Got to spend some time with it tonight, finally. Just short quick thoughts. Grievances, it does feel a bit like an Early Access game, which is not a bad thing, but it's obvious the game needed a little more time in the oven (I don't think a year, but maybe 3-6 months?), esp. compared to their former titles. I'm a bit surprised for a game that really lets you deep dive into the car itself, camera & weekend options seem to be little lackluster; are we unable to pick time/weather outside the Race itself? Surprised there's no helmet cam, but the ability to pinpoint your cockpit camera is a nice touch, although it's a very small nitpick that I seem to have to do it for every car I get in. AI wise, I'm not sure what to make of it. I left it on default, and only did Sebring & Daytona for an hour or so. Maybe it's just Daytona, but running LMP/GT/N-GT, the LMPs seem to have trouble navigating the slower classes on the banking and just sit behind them until they slowly move left or right & then punch it. I didn't really run into AI myself to test their awareness around me, but running the R8 means I'm already faster than most of the field & the other LMPs I came across were getting backed up allowing for easy passing. Maybe that's a difficulty thing next time around that I need to crank up.
Graphically, I think is the thing that sticks out the most to me. The game automatically has me running everything on High/Very High with little FPS drops, but it looks washed out coming off PCars 2. Trackside detail also seems slightly lackluster, but it's forgivable since it's not a focal point. Car detail looks really nice, sounds are great to my ears, it's just everything looks like it lacks... polish, making the game look a little dated. It suffers from an issue Forza had at launch where this game looks much better when you're not in a middle-of-the-day, clear skies setting.
Car list is great & diverse, kind of surprised I didn't know the track list feels a bit small. It's also diverse, just a bit surpised to not see tracks like Laguna, Brands Hatch, or even the Suzuka knock-off return. Not a ding though, as these can always come back.
Physics wise, I do enjoy it. I really like bringing the car up to temp & feel it slowly build tire grip and speed. I can approach it the way I did PCars 2, but it is more fun to drive the car up to operating speed. The only complaint I have here is I'm on a controller, so I'm missing out on a lot of feedback to get the best experience, but the game is still very playable off a wheel.
I did spend a lot of the time in the R8 LMP at Daytona which is a race scenario I've done a lot on PCars 2 to get the most personal comparison & how I feel about the game. It's not as fun as PCars 2, but I can feel the potential to be is there. It's not the car or physics, it's everything else that's coming up short of delivering the same experience. AI tweaks, optimization, new settings are easily updateable in this day & age, so I'm not going to abandon the game. I'll likely prefer loading up PCars 2 when I need a sim fix, but I'm going to give this game months to get better, too.
