Racing Sim Thread, Part II

[GB_Simo]

Eurogamer threaten to be blown away too for much of their review, before a brief diversion to discuss a bundle of bugs, some of which were present in the first PCARS:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... s-2-review

This is what concerns me. I do not know if some of the more persistent bugs and quirks in the first game remained an issue because SMS didn't wish to fix them or because they couldn't. I suspect it's a bit of both - I don't feel that you would leave in those crazy fast simulated AI qualifying times unless you had no alternative, for one thing - and that has me worried.

The reviewer seems less taken with the handling on a pad than IGN were as well, though describing it as "playable, at least" still makes it seem like a quantum leap forward.

[pk500]

Eurogamer threaten to be blown away too for much of their review, before a brief diversion to discuss a bundle of bugs, some of which were present in the first PCARS:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017- ... s-2-review

This is what concerns me. I do not know if some of the more persistent bugs and quirks in the first game remained an issue because SMS didn't wish to fix them or because they couldn't. I suspect it's a bit of both - I don't feel that you would leave in those crazy fast simulated AI qualifying times unless you had no alternative, for one thing - and that has me worried.

The reviewer seems less taken with the handling on a pad than IGN were as well, though describing it as "playable, at least" still makes it seem like a quantum leap forward.

Definitely a bargain bin buy for me. Too many good racing games released this fall, with the proven, quality franchises of Forza 7 and F1 2017, and the apparent surprise hit of WRC 7. Plus I'm eyeing NASCAR Heat 2 after a few needed patches, and I'm still enjoying the hell out of Ride 2, which I recently bought.

I don't want to support Slightly Mad Studios with my full money clip. It is the most arrogant development team I've seen in any genre of gaming. Studio head Ian Bell and his minions openly belittled anyone who pointed out any flaws in PCARS on the SMS forum and eventually banned anyone who spoke negatively of the game, even constructive criticism. I know: I was one of those banned.

I simply don't believe that Bell and his band of f*ckwads did that much to make this game console-friendly. So I'll wait until this game hits $30 or less.

[DChaps]

Project CARS 2 (PC) - Pretend Race Cars Review

https://pretendracecars.net/2017/09/18/ ... ct-cars-2/

Pretend Race Cars has an extremely extensive review of the highs and lows of Project Cars 2. Looks like they have also released their product without promised league functionality, making this the 3rd racing title of 2017 that heavily marketed improved league functionality, and then failed to deliver at launch, the other two being DiRT 4 and Forza 7. For someone who is on the Slightly Mad Studios payroll, this still seems to be a pretty far and unbiased review. Check out some highlights below, but read the full review.

.....Absolutely loaded with genuinely captivating content that eclipses what other sims offer – and then some – Project CARS 2 is easily the best smorgasbord simulator presently on the market, yet also demonstrates that maybe the current crop of developers are chasing a false lead by cramming as much as possible into one package......

......But now, we dive into the heavier stuff. For a couple of months, we’ve heard how Project CARS 2 would ship with full online league integration internally within the software – invalidating the need to monitor scores from each event on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and manage the championship externally on a private forum – with the game taking car of everything from scheduling to scoring to stat tracking. This is completely absent from the launch-day version of the game, and I’m extremely disappointed.......

......3,800 words later, what’s the verdict on Project CARS 2?

It’s a great league platform, a sort of alternate-reality rFactor 2 in which the physics are still firmly on the hardcore simulation side of things (aided by great default setups), yet the obscure car and track list of rFactor 2 that actively works against the title – marred by fake tracks and irrelevant vehicles – have been replaced by what’s basically an all-star cast of locations and race cars featuring appearances from all of the major players, and then some.....

......However, it also comes with some of the problems found in rFactor 2, and on a wider scale, problems that appear in basically every other racing simulator on the market today. The offline racing experience varies wildly depending on your vehicle of choice, and like rFactor, there are hiccups with the underlying AI simulation engine when you try to accelerate through a session. But at the same time, the phenomenon of cars in rFactor 2 being wildly out of sync with each other in terms of quality, doesn’t exist here – there are exponentially more hits compared to misses, and it’s definitely an upgrade compared to the other sims available.

Regardless of whether you plan on entering a league right away, or will be holding off until the built-in functionality is up and running, Project CARS 2 is the simulator a lot of people wanted – great handling, lots of marquee cars, lots of world-renowned tracks, and online lobbies that naturally lend themselves to league play – but at the same time it also demonstrates why the smorgasbord approach is getting a bit long in the tooth. When Project CARS 2 is firing on all cylinders, it’s objectively a great racing simulator, warranting the positive reviews received from the more mainstream outlets while making genuine improvements in several key areas that sim racers would be hard pressed to dismiss. When it stutters – figuratively, not literally – you understand it’s because the dev team just couldn’t possibly refine every last car on every last track, and maybe it’s time to collectively rethink where the genre is going.

[Rodster]

This one sentence from the Eurogamer review sums up Project Cars 2: "but know that on launch day Project Cars 2 is every bit as spotty as its predecessor.". The review did mention some problems from the first game were fixed while others were neglected.

[pk500]

This one sentence from the Eurogamer review sums up Project Cars 2: "but know that on launch day Project Cars 2 is every bit as spotty as its predecessor.". The review did mention some problems from the first game were fixed while others were neglected.

I wouldn't be surprised if that reviewer is found dead in an English ditch in the next week, killed by Ian Bell and his band of infallible minions at Slightly Mad. What a bunch of douchecanoes.

[pk500]

I'm all over the upcoming Isle of Man TT game, which releases in November for all platforms:

https://www.gtplanet.net/tt-isle-man-ri ... 7-release/

Developer interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD28g7OI_SY

[F308GTB]

Kunos released the Ferrari 70th Anniversary pack this week on the PC. I tell you, either the 330 P4 or the 312/67 with a VR headset is total freaking bliss. The 312, in particular, is a joy to drive with its sliding across the tarmac. Toss in the F2004 with its pre-KERS, DRS, etc nonsense and you have a raw, 3-liter, normally aspirated screamer.

[Rodster]

The Project Cars 2 forums on Steam appears to be locked down, you can’t post anything and the only thread directs you to their website. Maybe Ian was anticipating PK making an appearance.

[Rodster]

So I tried Nascar Heat 2 for the PC and all of the impressions have been pretty much spot on. This is the first Nascar game i've played where the AI treats you as part of the race instead of just racing among themselves. What glaringly stood out the most were the sh*tty graphics along with the sh*tty performance. It validates that were comments made that it looks like a PS3 or 360 game with upscaled resolution. Granted I have a 4 yr old rig but I expect it to run it much better that it did even with the graphics dialed down.

I compared the graphics of NH2 with Nascar 15 Victory Edition and it was no contest. A 3 year old game looks far better than NH2. I can ONLY imagine how this game looks on current consoles, yikes.

[TCrouch]

Turn off Antialiasing in the game, I think it was. If it doesn't say "FXAA", turn off AA itself. It immediately cleans the game up a lot where the PC at least looks like a decent older sim. Their AA method is sh*t.

[pk500]

The Project Cars 2 forums on Steam appears to be locked down, you can’t post anything and the only thread directs you to their website. Maybe Ian was anticipating PK making an appearance.

Ha. Haven't played the game yet. Waiting for a discount, as the player feedback about this game is schizophrenic as hell.

[pk500]

I compared the graphics of NH2 with Nascar 15 Victory Edition and it was no contest. A 3 year old game looks far better than NH2. I can ONLY imagine how this game looks on current consoles, yikes.

You can't expect anything more from a game built on the Unity graphics engine. It's a dated platform that was built for mobile games. But I bet it's cheap for developers to use because it's so prevalent and more than a decade old, although updates have been issued.

[GB_Simo]

The Project Cars 2 forums on Steam appears to be locked down, you can’t post anything and the only thread directs you to their website. Maybe Ian was anticipating PK making an appearance.

Ha. Haven't played the game yet. Waiting for a discount, as the player feedback about this game is schizophrenic as hell.

A couple of hours in with the XB1 version and if the feedback is schizophrenic, that's probably driven by the game being the same.

You may recall that I spent several pages of this forum trying, with eventual success, to explain that no matter how good the other formats might have felt, the XB1 pad controls in the first PCARS were broken at launch. The ones in PCARS 2 are not. Back at my old Donington test bed in the Ginetta GT3, I needed a couple of laps to figure out what I was doing and then won from pole. The steering deadzone might be a bit too wide from centre and I might feel happier if I tuned that, but the default is perfectly playable. My only other issue, that loss of rear grip on braking and turn in is not communicated, is a limitation of the controller rather than the game.

I was a bit surprised to drive away from the AI on the same difficulty settings I'd used on the first game, but didn't notice anything screwy behind me or in the race results. Filled with optimism, I moved the AI slider up a few notches and set up an IndyCar race at Road America, starting last so I could get a feel for the opposition. First, the good: they were fun to race. They jostled each other into turn one, got punchy with me at the first opportunity but gave me space where I needed it. That all seemed much better.

Then, at the Carousel, half the field drove off the road. Literally just drove off. Got halfway around the corner and gave up on steering. That seemed odd so I restarted the race and the same thing happened. And again. And again and again. In the end, I resolved to sit in last place of 20, only overtake cars that drove off the road or pitted for damage and see where I ended up. Shortly before the end of lap 2, crippled by aero damage sustained through hitting debris, I took the lead. On lap 3 I had the mother of them all when I exited the Kink and found the track blocked by damaged, confused opponents.

I would think that so many of them pitted because in the IndyCar, even minor aero damage makes you plough in the corners and costs you 20mph top speed. You can get that damage through minor contact or through hitting debris, which was easy to do not just because there was so much of it but because it wasn't always in view. Rather, it popped in a second before I got to it, by which point my course was already set. The XB1 is struggling a bit to run what SMS have given it, not just because of debris that draws in too late but because of the barrier textures on the Mulsanne that draw themselves in while you're driving towards them; the colours, textures and shading on the Le Mans grandstands that suddenly pop in when you get within 25 yards of them; the frame rate that fluctuates perceptibly on several tracks, just enough to affect gameplay; and the rear view mirrors in cockpit view that have a visibly lower refresh rate, show objects at trackside that suddenly vanish and appear almost pixellated.

The plan is to plug away for a while longer before I decide whether to persevere or trade this towards WRC 7 and jump back in after the inevitable patches. Early impressions are that this is brilliant when it works, catastrophic when it doesn't, much better out of the box than its predecessor but still not really finished.

I might have been unlucky, I might have tripped over a broken car/track combo almost immediately and I might never see another one. I might find 20 more. Time will tell. The technical wrinkles probably don't exist on XB1 X, or PS4, or a good PC. I can tell you only that they exist on my XB1. Make of all that what you will, gents.

[Rodster]

Turn off Antialiasing in the game, I think it was. If it doesn't say "FXAA", turn off AA itself. It immediately cleans the game up a lot where the PC at least looks like a decent older sim. Their AA method is sh*t.

Thanks that made a sizable difference but due to my aging rig it still struggles a bit with NH2, I had to dial down the settings but was able to compensate by using Nvidia’s AA/AF settings.

[pk500]

Thanks for the excellent, detailed feedback, Adam. I'm an XB1 gamer, so I'm glad I waited on this game.

[GB_Simo]

A week in with PCARS2 and when it's good, it's terrific.

I defy anyone to turn a few laps in a Ginetta Jr and not come away feeling happier than when they started. It's a beautiful little thing - well behaved, compliant, not powerful but still steerable on the throttle and enormous fun. I started my career in one and hustling it around Oulton, Knockhill and Donington was as entertaining as any virtual driving I've done for a long while. Even with a standard XB1 controller, I felt like I could really push on, with steering much improved from the first game and slides remaining progressive, predictable and catchable throughout.

At the second round of the championship, Knockhill gave me an introduction to varying weather conditions. The track started damp for qualifying and after a couple of warm-up laps, I was able to take provisional pole in persistent rain. Mindful of both the fast-forward qualifying bug and the bacon sandwich awaiting my attention, I spent a few minutes in the garage before going out again at the end of the session. Before leaving the garage, I noticed that the AI times had dropped off by several seconds in the few minutes since I'd parked up, something that made sense immediately upon leaving the pits and driving into a shipping lane. The track was saturated, there were puddles everywhere and the AI had backed off appropriately. This was terrific.

It became a bit less terrific during the race, when it dawned on me that while the AI might have backed off appropriately, the player didn't have to. You don't lose very much grip when it rains. You lose more when you drive through a puddle, wheels spinning as the car lurches sideways according to whichever front wheel caught the water first, but it's only ever brief and nothing you can't drive through. As a result, another thing you don't lose when it rains is the race, something I tested further at Monaco, or Azure Circuit if you'd rather, in a BMW 320 touring car. I started last of 18 runners, had the lead before the end of lap 2 in a 10 lap race and won it by nearly 100 seconds with AI strength at 95.

When I got to the race results screen, I was told I'd actually won by only 1.4 seconds and that as the last placed finisher was only 40 seconds down on me, the portion of the race I spent lapping half the field had in fact been an illusion. I didn't actually mind that, really - the cars were in the right order and the rest of it wasn't so important - but it seemed a bit daft all the same. I did mind when I discovered that at Silverstone Classic, the AI in every car class turns sharp left off the start and you end up with half the field barrelling down the grass for no good reason. One of those cars spun into the pit wall at the start of a one-make Ferrari 330 P4 race and took 4 laps to face the right way again. Start line behaviour is not wholly representative of the game's AI, which is generally much more predictable than last time out even if "predictable" means "attacks without caution, never defends, slow in all the same places it struggled with in the first game", but merits further exploration nevertheless. Shall we?

The AI is less inclined to take enormous short cuts off the start than it was in the first PCARS but is still only dimly aware of your presence and not all that bothered about veering across into the side of you in order to take up track position. It's also mightily cautious when picking a braking point for the first corner, which can liven things up considerably at tracks with tight-ish opening sections and relatively little track width - start a GT3 race at Zolder from the back and you'll see what I mean. Whether this is what SMS were aiming for is another thing but it's actually a decent enough representation of a race start, by and large, as long as you're minded to go steady yourself for the first few hundred yards with cold tyres and brakes. (It's also an interesting way to sidestep the issue of AI not being affected by cold tyres, which remains in place from the first game but only shows up in a race if the first few cars get a clean start and everyone else gets snared up.) At wider tracks, say Watkins Glen, there'll be space for you on the outside if you need it, but you'll have to switch the Race Director penalties off. Even if the only way to stay safe was to go outside track limits, you'll be busted and asked to hand back any places you made, often including places gained prior to leaving the track. The reasoning is sound enough and in hot lapping it generally works well, even if it's a bit harsh on certain corners where the racing line involves 4 wheels on the outside kerb, but it can be overly strict, is lacking in situational awareness and the penalties for transgressions, be they real or imagined, occasionally endanger the life of even the most mild-mannered Englishman's controller.

Having to give back a number of positions is still usually preferable to any kind of contact, since my earlier post re: IndyCars being hugely sensitive to minor aero damage applies to plenty of other cars too. The front of your car is much more susceptible to damage than the back, which might be a design choice intended to limit the impacts of being rear-ended by inattentive AI. Then again, it might not be. If you're driving a kart (and do you remember Ian Bell saying that the PCARS engine couldn't do karts properly but the PCARS2 one definitely could? Turns out that wasn't actually true), it gets worse, since the front of your vehicle is more susceptible to damage than sugar glass on a firing range. Hit a competitor's kart? That's an instant Severe Damage notification. Hit a plastic cone by the side of the track? That's an instant Severe Damage notification. Hit a kerb too hard? That's an instant etc. Drive onto the grass? It is. It really is.

XB1 performance issues remain too. You can't run an Indy 500 with a full field, for instance, which is a bit unfortunate for a game with an official IndyCar licence. More accurately, you can, but the game slows down. It doesn't judder, it doesn't perceptibly drop frames, it just goes slower. An example: I ran an LMP2 race at modern Silverstone with a 20 car grid. I spun at Vale, then spun again trying to recover from spinning, and posted an opening lap of 2:22. Not good. Running the same race with 31 cars, spinning at Vale again but just the once this time, my lap was a 2:41. Time runs as normal, it just takes you longer to get around. Indy is the same but more dramatically so. There are frame rate drops and noticeable juddering at Sonoma's final hairpin with 19 prototypes circulating, and at Silverstone National and Snetterton 200 with 12 Ginetta Jrs on track. Whether it's bad code or the console's bones starting to creak, I know not, and you can be sure that the One X version will fare better, but there are times when the console really and truly can't do what's being asked of it.

Other little niggles just feel like a lack of care. If you're unpausing the game or restarting a session, you have to do so with the merest tap of A. Anything longer than a quick, sharp tap is treated as multiple button presses, which in my case means either shifting up an unwanted gear during a race or shifting into a gear before the start and instantly jumping it. The start sequence is still identical every race, with the absence of randomised timing meaning you can game the lights for the perfect start every time. How did I end up on a row by myself for the start of the Indy 500, how did the car to my inside just magically advance forward a row and where did the car that had previously been inside row 10 disappear to?

How did the same people responsible for those curiosities also provide me with the tools to drive the single most satisfying lap of my console racing life? Pole at Donington National in the little Ginetta, on the edge of adhesion but always in control and with not an ounce of spare fat left anywhere on the track. I drove a few laps at Historic Spa in a Lotus 49C the other day too and came away feeling a bit giddy. It's possible to spend embarrassing amounts of time just looking at the liveries of the Porsche 962s, not just the works Porsche ones but Kramer and Joest machines too, while the Lamborghini Super Trofeo is so enjoyable to drive that I spent an hour just hot lapping the Indy road course, a place I've never liked in any iteration but especially detest in its current format. That's an interesting car to drive, in large part because it's built for gentleman racers and so while it's indecently rapid, it's forever preventing you from making a tit of yourself. You end up driving it with more yaw and bigger slip angles than you'd expect, not all that far removed from how you'd drive in NFS Shift 2, not just because it'll let you but because sliding through that silly little chicane on the back straight is massive, massive fun. The only way to drop it, really, is to get your brake release wrong, how you come off the middle pedal being both vital to success in this game and very easy to cock up.

It doesn't work often enough, is the honest truth of it. There are too many things about it that are a bit screwy, too many of those carried over from the first game, to allow for any kind of recommendation. On a base XB1, the technical limitations are also too evident, too often, and I couldn't with clear conscience nudge anyone towards purchasing this until a couple of updates from now, or a sale, or both. There is, though, an enormous amount of potential, more evident here than in the original, leaving a sense that SMS are a couple of patches away from delivering not only the most comprehensive compendium of cars in gaming, but the best representation of them too. All of this without discussing the rallycross (I'm useless - can't drive them round a corner), or the Indy roadster (not tried it), or the IMSA Audi 90 (ditto), or the XJR9, or...

[pk500]

Once again, brilliant, detailed impressions, mate. Thanks.

I already had resigned myself to waiting for a sale and a few needed patches for PCARS2. Your superb feedback only reinforces that decision.

[FifaInspected]

Pulled down the GT Sport demo yesterday.. Wow, what a gorgeous looking racer. DId a GT3 quick race and think I watched the replay 4 times. Gonna suffer from graphical whiplash going back to Pcars 2 later today.

[GB_Simo]

Project Cars 2 demo now available on the format of your choice, folks. 4.7GB or thereabouts, featuring a handful of cars at the Red Bull Ring, according to the description.

Interestingly, the demo is not representative of the current retail version. Rather, it showcases tweaks and fixes due to be introduced in an upcoming patch. Should be worth a look, fellas.

[pk500]

Project Cars 2 demo now available on the format of your choice, folks. 4.7GB or thereabouts, featuring a handful of cars at the Red Bull Ring, according to the description.

Interestingly, the demo is not representative of the current retail version. Rather, it showcases tweaks and fixes due to be introduced in an upcoming patch. Should be worth a look, fellas.

Tried the demo a few days before I received a free full retail copy of PC2 Friday from work.

Let's hope the tweaks and fixes in the demo become available through a patch soon. The demo felt very nice even without controller adjustments, which are needed but not as essential as with the first game on XB1. The retail game without the new patch feels really dumbed down compared to the first game, even with assists turned to authentic, which I prefer. It's easier to drive than Forza 7, which stunned me.

For a company that acts like it doesn't give a toss about its customers, Simply Mad appears to have heeded complaints from players of PC 1. The game is easier to play. The game is better out of the box with a controller. But I fear the pendulum of accessibility may have swung too far in the easy direction.

Let's hope the patch fixes that -- and comes soon! PC2 has so much unfulfilled promise and potential, much like the first game.

[Rodster]

Project Cars 2 demo now available on the format of your choice, folks. 4.7GB or thereabouts, featuring a handful of cars at the Red Bull Ring, according to the description.

Interestingly, the demo is not representative of the current retail version. Rather, it showcases tweaks and fixes due to be introduced in an upcoming patch. Should be worth a look, fellas.

Tried the demo a few days before I received a free full retail copy of PC2 Friday from work.

Let's hope the tweaks and fixes in the demo become available through a patch soon. The demo felt very nice even without controller adjustments, which are needed but not as essential as with the first game on XB1. The retail game without the new patch feels really dumbed down compared to the first game, even with assists turned to authentic, which I prefer. It's easier to drive than Forza 7, which stunned me.

For a company that acts like it doesn't give a toss about its customers, Simply Mad appears to have heeded complaints from players of PC 1. The game is easier to play. The game is better out of the box with a controller. But I fear the pendulum of accessibility may have swung too far in the easy direction.

Let's hope the patch fixes that -- and comes soon! PC2 has so much unfulfilled promise and potential, much like the first game.

I got my refund from Steam and people are still bitching on Steam that the PC2 forums are on lockdown and what's making the native's restless is the fact that a demo was released but Patch 2.0 hasn't.

[pk500]

Anyone who has followed the history of Slightly Mad Studios shouldn't be one bit surprised that its forums are on lockdown. SMS may be the thinnest-skinned development house in global gaming.

SMS studio head Ian Bell has balls the size of BBs. He's a gutless prat swaddled in the clothes of a child.

[pk500]

I've been undergoing the tedious, but necessary, work of finding good Xbox controller settings for Project Cars 2. PC2 features much better control out of the box with a controller than the first game, but it's still not right.

Here's the best I've found so far of about 15 settings I've tested with the same car and track. The only variable is my degree of intoxication.

Steering Deadzone - 0
Steering Sensitivity - 25
Throttle Deadzone - 0
Throttle Sensitivity - 10
Brake Deadzone - 0
Brake Sensitivity - 25
Clutch Deadzone - 5
Clutch Sensitivity - 25
Speed Sensitivity - 100
Damper Saturation - 90
Controller Damping - 35
Controller Vibration - 90

YMMV. Will update as I try more, if needed. But I really like the above settings. Fast, predictable and stable.

[GB_Simo]

Tried the demo a few days before I received a free full retail copy of PC2 Friday from work.

Let's hope the tweaks and fixes in the demo become available through a patch soon. The demo felt very nice even without controller adjustments, which are needed but not as essential as with the first game on XB1. The retail game without the new patch feels really dumbed down compared to the first game, even with assists turned to authentic, which I prefer. It's easier to drive than Forza 7, which stunned me.

For a company that acts like it doesn't give a toss about its customers, Simply Mad appears to have heeded complaints from players of PC 1. The game is easier to play. The game is better out of the box with a controller. But I fear the pendulum of accessibility may have swung too far in the easy direction.

Let's hope the patch fixes that -- and comes soon! PC2 has so much unfulfilled promise and potential, much like the first game.

I get exactly where you're coming from and recall that a few cars - the Ferrari 330 P4 is one that jumps out at me for starters - were much, much easier to hang on to than I expected, but all the same, let me play Devil's advocate for a minute or two...

There are a number of cars in the game that are designed to please two sets of folk in real life: the professional racing driver, and the 45 year old Russian businessman who wouldn't mind a crack at this motor racing lark. I do have someone in mind, as it happens, and even if you flatly disagree with where I'm heading here, your day will be brightened by watching this, which I'll post as a link because the bugger won't embed without giving me a "This video is unavailable" message:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4HSpx3aBq8

That's the kind of car that can't be made too tricky to handle, on grounds that it'll likely do great harm to its occupant if it is. Even my boy Vadim Kogay, who started that clip in way over his head and ended it with nothing but a blurry, far-distant smudge where his personal limit should have been, spent most of that clip understeering relatively safely into the scenery rather than oversteering uncontrollably there; the hallmark of a car that's been designed and set up with the likely skill level of its driver in mind.

I find the Formula Renault 3.5 in the PC2 demo a more taxing drive than that, though. That's been set up very safely too (I think the in-game menu refers to it as a Casual Setup or something like that, from memory) but I can carry too much brake in to a corner, get my brake release wrong or gas it up too aggressively, giving me a variety of ways in which to screw myself over. I took the lead of an FR3.5 race in the demo with what looked like a demon bit of braking into the downhill turn 3 at Red Bull Ring, perfect in every way except for my facing the wrong way by the end of it.

Before I offloaded the retail version, I couldn't go 200 yards in a Zakspeed Capri without crashing, which I thought was a poor effort until I tried the Jaguar XJR9 and couldn't go 20 yards without binning that. I didn't dare even look at the Sauber C9 for fear of lowering that benchmark still further. Are we looking at a game that's too easy to drive, then, or one that reflects how the act of driving a racing car is not in itself a difficult one, but that the act of driving it somewhere near its limits is the tricky bit?

[F308GTB]

I get exactly where you're coming from and recall that a few cars - the Ferrari 330 P4 is one that jumps out at me for starters - were much, much easier to hang on to than I expected, but all the same, let me play Devil's advocate for a minute or two...

Can't speak for PC2 as I am deliberately avoiding it at its current price level and my PC1 experience, but the 330 P4 in Assetto Corsa is an absolute thrill to drive. It takes all my concentration and more to be light on the brakes on entry and to feather the throttle on exit to avoid upsetting the balance or major oversteer. It's not like the implementation in the game is designed to be deliberately difficult, as in reality you know what upsets the car balance. The thril is definitely trying to drive it at limit with those constraints.