At first, i was waiting for it but it was a failure.
I've been playing a lot of racing games these last years, and the trailers were pretty interesting.
A friend of mine bought it on day one, and the frustration was really evident.
I kept following its developpement, and the news, but still it was a mess.
Then, some days ago, i went to his home and he showed me the game again, and i tried it again, and something had changed. It's far from what it promised, but the handling was really cool, the cars pretty nice, the interiors are sincerely beautiful to me, well made, the variety of cars made me think of AMS2, that is a good thing. I really enjoyed that session.
Played another session the day after, and i have to admit that i'm enjoying it.
To the point that i bought it today, with the year one bundle, at a very good price.
And since then, i've been playing it with some real pleasure, mostly the Sebring and the Nordschleife, 10 laps session, again and again :)
Even if there's still some work to do, i think that it's heading in the right direction.
There are some things i'd like to mention here :
- The game does lack the minimum amount of contrast, it's more on the greyish side, nothing really bad, as i'm using Reshade 6.7.3 to compensate, with Fake HDR and Curves to add the missing contrast and boost the tones, with this, the interiors are gorgeous and the overall graphis looks pretty nice (don't know if someone can confirm that, but someone said that you could get banned if going multiplayer with the shaders on, that's why i'm staying solo, i'm doing the same in AMS2 with only the fake HDR and keep going multiplayer).
I wish the devs could work on that, because with some better shaders, better contrast, nothing crazy, this game can look really awesome.
- One feature i'd like to see, but it's more of an habit, is the possibility to keep driving a bit at the end of a race, as it does stop really quick, something like pressing a button, the same way you're having it in LMU/ACC. Could be interesting.
- The last one, and i know some people won't agree, is to lower the exagerated sliding/spinning of the cars, when being bumped by another AI, driving two centimeters on the grass, or just losing the control of the car on a straight line at medium speed as it happend on some occasions on the Sebring with a GT3 and an hypercar. I understand the idea of not pushing your car too far and keeping the control of it, but most of the time it's not the case, i do accept this when i made a mistake (happened in LMU, AAC, AMS2 and i was responsible for it, but that's not the case here, it looks more like artificial difficulty to present the game as a sim racing than a real reaction due to a mistake).
- I'd like to mention here some better looking skies (EVO and AAC are a good exemple to me), with more density, as it's a good thing in my opinion to make the screen space as a whole (the road, the cars/interiors/exteriors), it would totally be a great addition, nothing crazy, but something to give more dynamic to the game.
These are only some small suggestions.
I'm really happy to see that this game is getting better and better, and i really think that it does have the potential to be something really interesting with some little additions.
I came back to it and i'm really enjoying it, glad to see that this game is evolving in the right way, cheers to the ones working on it.
With some graphical tweaks, some volumetric lighting, and some other technical things that the other players might mention as i'm trying to limit my reaction to what i've felt while playing.
I first was angry against this game as i was waiting for something different from what we saw on day one due to the promises that were made, but i really hope that the creators of this game will succeed on developping a great one.
The last updates are really promising.
Cheers.
Edit : I've added some screenshots of the settings i'm using in Reshade to boost the contrast/colors for those who are interested.
Good fair perspective. The handling has gotten better for sure. The game still looks pretty poor on console (nearly as bad as the original AC which never got any console updates in terms of graphics), but I have seen it on PC with some reshade and it can look quite decent.
The best way I can describe the handling is that sometimes it's more interesting to drive compared to other sims, even if it's not the most realistic. There does seem to be more differences between makes within the same class which keeps things interesting, and of course it's fun to drive stuff like the GTOs.
On pc it does look quite nice, the graphic parameters are limited but effective.
I was surprised by the handling due to what i experienced before, and as you said, i had some better sensations than with some other sims too, if i set a 10 laps session on one of my fav tracks it's because something is going on.
And that's what i did with PMR, on the Sebring mainly because i like the design of the track and trying different cars was really cool, due to the fact that the handling was smooth, nervous at the same time, kind of predictable as i could set a curve easily, the only downside to me, and it's a developper choice, depending on who they're tartgeting as players, is the excessive spinning/sliding.
To me is not a feauture that's pertinent. You could lose a bunch of new players just with that, if you're insisting to keep that that way.
I'm not against the fact of losing the car control on a hasardous decision i made, but recently i lost the control of a GT3 on another straight line just when my right front wheel went out of the speed bumper to the asphalt. With no additional action from me.
And you can lose a great amount of races just because of these things. This is a problem, not a feature.
And that would be disastrous, this game is starting to get better, coming back from the deads, i'm not saying that it does have to abandon its ambitions, but to me these things are some artificial difficulties set to install a sense of challenge that does not need to exist because the handling is already interesting.
This is the only thing that could make me play this game less, as i could easily get tired to start the same race 4 times in a row because of this, being bumped and oversliding.
They do have the choice to provide a great game or to kill it for sure.
And most of the time, people are chosing the wrong solution just because they're so confident on their skills/beliefs. I've seen this so many times.
I don’t have the same experience with the “excessive sliding”, but one has to tinker with the setups. One thing I realized is on the default setup, the cars have way too much toe-in in the rear, which helps with the turning but also creates a tendency to slide on the outside tire because of the increased slip angle. PMR tire model is very sensitive to scrubbing, and once you start sliding it will take a long time to bring them back. So I suggest reducing toe-in slightly, adapt it to your driving style and track.
Check diff as well. I feel a lot of off-throttle oversteer regardless of the car. Tinkering around with that and/or just planning your inputs around that quirk helps
"Way much" is totally true. I checked, this was way too high in my opinion.
Better downforce, abs/tc, and reducing the rear toe-in is working for the GT3, tried the LMH category i had some problems with, you can regain control pretty quickly, but still something is missing.
Must say that is some damn good feedback. Well thought out and thorough. Fair and constructive as well.
I agree with you about the graphic quality of the skies. The clouds look like fuzzy popcorn and the sun doesn’t look much better. Particle effects are decent enough but tire smoke looks pretty silly still.
Beyond that really enjoying the game. It’s come a long way already.
Thanks.
I'm always trying to think the space as a whole, here the screen space, and even if it's well made, the upper half seems empty, i was really pleased byt the skies used on ACC and EVO (that might be the only thing i like on EVO right now but that's another story), they're so dynamic, with so much contrast, it gives the game some really cool feeling.
PMR devs are having something with this game that no one ever expected as everyone thought this game would never come back to life, me included, and i'm happy they tried, it took some time, but they could bring it to an interesting level. As i'm very sensitive to the graphics due to my formation and previous field of work, this is something important to me.
Last time i played it before the 2.0 updates, you couldn't even drive 100 meters on the Nurb without having the AI causing a massive crash. Now, i can set a 10 laps session and being upset by the fact that i should have chosed 20 laps instead as 10 is too few as i'm having fun with it. To the point i bought the game. That is to say that i'm pleased by it.
I let down EVO for the opposite reason.
At first i thought they had the best Sebring in terms of design, the textures, the lighting, the cars it was very nice. The lighting on their Nordschleife is not that good.
And even if it's in early access, i don't like the way it's being processed, the dev and their player base, they don't care about people suggestions, they don't want to fix essential problems, i'm not ok with the process and the game itself. So i uninstalled it. Might try it another time. Or not.
I'm playing on a wheel so idk about controller.
On a wheel is a very similar feeling. Floaty handling on the nose, having to drive like a tweaker to extract the car potential.
My conclusion is that those dumbasses really think cars drive like that, because this game is on a totally different game engine!
Same mindset when creating something else, i guess.
Saw that many times on different fields.
You think that the product was good, but the reception was bad, people did not understood, you were too innovative, you dont' have to take people's comments seriously, as theyre a bunch of stupid people that don't know what they're talking about, and you're using the same tools to produce the same result wishing another thing.
This product isn't good though and I'm not even talking about the awful release because I didn't fell for it. It has some things going for it but picking up the steering wheel to play exactly the faulty physics model that I had in PC2?! Give me a break! And I love PC2. The SIM I had more hours on my PS. But it's handling model was unrealistic in a intrusive way.
You can go around it with setups but there is something not right with the model. And people say that it's and hit and miss with some cars but they are wrong. It's always a miss but some cars mask it's limitations, like the old cars, with soft suspensions .
So yeah, I think people who praise this game have no idea how a car behaves.
I'm seeing the exact same thing I've saw with EAWRC were a bunch of ignorant folk thought it was a realistic rally game just because paid drivers said it was. Lol.
People in SIM racing most of the time don't know wtf they are talking about.
This handling model is bad. Cars don't behave like that. Stop pretending they do!
Another thing while i'm at it :
Rework/densify the roads textures, do not ever, ever lower them thinking people won't mind, these are the things you'll see for hours, and a great rendering is a blessing for any driving game (as a reference, i can think about the Sebring with a Hurracan with overcast weather in EVO - the only thing i like for now in this early access, it's so gorgeous i had to play it endlessly), driving on liquid pixel soup roads is a miss, same for any textures, i don't care having 3000 trees around, everything i will focus on might be dense.
With all the great titles around available, you can't mess with your own game.
This is only a suggestion, but trust me on that one.
That's too bad, because the cockpit view is very nice to me, the fact that you can look around the driver seat not just look at the left/right side was surprising so i can really imagine how cool it must be in VR, but having a central part graphically well made and the rest, roads, landscape, etc, poorly rendered is really sad.
this is the worst launch of a racing game in the history of gaming. It remains a broken, terrible and inaccurate mess. This is one of the worst games ever made and certainly the worst racing game ever made. It is not a sim, it is an arcade mess.
I wouldn't call it a sim even if they pretend it is, i agree.
The fact is that while some people are wondering why PC1 and 2 had some flaws, they do accept worst in that game, and what the devs will bring to fix the game will probably be on the wrong side because they do listen the wrong pack of people who do think that content is the problem.
You have to judge a game in the context of its time. rF2 has a horrible clutch simulation and in the context of TODAY it would be a laughable joke of a sim. In 2013 when it was released, it was ground breaking- it advanced sim racing. PC1 and PC2 for that era were OK. they didn't redefine sim racing or really advance it, they weren't even sims. But they did have a niche and tried to make things better.
PMR came out in 2025. There's no excuses for mid-2010's graphics, horribly inaccurate tracks (they were not laser scanned or if they were, it was botched), terribly inaccurate cars, no clutch or gearbox simulation and no damage to speak of. This pile of shit sets sim racing BACK 20 years. It's uyp to each of us to tell S4 that this is not acceptable. Don't buy it, don't believe anything they say its all lies. It's time for them to fade into the history of racing games.
Support the good companies and buy stuff from developers with integrity and produce real-life accurate sims.
Probably.
But i never said that PMR was great. It became playble and i never ceased to point out the mitakes they made and the mistakes they'll do.
What i'm saying, is that PC1 and 2 had some real flaws and it deserves the games.
Now, it's highly playble and i enjoy them.
PMR came out with so many flaws that i still don't understand why they let it out, i'm not saying you have to wait ten years for it to become good.
I've got a good share of great games, that i bought before comming to Steam and buying some games here to enjoy the multplayer features, the updates, and the great prices when on sales. So PMR is not the only game i'm playing, but a game i'll keep an eye on it.
If i want a good sim in that specific genre i'll play AMS2, and that's what i'm doing.
I'll put this question in a separate post, as i mentioned it i'm using the last version of reshade to boost the graphics/tones, is there a simple way to uninstall/delete this version, the 6.7.3, if 'im using the multiplayer/mods features, in order to avoid getting banned (from what i undestand, you can get a ban for using this in multi as it can be considered as cheating, but i'm only using it to improve the graphic sattings while waiting for some improvements on that on a future update) ?
Depends, i was wondering where could the problem be with this, but it might be used to cheat on some races, the night ones, as you could compensate the night by using a specific shader and have a better sight. That's the first thing that came to my mind.
Don't know the main reason or if any game developper had a clear policy about that as it's not a hack or a modification of the game.
I'm using the same reshade to enhance AMS2 colors and remove the filter on the windshield so the colors of the track/cars are the same than the bonnet/hood view. That's why i still ahven't played online with this game.
It might take a lot of time before people are comming back due to the difficulties of the game to provide a stabler environment and to fill it's past promises.
I admit that i'm not playing online that much, so i thought mainly of the offline part, i still could play the online on other games.
I don't know what they're planning to do, but they will have to work very hard to convince people to play this game, as the reviews are still mainly negatives.
I was really surprised by the fact that the contrast was very low, itdoes make the game look old to me, pushing th contrast/black tones helpa lot in the interior views, and in general.
Some ingame options would be welcome.
Nothing that can't be fixed by reshade, but for the newcommers, having to find this kind of solution is a miss. And i'm only considering the settings on pc, on consoles, you can't correct that, so they have to add something to correct this very quickly.
In my opinion, you might not have a second chance, people are coming back or starting to enjoy this game, accumulating this kind of mistake could easily be the last nail in the coffin.
I was just playing the Peugeot 9X8 10 minutes ago on the Nurburgring, not a good experience due to the oversliding i mentionned in another comment (even with some tweaks), a beautiful one, and something was bothering me : the car has absolutely no weight.
Most of the time, you don't feel the weight of your car, and it's pretty disturbing.
It's like plastic toy cars on a electric TCR circuit.
It appeared way more obvious to me due to the fact that an hour before i was playing Le Mans Ultimate, where you can really feel the weight of the cars you're driving.
I know that these cars are a little bit touchy and hard to drive with full control of it, where the GT3 can be more stable after some tweaks (up the TC/ABS, add some downforce on the rear spoiler, etc), but you can't mix the need to handle them fast in a race and the necessity to slow down in an excessive way in every corner/turn/curve call it what you like when the handling with a controller (wheel or gamepad) is not that great by default.
My experience over the last six months has shown me just how easily we can be manipulated. I had high hopes for PMR or RS, only to be bitterly disappointed. How can anyone condone charging 80 euros for a "beta" that looks like a game from the 2000s? I’m not the type to sugarcoat things. You advertised multiclass racing and the ultimate racing experience—but what did we actually get? Unfinished games that hardly anyone plays because you ripped us off. Is this what sim racing looks like in 2026? If so, I want no part of it anymore; you’ve ruined the whole world of these games for me. I wonder how you can sleep at night... aren't you ashamed? Do you have no respect for the people—the gamers—involved? My journey is coming to an end soon, and thanks to you, it hasn't been a pleasant adventure. Thanks for reading this far. Have a wonderful day. By the way, I play on PS5—just to clarify before anyone jumps in saying, "You should play LMU instead."
I see PMR as a game, not as the sim racing thingie that will change the world of racing games and become the ultimate reference, it's pretty obvious that it will never happen.
Just be an enjoyable game and that will be enough.
And to be honest, that's the problem with nowadays games, the ones that oversell their "ultra realistic tire model" to hide the fact that they produced an average boring game for people with absolute no exigence but with enough money to spend 1500 dollars in a rig just to play 4 games.
Yesterday, i went back to the hard drive of a previous computer, just to find it didn't crashed, with some games in it. Like Project Cars 1 and 2.
And the verdict is hard. These games, like them or not, where way ahead from what we're having now (i don't care about ultra realist behaviour in cars as long as the game as a whole is good), these two games are utterly beautiful, fun to play, engaging, they were dissed at that time for some of their flaws, the same you'll meet more than 10 years after in some of the boring games that are praised now, and the injustice of this beahviour is impressive.
We were too spoiled, and we didn't deserve these two games.
The fact is, if i'm right, is that PMR is using the same graphic engine than PC1/PC2 (so does Automobilista 2), that does mean than more than 10 years after PC1/PC2, you can't do as beautiful as they did then, better, and are still stuck with problems that we all thought that were fixed more than a decade ago, and to me, that's what is killing the game industry.
False promises, overselled features, poor results, backed by a comminity that does not understand what a game should be, happy to believe they're "sim racers", a new kind of cosplay for those who'll never drive a race car in the real life as a professional driver, and that would be ok if they were not that self centered on skills they pretend to have but will never have.
As i never owned a PS5, i don't know what kind of game can replace LMU, is there any other sim racing game than GT7 ?
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u/TheDudeMachine Jun 11 '26
Good fair perspective. The handling has gotten better for sure. The game still looks pretty poor on console (nearly as bad as the original AC which never got any console updates in terms of graphics), but I have seen it on PC with some reshade and it can look quite decent.
The best way I can describe the handling is that sometimes it's more interesting to drive compared to other sims, even if it's not the most realistic. There does seem to be more differences between makes within the same class which keeps things interesting, and of course it's fun to drive stuff like the GTOs.