Review of Project Cars 3: “Try to be all racing games at once”

It’s hard to call everything a sell-out, but Project Cars 3 really feels like it’s leaving its own principles in search of the mass market. At its heart, this is still a serious racing game where you have to turn corners well, drive on the right racing line and avoid the car due to excessive steering or doubtful flapping of the accelerator pedal. But with so many more sim racers since the first Project Cars came out in 2015, simply re-winning the normal regular in-car racing career will not win new fans. And so we find Project Cars 2 disguised in Asphalt 9 clothing, acting like Forza Motorsport 7 and borrowing GT Sport’s online mode. It’s a new invention of Taylor Swift’s proportions and so pronounced, even fans may not recognize it. Project Cars 3 does not try to be one racing game – it tries to be all.

The previous race day and memorial work have been stripped down, replaced by the Forza Motorsport School for Career Mode, where you take place in themed events, all tailored from beginner races to exotic supercar series, with the option of buying cars and to upgrade the road. The usual long distance championships, grass fields, complete with practice runs and qualifiers, are just gone, replaced by breathless, rap-fire races, each with three criteria to check off in order to advance. These criteria are now much more diverse than the pure ‘win the race’ ethos of old, for example asking you to reach a top speed if mastering 30 corners in one race. This adds welcome gameplay variety for experienced drivers, while also giving those who are not so great at racing games a way to go through without having to win all the time. But it’s also playful. Very, very playful.

Yes master

Surprisingly, much of Need for Speed ​​Shift’s DNA seems to have reappeared in Project Cars 3 (thus omitting the most exciting bits), re-introducing the corner master system where each corner is essentially its own mini-game, allowing you have to break into the right place, hit the apex and power through to the outside at the turn of each turn. Here, these sections of the corner are now visually marked with shifting icons across the track – again gamifying the serious simulation. It means you can enjoy smooth instruction without having a sloppy, intrusive dynamic racing line across the entire screen, and the icons are both useful and discreet. The only trouble is, the actual ‘control system’ is too linear, allowing you to pick up the checks, even if you know you had to correct your line or even messily across the inside curb, and ignore the point to have it.

Playability is without a doubt the most improved area of ​​Project Cars 3, with the most accessible handling in one of the serious modern sims, thanks to the very covered pad control. Even if the assists are disabled, a capable driver will be able to catch a sample from a slide, obviously losing time, but crucially not deepening in the agricultural business on the side of the track. It’s beautifully executed and feels like console racers who once felt for it … well, for the era of Project Cars. Playing with a power feedback wheel may still be as realistic and memorable as ever, which is important for dedicated fans of sim racing, but the now-seamless integration of road control is a huge step forward for everyone else.

Although the riding is beautifully balanced, the racing is not. Money in the game is not exactly abundant and so you spend a lot of your time upgrading and downgrading the interiors of your existing car to make it eligible for certain race series. But while these upgrades affect a Forza-style numerical rating for your car’s performance, the categories for E-Class, A-Class, etc. are quite broad, so upgrading the wrong element may make you technically eligible. come cars end up being uncompetitive. Focus too much on the chassis and tires, and you will absolutely be mugged on the right track, if you can not get a hotlap-time three-star. Pair this with the short races and there is almost no chance that you will have a decent race with one car. Instead, it ‘elbows out’ as you dive inward, going from 7th to 2nd in one motion, and then back again to the right.