The clock is ticking and it’s getting close to race time, because Project Cars is around a month away, so here’s everything you need to know about the new entry to the world of racing games, which has got as good a chance as any at shaking the fabric of the playing field to its core. It’s a beautifully rendered next generation racing game that clearly decided some time ago to throw away the rule book and go its own way, because it’s been fine tuned to deliver a lot of flexibility in terms of gamers getting to race how they want to.
Release date
Developed by Slightly Mad Studios over a period of around four years in total, and distributed by Namco Bandai, Project Cars will be lining up on the grid with a release date in the US of the 2nd April 2015 on PC and the 7th on Xbox One/PS4. In the UK and Europe it will be available from the 2nd on disk and digital download for the Xbox ONE and PlayStation 4, as well as hitting the shelves on Microsoft Windows for PC gamers.
For anyone still in PS3 and Xbox 360 territory, the bad news is that Slightly Mad cancelled the game’s release on the previous generation consoles as the next gen devices took up the slack last year. However, the good news for any Nintendo gamers out there is that, while the release on the Wii U has been delayed, it’s still on the cards and we should be getting a confirmed release date in the not so distant future. The game is also planned for Steam OS, but again no official date has been announced as of yet.
Gameplay
As there’s no storyline as such to introduce the concept of Project Cars, we’ll jump straight into the gameplay elements of the game; and there’s a lot to take on board. The developers have thrown the kitchen sink into the racer and there’s more customisation available to players than you can ever fully hope to grasp without a degree in motorsport engineering. However, the good news is that the game is scalable beyond belief, so if you just want a game that you can jump into and race every now and again you can, but equally if you want to geek out on every element of racing setup and action then there’s a lot of scope to play with at the top end of the spectrum.
There are four core areas to Project Cars gameplay, as referenced by the four pillars of the game’s logo, and they’re made up of Career, Solo, Online and Community. These are a big part of how Slightly Mad has built in the sheer volume of variation into the game, but when you factor in the roster of cars and tracks, plus the ability to calibrate your cars and set up pit stop strategies makes for an experience that looks set to rival that of Grand Turismo and Forza Motorsport.
Career mode is about as structured as things get, as you create your driver and choose your favourite type of motorsport. However, even here there’s a lot of freedom, because you’re not confined to starting out your racing life in the lower tiers of racing with slower cars, so if you want to start out in the major league racing championships or series then you can, giving you almost instant access to some of the more exciting aspects of motorsport. Just choose where you want to start and you’ll be handed a contract with your first race team and you’re away.
You’ll then have a pretty packed race calendar ahead of you in which you’ll have the opportunity to win races, accolades and the attention of other team bosses, both from within your chosen division and beyond. There will also be opportunities to participate in special race events and series, which helps to mix things up as you develop, as well as picking up sponsorship deals to help you build your reputation on the track.
You can see a little glimpse of the starting point options for your career in the image to the right, which shows that there’s a progression of tiered championships and series that starts out with the wonderful world of karting on the left, progressing up to the crazy concepts that is Le Mans prototype 1. In between you’ve got Formula 1000, Super Touring, World Championships and F1 racing.
In and amongst all of that there’s also a number big achievements to pick up, which have been designed to match the biggest stories from the history of motorsport racing. The first of these is the Zero to Hero accolade, which you can achieve by progressing from the kart to the top spot in motorsport in just a few seasons; the second sees you trying to defend your championship for three years on the bounce; and the third is the Triple Crown, where you’ll need to win the championship in three different competitions.
The individual action doesn’t stop with the career mode though as there are also a number of options in the Solo features, which is all about getting you into the racing action as quickly as possible. This is essentially where you’ll go when you just want a quick race, but there are a few things that help to make it more than just a simple adrenaline rush. The first of these is the free practice mode, which lets you try your hand at any of the motorsports included in the game, giving you a chance to work on your skills away from the heat of the action.
The flexibility comes in with the ability to set up race weekends and calibrate everything from the track to the structure of the event, number of sessions, laps, weather and participants to make it as big and complex or a small and rapid as you want. If you just want a quick blitz around the track in your best super car then away you, but equally, if you want practice, qualifying and a 24 hour race with none stop rain and a packed field then it’s all in your control too.
The race weekends don’t just stop with you either as this will be a big part of the online gameplay in the game, where you’ll be able to set up public or private, invite only, event. You’ll also be able to search all of the public games being played around the world to find something for you to get your teeth into any time you want to take your skills online without setting up your own event.
Whether you’re taking part in a solo event or an online battle you’ll have the opportunity to setup and tune a vast array of setting on your car specific to the location and conditions in front of you. If that isn’t enough to fry your tiny little minds, you’ll also need to take into account pit strategies too, so for any motorsports geeks or car mechanic experts out there, you’ll be able to put your skills to good use.
The online community element comes in with the The Driver Network, where you’ll be able to compare stats, progress and your best racing moments. There will be a number of community events to take part in too, as well as ghost time trial challenges to take on in an attempt to decide who can go around any of the tracks in the fastest time possible.
In terms of the cars you’ll be able to race, they range from road cars like the BMW M3, Ford Focus or the Renault Cleo or the Mercedes A Class AMG to Le Mans prototype cars like the Audi R18 Ultra. In between you’ve got 125cc shifter karts and 250cc superkarts, track day car like the Atom or the the Lotus Elise, and supercars like the Maclaran P1 and the Pagani Huayra. Added to that are Grand Touring cars, including the Ford GT40 Mk IV and Maclaran MP4-12C, and modern open wheel racers like the Formula A.
There’s 60 tracks crammed into Project Cars and there’s a lot of variety to choose from. There’s standard track circuits like Laguna Seca, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Monza, Le Mans, Donnington Park, Road America, the Hockenheim Ring and Imola; kart tracks like Glencairn; and open road locations like the Interstate 1 Californian Highway.
The racing mechanics themselves look like they’re going to be pretty accurate, which is understandable considering the amount of development time and effort that’s gone into making the game. However, by far the biggest feather in the game’s cap is that the guys at Red Bull Racing have described it as the “ultimate racing game” so if you’re looking for a realistic racing experience this spring, you could have it with Project Cars.
Graphics
It’s tough to describe just how beautifully rendered Project Cars is, but in general it’s truly sublime. Your best bet is to check out the incredible detail on the cars, tracks and environmental conditions in the Start Your Engines trailer below, but having trawled through pretty much every piece of media on the game out there, it’s looking like it’s the real deal in terms of the graphics.
In fact, having seen a couple of streams that directly compare the visuals of the game with a video of the real life equivalent track and car and honestly the game looks better. There are other videos that you’ll strain your eyes on trying to work out if it’s real life footage or a gameplay video. It’s too close to call right now in terms of how the game stacks up against the last big entry to the racing game genre, Forza 5, but it could have it’s nose in the lead by the time it hits the shelves in March.
First impressions
Considering the fact that we’re still enjoying the delights of Forza Motorsport 5 and Forza Horizons 2, we didn’t expect to get all that psyched up about the prospect of Project Cars, but that’s exactly where we are right now. It’s the kind of game that’s set to let you play it how you want to, which we’re big fans of, while also delivering frighteningly realistic graphics and the type of racing action that makes professional teams sit up and take notice. You can’t get much better than that.
