included so many options for racing, but I could safely do without about a third of the cars and tracks in PC2.

scottiedawg66 · Dec 9, 2019

I want to love it but the physics / tire model / ffb are awful. content / graphics / VR performance are fantastic. but none of that matters given the critical shortcomings

stickdeath1980 · Dec 10, 2019

My steam review.
Well, I'll start by saying that I really, really, really wanted to like this sim.

PCars2 has the best car/track lineup that i've seen in a simulation game bar none. The colors and vibrance of the environment is amazing as is the dynamic track which models puddles and varying amounts of water. However, this is unfortunately where the good stuff ends.

The track list although amazing is not very accurate. There are some tracks that are laser scanned and quite good (Oulton Park), but others like Watkins Glen are pretty far off and in some corners totally inaccurate. The cars are a similar mess, some feeling decent...others not so much.

FFB is better than PCars1 and better than the likes of Forza or GTSport but nothing compared to Assetto Corsa, Automobilista, iRacing or RaceRoom. The FFB is numb at best and fairly slidey. It doesn't communicate very well as to what's going on and just seems to be fairly dull. AI is not dynamic because the tire model requires too much CPU, so the AI is preprogrammed as to where to brake and the line to take. They also don't operate on the same physics so you'll see them routinely outbrake you no matter what you do.

VR graphics are amazing at first and then you start to notice the tree/object pop-ins. For some reason there is a massive amount of object pop-in on this game. No idea why they did this, but it really makes the visuals messy and unattractive. The in-car modeling is superb though.

Overall, I'd buy it on discount but that's about it. I pre-purchased a season pass and i've regrettted it since the release. They continue to underwhelm with each pack and if I could I would return it.

Nick Hill · Dec 10, 2019

On paper, this is the best damned racing sim anyone has ever seen. Great spread of cars and tracks, weather conditions, really well optimized for VR...but, oof, that FFB. Sorry I just can't do it (and, yes, I've tried Jack Spade and, no, it does not redefine the game for me).

If you get in the right car at the right track (ie one that, by it's nature, masks the FFB deficiencies)...it's actually more than decent, even good. But that is not the case across the vast majority of car/track combos in my experience. Most of them are frustratingly bad. It feels like crappy iRacing to me (and I rate iRacing as "meh...it's ok" to begin with).

It is an improvement over PC1, but it's nothing that I have the urge to ever play.

Paul Garrett · Dec 10, 2019

I only bought PCars 2 after Reiza announced they were going to use the madness engine for AMS 2. I wanted to get a taste of what to expect. I never tried the game without an FFB mod. After reading so much about how disappointing many people found the vanilla FFB (and my own extreme disappointment with PCars 1), I didn't want to waste too much time and money.

But I was actually fairly impressed. It is visually stunning and the cars I did try were actually quite fun. Car and track variety is also impressive, though I didn't really play it enough to try all of them. It was a good game to just jump into and race casually. And as others have mentioned, I think it is a good game for those starting out in sim racing.

It isn't currently on my hard drive and with only a few months before AMS 2 is available, I'm going to wait for that. I am really looking forward to what the wizards at Reiza can do with the engine.

Jason Mullin · Dec 10, 2019

Got my monies worth out of it.
Thanks Ian Bell/SMS good game.

Highbank · Dec 10, 2019

Raced the Ford Mustang GT4 yesterday @ Willow Springs online, I have to say it was stunningly beautiful, I'd say a notch well above AC, ACC, and rF2. The sound was good enough and the ai that was also on the track was challenging but well behaved...I gave it a 9, full car sets for the various series is where I feel it comes up short...worth every penny.

OH I forgot, no modding, no ability to do skin sets, that hurts it big time...Folks want to paint cars and not just their own.

Durge Driven · Dec 10, 2019

RD should expand on this idea, too simple
Take 10 or more of the most important features and score out of 10
Total from 100 and averages for all categories would give a better picture

I guess we could not even agree what the 10 features are

Durge Driven · Dec 10, 2019

.......and another thing how can 10 members seriously give it 1 even 2, 3, 4
I would strike out all votes below 5 for every sim

Show me single review by any big site gives any sim a 4

cangrejin · Dec 10, 2019

sorry my bad english (google translator)
as many said: 10/10 (or almost)
After F1 Challenge, RBR and GTR2, this was the best driving experience.
Many say that it is not attached to reality ... and they criticize it ... they do not understand that a study (sms) gives "its own vision" of simulation. Like many other game studios.

unfortunately I had to abandon it ... but the loss was more than rewarded ...

The Old School racing simulator: "the Revenge-the counter attack" (f1c,gtr2,rbr)

Sorry for my bad English (GOOGLE TRANSLATOR) PART 1 ? Follow me to see MY sad story .... SHORT STORY: imagine: they live the big city (noise, smoke, technology, and distractions). Due to a SERIOUS problem you have a week off to rest. A girl who WANTED TO be your friend for a LONG TIME, and to...

www.racedepartment.com

I understand that a boss of RD did not talk about SMS with beautiful words ... or am I wrong?

Kurupt CDN · Dec 10, 2019

I appreciated some of the advance tech they did like surface heating, loose surface physics, the multi layer tire carcass heating etc.
Tons of content covering many disciplines and classes.
Vr was amazing and controller setup was simple.
Mp rating system.
Tho in the end....the short 1 yr support for the game, unpolished areas and mediocre ffb it just felt like another unfinished product.
7/10 as I put several hundred hrs into it....mostly ffb tuning lol
But I did really enjoy the rallycross

RikusPRF · Dec 10, 2019

8/10. I put a lot of hours into PCars2 and had great fun. Online races were a mess most of the time, but that's on the players, not on the game. It does have its shortcomings, but like Mike said earlier, it also gets a lot of things right. Here's hoping that Reiza do proper justice with the engine.

Stogie · Dec 10, 2019

Toss out all the street cars, rally cross cars and tracks. Some of the other pointless cars like the Nascar and drift cars can go too. Spend those resources creating better ffb and sound. Add a custom grid feature like RaceRoom, multiple hardware profiles and support it for more then 11 months. Then it'll be very close to a 10...if not a 10. For now its a 5 in my book. I wanna vote it a -1 out of 10 for all the frustration I went through while playing it for the first year it was out. However, I don't play it anymore so who gives a crap. If CodeMasters gets a hold of it they'll find a way to make it worse. Because that's easier and cheaper.

MJP1979 · Dec 10, 2019

5/10 for me, painfully average and as almost everyone has mentioned, the FFB is atrocious.

Nice graphics/Track and Car variety can't make up for the hit and miss handling and the FFB. 72 hours and uninstalled. Will likely ignore PC3 entirely.

Cote Dazur · Dec 10, 2019

STF YVR · Dec 10, 2019

Great game. Huge content. Great mods available to improve the force feedback. Too bad the studio ended support for the title prematurely.

General_Failure · Dec 10, 2019

5/10. It has its pros, not all is bad, but I don't like the main concept: "quantity over quality". I always would prefer just a few series but well done instead of hundreds of cars with similar (and very poor) physics.