Slightly Mad Studios Confirms New Project CARS Title is In Development

I'm tired of jumping between 5 games to get the best simulation experience.

If someone could just take Racerooms audio, rF2 tire model, Automobilsta FFB, and PC2 graphics it would be finished.

I'm in 4 different leagues in 3 sims it's exhausting keeping up with tunes, what works here doesn't work there ********.
We need a King simulation to end it.
 
Hearing Shift makes me nervous. I think the core of PC2 is fantastic as it is. Definitely my pick as best overall sim because of the decent car selection, decent track selection, fantastic visuals, excellent VR support, and it feels great to drive.

  1. What it needs is more cars (maybe some on the street end of things? Or just more cars from pre-2000s era racing) and more tracks. You can never have enough tracks.
  2. A custom championship thing for single player would be nice.
  3. And finally, most important for longevity, is a good online infrastructure and plan. This (and music and lighting) is where GT Sport has everything else beat. I really got into PC2 earlier this year and when I went online, it's nothing but GT3 series cars. It's so boooooring after a bit. Everyone just enters a race and bails. Every race is 3 laps. No one uses the amazing dynamic day/night cycle or weather. Etc etc. No one takes it seriously because there is nothing serious about it. It's way to much of a pain in the ass to go online and find some niche league that does Historical era stuff or whatever.

Once you get your license level up to the top in Sport, just about every race (which happen fairly frequently) can be a nail biter. At least, that was the case back with the old S/S tier races. Sounds like anything lower than that was sloppy drivers.
 
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Hearing Shift makes me nervous. I think the core of PC2 is fantastic as it is. Definitely my pick as best overall sim because of the decent car selection, decent track selection, fantastic visuals, excellent VR support, and it feels great to drive.

  1. What it needs is more cars (maybe some on the street end of things? Or just more cars from pre-2000s era racing) and more tracks. You can never have enough tracks.
  2. A custom championship thing for single player would be nice.
  3. And finally, most important for longevity, is a good online infrastructure and plan. This is where GT Sport has everything else beat (besides music and lighting). I really got into PC2 earlier this year and when I went online, it's nothing but GT3 series cars. It's so boooooring after a bit. Everyone just enters a race and bails. Every race is 3 laps. No one uses the amazing dynamic day/night cycle or weather. Etc etc. No one takes it seriously because there is nothing serious about it. It's way to much of a pain in the ass to go online and find some niche league that does Historical era stuff or whatever.

Once you get your license level up to the top in Sport, just about every race (which happen fairly frequently) can be a nail biter. At least, that was the case back with the old S/S tier races. Sounds like anything lower than that was sloppy drivers.

I agree, I think pc3 needs to improve on pc2 with a bit of icing on the cake (as you said more content, custom offline championships, and better matchmaking mp). Rather than completely refocus it as what Ian Bell's post makes it sound.
 
The racing genre - and especially the sim racing genre - is in desperate need of variety. If Project Cars 3 follows in the footsteps of pCars 2, then it is only encouraging the limitations of the genre from a creative outlook. iRacing isn't going anywhere. Assetto Corsa Competizione isn't going anywhere - and neither is pCars 2 for those who are fond of that experience.

If games like Forza Horizon 4 are anything to go by, is that both sim racers and casual racing players both crave new experiences. If Slightly Mad Studios embarks on this journey of using pCars 3 as a catalyst to bridge the gap left by the lack of creative originality in this genre, then they have my full support. As someone who has worked with Turn 10 Studios and Kunos by advising on their respective titles using my own experience as a professional driver, I am glad to hear that someone is carrying the mantle to new avenues - regardless if it's a creative decision or solely a financial one.

Happy New Year, @IanBell
 
I think if Pcars 2/3 could get dedicated online servers for console it will be all good.
One of the most frustrating issues for console users for the longest while has been the lack of dedicated online servers and by extension continued connect and disconnects etc. I think we can all agree on that.
 
I'd rather these sort of hints not be dropped so early in to production. People make their minds up on statements without seeing what, if at all, changes are actually made. Plus after the whole Intergalos thing, which got people all hyped for nothing, I'll just wait until we see gameplay before making any judgement.
 
At least they admit to the "balancing" issues. I just call it piss poor physics on most of the cars. But still "spiritual successor to shift" is the last thing I think most people wanted to hear.
I think Slightly Mad Studios should look at what Codemasters did with TOCA and use it to help them make a better game.


What? You say that is if Grid wasn't infinitely worse than TOCA in every way. Unless you mean Grid Autosport which was more like a real TOCA game.
 
I disagree with you there - Since Gran Turismo has moved its focus towards eSports and competitive online racing, I'd argue Forza Motorsport 7 is the only game of its kind in the market right now, more so on the platforms it is sold on. I would say Forza's identity is built on being an accessible racing and car collecting simulator.

If you were to put games like Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, RaceRoom Experience and GTR 3 together, I'd find it harder coming up with a unique identity for each of them than I would for Forza.

I can agree with you on the FM comment but for me personally, it's not what I want in a racing game. If I were on consoles I'd be playing GTS. A straight to the point racer. Grown tired of the FM grind. They do buncha things mediocre/good but nothing great. All personal taste and I'm sure others (and yourself) like those games, nothing wrong with that.

AC, iR, rF2, RaceRoom - sans GTR 3 until we know more - do have a unique identity. Each are racing simulators. They don't need fluff. I'm sure money is tight (maybe not in iR's department) in those studios but as long as they keep pumping out content and the devs are happy, all is good in my book. I think many just wanted a beefed-up pcars2 sim for pcars3. The base is there, fix the bugs, stabilize the online system, revamp career, driver swaps, custom championship, etc. Can't blame them but I'm sure the money is not there going that route.

*its entirely too early and with little info to speculate, praise, or whatever. but what the hell
 
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I can agree with you on the FM comment but for me personally, it's not what I want in a racing game. If I were on consoles I'd be playing GTS. A straight to the point racer. Grown tired of the FM grind. They do buncha things mediocre/good but nothing great. All personal taste and I'm sure others (and yourself) like those games, nothing wrong with that.

AC, iR, rF2, RaceRoom - sans GTR 3 until we know more - do have a unique identity. Each are racing simulators. They don't need fluff. I'm sure money is tight (maybe not in iR's department) in those studios but as long as they keep pumping out content and the devs are happy, all is good in my book. I think many just wanted a beefed-up pcars2 sim for pcars3. The base is there, fix the bugs, stabilize the online system, revamp career, driver swaps, custom championship, etc. Can't blame them but I'm sure the money is not there going that route.
You're welcome to dislike the "grind" of a traditional Forza/GT sort of game, but what identity is there in a racing simulator sandbox with no "fluff"? That's no identity, it's pretty much the minimum of what makes a racing sim a racing sim.

Straight to the point racing is something you can have in any racing game that actually has an identity -- you can have a "free race" mode with everything you want in a racing sim sandbox, all unlocked from the start, ready to go, online or by yourself. You can have that and an actual game to play, and both things benefit from being underpinned by a sophisticated simulator.

What has always been a problem is how rare that is. You're forced to choose between a typical no-fluff sim for realism and authenticity, or the gameplay, flavor, and breadth of a more mainstream title that is not particularly realistic or authentic. You can see that being taken for granted in this thread. The notion of making a game "fun" has people automatically assuming that this game won't be a proper simulator.

I'm tired of that unnecessary division. Some of us want an authentic simulator that also celebrates car culture like Forza, or lets you create your own fantasy team like a Codemasters game, or even gives you the freedom of the open road like Forza Horizon or The Crew. Something creative and compelling, but realistic all the same. That's the craving @TheCrazySwede referred to.
 
I can't remember how many times I wanted to bin Shift 2 due to the horrid handling model. Some great ideas, very poorly executed. I hope no future Project Cars game is ever anything like it in the handling department!
 
No it doesn't.
...

...as many others that were bakers for the first game said, and I just repeat it here, game is becoming more and more like NFS Shift... It was long time ago, and SMAD studios did nothing to prevent it. And now, they are finally realizing that they cannot compete with sim like games so they just admitted it...

BTW did like Shift games, those games filled gap when GT was on stand by :)
 
Any concerns about the limited number of cars and tracks could be solved by having an open modding structure like Assetto Corsa. I've no doubt at all that pCARS 2 would be far more popular than it is if modders were able to shift their attention to it and unleash their talent.
 
Have people had a few too many drinks for new year's eve or something? As if the mere mention of the Shift series has any implications for the physics simulation, which is now very obviously way ahead of Shift 2 Unleashed, with no justifiable reason to turn back.

PCARS2 is way, way more fun to play than S2U, thanks to its vastly improved physics accuracy and controller integration. Proper realism, especially accurate oversteer control, is fun -- at least, I've always thought so. To improve the fun factor means improving the gameplay design, not going backwards with the simulation engine. :rolleyes:
 
First I would love to know if the sales from PC2 were higher or lower them PC1.




The furious kids from project cars forum have arrived here, I see.



LOL. Just go to the bugs list in project cars forum. You'll have read material till the PC3 release date.


it's a pass for me.
Fool me once shame on you.
Fool me twice shame on me. (Unlimited edition (I believed in the guys))
Fool me three...

Unless the reviews are good. :P
Thing that didn't happen with PC1 and PC2.

They abandoned PC 1 and they have abandoned PC 2.
I trust the devs, I don't trust Ian in front of the development.

If they didn't listen to the people in PC2, and after a year of release they say they are working in PC3, why would they do it now? Why not fix the PC2 problems? They don't care?

It's going to be the same thing again.
People complaint about a lot of design problems and bugs that were never addressed and the attitude was always the "we don't care" attitude.

And we complaint a lot not because we are in some big conspiracy to shame SMS like some say in their forum, but because we as the ones who use the product the most, see the huge potential in this game going to the bin. It's frustrating.

And he is doing the same things he did in the previous iterations of the game.
Promising a lot and in the end... bugs and problems not being addressed.

That's the problem.

That would be OK if there were support for the game after, like you see in some other games that were released with problems. But no. And you see that in the updates coming only with the dlc with no change log and some bad excuse for that.

There are still ridiculous bugs since the release dates and some weird design choices that are still there.

People still get kicked to the menu wile in multiplayer game without warning cause they press x by mistake and boom! if you get out of a lobby, out to the main menu!
What's the point of this design choice? And the fix? A simple redirect! Fixed after one year? No.
The lobby info before you get in a lobby. In ps4, it seems it's hard coded! It does not show the real lobby info.
In multiplayer, in some tracks like Daytona, and some cars, if you have pit stop on and you change for the AI before, the AI will be ridiculous faster than all other people racing.
And if the game is going to be built in the same game engine... oh boy... more patches of code glued to that same old engine... I wonder how is the code maintenance at this point.
I guess it's close to none. Since almost no changes at all were made since the release.

Custom offline championship?
No. Can't.

Change weird design choice?
No. Can't.

Fix annoying bug?
No. Can't.

In the end, project cars 2 is a great driving game and a problematic meh racing game.
If they didn't care to try to fix PC 2 and have a amazing product, why would they care to make a good product in PC 3?

And they wouldn't had so much eat he the attitude to the gamers that complaint weren't so bad.

But I will buy if they pull the rabbit from the hat.

But I doubt it.

By the way, I got GTS very cheap a few months ago and it sucks. PC2 is way better.

By the way two. I finished career mode in PC2 and I still race online.


To me gts is Much better

Project cars 1 and 2 are so boring to me. To me if the focus more on the fun thing with working for cars, abilty to customize cars, XP level for career and working for cars, and still keep the great physics, this will be the best project cars yet, keep in mind that not as many are into sim racers, that dosent have car customization.
This will make the Sells most likely better by next pcars game
 
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Basically PCars 2 is very solid while it does have its issues. After having exclusively played PC2 in the last year, I did give GTS a go in the last 2 weeks. Of course there is no comparision in terms of simulation and most of the time with GTS I feel extremely aware that I am playing a game. In PC2 I feel much more that I am driving a car.
But, I think things like the sport mode and livery editor would make PC3 way more alive in a sense. It is great to run your personal livery, recreate your helmet or classic liveries.

So in general keep the simulation part as is and do the following adjustments
- Reduce the puddles during rain. It is sometimes frustrating that you basically have to race in red flag conditions when the lobby is set to light rain with normal weather progression.
- Improve base tunes. While setup work is important to get the best out of the car, the stock tunes are sometimes only very difficult to drive. They should be improved so no tune leagues and events would be more enjoyable
- Fix online connection issues
- Rework the lobby system (room names, searching and filtering)
- Open BoP for adjustments
- Fix the random online tire bug
- Improve the UI
- Rework the Skill rating system so that positions gained do have a positive impact and disconnects do not in such an extreme way.

Definitely add
- Livery editor pretty much as in GTS
- Sport Mode
- A more engaging career (that part felt great in Shift 2)
- Ability to mod
- Fun modes as the circuit experience or driving school from GTS (driving school could also be more professional in the sense of teaching how to get around the track quickly in different car classes)

I am on the fence as far as car availability goes. it is great to have every car available from the start but I also like to buy cars in some way (the GT grinding is ridiculous though). Don't quite remember how it was in Shift 2 but I don't seem to remember any grinding.
 
Thanks for reply Mr.Bell.

One last thing,. Does this mean...
...the tyre simulation level might be lesser in pc3 compared to that of pc2?, I mean the rest of your post before that final line doesn't lead to think that way. I want to think it means there will be the same or more content but focused on less car categories plus the removal of gravel racing (which is what most really want, because that increases the chances for a better online playtime), and all of that with at the very least the tyre complexity of pc2 combined with the livetrack engine, both still standing unrivalred to this point. However, that last line I might have find a little confusing.

Ok straight away. Given I understand that PC3 will have same or more content but focused on track racing and less categories, the does "more fun" mean that the tyre physics will be more simplistic?, or does"more fun" simply mean that we will have more content focused on the stuff we all want for project cars, in other words track racing only.

Happy new year everyone!

Absolutely not. It will be even more detailed. That's why I mentioned that we won't be losing any 'sim goodness'... Real cars aren't hard to drive.
 
Have people had a few too many drinks for new year's eve or something? As if the mere mention of the Shift series has any implications for the physics simulation, which is now very obviously way ahead of Shift 2 Unleashed, with no justifiable reason to turn back.

PCARS2 is way, way more fun to play than S2U, thanks to its vastly improved physics accuracy and controller integration. Proper realism, especially accurate oversteer control, is fun -- at least, I've always thought so. To improve the fun factor means improving the gameplay design, not going backwards with the simulation engine. :rolleyes:
Thank you! Finally some sensibility. Why would SMS abandon their greatest achievements? Physics and tire model are what make PCars 2 such a treat. Realism is what makes PCars 2 great. Simplified physics to make the game more arcade feeling, and grinding for credits to mod your cars? Come on, that's not in the PCars D.N.A. I have faith that the Shift experience is merely referring to a style of the game's design; Not a revamping of the quality physics that have been heavily invested in for a long period of time.

Some of the suggestions are just baffling. Like, just take everything that made the first two titles groundbreaking, and get rid of that - Uhh... How about no.

I'd still be happy with a polished version of PCars 2 with a little more content and improved online experience. Otherwise, I'm not looking for much more. There's so many features that are waisted in the online experience. When I race with friends we take full advantage of weather, time of day, seasons, car classes (vintage is AWESOME!).

I'm not going off the deep end over one snippet from @IanBell . That Shift reference could mean a hundred different things from a development standpoint. It'll be all good, just have faith.

Not to mention... I'm in no hurry for a new title. I still love the bejesus out of my PCars 2 game, and have a ton of combinations to try to keep me playing for a long time. I haven't once finished a night feeling like I'm bored with PCars 2. I'm always looking forward to getting back to it another night.
 
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Real cars aren't hard to drive.
Never did I say or even imply such thing. Only assetto corsa 1 knights live trapped under such delusion. That idea of sim= needs to be hard (the opposite to drive real cars) was born of hardcore masochism, and the tragedy of such despicable fad cannot be bred away.

That is why pc2 is such an important game to me, too. Because it bang'd its fists on the table once and for all in that regard.

Absolutely not. It will be even more detailed.
Thanks. You left me quite unsettled yesterday, let alone when you mentioned Shift. Perhaps I didn't get at all that the underlying meaning of that was just referring to "spiritual successor", which is then ok to me.
 
Never did I say or even imply such thing. Only assetto corsa 1 knights live trapped under such delusion. That idea of sim= needs to be hard (the opposite to drive real cars) was born of hardcore masochism, and the tragedy of such despicable fad cannot be bred away.

That is why pc2 is such an important game to me, too. Because it bang'd its fists on the table once and for all in that regard.

Thanks. You left me quite unsettled yesterday, let alone when you mentioned Shift. Perhaps I didn't get at all that the underlying meaning of that was just referring to "spiritual successor", which is then ok to me.

It's more 'Shift' in terms of us giving you less of a 'sandbox' and more of a fun game. Aside from that we plan to really go to town on sim goodness...
 
It's more 'Shift' in terms of us giving you less of a 'sandbox' and more of a fun game.


Does this include making the online experience more "fun", as in having more useable & sensible options to facilitate clean racing in user created lobbies?
 
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