It’s actually funny because I do much better in this game than my younger relatives who don’t have driver's licenses yet - the same relatives who mop the floor with me in Mario Kart (and some of whom actually do well with more arcade-style racers). By that, I mean that I have to exert myself harder in order to taste success in this game and also approach driving the way that I would in real life. In that sense, Project Cars 2 feels like work, and in a good way. Personally, I actually do better with the assists turned off as having them on tends to make the car not respond the way I want it to.

See, unlike Forza, which feels like a cross between a sim and an arcade racer depending on your settings, PC2 has a more hardcore sim feel to it even when you turn on its assortment of assists. The fact the Project Cars 2 is not as forgiving as Forza - a game I love by the way and is honestly more my cup of tea - means it can be harder to recover from bad decisions or plain bad luck.

Admittedly, the AI can be prone to occasional brain farts that can be quite frustrating if it costs you prime positioning in a race. Granted, this can be a double-edge sword if you end up on the receiving end of a love tap by the AI. This discourages the kind of irresponsible knucklehead driving you sometimes see in many a racing game where folks use enemy cars as makeshift cushions to bounce off from during tight turns. Although the game encourages you to be an aggressive to work your way up the pack, it also wants you to be a reasonably careful driver by penalizing you for contact if you have the feature enabled. You can never feel too comfortable in Project Cars 2, especially when playing it as-is right out of the box.

Those were feelings that came back in my mind as I switched the game's camera to hood view and let ‘er rip on the pavement. As someone who has counted a rear-wheel drive 300ZX, BMW and Mustang GT among the list of cars to grace my garage through the years, I’m quite familiar with the razor-thin line between control and the lack thereof, especially in poor weather. In the case of Project Cars 2, the game actually reminded me of driving in real life. Playing some driving games feel like, well, playing a game. Then again, that’s a good sign for Project Cars 2.

Project cars pc