THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT BANDAI NAMCO SIMULATOR

There are multiple ways to play Project Cars 2: a career mode that boasts several career paths, multiplayer modes, community events, time trials and custom races. Photo Courtesy of Bandai Namco Entertainment Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to set custom livery in career mode, or have your car change appearance based on sponsorships. Each car usually has a selection of sponsored paint jobs to choose from. There are 180 cars – karts, stock cars, touring cars, indy cars, vintage cars and more. The cars themselves look great though, with each interior fully rendered in meticulous detail. There are no pit crew animations, with cars floating in the air oddly before they are let out by their invisible pit crew. Rain doesn’t interact with the windshield or wiper blades in a realistic manner, and even fog is somehow marred and unsightly. Collision animations look janky, some textures are low resolution and weather effects can look downright awful. In Project Cars 2, the vehicles look great, but the rest is graphically underwhelming.

There is an internal damage simulation, but cars do not deform when they are hit, and dirt doesn’t accumulate even over long races. Racing feels good – fast and visceral with every bump and turn satisfying. Tire physics have been built from the ground up and attention to detail is amazing. Even attempting to play without a wheel and just with a controller can be a test of patience with all of the assists off. There are settings to tone the simulation down and increase braking and turning assistance to make driving easier, but with all of the assists on it still never feels like an arcade game. It should be noted that this is not an arcade racer – it aims to be a serious simulation that racing enthusiasts can sink their teeth into.

THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT BANDAI NAMCO SIMULATOR

Developer Slightly Mad Studios has attempted to create an authentic and expansive racing simulator in this incredibly ambitious sequel. Project Cars 2 is an ambitious follow up to the 2015 original that aims to expand into e-sports while taking on other racing franchise giants with impending releases, such as Microsoft’s Forza and Sony’s Gran Turismo.

The stroke of midnight bandai namco