Thanks to the comprehensive virtual reality support on PC, Project Cars 2 is another great example of VR simulation, offering better performance than the first game in a much more compelling package.
The game is packed with fun challenges and car adventures that will keep you hooked for a good while. Let’s learn how to play Project Cars 2 with some easy tips.
How to Play Project Cars 2 in VR?
You can play project cars 2 in VR by using the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Google Cardboard. You will need a PC with an NVIDIA GPU and Windows 10 installed. The game is available for free on Steam.
To play this game follow these steps :
- Download Project Cars 2 from steam.
- Install it on your computer.
- Open up the Oculus Rift app on your phone and connect it to your computer.
- Launch the game and select “Oculus Rift” as your input device.
- Enjoy!
‘Project CARS 2’ VR Review – An Ambitious Sequel With Serious Potential
Thanks to its comprehensive virtual reality support on PC, Project Cars 2 is another great example of VR simulation, offering better performance than the first game in a much more compelling package.
It addresses many of its predecessor’s shortcomings but needs more time to bake before it becomes an essential part of the gaming experience.
Gameplay
At first glance, Project Cars 2 may seem familiar. It looks just like its predecessor, but there are some changes under the hood.
The menu screens still feature strangely low-resolution pictures of each car, Career mode features similar multiple paths/start points’, and includes fake email messages from your team.
To the casual observer, the game may look similar to the original. However, graphics have been significantly upgraded, but not to an enormous degree.
And many of the sounds feel all too familiar, including Captain Obvious’ engineer calling out “Engineer! Engineer!” Many cars (and the same liveried) and tracks carry over from previous games, and the overall presentation seems like “more of the same.”
Underlying Brilliance
However, there is much more to the game than meets the eye. It really comes down to physics. The improvements here are so dramatic, they’re almost unbelievable.
Project CARS came out with bold claims: detailed car dynamics, an advanced tire modeling system, and handling developed by former ‘Stig’ Ben Collins, and several other professional racing drivers; tracks would change dynamically as you raced them, with the traction changing due to weather, an hour of the night, the amount of rubber laying down, and so on.
The sequel has some new features, but most of them were already present in the original game.
While this may not be relevant to VR, the fact that the game now supports triple screens shows that the developers at Slightly Mad Studios have taken into account user feedback.
Support of Vehicles
There’s improved support across a wide range of vehicles, including fully manual pitstopping, more replay and broadcasting options, vastly improved vehicle setups pages, and even a Delta Time indicator for sector times!
You can adjust almost everything from the main screen, including assist buttons, control assignment, graphics, and audio. In the first title, you could not even change a button assignment unless you quit the main screen.
Menu
More importantly, each option in the menu has an explanatory text. As a result, intimidating setup menus become approachable, and there’s even a simple “Ask the Engineer” feature for those seeking a quick suggestion.
It’s not without its problems though. The game requires you to save each and every setting whenever you want to make changes. This makes things difficult because there isn’t any way to keep track of where you’re at in terms of settings.
Audiences
Project CARS 2 has a constant struggle to please both its casual gamer and hardcore sim racer audiences. One example of this is the slow-down penalty.
It’s surprising that off-track detection is as strict as iRacer 2008, but the slow-downs that follow are so easily cleared that they result in some questionable racing. If you gain a position while causing slow-downs, you’re also forced to let your opponents pass, which is a great addition.
Motorsport Heaven
With a roster of 180 vehicles, there should be something for everyone. Unlike the first game, careful consideration was given to ensuring that most vehicles had suitable opposition.
All the cars that were originally sold with tires made by Michelin have now been upgraded to run on Pirelli tires.
With the addition of 60 tracks, including some brand-new ones, there’s now even more variety than before. The new tracks are built to a high quality, particularly Circuit de Catalunya, Circuit Ricardo Tormo, and the stunning Algarve Circuit (Portimao).
However, the tracks that carry over from the original appear largely cosmetic, so they may not be as accurate as some of the best examples in the genre.
Camber Angles
Some tracks were already great (e g., Oulton Park) but Bathurst still didn’t look right, with weird camber angles and track widths, while Monza remained the same, with very weird camber angles through both Lesmos and Parabolica, and curbs were all over the map.
Representing 29 motorsport categories across nine racing disciplines seems like a good idea at first glance, but the developers have likely bitten off more than they could possibly swallow. There are various types of motorsport racing, from historical eras to modern open-wheel racing, but there’s no licensed formula racing available.
Oval Flags
The lack of accurate Oval flags, along with some questionable Pit Lane calls (i.e. Speed limits in odd positions, every speed limited to 37 miles per hour), makes for an unsatisfying oval experience that just isn’t worth doing right now.
IndyCars are the most dangerous because they fly apart at the slightest contact, which would cause an immediate full-course yellow flag in real life, but here, you just keep going. If you hit that object, it’s game over!
Simulation
On the one hand, the developers deserve some praise for actually delivering a simulation that includes debris damage, but in the end, the balance is off. Real-life wings are extremely sensitive, but without a full-fledged warning system (such as there are no safety cars for instance) it just doesn’t add up.
Wing damage seems to be carried across all the open-wheeled series, with debris causing problems in nearly every race. For example, in Formula C, even the slightest touch to the car’s front wing could cause the car to go off course.
And’slightest touch’ isn’t hyperbole; at Oulton Park in the rainy conditions, it always gave me a 22 percent damage rating just by launching off the start/finish straight. (I could play without any damage enabled, but where’s the point in that?)
Rallycross
One new discipline has proven itself particularly successful: rallycross. To simulate these four-wheeled beasts, the developers had to redesign the car’s chassis, tyres, and surfaces to handle the long suspension travels, huge slip angles, and loose terrains.
The result is a car that feels instantly more intuitive than DiRT rally’s interpretation of RallyCross, an amazing feat.
Conclusion
Project Cars 2 is a good racing simulator, but it has some major flaws. It’s a pity that the developers didn’t spend enough quality development hours on the core gameplay mechanics before adding so many extra features. Because of this, the final product ends up being a game that struggles to live up to its potential.
If you’re looking to buy a realistic racing game, Project Cars 2 is definitely worth checking out, but if you’re after the best possible simulation of real-life motorsports, then you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Feel free to ask questions in the comment section below.
