Project CARS Hands-On Previews

Firstly, it's worth mentioning that Slightly Mad Studios have a track-record (no pun intended) of producing great helmet cams. Need For Speed: Shift is famous for it. But it's also worth mentioning that the game has been designed with the aim of recreating the experience of driving racing cars in extreme authenticity.

The real magic of this game is its dynamic environment system. The game has settings that can change the weather randomly or by design, everything from clear days to rain and thunderstorms. The date and time is also customizable with an option to speed up the progression of time so that you can literally experience four seasons in one day… One full day, that is, with night included. You can also historically set the date and time of a race so that it takes historic weather data to produce what was actually happening at the time. June 3rd 1984 at Cote d’Azur would certainly be one of my recommendations.

Where games like Forza and Gran Turismo let you off with sloppy driving and being aggressive with the controls, Project Cars punishes you. Go off line, hit the marbles and you'll be off into an unforgiving gravel trap; but calm down, be gentle and progressive with your steering, braking and accelerating, and Project Cars rewards you. It's an incredibly steep learning curve - especially when the career mode doesn't force you to build up gradually to the faster cars - but one which keen motorsport fans will appreciate.