Games Review

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Slightly Mad, Beautifully Authentic

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Project CARS 2 is a sequel to the original game released in May 2015. Once more developed and published by Slightly Mad Studios, the game doubles in car size, now boasting 182 cars from 38 different manufacturers with additions from Ferrari and Porsche. Electronic Arts lost their exclusive contract with Porsche recently, the manufacturer now appearing on all new driving releases, Slightly Mad used RUF in 2015.

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It now holds the record, taking it from the first edition for most tracks, 46 locations and 121 different formats, Knockhill in Scotland, Long Beach in America and historic tracks such as the high speed Hockenheim in Germany which you can see above.

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It is the first game in recent years to have secured a contract with Verizon who own Indycar, boasting the full 2016 car roster and liveries with the Indy 500 as an official event. This is a tier 1 category in career mode. All cars and tracks are available on single player and online from the start so no need to do any unlocking if you are a casual gamer.

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The weather/physics system they use, Livetrack, is in its third form a truly dynamic approach to rain, and especially to dirt and snow taking a leaf from Codemasters’ critically acclaimed DiRT series with Rallycross entering the fray.

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Because of such unique situations, where puddles form and dry out individually, the track never seems static, always evolving in the process throughout the race. A true challenge especially in the lower categories. As you can see below the spray in the Formula rookie series around Watkins Glen. You can also see from this the lovely graphics the game has and graphical interface of position on track, track map and speedometer.

The career mode which was such a success on the first game is just polished further, having the tiers of category, starting low down in tier 6 with Go-Karts or Formula Rookie, heading towards the heights of Indycar and the World Endurance series.

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Depending on your success, you will be invited to a series of invitationals, so much so you might do a Nico Hulkenburg or Fernando Alonso and attempt the historic events of the Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500, of which if you fancy can be the full duration, but shortened down to a smaller time if you wish.

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The most fine tuned cars on the gaming market. The noise and handing of them are so realistic, the way you could tune the setups for the cars is amazing. There are probably thousands of different setups, where a 0.1psi change on a tyre makes a huge difference.

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They have also got eSport interest and will be streaming events on the internet. Qualification for these events will begin shortly. For all you gamer nerds the achievements on Xbox and trophies on Playstation are a slight challenge, but doing these give you the full appreciation of the game.

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Project CARS 2 is everything you wish for a sequel to be, bigger, better and amazing. One of, if not the best driving simulator I have ever driven on! Further DLC is announced, so more tracks and cars to get aswell! Gaming at its highest level.

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Chris Lord

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_{Pictures are captures on a Playstation 4, from @C_Lordy91 twitter. This game is out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One from 22/09/2017.}

Codemasters had one aim with this video game, and that was ‘Nostalgia’. Micro Machines was a major hit in the 90’s which focused on miniature cars battling across unique tracks, based around the likes of your breakfast and workbench.

THE GOOD

The game concentrates heavily on the multiplayer aspect of the game, and playing with 12 people at anytime it is a case of forgetting to blink. If a person cannot be found, they are automatically replaced with an AI, so its never an easier event due to a reduced amount of players.

The game has three game modes, Race, Elimination and Battle.

– Race is the traditional mode like in any racing game. You have the 12 racers and have to do so many laps and first to cross the line wins.

– Elimination is the mode where a reduced amount of cars race. You have to get away from the field, and if you win you get closer to winning the game, but if you get eliminated you move further away from the goal.

– Battle is much like a capture the flag game, split up in two teams you battle with the goal of using the bomb that spawns in the middle of the map to blow up the other teams base. A first to 3 event.

The use of Brian Blessed as the voice of the game, quite ironic that they use one of the biggest and loudest people in the planet. The adventurer, come comedian, come actor has a unique voice that will repetitively make you laugh so much so you might make a mistake! The car engines and background music are what you expect from a casual racing game.

Handling is what you expect from this kind of game, inconsistent! It certain areas of tracks it can be horribly understeery and in others you couldn’t have any more grip. The uncertainty which this creates is brilliant, which allows leaders to make mistakes and others to catch up. Never feel safe in front, with the weapons it is better to be the hunter than the hunted.

THE BAD

The game has per mentioned heavily focuses on multiplayer, but the disappointing factor is that there is no single player game modes. Generically all racing games have some kind of single player. It is used to get to grips with the game before going into the multiplayer and unlocking items to help competing online. It does have the tutorial, but that hardly is sufficient. The likes of championship & time trial mode are absent on the game currently. Some people are competitive in different ways, some like beating others in a race, whilst some like to be on top of the leader board.

Unfortunately another lacklustre topic of the game is the variety tracks and games. The game has 12 cars and 10 tracks to choose from. The cars have various skins you can unlock through levelling up to make your garage different but it does seem a bit stingy as tracks can be repetitive after a while. The 12 cars vary from a police car to a hovercraft, and you can use all the cars on all tracks. You’d think having a water level in the sink that only the hovercraft could do would make sense, just a thought.

OVERALL

The game is great, it is a good game to play with friends online and puts a smile on your face. It is just a shame that you can’t play on your own offline and win things that you can use online. Hope to see future content released in terms of game modes, cars and tracks. A respectable score of 7.5/10 is what Micro Machines World Series has been awarded at this current stage. If it were to beef up its variety would easily increase.

Chris Lord

Category: Games Review

Project CARS 2 Review

Micro Machines Review