Project Cars 3 - Review of the new simcade from Slightly Mad Studios

Project Cars 3, in contrast to the previous chapters, it abandons a more stubborn simulation and moves towards a more "arcade" game mode. The British house places the title in the market segment of simcade, which also allow a non-enthusiast of the gaming sector of racing to be able to go fast from the first rounds with very intuitive driving mechanisms and physics. The different game modes immediately convince, unlike the artificial intelligence of the opponents that occasionally loses a few shots, in a way that is even a little too conspicuous, generating contacts between very hard or dubious cars. A big change of direction for the British software house Slightly Mad Studios which, with this third chapter of the Project Cars saga, confirms the hypotheses advanced by the simracers, who had hypothesized precisely this "revolution". Downstream of our test we can say that they were right. Really the car park is varied, starting from road sports cars up to Hyper Cars and Formula.

Back on track

As always, the single player experience sees Career mode as its flagship. This in Project Cars 3 is divided into 3 sections: From the road, GT e Bonus. As soon as we start the mode, we find ourselves having to choose the aesthetic characteristics of our pilot, such as the color of the suit and helmet. Absent the possibility to change the physiognomy of the pilot. After this step comes the time to choose the car, where you can choose between the three racing cars that can be purchased with the initial budget of 30.000 credits: Toyota GT86, Honda Civic Type R e Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI.

Our first choice was the GT86, which respects more balanced performance and handling, but economical to the point of leaving budget for the following ones. changes which are the biggest news of the title. With the cars that can be purchased, you have access to the first section and to advance you must center target such as: driving a number of clean corners, overtaking a number of drivers in the first two laps or finishing the race under a certain time limit. By hitting the objectives, other competitions are unlocked, while there are also competitions that have the car model as a restriction. In addition to the Career and the classic mode Multiplayer, is also present Rivals mode: what matters in this is record the time or the best score in dedicated events, which change every day so as to earn points in the general classification dedicated to the section. Truly captivating, this section enables the player to demonstrate what he is capable of achieving by hitting the objectives. Of course also the Custom events they will be ready to dispense madness and recklessness, but also the well-deserved relaxation for undemanding laps on the track, at our discretion. In this section you can create your competition by selecting the vehicle, the track and the weather conditions of the race. Very useful, in our opinion, also to take the first steps making friends with the car and to test the difference in weather conditions as well as the consequent repercussions that the latter has on the grip.

Give me smoke

The graphics upgrade in Project Cars 3 compared to the previous chapter is unequivocal. The lighting is better overall and we like the enormous detail and fidelity of the Spanish tracks. The only flaw is the rain, which generated some small graphic artifacts both during the race and during the award procedure, significantly affecting the frame rate. The cars are reproduced in a maniacal way, down to the smallest details. Noteworthy are the steps forward made to try to adapt the gameplay to users who have only one controller with driving aids that make the game enjoyable and effective even during the most demanding control maneuvers. What is certain is that to fully enjoy the driving experience, by deactivating all driving aids, a steering wheel and a pedals that are up to standard are essential. In our case we used a Logitech G29 Driving Force which proved to be a must to make the gaming experience even more engaging. Belonging to the category of simcade, we did not expect great communication skills of the controls, but with the use of the Logitech peripheral we had to change our minds. The steering is quite communicative, you can easily choke both the braking force and the gas, but not without having first adjusted them directly from the dedicated menu. We found the standard configurations for our steering wheel a bit too sensitive, especially those of the pedal board.

The management of the difficulty of the opponents is far more scalable than in previous titles even if we should open a separate chapter for artificial intelligence which generates the driving behavior of rivals. It happens, not very often fortunately, that the cars governed by the AI ​​do not perceive the position of the player's car on the track, enough to trigger decidedly unsportsmanlike behavior, punishable with the black flag, or carambola of considerable size. Nice for the show, but not for the competition itself. Also worth noting is a small bug where an opponent, during the race, has significantly increased the pace, so much so that he cannot keep up with him in terms of overall performance.

Tuning, at last

We come to the real novelty by Project Cars 3. Every car is modifiable to fit into all categories. In practice, if your favorite car was the GT86, which can be selected at the beginning of the game, you could race with it in all categories of the career mode, starting from the Road category up to the GT Open. This creates a liking line among fans of particular car models, allowing you to focus on essentially tuning your dream car while also comparing yourself to GT Open racing cars.

With the purchase of the improved components such as: tires, brakes, weight reduction, suspension, differential and transmission, you will have access to the modification of the vehicle setup parameters, which are very important to make the most of performance. "Balanced" tuning will be set for each car by default, but at the cost of 100 credits you can buy one more slot. The menu has been revised from the previous title and has been simplified to be more intuitive. It is divided by departments: Brakes / Chassis / Tires, Suspensions, Suspensions / Shock absorbers and Ratios / Differential. The setup variations are noticeable, especially with the steering wheel and pedals with which the perception of improved handling produced by the setting variation is decidedly more marked. We strongly recommend that you purchase the weight reduction component during the tuning phase of your vehicle, so as to be able to modify the front and rear downforce values, and the differential component, which enables the possibility of being able to vary the power and preload making the driving more effective.