PC2 Can you answer a question about PC2?

[Chris James]

I'll try to keep this brief. I'm thinking about buying PC2, but I want to know if they've fixed some things that I heard were bad about PC1. My main question is, is all the content good? In PC1, I heard that a few cars were great, realistic, and simulation quality, but that other cars included with the game were spotty, like really bad mods. Are all of the cars in PC2 high quality and realistic?

PC2 is so expensive, I want to get what I'm paying for. I didn't pay half what SMS is asking when I bought AC, and I love AC.

Is the handling similar to AC? I think AC has a great physics model. The thing I like about AC compared to other titles is the suspension modeling and front tire modeling. In some sims, the front end is WAY TOO responsive, with steering inputs through the wheel being immediately translated into steering in sim, no tire wall loading and suspension loading. AC does this well, especially with older cars that take a little while for steering inputs to go from the wheel to the road. Does PC2 do this?

Also, any VR impressions you can give?

Thanks guys.

 

[Ryan Robbins]

So much information on this already at this website...but for me it was worth the cost. I never tried Pcars 1, but I enjoy Pcars 2. The FF is not bad...not my favorite. The physics feel very good on a lot of cars to me, bu t some don't (that is just me) For me, the game is very fun to drive...and that is what it's all about for me. I have a t300 by the way. The VR is supposedly pretty good

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Id read through the 50+ pages of feedback to make your own decision.
In ways there similar but i find completely different at the same time.
Handling and ffb wise I find AC does an excellent job translating the forces you would feel in rl through your butt in the wheel (road noise) and weight transfer
Where in pc2 the focus is on the tire model and the forces you would experience through the wheel which in return is more subtle than AC inregards to road noise.
There are the jackspade files if you want a heavier feel and more road noise.
As for the engine. I feel PC2 is much more indepth and advanced than AC with its tire models, 24hr cycle, weather and live track 3.0 but currently comes at a price of alot of bugs that need to be sorted.
That being said if your ok with a buggy game atm its worth getting so you can get accustomed to driving with all those new features AC does not have.
If not stick with AC as its much more polished

 

[William Wester]

In addition to the forums, there are many YouTube review videos to help you decide. For me, the physics and FFB are just as good as AC, and in some cases I find there's more control/feedback on the edge.
I haven't touched the career yet, mostly testing the cars and tracks with an occasional community time trial event. I'm on PC and haven't really run into any bugs. I think the FFB is very good with my Thrustmaster TX, with very little tweaking needed. Of course I tinkered with the FFB settings, as many do in their quest for the perfect FFB, but really it's good as-is (one of the flavors). I've tinkered just as much with AC. Inevitably, some cars will feel better than others. There's also a lot of tracks, and all of very good quality.
Much will come down to hardware and preferences. If on the console, there may be a few more bugs. If you like primarily road cars then AC may be a better fit. If you like race cars, dynamic weather, and night racing then PC 2 will be well worth the cost. I haven't found any "bad" content, like I find with some of the mods in AC, AMS, and rF2 (yes, some very good mods also).
PC2 doesn't have to replace another game, it's an additional virtual racer with some very good and unique features.

 

[Gevatter]

Many positives have been described above, so let me go in the other direction. Important: this is all subjective, and everyone has different preferences and priorities for a sim.

My biggest problem is the inconsistency. There are cars that drive great, there are others that drive like rubbish, and there is no indicator of which is which. The historic cars generally feel to stable to me (again, subjectively), grip regain after a slide feels higher than in other sims (AC or AMS for example) without judging which is more realistic, and some of the cars have really crappy textures, like the dials textures in the Gr5. Zakspeed Capri.

The same with tracks. The laserscanned ones are good, their Oulton Park is the best rendition this side of iRacing. Imola on the other hand feels completely flat, like one of those bad conversion mod tracks you get for AC where they didn't bother implementing a proper road mesh. The Nordschleife is inaccurate, but that's only a valid point if you're used to a laserscanned version and drive it a lot.

Graphics are good, sounds are great apart from the tire screeeeeech. FFB is fiddly and may take you some time fiddling with it to really feel satisfying. The features are great, theoretically.

In general, it seems the content they brought over from PC1 is lackluster, the new content varies between acceptable and great. It feels like they got to much on their plate with all the features they added, and couldn't really polish any of them to a reasonable degree. The "Jack of all Trades" thing. The AI is the biggest weakness, but I've heard they constantly improve it.

If you have the money to spare, I'd say give it a go, maybe refund if you're not satisfied and feel you can come to a reasonable conclusion in two hours. If you're not sure if the money won't be missed elsewhere, I'd recommend waiting for a sale.

 

[Andy_J]

I was on the fence too. But after reading some intelligent posts on here and finding that I could purchase for £29.99 from CDKEYS I decided to take the plunge. Glad I did. It drives real nice once the tyres are up to temp and using the Raw or Immersive FFB settings it feels excellent and you can actually feel the tyres if you know what I mean. I use a T500RS wheel.

But it is not without it's problems at the moment. I purchased it because I mainly do offline racing against the AI and I was hoping that with animated pit stops, changeable weather and live track, the racing would be good. But the AI is woefully bad at the moment but Ian Bell has stated that they intend to fix it. The external replay sounds are pretty bad too but they will do for now. I suppose we are the paying beta testers and eventually we will sort this game out by reporting all these things. Apparently the Q&A was out sourced to the QA department of a Chinese toy factory who missed many aspects whilst playing the game.

But lets hope it gets sorted soon with patches because the car dynamics and the tyre model are superb as is the lighting, weather changes and general feel of the game.

 

[Rob Every]

Am a little shocked they outsourced the QA, would have though that would have been something you would want experienced sim players to do?

 

[Emery]

Am a little shocked they outsourced the QA, would have though that would have been something you would want experienced sim players to do?

In theory, outsourcing the QA is a good move because then there's no contact between the coders and the testers, so the testers won't dance around likely problem areas, they'll be more motivated to report problems.

In practice, I suspect it's more like government contracting, where the workers are now the lowest paid temps rather than seasoned veterans and the management gets to skim off greater profits.

 

[Brandon Wright]

In addition to the forums, there are many YouTube review videos to help you decide. For me, the physics and FFB are just as good as AC, and in some cases I find there's more control/feedback on the edge.
I haven't touched the career yet, mostly testing the cars and tracks with an occasional community time trial event. I'm on PC and haven't really run into any bugs. I think the FFB is very good with my Thrustmaster TX, with very little tweaking needed. Of course I tinkered with the FFB settings, as many do in their quest for the perfect FFB, but really it's good as-is (one of the flavors). I've tinkered just as much with AC. Inevitably, some cars will feel better than others. There's also a lot of tracks, and all of very good quality.
Much will come down to hardware and preferences. If on the console, there may be a few more bugs. If you like primarily road cars then AC may be a better fit. If you like race cars, dynamic weather, and night racing then PC 2 will be well worth the cost. I haven't found any "bad" content, like I find with some of the mods in AC, AMS, and rF2 (yes, some very good mods also).
PC2 doesn't have to replace another game, it's an additional virtual racer with some very good and unique features.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts and experiences so far. I haven't done any career or even raced the AI but I've been enjoying hot lapping and online racing, FFB feels pretty good, physics feel pretty good, cars behave like I expect them to 99% of the time, and VR is awesome (IMO better than AC though I've only had VR for two days). If you're looking for problems with the game you can find them, but if you're looking for fun and a great driving feeling you can find that too. Plus, options galore! Feels pretty similar to AC on my system and almost all the cars I've tried so far have felt good.