What I'm hoping from Project CARS 2

Image courtesy of www.racedepartment.com

Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So today as I write this, earlier I was on Project CARS and I was racing an IndyCar around the Brno circuit and we just completed qualifying, so I was raring to go for the race and at first, all seemed well. What happens next? The session glitches which means the race won't start and I'll just sit there like a numpty if I don't do anything, so I try and exit the session and it proceeds to crash the whole game, but no big deal though right? I mean, I've been through the game crashing before. Well, I load up the game again and it has reset everything! My career mode, my control preferences, everything.

It's a good thing I didn't really give a shit for my career mode and everything else it seems is just a minor inconvenience but still, I didn't do anything to deserve this (Maybe I murdered someone in a past life, who knows? Ha!). But in a way, I am glad that it happened with Project CARS where the only thing I worked for was my career mode and I could do without it. Not like when I played Gran Turismo 5 where you actually have to buy pretty much all of the cars, and I turned the game off incorrectly which reset everything - I learned not to after that, believe me - and also considering that the highly anticipated follow up to Project CARS is out soon, I would hope basic errors don't happen like this.

But I thought I'd take the opportunity here to discuss what I loved about Project CARS, what I'd like to see in the sequel, Project CARS 2, what I despised about the first game and that they need to fix in the follow up and what I know to be in Project CARS 2 that I'm excited about.

Career Mode

So I know I just said that I can do without my career mode but honestly, the career mode in Project CARS is the best career mode from a motorsport and car centred game that I can think of. I absolutely love that it is all properly organised championships, anything from top-level Formula A to World Endurance or even something basic like Caterham club races, there's something there for everyone and you can go down any path.

You have to start at karts of course, which is a pain for me because I could never get the hang of the small kart circuits. Before my game corrupted, I was racing for a GT3 team driving a McLaren MP4-12C and had just completed my first round at Laguna Seca. Before that I raced some random BMW M1 Procar races and Caterham Club UK, as well as some Formula Rookie and SuperKarts which were incredible, and you had varying levels of championships. For example, you could have a British championship in which all rounds take place on all the British tracks in the game, then a European championship and a World championship.

I do have to say though, I would like to see in Project CARS 2, a more clear cut way of knowing what you're committing to. Had I known that I'd have to race M1 Pro-Cars, I probably wouldn't have signed for the team that I did, and I'd love to be able to do side campaigns and race in other series with arranged deals with teams. I never got as far as racing in Formula A so I don't know if this is the case, but I'd love to perhaps race in FA and also the World Endurance Championship like the F1 drivers of yester-year used to with the old FIA Sportscar championship.

Improved driving experience

This isn't a huge complaint for me because I am very much into my simulator driving, but all of my friends for the most part are into drifting, and it is impossible to drift on Project CARS. Having driven Assetto Corsa for a while on my wheel, the drifting on there is incredibly easy, and one of the reasons why I believe it is easier on AC is because the setup and driver aids are better placed for the driver.

This was something I hated about Project CARS, the layout of the driver aids are almost non-existent and you actually have to go to the button assignment menu to assign traction control a button! I was looking at the menu and realised that there were more things that needed assigning than there were buttons on my wheel, so I would hope in Project CARS 2 and other car games, there could be something you have in the bottom right corner like on Gran Turismo Sport (yes, I was allowed to test the beta) and F1 2016 that would allow us to change more than few things like traction control, brake bias, MGU-K recovery if the car has such a thing etc.

Another thing I'd beg for, I have had the game since May of 2015 and I have only just figured out how to actually perform a pit-stop. Oh and before you smart-arses message me and be like "Drive into the pits, it's that little road next to the start/finish line", no I mean I have to go into 'Edit', confirm what details I want, and back out and just hope my driver pulls into the pit box. After driving on Assetto Corsa, I have to say I much prefer manually driving into the pits and having a menu pop up after I pull into my pit box, and it is so much simpler with what it asks what I'd like to do.

The Project CARS pitting options, it has so many details and when you're racing, you cannot afford to miss a single beat because any more time you spend fiddling something and missing a detail like confirming one thing and not another, it could be the difference between remaining ahead of your fellow competitors, going a lap down, running out of fuel etc. You basically want to get back out there as quickly as possible, hopefully Slightly Mad Studios listens to this, I can't spend so many minutes fannying about trying to find what I need.

More cars and motorsports

This one is something that I applaud Project CARS for because you have fictional cars making up the Junior Formulae ladder, Formula Rookie all the way up to Formula C, Formula B and Formula A. We also have GT3 cars, my favourite form of GT racing with the variation of manufacturers that compete (And will only grow in the follow up with the introduction of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche), LMP cars and even some obscure series to the rest of the world but incredibly familiar with me, Ginetta SuperCup which run on the same weekends as British Touring Cars.

One thing I'd love to ask though, and it's a selfish request I know, the uptight bastards at Formula E have exclusively licenced the brand for the Forza guys, which is an Xbox exclusive game.. and I am on PlayStation. So since the Formula E cars being on a game that I can't play unless I buy an Xbox, I ask of Slightly Mad Studios to create a Formula E inspired car. In the same way that Formula A is Project CARS' equivalent of a Formula One car, and Formula Rookie is based entirely on the classic Formula Ford cars without their wings, the Formula E inspired car in Project CARS 2, would be called Formula Zero (Because zero emissions, since it's an electric car). I even have a great design template for it, the Ferrari F1 Concept that you can find on Google Images, due to Formula E planning on a radical redesign for season five in 2019/2020.

As for other forms of motorsport, I got very excited when I found out that World Rallycross would be coming to Project CARS 2, I'm particularly looking forward to that. Oval racing will be included, not my thing for the most part but I still do look forward to trying it out, as will IndyCar though I don't know why they made a big deal out of it, since the Dallara DW12 car that is used in the series has been included in the original as part of a pack you can buy.

I'd love to see a fictional car that was incredibly different in some way, on par with that of the Red Bull X-cars or the SRT Tomahawk Vision cars from Gran Turismo, that would be so off the charts in terms of numbers, that it could never possibly exist outside of the video game world. Along with some incredibly bizarre cars like the DeltaWing coupé that used to race in America, the short-lived Nissan 2015 Le Mans car that had a front-engine and front-wheel-drive layout, Sébastien Loeb's Pikes Peak record-breaking Peugeot and a whole lot more absurd and popular vehicles.

There's an array of possibilities and I'd hope every single high end motorsport fan would be appeased, like how the Rallycross folk are now, maybe a drifting championship too? If they sort out the physics to allow drifting to be a lot easier.

Tracks

This area is where Project CARS 2 is looking incredible. You will remember that I said that I was not looking forward to Gran Turismo Sport because of the appalling amount and selection of circuits, which I criticised because of the FIA's involvement and I should probably blame myself for expecting a load of top-line international FIA circuits, but it was such a basic thing considering the circuits on past Gran Turismo games.

Back to Project CARS 2 though, the track selection varies incredibly. You have the typical selection of popular tracks such as Monza, Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, Brands Hatch and the Nürburgring, but now you have new additions such as the Circuit of the Americas, ovals like Daytona, Indy and Texas Motor Speedway to even Rallycross tracks like the Hell Rallycross circuit in Norway and the Swedish ice track that Mercedes apparently use.

This is some incredible variety, Slightly Mad Studios go well above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to the tracks, even going as far as including a load of British circuits not utilised for international usage, such as Oulton Park, Snetterton and Cadwell Park. Then again, SMS is a British studio so it shouldn't really come as such a surprise.

So if any of these racing games are going to include a load of tracks that I'd love to see introduced into the game maybe a bit later on as a part of an update. I did in particular want to see the London Grand Prix circuit that Santander, Sky Sports and McLaren created and showcased in 2012, I have always wanted to drive this circuit, I recommend looking for the showcase video on YouTube with McLaren's then-drivers and Britain's back-to-back F1 champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Another F1 street circuit that has been long since been attempted is the seemingly cursed Port Imperial Street Circuit on the shoreline of the Hudson River in New Jersey, that was first rumoured to be happening in 2013 as the Grand Prix of America. I have seen an onboard lap there and the track is incredible, I'd hope that IndyCar pick up the track as well, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Indy have a round in the New York area. (Correction: Watkins Glen is in New York state)

Other tracks that I'd love to see include Sebring which hosts the annual 12 hour race, teamed with the newly included Daytona, the Nürburgring Nordschleife and Le Mans that make the four most prestigious endurance races in motorsport. Also some historical street circuits like the Pau and Macau Grand Prix tracks, or the Argentine Potrero de los Funes circuit, Phillip Island which hosts the Australian MotoGP, a few more British national championship circuits like Thruxton, Rockingham and maybe the track they're attempting to make Ebbw Vale in Wales to host the British MotoGP.

I'd like to see the Goodwood Festival of Speed included as I have some fond memories of playing that on Gran Turismo 6, and I'd also hope that since the World Rallycross championship will be heading to Silverstone for next season, SMS will add in the Silverstone RX layout. Other than that, mostly all FIA high grade car tracks would hopefully make their way onto Project CARS 2 or in a future instalment.

New features

A custom livery editor, custom helmet, those are some of the things that I'd like to see in maybe a future Project CARS game considering that there is also an easily accessible eSports feature in the Project CARS 2. eSports being competitive online racing that I have spoken about before, and since GT Sport is utilising a feature that ranks drivers of the same ability together, and also considering the fact that Project CARS' handling model is better suited to me on my Logitech G29, I am looking forward to some eSports racing on Project CARS 2.

I'd be not necessarily pushing for this as I can understand why SMS wouldn't want to incorporate such a thing but I never made it long enough into Gran Turismo 6's span to see the track creator that apparently could create circuits that were 100 by 100 kilometres or something like that. Personally having experienced GT5's course creator, they always got dull due to the same surrounding areas, but who knows? Maybe a Project CARS equivalent could make them look a lot more authentic and less repetitive. But judging by the creations I've seen on GT6, the tracks that just go from the highest altitude to the lowest in a matter of a few meters, I'd understand that maybe it'd be best to be without a course creator.

Another big thing I'd absolutely love to see, a racing school to teach players how to race. Whether it's something basic like racing lines, to something complicated like throttle application without traction control, fuel saving techniques could be another, and even a very specific situation like knowing when to pit for slick tyres on a drying track during a race. I know Gran Turismo utilised a racing school, one of my fondest memories being that in one particular racing school lesson, I had to stick behind a safety car but get the best lap time, and I never got that first bit right so it was constant frustration as to why it kept failing me!

I could see this utilising the Mojave test track that was in the first game and I fully expect to see in the follow-up, this being utilised for basic features on your own but then later on you could be put into racing situations like a GT race at Silverstone to then jumping from car to car and learning what to with what car, like a Rallycross car. I bring this up because I see a lot of potential with this, but I also do so because despite being an avid racer online, I still can't handle very powerful cars without the aid of traction control or braking without locking up when not using ABS, and I'd love to get better at that. You could even have a well known racing driver be the head of the Racing School, no idea who though, SMS get on it! Either that or a fictional character, such as Alexander Armstrong's Professor M from Tooned or Rick Scott from the old TOCA games.

Last little feature, The Grand Tour test track. Back on Gran Turismo 5, Top Gear's test track was in the game and then Top Gear had an expanded role exclusively in the Forza franchise, and as you can tell, Top Gear neglected a large portion of their audience by having the track on a select exclusive console, with Gran Turismo being only for PlayStation and Forza being only for Xbox. So with The Grand Tour test track, having it in the Project CARS franchise gives gamers on all major platforms a chance to drive the track which is featured on the show that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May present.

The reason I ask this is because I want to see that segment on The Grand Tour 'Celebrity Braincrash' removed and in its place, a segment that has guests who don't immediately die, and get into the studio for their interview but having had some lessons from a gaming driving expert beforehand on a gaming wheel and frame, with Project CARS 2 up and ready for the guest to commit to one hot lap after their interview. The presenters did say they wanted to bring their track around the world so with this method, they can! Hopefully there can be some centred The Grand Tour based challenges to couple onto this, in the same way that Top Gear game modes were incorporated into Forza.

In conclusion

I am looking forward to Project CARS 2 and I know a lot of this could end up just being a wishlist for Project CARS 3 but either way, I'm glad I could make this because as is the name suggesting, CARS stands for Community Assisted Racing Simulator. Project CARS 2 is set to launch in September, not official by the way, all that's said about the release date is that it'll arrive late 2017.

As for me, thank you for reading. As ever, follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat and you'll see me tweet out whenever I post, or go to the Follow By Email option if you're on desktop to have my latest posts sent straight to your email. So until we meet again.

Luca.

My life ambitions

We all have dreams don't we? Hello you, my name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So today, I would like to tell you the dreams that I have in my life that I either need to meet now or eventually, some of which I have already spoken about before.

I want to talk about this because ever since leaving college, I see some of my friends going to university and some going down the path for an incredible career, making something of themselves. All of us do owe it to ourselves to make a dream become a reality, I don't use the 'YOLO' phrase un-ironically but along those lines, we do have a single life time and I don't want to spend mine just following the rules.

So without further ado, here are my dreams and long term ambitions.

Curious Incident movie adaptation


Image courtesy of www.wikipedia.org

This one has long since been a thing here on my blog. Many of you may be new here because I recently did a radio interview on Zetland FM, a local station where I live. I'll link the interview here: https://www.mixcloud.com/zetlandfm/zetland-fm-mid-mornings-hour-1-354/

The initial post that I made regarding all of this is linked at the side, from July 2016 and it has been something that I have desperately been wanting to make happen for so long, and I haven't backed down. As I've stated in the interview I conducted, I've been in contact with Warner Bros, Working Title, Studiocanal, I have a mutual friend of Matthew Vaughn who directed Kingsman who I've been trying to get things sent to him, even a cast list would you believe?

Even a small independent movie called Po, I got in touch with them and we were talking for a while, then that line went dry, and I have also tried contacting YouTube movie reviewer Chris Stuckmann who worked with autistic children before his YouTube reviews became his full time job. Probably best I fill you in if you are not already aware.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 best-selling novel by Mark Haddon and was adapted for theatre by Marianne Elliot and Simon Stephens, which resulted in it winning many Tony and Olivier awards and is still showing in many places. It follows 15-year old Christopher John Francis Boone from Swindon, who is described by himself as "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties".

I've alluded to autism earlier when talking about Chris Stuckmann working autistic children, I say this because whilst the story never explicitly states what Christopher's condition is, the book's blurb refers to anything from Asperger's Syndrome, High-Functioning Autism and Savant Syndrome. Christopher lives with his father Ed and he wakes up one morning to find his neighbour's poodle Wellington, with a garden fork stuck in its corpse, and Christopher says he wants to try and find who killed him.

Following in the footsteps of his hero Sherlock Holmes, Christopher soon finds out clues for a mystery that hits so much closer to home for him. That is as much as I'll ever tell anyone who wants to know about the story, and I cannot recommend this amazing story enough so seek out the book or the theatre show, you're welcome.

I've been so incredibly certain that a movie needs to happen, so since February 2015 my life changed since finding out about this book, discovering who the perfect Christopher would be as well as putting together an incredible cast alongside him over those next few months, that being as follows; Taron Egerton, Gary Oldman, Rachel Weisz, Joanna Page, Andrew Scott, Carmen Ejogo and Una Stubbs.

I'm so passionate about this and I know fine well how incredible naïve and delusional I have been, but this is a cry for help and I need someone out there who has the power to help me out here, because we don't have a lot of time left to make this a possibility. I know the movie has been something that Warner Bros have been sitting on since 2011 with Harry Potter writer Steve Kloves and producer David Heyman working on it, I know I can make this work. I just need the chance.

GTA vehicle artist

Image courtesy of GTAWiseGuy

This is something that I have been wanting to tell you all for absolutely ages but now I feel ready to talk about it. Ever since I got Grand Theft Auto 5 back in January 2014, I have followed and developed an understanding and passion for the vehicles in the GTA world, you've probably seen me talking about it before already, but I'll remind you or inform you anyway.

Rockstar don't have the licences to utilise real world manufacturers so instead of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, in their place they have Grotti, Pegassi and Pfister, and all of the vehicle brands in the game utilise vehicles based on the real life brand's counterparts. I became really passionate about this when a few cars were added into the game and I became very critical of design, driving characteristics among other things.

When I was younger, I used to watch episodes of Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson's end of year DVD's, and I'd be drawing on some paper piled on a book on my lap whilst watching them, and whatever car was on the screen, I'd take inspiration from all of them until at the end of the evening, I'd have a weird hybrid of so many cars. Fast forward to now, utilising the real world inspiration to make a car look similar to its real world counterpart, this is the perfect job for me, which is why I have now applied.

Over the past few months, I have been working away in a sketch book with designs that I am certain would be beloved in GTA, knowing fine how vehicles have been what has generated Rockstar the most money, I know what vehicles to put in and I also have ideas for what cars to use in themed updates. For example, the picture from GTAWiseGuy that I used for this section, he created a Mitsubishi Evolution inspired car called the Maibatsu Revolution which he created for his trailer for a fictional update he created, Tuners and Outlaws.

It was after watching his trailer that made me realise the potential with the in-game vehicles and how I could perhaps contribute, with my eye for detail in car design and having such a large array of possibilities. Since vehicles are the largest form of generating of Rockstar's in-game currency, I know what cars people want to see, I know for a fact that I can be a great asset to them.

I applied recently, and I am waiting on a reply, I am really hoping that soon I'll move up to Edinburgh to work for Rockstar North.

Giro d'Strada

Image courtesy of www.youtube.com

I wrote an article on this beforehand, link here if you're interested to know more: https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/an-idea-giro-dstrada.html

Giro d'Strada came about when I just got my PlayStation 4 steering wheel and I was driving on Assetto Corsa in a LaFerrari, and I was thinking about all the lucky bastards on Xbox who get to own Forza Horizon, because us PlayStation users don't have an equivalent. I thought to myself "I would love it if us PlayStation users had a free roam driving game", I then teamed that with "Utilising the physics of simulator based handling model games like Assetto Corsa", and then I followed that on with "Based in mountainous and coastal continental Europe". That my friends, was how Giro d'Strada was born.

I love the name, I'm very proud of that. Assetto Corsa is Italian for racing setup, and Giro d'Strada is Italian for tour of the road, and that is exactly what you will be doing as you compete in the Grand Tour World Championship organised by the in-game fictional version of the FIA, and revitalising famous road racing events along the lines of the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and the Tour de France Automobile.

There is a heavy emphasis on the social aspect too, you'll have your own teams and team bases in which you can hire other players or go and join a friend's team at any time to represent them in races against other online players that you have been matched up with, or you can go it alone offline as well. I even have an idea for a constant broadcasting radio station to play in the game which brings together players and other members of the community on Giro d'Strada, so we don't have a repetitive set of radio stations like we do on pretty much all games.

To be rather selfish, I want Giro d'Strada to exist so I can drive a LaFerrari Aperta on a mountain road with my friends, but I wouldn't be pushing for this game to be a reality if I wasn't sure it would benefit everyone and not just me. I mean traditionally, I've always been a circuit racer, I would go for Shift over Need For Speed, and the Forza Motorsport games over Forza Horizon but since getting my steering wheel, I need to get my hands on a game that will allow me to go across a mountain road in the glorious sunlight and looking at some incredible views.

As far as this goes, I have reached out to Assetto Corsa developers Kunos Simulazioni with the help of 2013 FIA European Formula Three champion Raffaele Marciello, who has been so helpful and kind to me so props to you, Lello. I haven't got a response and I'm kind of hoping that if Rockstar North do employ me, they don't see my side project here as something that would negatively impact them, I don't think Giro d'Strada would be an immediate competitor to Grand Theft Auto.

My novels

Image courtesy of www.connieberry.com

We all do it don't we? "I wish I could write a novel", I do too. I have a few ideas and I am here to share them without going into too much detail because some plagiaristic arseholes may be out there ready to claim them for themselves.

First novel idea, 'Nadine' is the name with a titular character, who I've named after one of my closest and most beloved friends, a Dutch girl who loves MotoGP, Star Wars and Pokémon. Anyway we follow a bitter, veteran, widowed British police officer who discovers a young red-haired and freckled girl who has been interfering with the work of one of Britain's most ruthless mob bosses.

Throughout the story, we find out more about the background of Nadine and discover some really tragic circumstances. The themes of this story is deprivation of youth and tragedy.

Next up, 'Winds of a new beginning', I have a longer version of that but it follows a boy who has travelled to the fictional Scottish city Emeriavale to bury his recently passed grandfather, who grew up there. Whilst there, the boy meets an older woman who knew his grandfather, and was engaged to be married to one of his grandfather's friends before he was killed in very unfortunate circumstances.

However, the boy is miraculously sent back in time to the day that his grandfather's friend was killed and tries to do his utmost to prevent what happens to him. The main theme of this novel is living a full life, since the main character's grandfather died at an older age having led life to the full, whereas his friend wasn't given that opportunity, I've always said I'm more sad if someone young dies and I hope that I can make something that tells people to live their life to the full.

Final idea, and this one I don't want to go too deep into, I'm calling it 'Pulling Favours' and I want to remain as vague as can be, we follow a guy at university who engages in many casual relationships with a load of girls. To put it bluntly, my aim with this novel is to illustrate a lot of hypocrisies and flaws in this society's stigma and taboo against sexual culture.

I'm very much looking forward to writing this one, not just for the reasons you might think (Wink wink) but because I believe it has the potential to make everyone re-think a lot of their morals and viewpoints on something that is quite a sensitive and controversial subject to discuss. Who knows?

I'd also love to write a whole series of novels based on The Accountant, the movie that was released last year and had Ben Affleck as an autistic man who was both an incredible mathematician and assassin. I just wish I knew anything past just wanting to continue the story, I'd probably just entrust it to someone else.

Motorsport interaction

Image courtesy of www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk

Yet another blog post that I have done before, but I won't bother making you go read yet another one and just tell you about the Blancpain F3 EuroCup. The Stéphane Ratel Organisation - who used to run the British F3 championship - and I had some conflict a few years ago which led to the demise of British F3 in the guise that it was and eventually brought back but not under their control. So they have every right to be annoyed with me but I want to make amends.

There is a hole in the market for many types of drivers to compete in, a small scale series with much lower costs that can give full-time F3 drivers and higher tier drivers a side campaign to race in, lower tier drivers to prove themselves against them and then sponsors may consider investing in them. Basically with the cost of motorsport these days, a Formula Three championship utilising a four round mini championship is beneficial to all parties.

SRO are ignoring me, which is a shame because the F3 EuroCup would be of huge benefit to them, I have no doubt.

Those everyone, are my life ambitions. I seek to give back to the world and I hope you all join me as I aim to make all of these a reality and please if anyone can help me, please do. Because as much as I am trying to take charge, I don't know how to do it.

But what are your life ambitions? Feel free to create your own version of one of these however you know how, and you all owe it to yourselves to meet these goals because well, are you really content just confining to these rules? What will be your legacy?

Thank you all of you for taking the time to read my article, I hugely appreciate it. If you're new here, either follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or go to the Follow By Email option to have these sent straight to your inbox. So until we meet again.

Luca.