Happy 1st pinksterday, so I have bought project cars lately trusting reviews on metacritic I believed the game is fantastic and better than Driveclub on many areas. Point it is for me it just isn't, I started with the Lemans test while the game was installing and even though I like it (Yes I like project cars), my start was a bit frustating. First off all getting my wheel setted up correctly was a dissaster, but I can live with that since you only have to do that once. Now I started with 20 opponents and guess what the PS4 can't handle it, or the AI simply sucks at the first corner, it looked like rush hour at 7:30am on the freeway.

While the games arguably drives better and handles good, (although it could be a little more forgiving) I seriously guessed why the game wasn't punished for it's flaws and got a 21points higher metacritic score than DC and even beated GT6, because even though it is fun it has it's fair share of flaws. So let's compare the most important aspects on a racing game between Pcars and DC.

Tracks even though DC has enough Pcars takes the cake easily.

Cars While PC has a quite diverse roster it is just to few for a sim and to few cars pro class, DC got  a nice roster from the start even though it missed a few Japanese cars and lambo's it was good enough to start with, it got all streetclasses covered. DC takes the cake by being more balanced and complete from starting point.

Sound, they both sound very good.

Graphics, now this isn't even a contest Pcars framerate isn't anywhere near stable 60fps and regulary drops below 45fps and neither do the graphics come close to Pcars.

Gameplay 60fps, more realistic handling give project cars an edge although it's AI is terrible even compared to DC, but Pcars wins in my opinion, although this is a very subjective one.

Online while I haven't tested Pcars online from the start it works so it is better than DC on launch

Sense of speed, this one is also a bit unfair since Pcars is a sim, but it lacks most sene of speed, even when you compared it to Forza, while anything anove 250km/h feels really fast in DC, DC takes the cake.

Weather and time, DC didn't have weather from the start but it's night races where scary and intense, while Pcars is bit to light, but since it has weather effects from the start (which aren't close to DC these days) it takes the cake

Now I have compared the points which are important to me for a racing game and even though I really enjoyed and like GT (which also lacks sense of speed and has terrible sounds), so I didn't expect the perfect car game from Pcars but something compareable with GT in therms of experience. I must conclude it isn't and GT remains my favourite sim for a while. PCars is still an 7.0/10 game for me and with a few patches it could deserve an 8/10. While DC enjoyed me more to start with and still does and scores an 8.5/10 on my charts these days and started with a 7.5/10. So please explain to me why was DC punished for some major flaws by reviewers and is Pcars praised and are it's mistakes forgiven in almost every review?

I am not saying DC deserves an 8/10 meta although 7 seems to low ,7.5 is realistic. But Pcars defenitly doesn't deserve it's 8.5/10 rating if GT6 and Forza 5 barely have an 8/10 rating.

It seems journalists are more forgiving to under dogs. Witcher3 seems to have its issues but has been getting flawless scores. PCars has a lack of cars, unstable framerate, lacking career mode and seems a bit bare bones compared to Forza and GT but has been able to get away for its short comings.

Agreed. 

Not to mention that PCars is so boring.

From what I understand Project Cars is realistic and unforgiving. It's not difficult to miss a gear and blow an engine at times. The handling of cars has never been done so well. I've not played it myself but have read a lot of comments. The real petrolheads love this but those looking for arcade racing or more forgiving racing probably shouldn't get it. However once you start succeeding at driving in the car its utterly rewarding and a real accomplishment.

Again not my views but the general viewpoint I have read about the game. On face value to me that seems brilliant game design but then if I get frustrated and just can't get the handling I'll probably get annoyed about it. I'm sure its going to be a love/hate game for many.

As for performance I think this will generally improve with updates. This game will be expanded, upgraded and optimised I'm sure over time.

Personally I'm waiting to the price drops which will be when the game bugs have been fixed and performance is likely improved too. Seems a no brainer to me to wait at least a little while.

That seems wise, since the AI is really broken at the this time I get the handling model though after a few time trials, key is not to use anything beyond half throtle while coming out of a corner. And you must never fully brake and manually do abs.

In it's current state I would give project cars a 6. (DriveClub and GT6 get solid 9's from me)

Project cars has a lot of issues, especially with a controller which I'm playing it with. The stats are telling enough. I just got the trophy for winning 22 championships, simple progression trophy, sits at 1.1% rarity.

Handling

Controller handling feels twitchy and unresponsive. First thing you have to do is set the dead zones to 0 and adjust the sensitivities. Then it becomes manageable, but never feels quite right. It's simply impossible to drive in a straight line on cold tires, luckily they warm up fast.
Sense of speed is lacking, and although there are many camera views, it's never as easy to judge distances as in GT and DC. I never use driving line aids and project cars has been the hardest so far for accurately judging braking distances.
Recovering from a skid is very tricky with a controller and usually ends up in fishtailing by over compensating due to input lag. Some cars don't respond to corections at all (maybe realistic) and simply slide out. Touching other cars seems to temporarily disable your input, as if both cars are magnetized.
Collisions with cars are hit and miss, carts and F1 cars come of worst. Scoop up another F1 car and spin them on your helmet for bonus points.
When you're driving on warm tires, got your braking points down, no other cars interfering, then it does feel good. Not GT good or DC fun, but still very satisfying.

Sound

Tire sounds are inaudible or completely missing. I've set the engine sounds to 30% and still can only faintly hear the tires in the karts. Most cars I don't hear them at all, not even in open top cars. I can hear the brakes, wind noise is too loud and cars behind you sound closer than they actually are. Collision sounds, while much better than GT, are questionable at time. 
Feedback from the tires is very important in sims to judge when you're pushing the car to its limits. In project cars you just start sliding without any warning. Rumble is too slow and imprecise to replace tire sounds. It also makes it feel as if you're floating over the track, not in contact with it at all.
I love all the details in the sound though. While driving through rain and thunder sounds much better in DriveClub, all the noises the car makes are excellent and set project cars apart. Transmission, suspension, bottoming out scrapes, brakes, wind, and more noises I can't identify, it's all there. It's just the complete lack of tire sounds that is seriously holding back the game.

AI

Where do I start... They ignore cold tires, are not affected by rain or going off track. They'll go wide to pass you outside the corner over grass and gravel, then re-enter the track to take you out. Sometimes they'll avoid you, other times it seems they don't even know you're there and simply drive into you, or even through you ghosted out.
They ignore blue flags, still race you like maniacs during qualifying, then suddenly cut you off to dive into the pit lane. Meanwhile you get a blue flag as soon as you pass a car during qualification that has already set a time. Fast car approaching, the one that's disappearing in my rear view mirror...
I've seen them back up out of a chicane in active traffic. 30 cars taking off is pure comedy at times with a nice traffic jam at the first corner.
They never spin out and magically recover no matter how bad you crash into them. They are clearly not operating by the same rules.
You can set the difficulty from 0 to 100 in 10 step increments, however the difference of 1 step changes a race from coming in 3rd with the others far ahead, to passing them all in the first couple of corners. The difficulty is far from consistent either. Race at the same difficulty, 1 track you have to pull everything out. including a few restarts, to finally manage a very narrow win, next track you are comfortable ahead by 10 sec at the finish.

Career

Well it's all open from the start, but you still need to unlock invitationals to other championships by winning certain races. I started at the bottom with carts which are arguably the hardest to handle from the get go (until you get into an F1 car). Bad viewpoint of the track, extremely twitchy, very aggresive AI and questionable collision physics, not a good place to start.
I quickly got invites to other championships which pretty much drown out the career races. It doesn't take long until you're doing more invitationals than follow your career. Not sure why a starting up kart racer would get an invitation to drive a LMP car in the 24h Le Mans race but whatever.
It didn't take long to get bored of the career as I ended up winning the races during qualification, to then drive up front for 3 laps trying to keep my eyes open. My stats swung to 65% qualifying vs 35% race. It didn't help that the game kept repeating the same small number of UK and Ireland tracks over and over. Donnington, Oulton, Snetterton, enough with the tons!
Now I've lowered the difficulty and skip qualification and practice, jump right in at last place and try to pass them all before the end. It's a lot more fun and a lot faster, means more variety in tracks. GT style racing with 30 cars on the track. My crew keeps sending me the same disappointed emails however, too bad you screwed up qualification, screw them. (Toe cringing emails and twitter feed included with the career)

Graphics

Well it has lots of cars on track and tries to hit 60fps. Still a bit disppointing. It's a step up over GT6, but only a small one. It pales in comparison to DC. The japanese race track in DC looks better than than the race tracks in Project cars, while PC's California highway looks almost a generation behind the road tracks in DC. At night and in rain it's not even a fair comparison, DC raised the bar too high.
Temporal anti-aliasing doesn't help PC, every screenshot I take in project cars is blurry with a ghost image. I do like all the customization options, bye bye bloom and lens flares, thank you very much :)
It's nice when it hits 60fps, yet DC has a much better sense of speed at 30fps and is more responsive, less input lag. The extra fps don't help at all, yet I don't want to know how bad it will handle with a 30 fps lock. (Probably as bad as Shift 2 unleashed)
The cars look better than DC, but I hardly ever look at them, just the shiny hood in front of me.

Track selection

Awesome, rivals GT6 and surpases it in some categories. New real life tracks to drive on, ones I didn't know yet, after 35 years of racing :)
I haven't seen them all yet but I'm liking the ones I have driven on so far,.
They are a bit on the smooth side though. California highway didn't feel like driving on the road at all. And apart from the Carousel and little carousel I noticed a distinct lack of bumps on the Nordschleife.

Car selection

There aren't many, I don't really care, I race for the tracks :) The variety is fine and they handle quite differently. Perfect for my tastes.


Project cars is as addictive to me as DC and GT for now. It's competing with Witcher 3 for time at the moment and holding strong. I don't see that lasting as long as with DC and GT though, the AI is simply bad and I don't really feel like racing online with the state the controller handling is in. It's fine by yourself. Yet for quick evasive actions and recoveries the input lag is off putting.
I have the platinum trophy for GT6, same for DC including 100% for all DLC, yet I don't feel that happening with Project cars. It needs some serious fixes to get that kind of staying power.