I don't know how the YouTube casters got out of the "Practice Session"? Totally unrealistic. The cars handle like boats, FFB is junk and the sound is horrible. I'm at 116 minutes -- I could refund but I won't. When I see my 42 hours on pCars1 and 2 hours on pCars2, I'll have that to remind me when pCrap3 comes out.
There are a few bugs and inconsistencies (some unrealistic car grip - lack off) but for most of what I've raced I'm impressed - to me it's a new game, not the successor to pCars 1. I'm finding the GUI, graphics, FPS, FFB, and sounds are VERY well done for the most part. What it does good it does very good. One of my favorites, for the short time I've had it, is hotlapping the 1977 Porsche 935 GR.5 (or Audi Quattro IMSA GTO) around Long Beach at dusk to night (clear skies, time progression 5x or 10x). Very good immersion, great sounds, and those exhaust flames! I enjoy a wide range of racing games/sims, have to give credit where credit is due. From the forums, I seeing a few taking advantage of the Steam 2 hour refund - not sure how you can cover such a vast game in 2 hours (I just touched the surface in 2 hours) but to each their own. I'm sure SMS will be patching to improve the product, pCARS 1 was MUCH better (still not very good) a few months down the road from releases. Triple screen 5870x1080, TM TX w/T3PA & TH8A.
119 minutes on Steam... Refund or not? Anyway, is this game the worst disappointment ever. The amount of cars, tracks, dynamic weather, seasons, track rubber, damage model, ovals, all THIS! And for what? An FFB system that is basically GTR2 level (which is bad by today's standards) and the handling of... I don't know. Ever played Forza on 'simulation' setting? Sort of like that. So my two main gripes are the handling and FFB. While when turning the FFB seems quite ok, it doesn't really translate all that road grit, pretty much like in CARS 1. I could live with that, if not the horrible deadzone in the center. Nothing happens with the wheel when driving straight! Not even a wiggle. And it's also like it wants to return to that center neutral position whenever slides happen, so you don't have to work for the car to go straight again after you catch a slide. Initially I thought there maybe something wrong with my settings. I went to the WMD forum and found this expert guide for setting up my T300RS: No idea what they are drinking, but it must be something really strong, since those setting basically turn FFB off in my wheel. Oh and there is already Jack Spade's custom FFB files, which tells you how much the team have been working on improving them FFBs. But that is nothing compared to how crappy the cars drive. With no assists it still feels like there is some sort of stability control on and traction control. Take the classic Camaro for example, no amount of diff lock and clutch kicking is able to make this boat go sideways. I tried and it just understeers like crazy. Most of the cars actually understeer like crazy. Maybe except the Nissan 240ZG - this puppy is all sorts of uncontrollable drift machine. I actually tried drifting in the GT86 and it's all over the place. The way it snaps back to center the split second any sort of grip is regained makes it hardly enjoyable, while the Madbull Mazda is a ridiculous and useless mess as it has been in CARS 1. I also tried the Lotus 49 and while it kinda does dance on throttle a little, it's very easy to drive and hardly any fun. I don't know how people can rate this as a sim or even consider driving realistic. Maybe with GT3 cars or something more modern it's better, but I have not tried those yet. On the flip side, the AI is quite good. I have not seen any problem some people mention do far. They respect you, if you respect them and race properly. As for the weather... Well, in a full storm race on Spa, the GT86 didn't slide on bit, so I'd say that this whole aspect of wetness being a gamechanger can be put to rest. Rain feels cosmetic, but it does look good. Graphically, the game does not impress, I get a solid 60FPS with just a few settings toned down to medium (particles and some reflections I think) with the rest on ultra. That is in 1080p with a GTX980 stock. The sound is... well it sucks. Assetto's worst sounding cars are miles ahead of anything I drove in CARS 2. So let me ask... Why is this happening? This could have easily been what we all could ever want from a sim, but the whole super realistic physics is just marketing, though not sure why market the sim to hardcore people and then make it something well... I guess simcade actually fits perfectly here. I don't know, maybe they will fix it, but considering I have every other sim out there, except for iRacing, CARS 2 hardly brings any enjoyment from driving. Makes me sad. Don't believe the hype.
Part 2. I had high hopes. 4 out of five cars I tried in the first hour were good, two of them really good, even the sounds. By now I tried about 20 cars and I found at least 8 that are completely off (handling and sound wise). Some of them had really bad FFB too, but for some reason after a few minutes I felt a (direct) change (while driving) in FFB, which made it feel more like it is supposed to be. Don't know if it is a bug, but it is not normal... I assigned some buttons to change FFB on the fly, but that does not seem to work ? Sounds of the Clio, X-bow, Nissan GTR GT3 and (even worse) GTR Nismo are really bad. I heard great sounds coming from the Panoz in video's, but mine sounds pretty crappy. Tinkering with the settings (without too much visual loss) raised my FPS to 60-80, which is OK for my GTX980TI on triple 27"/144 Hz monitors (triple screen support is excellent BTW). Tried one race in the Ginetta Junior against 18 AI at Zolder (105% and 75% aggresssion, starting last). I did not notice any weird moves from AI, no pile ups, but for this combo they are too slow (won by 21" after 8 laps). I read they are not consistent throughout career mode (very fast on some tracks, rather slow at others with the same settings), so I will have to keep an eye on this. Some cars do feel OK in all aspects though. Tracks are looking good, exception made for most trees. They are really 3D (never seen that in any sim), but the leaves are too big, which makes them look a bit weird. UI looks good, easy access, maybe a bit too colourfull to my taste. Weather: live track is great. Had rain in Oschersleben, after a few laps there were puddles all over the track and driving over them resulted in aqua planing and a serious jolt of my wheel, best is avoiding them if possible. The rain on the car / hitting puddles, spray, all this is very well done sound wise too. Wipers have two speeds and do a great job. Headlights work very realistic in the dark, reflections on cars in front are excellent. Lots of goodies, maybe I still have to get used to it, but hopping from sim to sim results in mixed feelings towards pCars2 at this moment.
So I passed the 2h mark, no more refund option to me. Played a little more, got them Jack Spade FFB files, and... it's bit better, but still no effect on some curbs, no effect on grass or sand, no ABS effect. Did a 8:30 laptime on the Nord with a Lotus 49 in the rain, and that was just on a first attempt not even trying to go fast. You can go full speed over the Flugplatz and no airtime. It feels less bad now, not really bad even, just not really thrilling. There is no sense of speed. I fiddled with the camera settings, since the FOV is quite low by default (which actually deserves some praise), but zooming all the way out and you don't feel like you're doing 200kph at all. The GT3 actually drive quite well, which as I suspected is probably why people praise the physics. ABS felt weird though, it goes on once you're past like 30% pedal travel. I also found where the AI is utter crap - Classic Spa, Ferrari 365 GBT and... turning the difficulty all the way to like 20 I still could not catch them on straights despite being in the split-stream. Did anyone even test this? It's impossible not to come last. Oh and for the sound, don't drive the Nissan GTR R32 and for the love of everything don't watch replays with it, your ears will bleed.
A lot of it comes down to what a person wants to see in their sim game/s. Oval tracks, Indy cars, karts, multi-class racing, endurance/driver changes, dirt, day/night progression, dynamic weather, certain tracks/cars of interest, triple-screen/VR support, etc.. If one goes in with the attitude that "no-way this will compete with my favorite..." then of course focus will be on the negatives. My favorite in a "sim" quality racer is rF2 but as a game it fails miserably so I race it when I need that certain fix. R3E for the most part is next but it's missing things for a complete game (for me! I want GTR3!) that it only meets me half way (a good way though). AC isn't my cup of tea, I own all of the content, except for the latest, but I mostly use for just hotlapping once in a while. AMS really has most everything a sim racer needs (other than night, weather) but the graphics/environments don't draw me "completely" in - VERY good at what it does though. pCARS was a mess, the physics and FFB never did feel right. pCARS 2 checks a number of boxes and for me feels VERY good (physics and FFB) with my equipment but so far mostly only have driven some older cars. I don't take any game too seriously, if I can have fun I don't care if something isn't exactly like IRL. Anyway, as anyone can see, some will give it a chance, others will call it crap. Good thing for someone considering buying there are a ton of YouTube streams and videos to get a good idea what it's like. I always throw out the top and bottom reviews/opinions and use the average. I believe that after 3 months or so of tweaking/bug fixing opinions will rise - SMS will sell a lot of copies. SMS isn't trying to create an rF2/iRacing killer, they are going after the simmy "game" player. In the meanwhile , I'm still waiting for things in rF2 and R3E (triples, AI, night racing) to improve and the next gen AMS. A few new games will get some of my time.
So I played a bit more. But I actually deleted all my settings. FFB set to informative and FX raised to 70 and... it actually feel not bad at all. Still nor very good when you want to drift, but pretty nice for racing, lots of info on the road. So I did a couple of races with the AI. For classic cars like that Ferrari 365 or the Lotus 49, you'll probably want to go down with the AI difficulty all the way to the green zone. Aggression is fine, at 50% I did not notice them being overly homicidal. So yeah, the cars feel planted, but with a fresh start and the FFB set that way, it's all much more alive. I actually notice 2 things that are awesome: you feel how the tires load up and it's kinda progressive, something other sims don't really do that well and there is lot's of oversteer on breaking in some cars and turns, that is something only rF2 does to this extent. Let's talk weather, I actually started to notice now in the FFB that wet kinda feels wet. That is good. Is a race in one huge puddle at classic Monza with the Lotus 49 a challenge at all, nah, but I like how the AI is there and does a close race, but doesn't do erratic stuff. I sort of went at it, like I did with CARS 1 - not focusing on FFB or realism, but racing and for the first time I felt enjoyment. Then I went back to AC, got into a GTR at Zandvoort remembered how good this sim that I don't really like felt. But the awesome tire loading feel is not there! So to sum up, I think, I am going to have to take some of the stuff I said back, it's not really terrible, but still a bit disappointing considering the competition and how long they had to improve. I think the more you play the more good things you learn to find, since the bad one are obvious right off the bat. Anyway, it's a good racing game with some great sim element and some bland not so sim elements. I hope they improve this, cause I can't get my monies back now! Also, the sound is still a rape on your hearing sense with some cars!
Has anyone been able to fix the "boat" handling -- try any GT3 (Ferrari, NSX). I turned all the camera World Motion/Head stuff down to 0. Drive at 30 KPH in the pit lane using the cockpit cam (not the helmet cam) and swerve hard side to side. Does the inner fender rise up like a boat? It doesn't appear to do this in bonnet cam. BTW, I drove the Datsun 240Z as my first car and it had the boat handling too -- I owned a stock '72 240z and it never handled like that. It was a sports car. Heck my SUV doesn't handle like that. Your street car doesn't either, I bet.
After so more fiddling with GT3 cars (which was OK), I went back to Raceroom just for comparison. Holy Cow! How much better R3E feels compared to CARS2! I kinda miss the ABS effects, but other then that, the FFB is miles ahead, the sensation of speed so much better and guess what else I found Raceroom has that Project CARS 2 doesn't (and CARS 1 had)... Soft Lock!!! Yup, the FFB is CARS 2 basically does the same thing Assetto Corsa does - once you are in a big slide, your wheel will turn beyond the virtual wheel's rotation limit. What the hell? I can get that Kunos is stubborn or just can't fix to work without the wheel bumping like crazy when near lock, but everyone else has this nailed down already. Even Codemasters managed to get their lackluster FFB up to the standard set by AMS, rFactor 2 and Raceroom. I don't really know what to say, CARS 2 has moments where it shines, like for example engine temperatures (you can actually set your rads in the setup), how you sometimes have to short shift not to cook the engine, which happened to me 2 times already and as someone into WWII flight sims, where maintaining engine temperatures is key to your survival, this made me very pleased. That said CARS 2 is still behind the competition when it comes to driving feel. And as much as I am all about the experience of being in a proper race with a dynamic environment and all, I am also casual in that way that I get the most fun out of fiddling with my wheel that feels alive because of the FFB and that is something that is like 90% of enjoyment for me. CARS 2 just doesn't have that. Another thought I also had today was about graphics. All that high end stuff in CARS 2, all those effect and it still looks kinda gamey - quality is awesome, but AC and R3E do have that photorealistic vibe around their looks and CARS 2 just doesn't, at least not in motion not when you are playing it. I bet they put so much effort into graphic and yet still managed to come up short, and they could have just focused on the driving feel. I don't know what to think really. Kind of makes me sad, there is potential here, but I think they won't ever put a patch out that will be a gamechanger like when Sector 3 added the FFB graph. CARS 2 has some fun in it, but it just does not deliver the same fun experience other sims do, despite weather and all. Also, the sound is really beginning to irritate me.
It works pretty fine here except some ugly graphics (sonoma, barcelona). It seems that all tracks are not on the same level. All cars feel very different which is a great point. In Assetto they all feel different in the same manner. lol In other games they feel sligthly different (including R3E). By the way i don't feel that cars have to much grip. I feel they miss grip in Iracing and Assetto or Rf2, but not in Pcars 2, AMS or R3E. It's a good game and a lot of people will enjoy it because cars behave in a very realistic manner, better than most of other games. That's a surprise. By the way the sound of the 488GT3 is gorgeous. It makes me think that sounds in R3E miss low frequencies.
Thanks William, that fixed the boat handling. Using another persons comment on Raw/80/80/80/80 for the Logitech Momo, it feels better.
You can but, CARS 2 presents this in a more realistic manner IMHO, it's dependent on the radioator setting in the setup and ambient temperature. You will also hear the sound sort of go bad, if the engine is dying. In Raceroom, you have have screw up shift and overrev to damage the engine, in CARS 2 it can die simply of conditions fatigue. There are also random mechanical failure, which I think is awesome for something like endurance racing. Again, my gripe with the game, there is so much good stuff here, but the driving and FFB just feel lackluster. I also found a couple of bugs already. You can hit some invisible potholes at some tracks, but it seems random (minefield bug again?). Also, skipping to the end of a qualifying session will cause the AI to post impossible times, and this thing has been a constant complaint in CARS 1.
Thank god, because of these relentless efforts for comprehensive digital grid expansion of Telekom now after downloading 35.2 GB data for 36 hrs since Friday evening I am able to start PCARS2 for the first time. Hallelujah!
Only got my hands on Pcars 2 for an hour + today. Pretty enjoyable to me. A bit reminiscent of the PS2 Era GT games. My only gripe is probably AI inconsistencies. Sometimes I ran away from them, others they wipe the floor with me and else I am midpack with the same Aggression/Difficulty setting.
I would have saved a lot of time, if I brought my pc to you, downloaded the game, drank some beer, drove home and started playing. Lucky you! Maybe PCARS 3?
Tested the new NSX GT3, what a great car and the FFB came alive so much in this. What a machine, though it needs shortening the final drive a bit for most tracks. But then there are other cars... Here is an idea for every sim developer: limit your damn car roster! Make 40 cars and work on them instead of giving people 180 most of which drive like crap. I could understand if SMS did not focus that much on the cars that came from CARS 1, but it boggles my mind why brand new cars are this bad. The Nissan 240Z was to be my go to ride for the lack of other legendary dorito kingu vehicles and it's garbage to the point where I'd rather drive it in Need for Speed. On a final note, what is wrong with the sound mixing? For one, most engines sound like there was something rattling in the exhaust, reminds me of my granddads old Fiat 125p. And then you watch the replay and you can barely hear other cars in the field, while your arrival is heard from miles away and basically renders all other sounds unhearable. There also seems to be a problem with the rev noise on downshift blips, sometimes it roars like it should, and on other time you can mash that pedal to the metal and all that comes out is sort of a feint fart. Anyway, weekend is ending, so I am putting it to rest. There is potential in CARS 2, but the same was said with the first one. I'll wait for some patches and play Raceroom and Assetto for now. Especially that both seem to have undergone some serious AI improvements - maybe I am just lucky, but all the issues I experienced daily with my track weapons of choice seem to be gone now and I keep finding new things to rant about in CARS 2. It's going to be a hard working week and the doctor said I should avoid getting irritated.