Project CARS 3: General Discussion Thread - Out August 28th, 2020 on XB1/PS4/PC

[Nacho Libre]

This morning, I fired up PC3 on my Xbox Series X and replayed the first series. I find interesting that the XP system feels better implemented here than in FM, because XP leads to more credits earned as you progress, and car XP leads to discounts on upgrades for the specific car, from road to sport to full racing conversion. In FM XP points go to waste after you get to level 50 in a car, and the prompt that appears whenever you go over your points while upgrading is tiresome.

That being said, the game looks odd, especially when compared with FH5/FM which were designed around the specs of the X/S consoles. Also, while very manageable on gamepad, FH5/FM feel at the controller is superior.

Because I foolishly paid full price for it, I have no confidence on Project Motor Racing. I'll wait for the reviews on that one and still may hold a purchase for a year or so.

 

[AEKara38]

I guess I got lucky because I bought the Deluxe Edition in 2021 for £22.49. Doesn't make me any faster though

 

[toastet]

Got it for ~20,xx € in 2022 for Steam but if I remember right paid more for the PS4 and there is a chance I bought it for the Xbox too. Still not enough sales 💀

 

[Fossilized]

I have always felt that Ian Bell's racing games were designed on for and by PC users, and consoles were always a secondary consideration. Except for PC3. But that was such an anomaly that it still holds up for their new game. Which is kind of weird when you look at the sheer scale of the number of consoles out there as a potential market.

Ask anyone that played the original Assetto Corsa on both console and PC, the PC version after modding was immensely superior.. but a lot of the modding was third-party and could never be ported to consoles.

Bell is claiming that modding for consoles is going to come, but it will strictly be for content, and the usual roadblocks are in place by Sony and Microsoft to make it too expensive to update the game as often as you can on PC.

Any game that is going to need console users to be behind it really needs to be developed ON console, and PC users be the secondary market. That just isn't going to happen, once again. The PC version will get the lion share of the bug fixes, and they will make the usual excuses as to why consoles lag behind.

 

[Beezer215]

I have always felt that Ian Bell's racing games were designed on for and by PC users, and consoles were always a secondary consideration. Except for PC3. But that was such an anomaly that it still holds up for their new game. Which is kind of weird when you look at the sheer scale of the number of consoles out there as a potential market.

Ask anyone that played the original Assetto Corsa on both console and PC, the PC version after modding was immensely superior.. but a lot of the modding was third-party and could never be ported to consoles.

Bell is claiming that modding for consoles is going to come, but it will strictly be for content, and the usual roadblocks are in place by Sony and Microsoft to make it too expensive to update the game as often as you can on PC.

Any game that is going to need console users to be behind it really needs to be developed ON console, and PC users be the secondary market. That just isn't going to happen, once again. The PC version will get the lion share of the bug fixes, and they will make the usual excuses as to why consoles lag behind.

Come on man. Seriously? This is why we moved to PC. A company that wants to have a cutting edge technically advanced simulation should develop that on console? You're console games are made on PC's with emulation software in the first place.

 

[Fossilized]

You are somewhat ignoring the fact that Ian Bell has ALWAYS gone after the money, not the "cutting edge technically advanced simulation" that his advertising copy would have you think his focus was on.

Let's be honest here. If that WAS his focus, he would never make a console game in the first place. From appalling "mobile games" to vaporware consoles, Ian Bell has shown time and again his focus isn't on the technical superiority of his games. It is about the money, the money, and oh yes, the money!

Feel free to persuade yourself otherwise, but you would be well advised to completely ignore the history of the project cars games.

 

[Beezer215]

You are somewhat ignoring the fact that Ian Bell has ALWAYS gone after the money, not the "cutting edge technically advanced simulation" that his advertising copy would have you think his focus was on.

Let's be honest here. If that WAS his focus, he would never make a console game in the first place. From appalling "mobile games" to vaporware consoles, Ian Bell has shown time and again his focus isn't on the technical superiority of his games. It is about the money, the money, and oh yes, the money!

Feel free to persuade yourself otherwise, but you would be well advised to completely ignore the history of the project cars games.

This isn't Project Cars though that we're speaking of. They have a website and have published numerous videos stating that they do want to make a completely technologically advanced simulation. Anyone who's been paying attention and getting the newsletters/emails or youtube videos has heard this numerous times. Whatever Ian Bell has done is not really what he's doing now.
I can tell you with utmost certainty that if this was solely designed on consoles just so it's "easier/proficient" for consoles with PC being an after thought, I'd have no interest in this whatsoever and I know a huge group of people who would feel the same.

Consoles have always gotten the watered down version of PC simulators. The reason isn't really a secret.

 

[GTvsForza]

Tried my best to make a replica of the Motul Pitwork Z on the GT4 Proto. The Livery Editor is really good (but annoying as my controller has a little stick drift and it bounces between layers sometimes...)

 

[Belos]

hi
why doesn't it work online anymore???
thanks🙂

 

[Speedster911]

I have always felt that Ian Bell's racing games were designed on for and by PC users, and consoles were always a secondary consideration. Except for PC3. But that was such an anomaly that it still holds up for their new game. Which is kind of weird when you look at the sheer scale of the number of consoles out there as a potential market.

Ask anyone that played the original Assetto Corsa on both console and PC, the PC version after modding was immensely superior.. but a lot of the modding was third-party and could never be ported to consoles.

Bell is claiming that modding for consoles is going to come, but it will strictly be for content, and the usual roadblocks are in place by Sony and Microsoft to make it too expensive to update the game as often as you can on PC.

Any game that is going to need console users to be behind it really needs to be developed ON console, and PC users be the secondary market. That just isn't going to happen, once again. The PC version will get the lion share of the bug fixes, and they will make the usual excuses as to why consoles lag behind.

Well, that may be true but PCARS 1, 2 & 3 turned out fine on Xbox, innit?

 

[Scaff]

Well, that may be true but PCARS 1, 2 & 3 turned out fine on Xbox, innit?

Yes and no.

PC3 was pretty much identical between the two.

The first two however, had a lot of both quality of life fixes and mods (particularly FFB) that never hit consoles, as well as a good number of unofficial car mods.

DOWNLOADS - Project Cars 2

==== Addon Car Downloads ==== For Project Cars 2

projectcarsmoddingteam.weebly.com

 

[Johnny Caisse]

I'm gonna get the seasonal pass DLC before August 24th.

...Also, quick little question, is there a modding community for this game?

 

[GTvsForza]

Not that I know of.

 

[Beezer215]

is there a modding community

We don't even know what we're doing yet.
There's always a modding community. There will be no shortage of people wanting to put their own content into any sim that allows it. Even VRC added a couple cars to AMS2 just to test the waters. Even though they didn't care much for those waters. 😄

 

[Speedster911]

Yes and no.

PC3 was pretty much identical between the two.

The first two however, had a lot of both quality of life fixes and mods (particularly FFB) that never hit consoles, as well as a good number of unofficial car mods.

DOWNLOADS - Project Cars 2

==== Addon Car Downloads ==== For Project Cars 2

projectcarsmoddingteam.weebly.com

Sad how console gets left behind, thanks to MS. Hopefully, the new Project Motor Racing game will take everything from the first 2 games and make it really great.

 

[Fossilized]

Well, that may be true but PCARS 1, 2 & 3 turned out fine on Xbox, innit?

lol!

This isn't Project Cars though that we're speaking of. They have a website and have published numerous videos stating that they do want to make a completely technologically advanced simulation. Anyone who's been paying attention and getting the newsletters/emails or youtube videos has heard this numerous times. Whatever Ian Bell has done is not really what he's doing now.
I can tell you with utmost certainty that if this was solely designed on consoles just so it's "easier/proficient" for consoles with PC being an after thought, I'd have no interest in this whatsoever and I know a huge group of people who would feel the same.

Consoles have always gotten the watered down version of PC simulators. The reason isn't really a secret.

I'm guessing you're fairly new to this... I haven't heard anything different from Bell since the NFS Shift days. Big promises, all the right words, and then unfinished products with glaring bugs often left unfixed. And off to the next game with the same promises...

It might be instructional to google some of Bell's interviews for Shift, PC1, PC2 and PC3. Be prepared for some serious deja vu.

 

[Beezer215]

I'm guessing you're fairly new to this... I haven't heard anything different from Bell since the NFS Shift days. Big promises, all the right words, and then unfinished products with glaring bugs often left unfixed. And off to the next game with the same promises...

It might be instructional to google some of Bell's interviews for Shift, PC1, PC2 and PC3. Be prepared for some serious deja vu.

Ya, I'm new to this. lol
I'm so new to this that I should own stock in Ibuprofen. Now if you'd be so kind, help me out of my sim rig, my back hurts.

 

[sirjim73]

I think, to be fair, Ian Bell DOES have a history of making promises which don't come off (I think sometimes he overstretched ideas versus reality). But then he is hardly the only person to do so ("built from the ground up" anyone?).

Personally, the only game i have preordered in the last 10 years or so was EA WRC (partly because of the low price point). I do however buy some games very soon after release at full price if I see reliable (non media, usually
members) reviews.

 

[Fossilized]

Because this game is going to make me pony up for a whole new console, I'm going to keep playing PC2 until probably a year after launch. By that point, we'll have a pretty good idea of what's working and what's likely to remain unfixed.

 

[Speedster911]

lol!

I'm guessing you're fairly new to this... I haven't heard anything different from Bell since the NFS Shift days. Big promises, all the right words, and then unfinished products with glaring bugs often left unfixed. And off to the next game with the same promises...

It might be instructional to google some of Bell's interviews for Shift, PC1, PC2 and PC3. Be prepared for some serious deja vu.

I never tried 1 & 2 on PC but on Xbox it was fantastic.

 

[Fossilized]

I never tried 1 & 2 on PC but on Xbox it was fantastic.

There were some fundamental things that never got addressed in PC2. AI pace was very inconsistent. At the same setting, some tracks they were unbeatable, at other tracks they couldn't be made fast enough. Same with cars, some handled realistically, some were just pigs that no amount of tuning could ever tame.

Likewise online… taking hosts ability away to banish griefers meant you either had a stable field of players using locked rooms at specific times, or if you use the lobby system, you were vulnerable to little kids (of all ages!) Coming repeatedly into the room and crashing people out. The safety rating was a joke. Once you recruited enough safety points you could crash people out without consequence. And there were never enough players except during the heady Covid days that you could get a clean grid using an S1500 rating as a filter.

The puddle formation and aquaplaning were always very exaggerated. They were tracks that would develop basically swimming pools on the surface, but there was no provision for red flagging a race that everybody was crashing out on.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. PC2 was a flawed masterpiece. And sadly, I lay most of the flaws squarely at Ian Bell's feet. Too distracted with other projects to finish the one good one he had.

 

[Titzon Toast]

For anyone having ffb trouble using a DD wheel on a PS5, this fix works a treat.
My ffb kept cutting out randomly and I couldn't figure out why.

 

[evldave333]

Still waiting for a decent new driving game, so reset my save and started over on this game to get rid of the 1gb save bug I had embedded since my PS4 days (requires a start over to eradicate it). Initially I was irked by this, but given I can access all the vehicles (in vanilla form at least) really takes sting away, and well it's a good bit of fun. Really quite impressed with how the pro has smoothed out this game with PSSR and with 2.0 dropping very soon it may improve some more. Good times Brno in the wet is sublime.

 

[Titzon Toast]

Still waiting for a decent new driving game, so reset my save and started over on this game to get rid of the 1gb save bug I had embedded since my PS4 days (requires a start over to eradicate it). Initially I was irked by this, but given I can access all the vehicles (in vanilla form at least) really takes sting away, and well it's a good bit of fun. Really quite impressed with how the pro has smoothed out this game with PSSR and with 2.0 dropping very soon it may improve some more. Good times Brno in the wet is sublime.

I couldn't agree more, it didn't deserve the criticism it got.
I've been playing through the career mode recently and having an absolute blast with it tbh.
It's a criminally underated game.

 

[toastet]

The hate on the switch to arcade handling was insane for PC3. Especially with the total sales fail of PC2 which led to the decision. While PC1 was an unplanned hit with quick 1 million sales PC2 barely reached 200k sold copies and even with later massive sales at 5-10 bucks they didn't got that to 300k. A sim-handling PC3 would've failed 100 %. But they completely screwed it with bad communications of that switch and why and made the big mistake of then just putting it out as PC3 instead of Project Cars Arcade, Shift, Ignition, Full Throttle, or whatever...

 

[Beezer215]

The hate on the switch to arcade handling was insane for PC3. Especially with the total sales fail of PC2 which led to the decision. While PC1 was an unplanned hit with quick 1 million sales PC2 barely reached 200k sold copies and even with later massive sales at 5-10 bucks they didn't got that to 300k. A sim-handling PC3 would've failed 100 %. But they completely screwed it with bad communications of that switch and why and made the big mistake of then just putting it out as PC3 instead of Project Cars Arcade, Shift, Ignition, Full Throttle, or whatever...

Project Cars 2 sold over 700,000 copies on Steam alone. That's just one platform. One platform on PC. So there's other platforms you could have got PC2 from on PC alone. And then you'd have to add all consoles sales.

 

[MagpieRacer]

The hate on the switch to arcade handling was insane for PC3. Especially with the total sales fail of PC2 which led to the decision. While PC1 was an unplanned hit with quick 1 million sales PC2 barely reached 200k sold copies and even with later massive sales at 5-10 bucks they didn't got that to 300k. A sim-handling PC3 would've failed 100 %. But they completely screwed it with bad communications of that switch and why and made the big mistake of then just putting it out as PC3 instead of Project Cars Arcade, Shift, Ignition, Full Throttle, or whatever...

Difficult to quantify those initial sales figures for pCars 2 given it launched a week before Forza Motorsport 7 and a month before Gran Turismo Sport, over 100k sales in that first week is pretty impressive up against that competition.

The discourse was valid given what we had been promised in the build up, the communication can absolutely be blamed for a good portion of that but would different communication have changed the outcome? Probably not. Different name? Would almost certainly have helped but still ultimately wouldn't have changed the game, which is where the brunt of its issues lay. It could be fun occasionally and it had good car/track lists but it was so wildly inconsistent and incredibly shallow.

 

[evldave333]

In the current climate driving games of decent quality are hard to find, perhaps this game will never be fully appreciated. The tropes in the thread have become so entrenched that objectivity is genuinely hard to find. Compared to Forza 5 (really tried to like it) there is better driving here imo, I uninstalled Forza so I could swap in PC3 for faster loading times. This should tide me over until wreckfest 2 which seems the next best prospect for a new daily driver... FH japan looks very decent, but if it keeps the exact same dreary handling model it will be "complete and delete" again. Retro titles are precious... im so glad to have the resolution and stable frame rate buffs on games like Dirt rally that now are extinct franchises.

 

[Titzon Toast]

In the current climate driving games of decent quality are hard to find, perhaps this game will never be fully appreciated. The tropes in the thread have become so entrenched that objectivity is genuinely hard to find. Compared to Forza 5 (really tried to like it) there is better driving here imo, I uninstalled Forza so I could swap in PC3 for faster loading times. This should tide me over until wreckfest 2 which seems the next best prospect for a new daily driver... FH japan looks very decent, but if it keeps the exact same dreary handling model it will be "complete and delete" again. Retro titles are precious... im so glad to have the resolution and stable frame rate buffs on games like Dirt rally that now are extinct franchises.

I was a massive fan of the Forza franchise up to Forza 4.
Some of the races I had online for all those years were absolutely brilliant.
From what I remember, MS wouldn't allow my older Fanatec wheel to work on Forza 5 so I ended up jumping over the the PS4.

I've been playing Dirt 2.0 non-stop for the last few weeks after upgrading my wheel setup and I've been having absolute blast playing it.
It's aged extremely well.

 

[evldave333]

I've been playing Dirt 2.0 non-stop for the last few weeks after upgrading my wheel setup and I've been having absolute blast playing it.
It's aged extremely well.

The late added scottish stages are a real delight, I like how its substantially different the gameplay is compared to the other WRC titles.

Just having the best time on on PC3 setting up 1 vs 1 duals on legendary difficulty blasting round Sugo, can get some nice close battles with the right cars in the mix (thankfully I know all the cars quite well at this late stage). Who needs new games when there's such a rich history driving games to delve into!