Project Cars 3: PS4 Review

Developed by Slightly Mad Studios
Released by Bandai Namco

Platform: PS4

In a weird way, the third version of Project Cars feels very much like a take on the Forza Horizon series.

Ditching the simulation elements for a more arcade racer feel, the game's MO is more about fun than massively serious career progression, and engaging the mechanics among us to ensure the driving works.

That's not to say it's a bad thing for Project Cars 3 in any shape or form.

In fact, the reliance more on a laissez-faire approach works great wonders for the casual racer, who knows to brake into the corners and accelerate out of them, and who's willing to sacrifice immediate wins for a more continual feel of a grinding game.

There are needs to win various events and a desire to score pole position to unlock further events - it's not exactly the simulator that previous Project Cars games have been - and to be honest, given how that degree of simulator was going, that's no bad thing by a country mile.

It does however mean that Project Cars 3 lends itself more to a shallow pick up and play racer than a deep growing experience, but if you're willing to accept that, that's a bonus.

Because when it works, Project Cars 3 really does soar.

Beautifully transposed to the screen, with weather giving the driving game the feel it needs, Project Cars 3 more than looks the part. Tracks are simply laid out, and other competitors' cars glisten on the racing track, even if they're leaving you for dust and you're pinballing off the walls.

The extreme details of the past may be gone, and Slightly Mad Studios' desire to make this seem like any other kind of racer could in theory be criticised. But given how accessible this simulator is and how it's geared more to the player than the petrolhead, that's no bad thing.

Project Cars 3 is more than worth a spin, thanks to some precision points in the driving and handling and also the fact that it's almost as entertaining as going out for a Sunday afternoon drive on an empty road.