Project CARS hands on preview

Right, let’s get one thing straight; Project CARS is an absolute stunner.

There’s no two ways about it and the visuals on display are quite easily the greatest visuals that we have ever seen in a racing game, spinning even the gorgeous Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Motorsport 5 into the nearest high definition crash barrier.

I recently got invited to a hands on event and managed to negotiate a fair bit of time with Slightly Mad Studios’ upcoming racer and believe me, it was a fair bit of time that pretty much blew me away.

Taking in 3 tracks; the Dubai Autodrome and two of the UK’s finest circuits; Silverstone and Brands Hatch, it was immediately noticeable how much detail and realism Slightly Mad have gone to with Project CARS. Not only do the cars gleam and glow like never before, but the detail that has gone into them makes even something like Forza 5 struggle to keep pace. There are six different camera views in all; one chase, two bonnet and three cockpit views and no matter which eye you decide to play the game through, each has the same outstanding detail attached. The cockpit views especially (and let’s be honest, that’s how you should be playing the game) are amazing, filled to the brim with the knobs and buttons you’d expect to find in real life. Include a helmet cam that sees the action blurring and the sounds muffling as you reach ridiculous speeds and you’ll find yourself completely encapsulated into the way of the professional race driver.

There has been just as much detail put into the tracks that you’ll be racing on with Dubai, Silverstone and Brands looking exactly like they do in the real world. Whilst the latter was raced on a perfectly sunny day, both Dubai and Silverstone were taken in with the rain lashing down; headlights on and windscreen wipers going ten to the dozen. Now, the pedantic among us may worry that whilst you’d half expect the rain at Northamptonshires finest, the arrival of rain in Dubai is a little out of character, but it is a game after all and these were the 3 laps that were set out. Unfortunately any options to change things up were locked down so I just had to put up with what I had in front of me, although it was quite something to take an Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 through Copse corner, into Maggots and then tear it down the Hanger Straight, even in the wet. It did come as a bit of a surprise to see me leaving the field way behind and this was something that became very apparent when taking in any wet race; the AI just seemed to be far too cautious letting me streak ahead to victory. The dry laps round Brands were a bit of a tougher affair with the AI cars back on form, jostling for position at near enough every opportunity, forcing themselves through but also knowing when to back off whenever there was a real danger of impact (yep, Project CARS has full damage models)

Handling-wise, simulation fans are going to love Project CARS with the Aston handling much as I would expect it to in real life. With guidance and testing from real-life drivers, I see no reason to worry about the genuinely good attempts Slightly Mad have made with regards the feel of the cars. However, if you’re one of those gamers who prefer a bit more of an arcade feel to things, then you may just struggle with the clinical approach that CARS goes about its business. If for instance you sit firmly in the Horizon camp instead of with its Motorsport brother, then consider Project CARS very carefully indeed.

Project CARS comes to Xbox One, PS4 and PC on November 18th-21st. It’s something all Top Gear fans should be pretty happy about…..if only to take in the beautiful and authentic race vehicles and environments on offer.