Project Cars Puts You In The Driver's Seat

Slightly Mad Studios' Project Cars – with its high visual bar, multi-series racing, and community involvement model – is an ambitious project. However, that doesn't mean the developer has lost sight of the little details that matter. We got our hands on an early build of the game on PlayStation 4 and took some videos showing the game's custom weather, time of day, and HUD options; culminating in one hot, wet six-lap shoot out.

The pre-race weather, field, etc. options for this solo practice race.

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The full six-lap race

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This solo practice race features an A.I. field of over 30 cars, and as you can see in the above videos, contains custom day/weather patterns. The game is quite attractive – check out the lightning flashes as well as moon and star field as the race goes from late afternoon into night and ends with a cloudy dawn.

Some highlights:

• 3:16 – When in a first-person camera, the game uses a soft focus for close objects as you accelerate, and switches back to a hard focus when you brake.
• 4:05 – Check out the cool lighting effects in the cockpit from various sources.
• 8:19 – The game features a restricted helmet cam as well as multiple cockpit views.
• 11:30 – Watch as a thunderstorm rolls in with actual moving clouds
• 12:50 – Here I struggle to get traction on the wet track on the last corner. I should have pitted earlier and put on wet tires.

Finally, how you can customize the in-game HUD to your liking.

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(video sans audio)

Project Cars comes out on March 17 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. A Wii U version is in the works for this year, but it does not have a firm release date yet.