Exciting, heart-pounding fun is my overriding feeling after a couple of days play on both PC and Xbox One. It isn't perfect and there are many minor issues but none of them makes the game unusable. For me, pcars2 is a 9/10 game, best enjoyed with a group of like-minded and similarly skilled friends. After pcars1 I was very much in the doubters camp and expected more of the same, especially with the console version, but this is a much-improved experience.
Where pcars2 scores 10/10 is in VR. It is easily the best VR racing game in terms of both graphics and game performance, but I'd go even further than that and say it is currently the best VR game available. The cockpit graphics and scale are perfectly clear, it is just like sitting in the real cars. The draw distance and ability to see the track reference points is the best yet. Little things like how the internal camera and mirrors in the Acura GT3 get sun bleached at certain points on Le Mans is just stunning, trying to spot the flying LMP1 cars closing fast in the mirrors has never felt this real. Equally the way the Caterham 620R undulates over the surface at Knockhill, slithering through the apexes feels just right and I'm as discombobulated by a few laps in the pcars2 version as I am in the real car. VR wasn't supposed to be able to be this good yet, the clarity of the image and sheer range of real-world effects along with all the usual great depth and elevation perception has exceeded all my expectations.
The good:
+++ TX458 wheel feedback and effects are immediately good on both PC and Xbox One. I've had no problem at all getting the wheel to feel just right, on pcars I never found a setup I was happy with.
+++ Handling, car and track feedback. I feel able to learn the tracks just as I would for real, learning where the grip is especially on a drying track or as the track gets colder at night. Only AC had ever given me that real-world feeling before but this adds the day/night and weather cycles so goes one step further.
+++ The cars feel like the real cars. I've driven a handful of the pcars2 cars on real tracks and these cars feel like the real thing. Previously in pcars the road cars felt nothing like reality. Now they are incredibly close, the Megane 275 Trophy R, A45 AMG and Caterham 620R all feel right and have the real world characteristics of the car and my real world lap time abilities are pretty close to the in-game times too. I'm not claiming every car is spot on, I wouldn't know for many of them anyway.
+++ 4K game performance is stunning and stable.
++ Online stability and racing. So far this has been superb both on PC and Xbox One for our little group of friends. We've just been able to get on and race, none of the connection or lobby issues that dogged pcars. There is still some slowdown when people join and leave sessions but once the race begins it is stable. 3 fun days of just getting on and racing is a big improvement.
++ It's early days but the license system seems to have made this the best behaved public lobbies yet. Generally, people seem well behaved, yes occasionally a race start is still a bit messy but I've seen none of the absolute carnage that open lobbies from AC to Forza usually contain.
++ The weather deserves a special mention, Knockhill in Snow season, with heavy snow then a blizzard in Rallycross Mini's....looks just incredible and is way too much fun.
++ The penalty system seems to be working well online, minor track cuts penalised with brief slowdowns and time penalties if ignored and adding up to Drive Through penalties which also work.
The issues:
--- The AI, all said elsewhere so not repeating but I'll wait to play the career until it is patched.
-- Xbox One framerate is variable the One X will resolve this so again not a show stopper. It does mean for now Xbox one races are better left clear and dry, the weather really hits the framerate.
- Xbox One TX458 wheel suffers an occasional loss of all force feedback through the wheel (G920 seems unaffected). The oval tracks seem to be the worst but it also happened once at Sugo so there isn't a clear pattern.
- Being penalised for making contact with cars that are spinning or out of control feels a bit unfair but I accept the argument what else can be done.
