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| Image courtesy of www.racedepartment.com |
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.
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