Project Cars: A new sim racer that’s already ahead of the pack

Project Cars from developer Slightly Mad Studios (Need for Speed: Shift series) is not like other sim-racers or anything else with four wheels. An interesting profit-sharing structure has allowed fans to play the game consistently during development and enjoy special access to the developers, and Slightly Mad’s attachment to its community has created a title with an attention to detail that separates it from the pack.

The game is similar to other sim-racers with its faithfully rendered high-powered cars hugging demanding real-life courses, testing and stretching the laws of physics at every turn. But there are a number of aspects that should be more commonplace in other racing games.

Weather and time-progression sliders play up the already impressive graphics. Choosing weather presets for solo and online games changes the sequence of weather patterns and how fast they occur mid-race (you can also set it to random). Going from dry conditions to a thunderstorm and back again can necessitate changing tires in the pits as well as turning on your windshield wipers and headlights. You can even save your tire-pressure preferences and more for future pit stops.

The game also lets you customize the layout of your HUD, allowing you to move the position of elements such as the minimap and speedometer, and for online races you can choose to have multiple practice sessions, qualifying, rolling starts, A.I.-controlled field fillers, and more.

These gameplay details are embedded in a career structure featuring eight different racing series you can jump between and an online portion containing players’ time trial ghosts and various community race events. Project Cars’ attention to detail isn’t at the expense of offering a breadth of racing experiences making it a racer that seemingly has its bases covered.