Over the better part of the past year, I’ve managed to steadily become one of TheGamer’s de facto go-to reviewers when it comes to racing tiles. From hyper-realistic racers such as Tour De France 2020 and TT Isle Of Man - Ride On The Edge 2 to more casual or silly racing titles such as Wreckfest and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tiny Racer, I’ve managed to position myself back into loving the genre that I played so much as a kid. Admittedly, I hadn’t initially planned on playing developer Slightly Mad Studios’ Project Cars 3, but boy, am I glad that I got the chance. Featuring an arcade racer type of feel, yet offering an expansive amount of depth and content, Project Cars 3 is a racing title for both veteran🍬 racing genre fans, as well as casual pl🌳ayers.
Slightly Mad, Incredibly Talented
Having never played the previous entries in the series, I came into Project Cars 3 with zero expectations. Honestly, the only thing I even knew about the series was that it was developed by the same studio as the recently released Fast & Furious: Crossroads - which (to my admitted surprise) came highly recommended by TheGamer’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bella Blondeau who reviewed the game. It was clear that whatever Project Cars 3 was going to have to offer, it would probably be good considering Slightly Mad’s resume of racing titles released - not to mention that it was actually able to make good on the Fast & Furious game that didn’t look especially great when it was revealed at last year’🗹s V💞ideo Game Awards.
However, upon starting the game and seeing the opening cinematics, it was abundantly clear that a ton of care and racing passion went into creating Project Cars 3. With its initial de♌piction of high-end racing s🎶peed, exciting locations, in-depth customization options, and even the opening tutorial, I was sucked right in.
Put Yourself Behind The Wheel
Pretty much everything in Project Cars 3 is custoꦫmizable, including your drive𒁃r. This generally doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of racing games, but it was pretty awesome to see my first-place driver standing on the podium in his shorts and zip-up hoodie while the runner-ups were decked out in full racing suits.
Obviously, the customization options don’t end there. As you progress through the game, you’ll be able to unlock additional parts and vehicles - of which there are over 200 to collect. As you take on races, time trials, and complete various in-race challenges, you’ll earn credits that can be applied to purchasing new vehicles, unlocking tracks and race types themselves, as well as upgrading parts such as wheels, body kits, and overhauling your car’s engine. Doing so will, of course, improve your car’s performance, whic🐻h you’ll truly be able to feel the next time you take it for a spin.
For me, a large part of Project Cars 3’s appeal is its gameplay that feels a bit more arcadey than that of a hyper-realistic racing sim. That said, it’s clear that an incredible amount of care went into the racing physics and overall control and handling of each vehicle. This is true from the opening moments and only gets better as you race your way through the game, upgrading your vehicles as you go. In addition, there’s really not a bad car in the game. Whereas a lot of racing titles provide players with boring, less-than-ideal vehicle options at the beginning of the game, Project Cars 3 goes from 0 - 60 immediately with starter vehicles such as the 2013 Toyota GT-86 and the 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI T.M.E. (a veh♕icle that just so happens to have always been a car that I would love to have in real life). Eventually, you’ll be able to unlock Hypercars, such as the 2019 Bugatti Chiron Sport, as well as GT and Formula vehicles, and even a Super Truck. However, it’s the early in-game options that diܫd the trick to immediately capture my attention and never let go.
So Much Racing Content
Beyond the game’s Career mode - which takes you through ten different race series with their own challenges and championship race - Project Cars 3 features online multiplayeꦜr, comprised of Quick Race, Custom Races, and Scheduled Events, which require qualifying for and take place at set times throughout the day, matching you with other similarly skilled players. The Rivals mode features timed in-game challenges (with a limited number of allowed attempts) that are available on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, awarding XP and Rival Points based on how well you do in each event. These points make up your Rivals Rank, which will determine where you stand on the online leaderboards. The higher your position, the higher your reward.
At the time of this writing, I’ve been unable to connect to an online Quick Race. I gave a couple of Scheduled Events a try, but each time I concluded the qualifying race for the eve♈nt, the game crashed. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that this will be an ongoing issue, especially considering the🔴 Day One update for the game is going to be a doozy.
On that note, I’d love to see even the smallest improvement to the game’s graphics come with the patch. By no means are they bad prior to the Day One update. Far from it, actually. However, there were moments of my vehicle looking surprisingly pixelated during some of the races. There were also some choppy camera moments when coming up on curves at a high-speed. These moments didn’t hinder my race at all, but certainly weren’t ideal. Again though, I fully expect the Day One update to fix any of the negative things that I encountered in Project Cars 3 - of which there were hardly any.
No doubt about it: Project Cars 3 is an absolute treat. In-depth and expansive enough for veteran racing genre fans, yet accessible and inviting enough for more casual players, Project Cars 3 is a title that other racing games should aspire to be - from its selection of vehicles to its contact-packed Career mode to the online features and events that are sure to foster a fun and competitive community. While (for me) many racing titles grow stale fairly quickly, Project Cars 3 is one game that I’ll be play﷽ing for a very, very long ti💃me.
A PlayStation 4 copy of Project Cars 3 was provided to TheGamer for this review. Project Cars 3 will be🏅 available on August 28𒅌 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Project Cars 3
- Released
- August 24, 2020
