Project CARS 2 wants to be everything to everyone. Slightly Mad Studios built a racing simulator with 189 cars, 140 track layouts spread across 60 locations, and a weather system that rewrites the road under you lap by lap. Bandai Namco Entertainment published it worldwide on 22 September 2017 for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One. It is a huge, ambitious, occasionally overwhelming piece of work, and it earns its place near the top of the sim-racing pile.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
189 Cars and a Living Track
The pitch is simple enough. Project CARS 2 is the next step in the racing series, and Slightly Mad says it was created by gamers, tested by world-class racing drivers, and built as the choice of e-Sports pros. That is marketing, but the numbers behind it are real. The car list runs to 189 vehicles. The track list runs to 140 layouts at 60 locations. Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Honda, Acura and Nissan all join the roster, which fills out the grid in ways the first game could not.
The headline feature is LiveTrack. The game advertises that “each track is a living, organic venue” and that the surface “changes lap by lap” as the race goes on. Track temperature shifts. Weather rolls in and out. The line you found on lap three is not the line waiting for you on lap ten. This is the part of Project CARS 2 that matters most, and it is the part that holds up.
Rallycross Arrives, and the Tarmac Ends
Off-road driving is new here. Project CARS 2 adds rallycross tracks and cars, which pushes the game well past the circuit-only focus of its predecessor. Dirt and loose surfaces sit alongside the asphalt, and the same LiveTrack system governs how they behave. Rain on a rallycross course is a different problem than rain on a road course, and the game knows it.
This is where Project CARS 2 separates itself from the pack. Most sims of this era pick a lane. They do circuit racing or they do rally, and they do it well enough to justify the narrow scope. Slightly Mad went the other way and tried to hold both. The result is a game with more surface variety than almost anything else in the genre, and a career mode that can send you from a GT car to a rallycross buggy without a loading screen’s worth of apology.
Virtual Reality, 12K and Three Screens
Project CARS 2 supports virtual reality. It supports up to 12K resolution. It supports triple screen setups. That is a hardware wish list, not a feature list, and it tells you exactly who Slightly Mad was building for. The game assumes you have the rig, or that you want one. On a base PlayStation 4 or a modest PC, you are not seeing 12K. You are seeing a racing game that still looks good but is clearly reaching past what your machine can give it.
The perspective options cover first person, third person and VR, and the sim handles all three without falling apart. That flexibility is worth naming. A lot of racing games pick a camera and build the whole experience around it. Project CARS 2 lets you sit in the cockpit or float behind the car, and neither choice feels like the wrong one.
What the Score Says
The published critical score is 8.4 out of 10, drawn from an aggregate of eight outlets. That is a strong number, and it is the right number. Project CARS 2 is not a perfect game. It is a game with a very clear idea of what it wants to be, and enough execution behind that idea to justify the ambition.
Created by gamers, tested by world-class racing drivers, and the definitive choice of e-Sports pros
That line comes from the game’s own summary, and it is doing a lot of work. It claims three audiences at once: the casual player, the professional driver, the competitive e-sports crowd. Project CARS 2 does not fully satisfy all three. The sim depth that makes it credible to a racing driver is the same depth that makes it punishing to someone who just wants to drive a fast car on a Sunday. The e-sports framing is real, but it is a smaller part of the experience than the marketing suggests.
The Case for 8.4
Here is what actually matters. LiveTrack is not a gimmick. A track that changes lap by lap is a mechanical difference, not a visual one, and it forces you to race differently. You cannot memorize a line and coast. You have to read the surface, adjust, and read it again. That is the core of what a racing simulator should do, and Project CARS 2 does it better than most of its competition.
The car and track counts are generous to the point of being absurd. 189 cars is more than any single player will drive. 140 track layouts is more than any single player will learn. That is not a flaw. It is a statement of intent, and it means the game has a long tail for anyone willing to put in the time.
The rallycross addition is the smartest decision Slightly Mad made. It widens the game without diluting it. Off-road racing uses the same physics engine and the same weather system, so it feels like part of the same game rather than a bolted-on mode. That is harder to pull off than it sounds.
Where Project CARS 2 Stumbles
The VR and 12K support is a promise the hardware cannot always keep. Most players will not have the setup to see the game at its best, and the gap between what Project CARS 2 can display and what the average console or PC can render is wide. That is not a fault in the game exactly. It is a fault in how the game was sold.
The learning curve is steep, and the game does not do much to soften it. A player coming from an arcade racer will hit a wall. The assists exist, but the game’s identity is built around the idea that you do not need them. That is a defensible design choice. It is also a choice that limits who gets to enjoy the best parts of Project CARS 2.
The Verdict on Project CARS 2
Project CARS 2 is the most complete racing simulator of its year. It takes the foundation of the first game and adds weather that actually changes the race, a car list that covers nearly every major manufacturer, and a rallycross mode that justifies its own existence. The 8.4 out of 10 is not a compromise score. It reflects a game that is excellent at what it does and honest about what it demands.
“each track is a living, organic venue”
That is the claim, and Project CARS 2 backs it up. The track does change. The race does evolve. The game rewards attention and punishes complacency, which is exactly what a simulator should do. If you have the hardware and the patience, Project CARS 2 is one of the best driving experiences available on PlayStation 4, PC or Xbox One. If you do not, the game will still let you in, but it will not make it easy.
Key Facts
– Release date: 22 September 2017
– Platforms: PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
– Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
– Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
– Cars: 189
– Track layouts: 140 at 60 locations
– Critic aggregate score: 8.4/10 (8 outlets)
– Modes: Single player, multiplayer
– Perspectives: First person, third person, virtual reality
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