Totally Mad!!!. Review on Project CARS

Project CARS was released recently and I have been playing it as soon as my friend bought it. And I have not stopped playing since. The difference between old arcade street racing games and the newer, more modern simulation games has been shrinking over the past few years. But nothing completely merges the two together more than Project CARS does. The graphics in CARS is even better than the real world.

The developers at Slightly Mad Studios has worked for days and nights at end to bring us this beautifully crafted masterpiece.

Unlike other racing games, you don’t have to unlock anything or accumulate XP and money to buy new engine upgrades and so on. You can do whatever you want. You can start the game and go straight to the highest tier and race with the fastest cars challenging the most difficult of rivals. The game is set across four modes. Career Mode, Driver Network, Solo Race Mode and Online Mode. The Solo and Online Modes lets you decide which track you want to drive in, which class of cars, weather conditions etc. Career mode makes you a real life racing driver. Signing contracts, acquiring new sponsorships, moving tier to tier and so on. The final mode lets you and other multiple users drive on the same track, setting the best lap times and most importantly winning.

Being a racing game, the main priority is not tracks. It is the vehicles you use to conquer those tracks. Project CARS has a wide variety of cars such as retro cars, normal road cars, karts, a truckload of supercars, GT cars, Le Mans prototypes and modern F1 cars. Cars ranging from a normal Mitsubishi Lance EVO to a Pagani Huayra means that you’re never bored. All those exotic cars but no modes for customization means that you can’t bring out the true 9-year-old in you. Also there are no Ferraris or Lamborghinis in this game. That came as huge blow to me as I love Lambos.

The racing and gameplay of the game feels good. At first when I started playing this game I usually came last or close to it. I wondered how the other drivers in Driver Network mode had these incredible times but I had such measly ones. Then I realized I was acting like a caveman- pressing the up arrow key and just flooring the car without following the precise racing lines and all those complications. So then I started spending more time in the practice mode. Getting to know every turn in a track, paying importance to the small weather report on the corner of the screen and then I started improving. I began to climb from last place to 4th to 2nd and finally to 1st.

The game is easy yet demanding at the same time. The look, sound and feel of the game is just right. The visuals are stunning and the action is fast-paced and exhilarating. All in all a great racing simulation for racing and car fans.