Project Motor Racing review: Superb driving but AI racers need work

'Tis the season for sim racing. This genre of gaming is getting increasingly more popular and online racers are more spoilt for choice than ever before.

The latest to throw its hat into the ring is Straight4 Studios' Project Motor Cars, a sim racer with authentic cars from the world of sportscar racing, including LMDh hypercars, GT racers across different categories, historic Group C cars and more.

There are 18 different tracks at launch you can race around, including Nurburgring Nordschleife, Mount Panorama, Silverstone, Monza and Daytona.

But how does it stack up at a time when there are so many different sim racing options out there? Let's find out.

I received a review code from the publisher and played through Project Motor Racing on a base PS5, briefly using a controller and primarily using a Thrustmaster T248R wheel.

Project Motor Cars is the latest game to release into the ever growing world of sim racing / Straight4 Studios, GIANTS Software

What modes are in Project Motor Racing?

Just a quick note on the menus - there are lines of commentary and interviews from iconic sportscar racing moments soundtracked by ambient tones. This was a nice touch and made navigating menus much more interesting.

At the top of the menu is multiplayer, where there are options to play ranked, create a custom lobby and social. I was unable to access this during the review period and have therefore not taken it into account here.

In single player, there is the option to do a custom race weekend or a career.

Race weekend allows you to get stuck into the action much quicker - you pick how many opponents to race against and how good they are. You can toggle practice qualifying and race lengths and the weather. Once you've set up your car how you want it, you're out on the track.

It's great the experience has been streamlined in this way to get you out on track and racing around as quickly as possible. This is something I found throughout my time with the game so far.

Career is detailed for a sim racer and there's so much more at stake. Instead of purely racing different events and everything being focused on the track more like a championship mode, in Project Motor Racing there is a huge focus on managing finances, especially in Authentic mode. That can be down to what continent your HQ is based and how much it costs to get to certain events.

Sponsorship and achieving certain objectives is absolutely key to not just progressing but surviving and there are different options suited to how you want to go racing - there are higher risk, higher reward options such as getting more for standing on the podium, racing cleanly or having a more consistent flat fee.

You can change budget options if you want to start from the bottom and build up or jump straight in at the deep end, allowing you to purchase a more expensive car. Different championships can be entered with different entry fees and winnings.

There's much more of a focus on you being your own racer and how you want to go about this is completely down to you, which is fantastic. It made me feel much more like I was in control of my own journey and not just pandering to team objectives all the time.

There are repair costs to be factored in too and this genuinely had me changing how I raced on track.

I found myself being much more conservative and less likely to send an ambitious move down the inside as it could be the difference between me being able to compete at the next event or having to sell what's left of my car just to stay afloat.

It can be brutal if you want that experience and you can find yourself getting stuck at dead ends. Authentic mode disables race restarts too and sets the AI to the max, meaning you're in for a proper challenge.

Of course, this can be dialled down if you want to just focus on the track and set to a Classic experience, but the option to have this level of authenticity in a sim racer career mode should be commended.

Sim racers focus about having the best experience on track but it's refreshing to have a deep and meaningful career mode that offers something strong in that regard.

Project Motor Racing is brilliant behind the wheel - for the most part / Straight4 Studios, GIANTS Software

There are also Challenges with two different options in Endurance Hall and Factory Driver.

Endurance Hall features full length races such as 43 laps around Spa with LMDh cars or 10 laps of Nordschleife with GT3 cars where players compete to win and get the best times.

Factory Driver is the game's time trial mode where you compete against others to get best time in different settings. For example, there's a cover art challenge where you drive the Lamborghini SC63 LMDh on the Nurburgring Nordschleife, as shown on the artwork, to see what the best time you can get is.

There are a handful of different options across these at launch and more will be added as the game goes on. Factory Driver gets addictive very quickly, especially as you start to find a rhythm.

In Challenge mode, it does take quite a bit of time for stats to load between each trial which is a bit frustrating. It's not quick flicking between the different options.

Having said that, although sim racing is primarily multiplayer focused, a strong array of singe-player options will keep players engaged if they want a different experience.

There's Driver Profile where there are some basic options such as changing nationality and tweaking the colour of your race suit. It feels very bare bones.

With Project Motor Racing at launch, there's the option to change three suit colours and that's it. I know of course the focus is the driving but it would be nice to add some more of my personality onto my driver.

Car interiors are stunningly detailed / Straight4 Studios, GIANTS Software

How does Project Motor Racing look and perform?

Project Motor Racing largely performs how I would expect a sim racer to - with the occasional drawback here and there.

Starting with the menus, they're all seamless to navigate through, even when getting into granular detail of tweaking car settings, more on that in a moment. It's clear where you are and what you're doing at all times even if some loading times looking at multiplayer menus can take a bit too long.

On the track, the tracks themselves look fantastic - you can really see if they're rubbered in or not and they look great in the wet. Cars are incredibly detailed and the interiors are stunning with electronic dashboards on wheels displaying real-time data.

Speaking of which, weather appears to be dynamic to a point. I've seen better weather physics in other sim racers but it's not the worst by any stretch.

I did notice the odd texture or shadow pop in which distracted me at times when I was in the flow. Around the track, the level of detail is not the best however the lighting is superb.

Sunrise and sunsets in different seasons are something to behold but with the seasons, aside from track temperature and lighting, there isn't much difference, such as the absence of snowy landscapes in the Winter.

The sound is simply superb - every car has its own unique sound and hearing the throaty shouts of older cars with huge turbos never grows tiresome.

Puddles form on track like Spa-Francorchamps - but weather doesn't feel particularly dynamic / Straight4 Studios, GIANTS Software

What's the gameplay like in Project Motor Racing?

Now for the big one with any racing game - what's Project Motor Racing actually like to play?

Before you get to the track, there are a number of different settings you can tweak, both in terms of car setup and how the game looks and feels itself.

In vehicle setup, there are all the detailed options you'd expect in a racing sim, such as tyres and chassis that let you set up exactly how you want the car to be, including individual tyres, pressure for each, steering stiffness, aero and granular force feedback settings.

Suspension has incredibly granular details too, as does engine and drivetrain, allowing you to tweak the settings of the car exactly how you would want them like in real life. You can also change your pit settings too so you don't have to do it on the fly if you're running to strategy.

To note, you start with all assists off, so don't be caught out by that if you need them.

The camera starts by default in the cockpit and again, with it being a sim racer, this is how it's designed to be played. There are a lot of settings, such as field of view, height and even mirror positioning and angles that can be customised.

There are loads of input device settings to tweak if you want to play around with that too, such as steering sensitivity, force feedback response and deadzones for throttle and braking.

Of course, the game is designed for use with a wheel, but I started off with a controller just to see what it's like. And it's so incredibly tricky.

As it's a sim racer, it's designed so that you can feel the smallest of inputs and that doesn't really translate to a controller. You can tweak the settings to use one but you have to dampen down the authenticity here.

It does take some trial and error to get the settings in a place where you can even get around a corner and get fully on the throttle without the rear spinning out on you. This way of course robs some of the authenticity from it being a sim but if you want a more casual experience, there is that on offer. It just takes some time to get the feel you want.

Nurburgring Nordschleife is of course a standout / Straight4 Studios, GIANTS Software

Getting my trusty Thrustmaster T248R connected, and experiencing how Project Motor Racing is supposed to be played, naturally the experience was much better - for the most part.

Let's start with the positives - the force feedback is fantastic. Every tiny little bump, piece of rubber and even drains in the pitlane you can feel through the wheel both through vibrations and how the car pulls.

It feels so authentic out on track when driving the GT classes and classic cars. It's a joy to drive and you really feel like you've earned it when scooping a win or pulling off the perfect lap.

However there are some gripes that I hope can be fixed post launch.

LMDh cars feel almost impossible. They're so sensitive that I constantly felt like I was driving on the snowy roads of Sweden in a rally car. Now of course, I'm no Max Verstappen, but I don't consider myself a slouch yet I really struggled here.

It's authentic and those more talented than me will enjoy the challenge but it had me quickly dismissing racing these cars at all. There is a launch patch so it will be interesting to see if this has been altered at all.

As for the AI, it's passable, quite literally - some opponents do offer some defence but it's not aggressive. On lower difficulties, you can drive around them without them offering much of a fight.

They were never fully line astern but the AI did not simulate real driver behaviour well. Project Motor Racing simulates your own on-track experience superbly but in single-player, it would be nice if the AI was a bit more advanced.

It seems as though multiplayer will offer a really authentic experience at launch in that regard whereas single-player AI needs some work.

Project Motor Racing has room for improvement but is still good at launch / Straight4 Studios, GIANTS Software

What's the verdict on Project Motor Racing?

As far as being a racing sim goes, Project Motor Racing is brilliant at recreating what it would feel like to drive iconic racing cars around real-world tracks.

The attention to detail on the cars and tracks is fantastic, the force feedback is superb and the way tiny details such as rubber on track or even a drain in the pitman pulling your steering is so immersive. If it was a driving sim, LMDh aside, it would be fairly flawless.

But in terms of it being a racing sim, when looking at single-player, the AI needs to be a bit more advanced in terms of how racers would react to you in the real world. Career mode has so much potential if this can be fixed and a few performance issues need ironing out too.

As for multiplayer, while I cannot comment definitively, it seems as though there will be much more fun to be had in this mode at launch.

Where Project Motor Racing launches off from is encouraging if future updates help to refine the experience and iron out some of the kinks.

7/10

Project Motor Racing is out on 25 November on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

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