Project CARS 3 Critique: What's In A Name?
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- Project CARS 3 bears the mark of something it was never supposed to be. From legacy to development, marketing and release, this is Project CARS 3's reality.
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Chapters:
0:00 - On that sentence...
2:04 - Anyways, Project Cars 3.
3:47 - Development
9:13 - Release and Reception
10:42 - The Good
17:14 - Progression & Roadblocks
22:32 - Caldwell Parking Lot
25:23 - Directionless Velocity
Music in order of appearance:
Fallout 4 OST - Of the People, For the People
Auto Modellista OST - Garage Life
Project Cars 3 OST - These tracks are hard to name but its one of the ambient menu tracks.
1080 Snowboarding OST - Lost
1080 Snowboarding OST - Review
Breath of Fire IV OST - Men of War
Rave Racer OST - Tropaz Blue
R Racing Evolution OST - Liquid Soul
Project Cars 2 OST - Long Road
Shift 2 OST - Levitate (Gladiator Mix)
Sports Car GT OST - BGM 3
Test Drive 6 OST - BGM 07
Juiced Eliminator OST - Track 07
Juiced Eliminator OST - Track 15
Auto Modellista OST - In The Light
Shift 2 OST - Help Is On The Way (Gladiator Mix)
Project Cars 3 OST - Broken Wing
Some Shift 2 footage courtesy of SHDWSKII: • ATTENTION TO DETAIL / ... - Hry
Long ago i "founded" project cars to have access to the alpha on the SMS site, 10 euros, then after years and having almost forgotten about the game, the studio contacted me by email and gave me 60 euro for my "investment".
The game is what it is, but i never saw a studio give you returns for helping them financially, in fact i cant think of a single one that would do that. But it was project cars the first, i bet they wouldnt do it now.
Problem is they got into some legal issues and investigation from the Financial Services Authority of the UK. As a result they had to stop accepting new investors and offer everyone a refund, if they wanted. The problem was not the investment (see Kickstarter or other Crowd-Fundings these days), but the promised ROI.
I "invested" in the first game and they gave me €389.90 for my investment :S.
PC3 is PC's NFSMW 2012 moment. A game that would have been alright on its own, but had a name that ruined the experience and raised the expectations too high.
Thanks for spreading the love for NFS Shift 2. Loved that game, spent countless hours modifying cars
aaaaand now Slightly Mad Studios is dead.
Most wanted 2012 was a fantastic game, loved every part of it, even tho it had no story and no customization, i loved it's graphics and physics, cars felt heavy, music was awesome, car sounds were incredible.
Yes, the only thing that makes the argument "it is a great game on its own" valid is the visible loss of identity of the NFS franchise, but with every other franchise that's more stable in terms of identity and quality, such a change isn't the best thing to do. That's why i don't think Grid Legends is worth the money
I have never played any of the previous PCR games, only reason i purchased was because it was the latest game, and I have to say I'm enjoying it, But GT7 is still king.
Saying about the identity I would push it even further. Project Cars 1 and 2 had much more identity. Portraying motor racing as something epic but in a realistic way. From intro to menu music, carrer and background sound when you're on the track. PC3 lacks it all. It's a betrayal for sim fans while being too dull for casual players.
A CZcamsr by the name of Whitelight once said: With the terrible release of pCARS 3, SMS did not only betray their fans but also themselves and pCARS as a series in a whole
@@restautama what video did he say that in?
@@Kaceydotme In the Driveclub review, I think
The development tale behind both this game and F&F Crossroads sounds perfect for one of those dev retrospective series, like Wha Happun or something
Raycevick is starting to become more and more popular. Didn't expect him to show online on a Kacey video.
ngl Kacey feels more underrated
Her Kaceys a girl
@@thecynicallizardgarlock4121 'him' referring to Raycevick
@@varyagace oh ok didn’t see that
It's the other way around, Kacey is much more underrated.
21:37 yo, a Fiesta V8 Supercar sounds dope as hell tho, I could see that being a racing series
I know they had some of the staff from DriveClub, but I don’t know how they managed to mess things up so badly when it seems like they had everything going for them. Two successful games, new staff from an acclaimed project, good will from the community, but they threw it all away, and for what? Maybe a few thousand more shipped copies? It just doesn’t make sense to me. They probably would’ve sold those copies anyway if they had just changed a few things and kept evolving the series instead of making another Shift game. I haven’t played any of these games yet, partially because both of my PS4 controllers are messed up, and partially because I don’t think I’ve seen them at my local GameStop in a little while, but I’m gonna do it eventually.
You can thank corporate for all that. The developers don’t have any say sadly.
love ya work kace
Project Cars, taken as a whole with the franchise, just breaks my heart with where it's ended up. I'm not the most adapt at sims, but this series really got my feet wet in that regard. Not the most polished or elegant but just gave me that sense of proper racing. I didn't quite like the first game. A bit janky and lacking in areas, chief among which was the absence of the big three manufacturers.
Project Cars 2 was essentially my dream game. Taking everything the first game built and just added more. It wasn't the amount of cars and tracks they added that hooked me. It was the breadth, the variety, the absolute creative freedom to race what I want, where I wanted, against what I wanted. Pit classic Group C cars against modern day touring cars, I could do that. Race in the driving snow at Nordschleife in a Formula One car, I could do that too. Host classic touring cars for a 24 hour race at Spa, I could do that too. But like everything else with every racing game I've played, it left me wanting more. I wanted more cars, more tracks, more creative freedom, MORE!
Still, it's an all time favourite for me and I defend it until the day I die. Beside, no other racing game, even the much revered iRacing, has such a high level of crash damage than PC2. Same goes for NFS: Shift 1 and 2. I will still defend those games to the hilt. Not the most fondly remembered in the racing world, but I had so much fun in those games because they were so different. Mind you, the way those games were marketed was always odd to me. Sometimes they were marketed like you were playing the X Games equivalent of racing games, other times it was marketed like you were playing an automotive horror game.
There's definitely evidence to support the horror aspect in both of those games. The way the cars try to snap oversteer at every curve, the almost exaggerated snarling animal like noises of each vehicle, the way the camera turns black and white with every collision, the way the player driver reacts after every crash, the distorted almost chaotic music soundtrack. It's all there. Except the games also tries to present you with this Monster Energy X Games atmosphere which doesn't quite mesh well. It can't be one way or the other. Which is a shame because I want see more racing games take on a more horror aspect. No, not adding monsters or anything but ramping up the sense of terror with every aspect. Make the driver feel terrified that the next corner could be their last.
Now, as for PC3... it feels like a betrayal of everything the series set out to be. If it wasn't named Project Cars 3, it would have been fine. But that's not what we got, now is it?
As an intermediate sim racer myself, I LOVE playing this game on my Steam Deck. I'd never play this on my wheel rig, but for portable its just so good for that. An awesome time killer in between waiting
I imagine that would be a decent place to play it actually
As someone who also has ADHD, I want to thank you for properly putting into words why I feel like I can't race in some games without a racing line assist. I've always felt like I'm not a "real" sim racer when I use the line, but like you said, it's so easy to suddenly unfocus and I just can't be consistent without the line. Also, as a bit of a side note, the MotoGP games actually have a similar "point to point" racing line assist like Project Cars 3, and I'm happy to see a car game implement a similar feature (even if it is PC3).
Even I use the racing line, but only for breaking lines really. But I do like the track guide the MotoGP games have, and I wish more games did that.
I like to use the braking lines too, so I really appreciated Kacey's comment on it. 💖
i've played GRID 1 and 2. i never use lines, but i don't think anyone would've put it there for no reason. GT7 and other sim titles has it, for the sake of helping you go faster as a beginner and it's the best way to implement it other than big giant text screen.
also, nice pfp.
Yeah I result to muscle memory wayyyyyyyy too fast due to how my brain works, I inevitability brake too late or crash the second I need to play defense 😭😭😭
I also get very distracted and will forget what board to brake on, this is the actual reason I've done no races at Paul Ricard, I can't process ir memorize any track with no natural landmarks
me crashing into the tyre barrier 8 hours into a 24h race on rf2 because i zoned out and forgot i was driving
the team was not happy lmao
I actually really enjoyed Project Cars 3. My main complaint (and the reason I stopped playing) was the God awful grindy leveling & money earning system. You'd do a 20 minute epic race and get like 500 EXP points and no cash payout.
One of the better reviews I've seen of the game. I really enjoyed PC3 and you adressed all the nuances that went over other reviewers heads. You broke that complex issue down and allowed people to understand it. Love this video.
Got 300+ hours on it, and I spent most of them in the single player custom event mode. I never felt issues in progression, because I just got considerable amounts of money from my custom events.
I finished a lot of events in the career mode, but mostly saw them as a challenge, especially the time trials I found very difficult and pushed my limits, and also the most fun. Didn't consider them as a main way of progression. Best part of the game, was the online lobbies and custom events, where you could just pick a car and a track and go. So I just played that. Duh..
Bottom line, I played a lot of racing games, from Need for Speed III in 1998 to Forza Horizon 5, and PC3 is among the games that gave me the most adrenaline and excitement while playing.
It's got great sense of speed, compared to Forza games for instances, and racing actually feels dangerous with those speeds.
After a while I also removed the XP notifications on screen, adjusted the UI to what I liked and just went racing. The money poured in without me really noticing. As you can tell, I didn't feel like progression was a barrier or issue for me. Maybe we just had different approaches.
You can tweak almost every setting in that game (at least on PC), so I ended up with what I liked. All my friends with skills who came over to my place enjoyed it. It's accessible, yet has a high skill ceiling and it's very addictive.
One of the better racing games I've played in the last 7 years.
People that expect career mode to hold your hand from A to Z bought the wrong game, it's a place a place you visit from time to time to give you a challenge, but custom events it's where it's at. Also, I think you might have f'd up by being impatient and selling cars, you must have lost a lot of money doing that. Blocking you in the early stages.
Bottom line, for me it was a perfect mix and between arcade and simulation. A very faithful, developed and precise handling model inherited from the previous titles, combined with a more arcade approach, that hit my gamer G-spot. The emotional thrill and feel it delivered for me was unparalleled, and is still something I miss when I play AAA titles.
PS: Also, I ditched the game music after a while and moved to my racing playlist. Simply Red remixes, ZZ-Top, Jamiroquai, Rod Stewart, Ted Nugent, more rock'n'roll and Elctro just amplified the fun.
As an avid PC3 racer I recognised much and agreed with the lot. Except your bad taste of music 😄. The menu OST actually is pretty sophisticated, moody and refined. The in-race music I don't know, never race with music.
@@gerardvreeswijk840 pfff 😂😂😂 bad taste in music, tell me what you listen to so I can be judgemental as well 😉😆
@@007Spadge Thanks for asking 😁. Ow like I said the OST of the game, much but not all composed by Stephen Baysted, who also composed the soundtrack of NFS Shift 2 Unleashed---which I remember was a moody soundtrack very much fitting the game. My musical preferences? These go from Kurt Vile to Liszt to Palestrina and back. No red thread I'm afraid.
@@gerardvreeswijk840
PC3 three soundtrack ain't bad, just getting repetitive.
I was looking forward to diss the groups you listen too, fortunately for you they're irrelevant, so I've never heard of them 😆
Stay classy lads 😂
As someone who was a crowdfunding backer and supporter of the first two Project CARS games, the 3rd one really feels like a slap in the face. I mean, I wouldn´t say that PC3 is a terrible game, it´s just painfully obvious that they wanted to make a Shift 3, but without EA they couldn´t call it that.
I get they they didn´t want to create a new IP for it, but by making it a numbered entry into a franchise that was somewhat struggling with it´s intended audience anyway, they alienated everyone. They really should have made it a obvious Spin-Off by giving it a name like "Project CARS: Shift Legends" or something like it. Alternatively, because Slightly Mad was already owned by Codemasters at the time they easily could have called it "Grid Autosport 2", that IMO would have pushed expectations more into the right direction.
Stay tuned, you'll see what happened.
I agree 100%. It didn't even feel like a Shift game. The Shift games especially the second were very gritty and rough and highlighted the danger and aggressiveness of motorsport. PC3 had none of that.
If it had a different name to PC3 and was advertised as a spin off I actually would have bought it to support SMS. I have nearly 600 hours PCARS 2 and it was my first proper introduction to sim racing
@@vtec5862 the sense of speed, the weight of the cars and the movement of the camera views really gave shift its own personality that most racers nowadays fails to replicate
@@Kaceydotme >inb4 it's Bamco or Ian Bell fault
@@krisradowski I mean Imagine making a F&F game that has nothing to do with what would be a game that targeted to beat what NFS we're doing for the next 6 years, and it also has a voice acting quality that makes Garzey's Wing dub and Chuunibyou dub sounded like Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Black Lagoon, and Haruhi Suzumiya by comparison despite having celebrities like Vin Diesel & the family on the board
I'd seriously wanted to question this Ian Bell character's mental state of having an audacity to call that f'er "NFS Killer"
As much as I’m growing more and more capable of not using any racing line with every sim I play, I can understand leaving it on.
-More casual play, not have to glare about for landmarks every corner…
-In the case of Forza Horizon, you’re taking many different corners at a variety of different angles in hundreds of different cars that can be tuned to feel a hundred different ways.
-F1 games will always feel like if you miss your braking point by 2 frames, you’ve missed it by 2 whole seconds, and shall now lose 2 months of time to those in front and behind you, “git gud”.
Every couple of months I go back to play PC3 hoping it's what I wished it to be. As someone who almost exclusively plays singleplayer; it's just too painful of a grind to justify.
It's a weird situation where I feel like I'm punished for enjoying the game; and forced to do chores to continue playing. It just felt wrong, despite the driving on it's own feeling fun enough.
The campaign progression is my biggest issue with this game too!
I loved Project Cars 2, played at lot of it with a wheel, but unfortunately I don't own a wheel anymore, so I resort to playing more arcade racing games.
Project Cars 3 has great graphics, good sound effects and a huge amount of content, but the campaign progression is so awful that made me quit the game. When I play a racing game, I want to be collecting new and cool cars to drive, not being limited by which cars I'll be able to use for the next events, having to sell my old ones to afford a specific car for specific events.
It's a shame, really.
I always wonder how this game would've fared with a different name and marketing approach that fitted the title. I don't think it would have fared well but I think it would've been received a lot better and maybe would have lasted longer in the community.
You channel keeps reminding me of racing games I played during my childhood that I have forgotten about. The amount of Nostalgia that keeps coming back.
When Project Cars tried to be a new Grid.
This game also inadvertently shows one of the reasons as to why Forza Horizon has been a success....
The Name.
Could you imagine what would've happened if Forza Horizon 1 was instead called Forza Motorsport 5? The game already got some backlash back in 2012 from being too different from what previous Forza games had been; backlash that pretty much disappeared after FM5 proper released in 2013 and completely went away with the release of FH2 and is now fondly remembered, if a bit underrated, just like the original Forza Motorsport given it's the only one in its console (FH2 for the 360 doesn't exist, that's a myth y'hear me?!?!).
If a game like Forza Horizon already got some backlash in 2012 from being too different from the Motorsport titles until it was clearly established that it was its own independent thing that just so happened to also be called Forza, a game that's so much different from its predecessors like PC3 is, yet its still called like that, was bound to be controversial.
A bit of an unrelated sidenote. Forza Horizon 1 was to me like what Project Gotham Racing 5 was supposed to be, and I still think, that in some strange way, the Horizon titles are what the PGR games could've evolved into.
1. That was to me the biggest problem with PC3, it wasn’t a Project CARS game, so Revolution could’ve made sense.
2. I actually like the idea that the Forza Horizon series are the spiritual successors to the Project Gotham Racing series.
What do you mean Horizon 2 for Xbox 360? You mean Horizon 1.1?
So the one big main problem for this game is actually quite simple yet it brought out some terrible domino effect: The Name.
Strangely enough i enjoyed project gotham (metropolis street racer) more then i have the horizon series.
I guess i like the more linear racing games.
@@dnegel9546 I mean, I'd be lying if I said I haven't as well. PGR 2 & 4 are still my favorite racing games of all time. There's just something about them that I adore.
All Slightly Mad had to do was advance what they had in Project CARS 2, and we'd be having a very different conversation about this franchise. As it is now, well.....lol.
If anyone wants to drive a simracing title that leverages the power of the Madness engine of PC2, the answer is Automobilista 2.
The physics, FFB, variety of good cars, number of tracks, are just another level, without any sacrifice to the simulation accuracy. It is what we use in our simracing league.
A mature and well reasoned discussion about this game, which there really hasn't been a lot of!
I understand why this game is considered a failure - but I did personally very much enjoy my time earning the platinum trophy for this game. The handling felt very good to me, the track and vehicle variety is impressive - especially as these factors are generally dwindling in modern racers.
It's a shame the single player content was structured so bizarrely, but it's a deeply flawed game that did charm me with it's good bits. It's a shame because I feel like the game deserved better from its creators
Great video. PCARS 2 was my first proper foray into Sim Racing, when I got my Thrustmaster TX458. I was unbelievably hyped for PCARS3 since its announcement, but as we got closer to launch, having that godawful Mobile title, and seeing J Broadbent almost brought to tears by boredom on launch day, I knew then the franchise had died.
I'm not too big on sim racing, and I was bored and decided to give PC3 a try, despite it's bad reception and yeah, It's nowhere near bad. The first vibe I got from it is NFS Shift, and seeing now that's what the devs actually intended in the first place, I'd say they did a great job. The 2 Shift games were pretty good, but their lack of cars and tracks made them really repetitive and boring, and this is such a good continuation to that series with all the included content and the gameplay which is pretty much the same with objectives, corner mastering and following the racing line.
I found it to be a pretty solid sim-cade game, and there aren't too many of those games this days, it's a shame it had to be associated with project cars. If it was called anything else, I'm sure people would went like "yeah, that's not a bad game" instead of all that backlash it recieved.
Anyway, great vid, I feel you made it justice after being slandered for 2 years.
The problem with this game in my opinion is that it's essentially PCars2 asset flip + some small DLC and you can make the same fun by just dicking around in PCars2's free race mode. And you get pit stops and stuff.
ADHD + Simracing = one of two things.
1 = Godly hyperfocus
2 = Wait, where the hell are we!?
...the latter killed me a few times in 24 H endurance races lol
hahahah fucking TRUE. The moments where I’m fighting for a podium/win and my heart starts racing are among the most focused I’ve ever been. I can’t replicate the pace I have in those scenarios.
But if I lose focus for a second, I’m in the gravel
@@Kaceydotme If only there was a "switch" for the hyperfocus, instead of it just showing up, at random when it wants... Oh well
Oddly enough. PC3 just made me want to play PGR...so I did. And had a much better to time. Shame PC3 and Slightly Mad couldn’t have gone a different way.
Not to mention that the 'CARS' in Project CARS.. Stood for 'Community Assisted Racing Simulator'. I was one of the early backers of Pcars (1) and i was excited when a new car was added to the roster, or some aspect of realism was added or altered because it wasn't alright... It launched and it was great, a bit bare.. but great... and Pcars2 upped the ante! with a bigger roster, a soundtrack to die for!!! (heck i even purchased the soundtrack, and just enjoy it on the go), and the weather effects! People kept saying like 'you can't have like rain, or snow or any weird weather like you could set in pcars 2'... and then the 2019 Spa 6 hours.. it's may... and they had... rain, snow, sleet, hail... you name it... It was wonderfull!!.... And then the announcement of pcars 3 came... and it wasn't just a slap in the face of the community.. it was a punch... i seriously hope the 4th installment is gonna rectify their mistakes... i doubt it... but i hope so it will...
Great video!! Feels good to see some actual analysis in the sim racing sphere 😁
Hey, simracer here, but also general racing game enjoyer over the years. PC2 was my introduction to proper simracing, from playing it on controller and trying to master the tracks, to buying a wheel and getting super into it. PC2 had a special place in my heart, even after driving multiple other pure sims shown me the flaws with it (particularly some quirks of car handling and the kerbs of DEATH). PC3 being named what it was... Honestly killed not only the franchise, but potentially any sort of future good will that SMS could have. And that's even before mentioning how they got bought out by Codemasters (who I also don't trust) and then getting delivered back on a platter to EA, who they created SMS explicitly to escape from, and bring the Madness engine out to make the PCars franchise. And that's where the main problem lies.
The Madness Engine. An engine that we know NOW is actually very very good for simulation of racing. A very advanced and capable engine, that can model even the most obscure minutia of a car's mechanical functioning, and it's impact on driving feeling. And how do we know all of that? Automobilista 2. The racing sim made by Brazilian devs, using a licensed modification of the very same Madness Engine. The same one that gave THAT game, it's own share of controversy and ill conceived backlash. Of fans of the old AMS title, claiming this sequel to be a simcade. Now, after a few years of development, it's landed squarely as my favorite simracer, over the likes of Assetto Corsa Competizione, Raceroom Racing Experience and others. I digress a bit here, but I think it would have been worth a look into for either this video or something else in the future.
Now, after all that, we get back to the main point of the video review. How good a game was really, PC3? I honestly believe that it was better than let's say, GRID 2019. At least less dull and more varied, with less lethal driving physics. (which, remember, were a big point of contention back in PC2) But, given the name and marketing campaign that it was given, it was destined to fail, among all possible player demographics. New players would feel intimidated thinking it's a sim, simracers feel betrayed and don't want to touch the simcade. Me, I just felt disappointed, and went back to enjoying AMS2. We'll see what comes out of SMS in the future, if anything ever does, again. Future is uncertain, and I have doubts even for the next NFS title, by their now owner and publisher, EA.
I do play AMS2 but I felt covering it here would be a bit off-topic, honestly. More important to cover what PC3 is than what it isn’t. We are about to drive a season in AMS2 though, so I might have thoughts.
I really want a Sega GT 2002 video now
I wish shift 2 had PC3 handling and physics...
Second that.
That was a really interesting take.
I actually really like Project Cars 3, but it's because I have a very specific set of requirements.
1. I much prefer racing games that support VR
2. I prefer playing on a controller with no assists except for ABS. I'm just not as good with a wheel
3. I tend to play custom events
Project Cars 1 & 2 had poor controller support, and finally 3 was acceptable. I just have fun setting up custom events in VR where I can have any car I want, and then play a selection of events for an hour or two in single player VR. It's not perfect, but as a single player VR sandbox it's fun and has more variety than almost any other game.
Fingers crossed though for full VR support for GT7 with PSVR2, as I suspect that would be much, much better again
Gran Turismo 4 is how to do a single player campaign. Sure, it can suffer from getting repetitive, it's a formula that could use tweaks. But in my opinion no one has ever done it better.
Prize money brings cars and cars bring better prize money. Ad nauseam until your garage is full and the racing has reached Formula 1 speeds
your channel is very underrated. best of luck man
Having worked in a software house that has sold-up, before:
I got the feeling PC3 was going to be ...what we saw... if not worse, the moment the article dropped that SMS had been acquired by Codemasters.
Codies had nothing to do with this game at any stage, it was still Bandai Namco’s show
@@Kaceydotme indeed - point being the writing was already on the wall
I like the Shift2Unleashed because it was the first game ever to bring the SRO GT classes (GT1, GT2 and GT3) into a public gaming eye. I was so happy to see all those cars and names I recognize from FIA GT1 and GT3 championships in gaming world.
Project CARS 3 is none of those. Thank God Kunos picked up the SRO GT classes and made Assetto Corsa Competizione.
I would be very happy to see you tackle the more recent Dirt games under a similar scope at their legacy as this one
Talking about identity and all -- how Dirt 2 paints rally in a different way than 3, and how Dirt 5 compares to it
great video, Kacey
I have talked about Dirt 5 and it’s weird legacy, back when the game came out!
@@Kaceydotme oh shoot, really????
I must have missed it
It isn't the first time CZcams doesn't show the video on the subscriptions tab...
I found this one in the sidebar
Omw omw
Thank you Kacey!
so, cited from various source under the white light, one of the game's developer that worked for this game apparently worked for DRIVECLUB. Hence, the driving physic may feels a lot similar to that.
But what frustrated me is how SMS said their 3rd release is going to be a successor to shift, kinda like making a sand playground with toy weapons all over for the men who grew up fighting in a whole ass war.
If I can take one thing away from this video it's that I now want to play Ace Angler
We've had racing games for 40+yrs... how are devs _still_ trying to figure this stuff out?! 😂
first section of the vid and I am surprised that most wanted 2012 wasn't mentioned
I for one fancy giving project cars 3 a go.
I found the first 2 games way too hardcore and I wonder if 3 for be a good balance for me.
I’ve raced karts all my life, hooned super cars round race tracks and learned to drift so I know what I’m doing but pc1 and 2 were almost impossible to play.
No matter the car or setup, I’d spin out on every corner for no logical reason.
Ngl it still surprises me that the same Ian Bell who made Elite went on to work on a lot of huge racing games.
22:50 When you send it into Turn 1 and sucseed.
I completed the game to 100% regarding Steam achievements (this includes all DLCs and completing all challenges of the main campaign) and here's some notes I think I can add to this Video:
- Singleplayer progression is as mentioned very slow. However, the profile progression is the same for ALL game modes, so playing SP, MP or the gets you XP. This basically "solves" the money issue for the campaign as if you did the daily/weekly/monthly challenges you also get money for the campaign
- I therefore never had the problem of selling cars to get other ones.
- The car XP progression is completely useless as it just offers discounts to upgrades of the car. Usually, I've bought all upgrades for a car when I bought the car to max it out for the class.
- I've never really played more than the 4 events per tab in the campaign in a sitting - which kept the slog of the campaign to a minimum.
- AI is extremely easy as mentioned, unless you choose "Blizzard" as weather, where the AI drives on rails, while you skid around, having to turn the AI from Legendary to Very Easy to even have the slightest chance.
- The penalty for cutting corners is just bad. While the penalty itself might be fine, the cutting detection has nothing to do with the white lines on the street.
- On contrast the actual time challenges (especially later on and in the DLC) are EXTREMELY difficult. Also there's no difficulty setting here. On some events I spent like 5+ Hours trying to beat the final time (finding the perfect tuning, absolutely mastering the course and identify where you can cut and not get a penalty).
Ironically, those where the times where the game shined the most, since almost all flaws were irrelevant during these events (No bad AI, no weird challenges, just you, your car, the great car gameplay and the timer).
Or to sum it up for me: There is some very good (sim)cade gameplay put into a really bad game package and presentation, with the worst naming they can thought of putting on the box.
This was a lovely read. I am an avid PC3 player and recognize much. Love the career time trials, which indeed have an extremely high bar. I also participated in Rivals for 10 months with a self-selected small group, some of which were quite skillfull, which was fun. I always regret the MP is dead and always hope this will change due to, say, some viral event. The game is special and worth to invest time in.
Short term marketing for a total loss in consumer's faith. Why is this not even a surprise anymore.
Man, almost all my opinions were said here fluently, well done man
I really wish this game weren't so stupidly named. I LOVE how it feels. It is a _fantastic_ feeling simcade.
Also, to those giving you flak about using brake lines: the pros use brake lines, especially in Forza Motorsport where braking markers are sparse and unreliable. They are a tool to be used and replaces the sense of speed and depth perception you get when actually driving rather than looking at a screen sitting still.
Sincerely, someone who's played her fair share of TORA league races, helps set up Sunshine league races, placed third in an SRL endurance race days ago, and is well acquainted with high level players.
THANK YOU!
SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE CAR GUYS IN THE BACK 👏👏 I always use the racing line for Braking in a lot of racers it's super helpful
@@SlyBalto Yep, unfortunately some are convinced you aren't playing "for real" unless you have all assists off, though you're much more likely to misjudge a corner since unless you have a $15,000 motion rig (and even those aren't perfect) coupled with a high end FFB wheel and VR headset, you have a very limited feel for the car.
Fun story: that endurance race I mentioned placing third in, one driver had turned off hud elements like the map and proximity markers and drove in first person for "realism", causing numerous crashes due to having no sense of where cars outside his narrow field of view were, which many in the discord heavily criticized him for.
*He still used the braking line.*
@@VeraTheTabbynx oh damn! i wouldn't wanna be friends with that dude jeez 😂 some people are just simply too "hardcore" and they have this huge stick up their butt, but they also can be really hypocritical too, it's why I get really shy about telling people I like cars and racing games I don't want ppl to think I'm some douchey elitist haha
Current Steam Charts - Has a NINE month negation and the only reason it had a recent minor pickup was due to the Spring Sale
26:40 Project CARS 3: "CLEAN OVERTAKE" 💪🚗🏁
Same in ACC: "Both cars receive a Safety Rating penalty" 😂
I'm one of those racing game fans that needs a racing line. I play so many different games, with so many different tracks and car differences that it's too much for me to memorize every single one. You can call me a "casual" gamer if you want, I don't care, I'm here to have fun and enjoy the game the way I want. So when I saw that this game went with a more arcade style but removed the racing line as an option I was upset and confused at what direction SMS were going for. Plus as you mentioned the career mode is terrible and within a few hours, I gave up and haven't touched it since.
Great review! Suprisingly you actually convinced me to buy it! Simply because i love trying out different "simcades", and if the car list is good and track list is good, i'm all for it. That being said i'm gonna cheat my way through car collection because campaign concept seems abysmal, so i'm gonna find some trainer online to unlock every car/track and race in free mode. I don't like online so it's not a problem, and most of my time spent in Project Cars 2, Gran Turismo and simmilar games is primarly time trials, and single races (i probably spent 80% of all my time with Project Cars 2, just doing lone laps around Nurburgring Nordschleife,)
Wow, I never really thought of zoning out while playing racing games as an ADHD thing. Definitely makes a lot of sense. It's why I appreciate using braking lines because I tend to brake late into turns because I'm not really in the moment for most races in games unless it's a true gauntlet for winning 1st. Definitely an interesting perspective I haven't heard talked about before and I can certainly relate to it.
This, I never brake early in games but always consistently come late and this just makes perfect sense, I just space out and next thing I know I'm in a wall and my race is over.
I just looked for the third song listed and it's _MobT DarkSym (Full Mix)._
I loved shift 2 and cars 2, i hope more games adopt the helmet cam. love the helmet cam with look to race line
another brilliant Kacey video. i love everything you do, well done
A name can help make or break a game's reputation. Sadly, Project CARS 3 falls in the latter. If it were given a different name (a spin-off title instead of a mainline numbered title) the damage might've been mitigated, but since the executives thought that having it as a mainline entry after all the changes made was a good idea for easy cash they gave it the green-light anyway. Those same executives effectively "Torched the Franchise and Ran" after the dismal sales of Project CARS 3 and it's DLC.
So what I’m looking at here is that Bandai Namco and SMS are responsible for PC3 being the way it is, and it was all Bandai’s fault for making Crossroads what it was? Because Tygon and SMS were great studios.
No, it was Universal in the case of Crossroads- as for PC3 I place more blame on Bandai than SMS, though it could have been upper leadership of SMS as well. On the whole, the people making up SMS were against PC3’s u-turn.
@@Kaceydotme I made that comment before you said that Universal got involved with Crossroads, so I take back what I said about Bandai there. But I still blame both them and the higher ups at SMS making PC3 as awful as it is with progression…
A shame a game like this met such a tragic fate, I loved it. I had no interest with the prior titles but still was eager enough for a simcade track racing title that wasn't GT or Forza.
The only main problems I had with this game was the AI cheating in snowy conditions (winning Bruce and Enzo felt like a fluke to me) and the existence of Pace Setter events. With the latter, I couldn't get at least one tick in this one challenge in Rouen. Sadly decided to stop playing the game entirely because of that event, it felt impossible for me to complete. I wanted to get full marks on every event.
I wish they didn't drop support for this game so quickly after a few DLCs. It saddens me thinking about what could've been, had they not called this Project CARS 3 but Revolution instead.
as someone who has adhd i hate to be that guy but memorizing braking points acceleration zones and turn in points is something that comes with time, but i learned pretty fast and can learn any car track combo you put me into pretty quick. the secret is good fundamentals and a passion to be capable as a racer.
It’s almost like adhd works differently for different people
@@Kaceydotme indeed, i still zone out but usually am focused enough to full send monza T1 and come out the other side pretty well off.
great video and hope you cover more racing titles man.
Its a common idea that a numbering series is mostly understood as an incremental improvement. They should have not used the numbering of 3. It is misleading to regular people.
i don't remember race tracks either and i always have the racing line or at least the brake line on, despite the fact that i've been playing racing games almost my whole life by now.
i'm more of a rally driver, so remembering isn't necessary, and if i re-do a stage i've done before, i'll usually remember some of the dangerous parts.
The same thing kinda happened when Dirt 5 was released. The game just went full arcade and fans of the franchise prior to this change got very mad about it, even though the old gameplay kinda moved to dirt rally.
EDIT: Yeah, previous Dirt games weren't harcore simulators, but the depature from the serious tone of D4 to the arcadey festival of D5 is what people complained.
And yeah, I think both are great games on their own.
dirt 5 wasn't even a good arcade racer though. they should have made an offroad focused forza horizon style game but instead they went to a handling model with less depth than mario kart.
I feel it pertinent to mention that dirt 2 and 3 were _profusely_ arcade racers (I have almost no knowledge on colin mcrae dirt). Dirt 4 was the only mainline entry even glancing at realistic simulation, and it was by far a better game in "gamer" mode than sim mode.
Dirt 5 is a departure in that there is no rally mode and has sime of the most underbaked physics ever
@@e2rqey the fact people compare it to motorstorm genuinely piss me off because they're implying that dirt 5 is the same level of quality to motorstorm
All the dirt games are arcade, what are you talking about?
@@FranciscoFJM I never said they were full simulators either. Your lack of interpretation skills os disheartening to say the least.
Call it NFS Shift 3 and it will be receiving glowing reviews like no other
Well put.
One part about the backlash to the game that could be stated more is that simracing fans are always hungry for new simulation games. Many of the titles they play are quite dated, so something with a modern edge would be adored. PC3 was the most viable option, but it got taken away for a slightly worse shift clone.
I don’t think this is so much the case right now though, especially not with AMS2 serving as a true Project Cars successor
Damn didn't know the development for Pcars3 was so troublesome. Sad that the final product isn't decent at all. I don't know how Slightymad is now doing under the Ownership of EA but I'm still curious
PC3 will always been one of those great what if's in my opinion. Building on the back of PC2, they could have rectified so much but thanks to fuckery behind the scenes, we got a complete balls up. And if PC4 ever comes out, I don't have high hopes for it.
I love Project CARS 3 but Only for it's very good gamepad physics and sound. The rest of the game is incomplete, lacking and buggy. To me it's a fun game to get in for awhile and get out. It definitely needed more time because they nailed the hybrid arcade physics for gamepad and I wished I had more content to enjoy it with.
The issue with project cars 3 is that it perfectly incapsulates the words "The game isnt bad... BUT" Because of the fact that they delved into a market where they were bound to fail unless they pulled something insane out of a hat. Why would i ever play project cars 3 over Forza horizon 5, FM7 or the upcoming FM reboot. Gran turismo? Even need for speed has its angle of being better. Project cars does nothing outright bettee than its compettetors. Meaning a person has no reason to ever pick it up. Slightly mad should have carefully concidered where they were going to stand as this game to me felt like it slapped together elements from older simcade/arcade racers that were good for its time. But are dated now. The loss of pitstops and other fun features only hurt the game. With other stylistic choices being confusing. I feel it was not a poor descision trying to be more simcade like. But maybe it would have been better to do it in a way that alligned more with what its audiance wished for.
Make racing on controller more fun and accessable.
Make the solo career more fun by having bigger championships that have more races and actual "rivals" maybe that start at the same time as the player. Adding more simcade style and different things are good. But they should not come at the cost of the original content. If project cars 2 has pitstops, dynamic weather and a bunch of tracks its never a good idea to put away one of those features to give nothing in return. As it makes the sequal regres rather then improve on the earlier title.
Ace Angler looks pretty dope ngl
Project Cars 3 feels like a mobile Free-To-Play game that at the last minute SlightlyMad went “Oh this is supposed to be a console game” and just added a few band-aids to “fix progression”
A lot of ppl also thought that back when the game released, but then they release Project Cars GO 💀
It would be a pipe dream for a mobile game to have the physics that Project CARS 3 has. The Madness Engine is a derivative of isimotor, a proven engine that powers many competent sim racers. pCars 3 kept these underlying physics, but masked the difficulty through a range of hidden assists to make it accessible and fun to the casual gamer.
@@nebulalights4614 Interesting. Can you provide the sources of this info?
@@gerardvreeswijk840 A look at the Image Space Incorporated website shows that Slightly Mad based its Madness Engine from the isimotor Engine.
Scaff's Sim Racing made a video called "Project Cars 3 - What is going on with the physics?" which analyses the how the game went about achieving its accessible handling.
Time Extend's podcast of this game starts out with emphasising the strength of pCars 3 driving as a simcade/arcade racer, which make the game brilliant fun to play, a sentiment I echo with in my personal experience.
@@nebulalights4614 Such an explanatory video would be right up my alley. Thx very much for the pointer 👍👍
reinstalled Shift 2 the other day and damn is it exactly as 2011-y as I remember.
New video ayeeeee
You forgot to add that PC3 was able to have the exact same track and cars than PC2, while looking worse and having worse performance in the same computer.
Damn this video makes me want to buy this game now. It is just such a shame they had to nerf all of the strategy out of racing.. but I'm also a weirdo who enjoys strategy and watching AI race
I'm still mad that FH5 still has 0 window vinyls.
I gotta say I am really no longer impressed with the wrap editor in Forza. People do crazy stuff with it but it would be so much better if I could upload SVGs like Gran Turismo- or even better, just give me a Photoshop template for the model and let me do it that way and upload the texture like you can in iRacing or AMS2.
All they had to do was call this "Project Cars: Generic Spinoff Title" and this game would have done fine. Calling it 3 killed it
The fishing game thing made me laugh so hard
Yeeeaaahhh… as I thought, I definitely dodged a bullet not grabbing a bargain on PCars 3. I'm more of a casual player and tend to play these games exclusively in singleplayer, and I think I would only find myself frustrated trying to navigate this one.
I've always wanted to like SMS and their games, but all of them fail to deliver in some way. Mostly I really like the idea of the Shift games, but hate actually playing them. Project Cars 1 and 2 were much less interesting in comparison, with pretty bad handling models. They obviously weren't trying to be the same thing as Shift, but I don't think they were great at what they were trying either. Hearing some of the discussion around PC3 made me think maybe this could actually be worth checking out, but that single player progression system sounds just awful. Guess this game was yet another miss.
The bit about the bland aesthetic is something that has been on my mind generally too. A lot of games these days feel like they are doing the same thing, especially in racing games. I miss when games had a bit of edge to them, and so many sequels these days feel lesser for dulling their presentation. We don't necessarily need to go back to the grey/brown look (although that gets more hate than it deserves) or every character being a grizzled 30-something white guy. But just something which feels like it has an identity that it's confident in, and isn't scared if that puts some people off.
Yeah. Ferrari Racing Legends was actually fine, but it was a slog to unlock the new cars and tracks...
Great video! I have a hard love/hate relationship with this game (the hate definetly outweighing the love).
Is there anyway we can see more footage of your sessions with Reycevick? Is there like a vod channel or something?
get ready for this all over again with the new Test Drive
Probably the most ridiculous thing of all is that the publisher refuses to put this game on sale on steam. To this day its still stuck in $59.99, perhaps knowing that it's a game with a reception so negative that you have to pay premium just to try it out. What a sad, miserable end to Project Cars.
Who would give you flak about using a racing line? I use racing lines too since I not good at timing when to brake.
Great video Kacey! As usual. You touched on it in the vid but would love to hear what your thoughts on EA's ownership of Codemasters (and therefore SMS). You think it's a good thing for the future of NFS, Dirt, F1, Grid, Burnout & Project Cars?
The funny thing with EA purchasing Codemasters is that it's forcing Slightly Mad to work with EA again, which prompted Ian Bell to leave the company.
Nice summary.
I avoided this game at launch because it was too different from the others and reviewers shat on the physics.
Using the same name was the stupidest decision ever, though.
I do like the idea of not making it easy to progress and actually having to work for it, but not the way they did it. If you love a car, there needs to be some freedom to use it further. Having to sell a car you like just to progress seems like they're actively trying to piss us off.
i wrote a big text before this as a comment, but keeping it short: i hope in the future this game have a mod treatment like nfs pro street and undercover are receiving. it has the potential to be so much more if ironing the restrictions and progression path, upgrades and (maybe) buffing the AI.
Doubtful. People mods games that are beloved, and nobody love this game.
@@shira_yone yet. people used to say the same about both pro street and undercover a decade ago, look at where we are now.
@@lucianoafp The problem is SMS has somehow managed to make PC3 difficult even almost impossible to mod. Only the original pCARS that's still really moddable but sadly the modding scene has seemed to stop for pCARS 1 no idea about pCARS 2 modding though
@@restautama yea, that is the shit bit of the story
@@lucianoafp they're incomparable in the first place, one is a mainstream franchise and one is a hardcore-ish niche subgenre. Player count matters as well because nobody release mods for games that no one plays.
Even within the series PC1 and 2 barely have mods despite being relatively more successful.
ProStreet have the benefit of being an actual good game that got it's own niche of dedicated players along with the modding tools for other games working on it as well, thus modding it is easier than if modders have to do stuff from scratch (I bet there wouldn't be any mods for it if not for this reason especially). Undercover should burn in Avarice.
@11:47 probably not exactly what he said because it's been a long time. But the great total biscuit once said, the reason I don't review games meant to be played with friends, is because everything done with your friends will be fun.
I'll be honest, I was happy with my purchase of this game because I was happy to hear that it's pretty arcadey. Again, not a big fan of Sim racers nor even Simcade racers, but while PCARS3 does have some sim-ness to the game, I can't help but enjoy this game a lot and think it's a very underrated game.
I was super fond of the progression, the need to do races and unlock cars. Any cars, and upgrade them all but just playing the game. It feels natural and easy to grind without feeling like a slog. I can kinda drift around corners and some of my favorite highlights are drifts lol
Makes me sad to see this game will forever be bad to a lot of people as I think the game is very solid and it gives you a lot of cars, maps, and settings to choose from. I really want to play this game with players online, but nobody plays this game on Xbox and it goes on sale once in a blue moon, so it's disheartening to know this game won't have a future.
Maybe because in a market of arcade racers, there's not really a lot of them nowadays and I worry it might die off very soon.
Arcade racers nowadays are dominated by NFS and Forza Horizon series. Even the game GRID: Legends released earlier this year ended up being a DOA game. Apart from its launch date is very close to GT7, the game also didn't bring anything exciting to attract the FH and NFS fans to play the game. If a series that's always been arcadey isn't doing well now, what about new series that's trying to tap into the arcade market?
This game doesn’t really give you anything PC2 doesn’t. And it won’t have a future because it’s not project cars regardless how good the game is it’s not a true sequel.
I think the best thing we can do regarding this game is that by pretending that the actual PC3 is merely a spin-off while the "real" pCARS 3 is already out there. Something that you forgot to mention: Automobilista 2. Built upon the same engine as pCARS 3, built upon the bases of pCARS 2, adding more content and (according to some) a much better improvement over the original one with additional contents progressively coming.
I didn’t forget to mention it, it’s irrelevant to the discussion of this game.
@@Kaceydotme Sorry. Must've kinda missed it. But yeah i think that's how we should treat this game, a mere spin-off like i said above.
18:57 A whole 18 minutes into the video without a Driveclub reference!
4:15 😜
@@Kaceydotme oh shi-
Revolution would have been better, BUT I think they should have sacrificed studio in order to resurrect Driveclub :P
The biggest tragedy is, in an alternate timeline there's a successful simcade track racer series called Project CARS Revolution and PCR4 is one of the best racing game in existence (in that timeline).
Project CARS 3 have a lot of issues but one thing I actually really liked is the car handling physics, it's just the perfect successor to Driveclub's handling and it would have been an absolute joy to have another series carrying the torch of Project Gotham Racing. I'm honestly not really into motorsport, I've always preferred series that are more focused on road cars hence why games such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer series are what I've been playing the most for the past few years.
I used the "it's not a good NFS game" argument with Most Wanted 2012, but it's just because the franchise itself is in a constant identity crisis since preety much the 2nd game, trading its american origins for a european-like experience, then came the undergrounds, ProStreet, Shift, Hot Pursuit, and you get the point. The franchise never was stable in terms of identity, so it makes sense to say MW2012 is a good game on is own, because aside from the title, it didn't had any kind of reputation to uphold, like all the other NFS games. But with other franchises that are more stable in identity and quality like Fallout, such argument isn't quite as acceptable
Just wanted to comment it
PC3 definitely feels like what Shift 3 could've been if EA still contracted SMS to make NFS Shift. The "Perfect Corners" thing definitely is the biggest hint, at least for me, for that statement since these milestones existed back in the two Shift games. And I am a fan of these kinds of racing line guide (only showing the corner apex, braking point and so on in a minimalistic way) instead of the line things used in the other games.
Also, do you think Crossroads could've been better if they had more time to make the game?
It doesn't really strike me that time was the problem with Crossroads-- I think it was far more a confused, overly corporate approach on the part of Universal. I suspect their intention was not to make a good Fast and Furious game, but a game that would sell based on its proximity to a new Fast and Furious movie (and vice versa)
@@Kaceydotme and it doesn't help the fact that this Ian Bell nitwit apparently touted F&F Crossroads to beating what NFS is doing for the next 6 years at one point, in which NFS fans tend to overlap with fans of older F&F films, so making a F&F based on the newer films seems to a terrible idea to say the least
And as a result, even that Spy Racers animated spin-off game that's seems to be under the radar seems to get that huge amount of backlash just because it has the F&F titling considering how much of a disaster Crossroads was
The saddest part is that they couldn't even make it into a Shift 3 like some claimed it would be...
When you do something. I don’t know, the closest I got to playing a super accurate racing sim is Project Cars at an arcade.