Today, Slightly Mad Studios shocked absolutely no avid PretendRaceCars.net reader by announcing that WMD sign-ups are open for Project CARS 2, less than two months after the release of a game that spent four years in development, tested and “perfected” by 80,000 sim racing enthusiasts. Above is the first gameplay footage, of build #0000 featuring a Mitsuubishi Lancer RallyCross car at what appears to be a generic physics testing facility.
The comical investment tiers have only gotten more absurd – while standard “toolkits” are available for those who want to treat Project CARS 2 as a traditional early access title, spending upwards of 1000 euros nets you some fairly cheeky rewards, including a dinner date with Ian Bell himself!
All of this comes six weeks after the launch of Project CARS, which has featured a notorious amount of bugs and glitches that Slightly Mad Studios have barely began working on fixing. A quick adventure to the official forums will net you a lengthy list of bugs, glitches, and oddities – some of which hadn’t been fixed since the game began development in early 2012.
I just can’t believe what I’m seeing:
- Slightly Mad Studios banned users who voiced genuine concerns about the quality of Project CARS, months before release.
- WMD Moderators admitted the game shouldn’t have been released in it’s current state.
- Slightly Mad Studios simply bought out other driving game publications to silence criticism of the title.
- When criticism was not silenced on other message boards, the head of the studio himself attempted to bribe the site owner into silencing criticism.
- Slightly Mad Studios intentionally included confusing force feedback menus to blame a sub-par driving experience solely on a user who didn’t understand how to configure them.
- Before Project CARS was even on store shelves, there were already plans for a sequel.
All this for a flashy, buggy version of Race 07.
I have been in “Michael Jackson eating popcorn gif” mode all day.
Soooo glad I got my refund on time.
Perhaps this one will be the true groundbraking simulator.
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This has to be a sick joke…if its real they are about to lose every fan they have left.
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I figuratively coughed up blood.
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You should also see Ian Bell threatening to close down the Project CARS forum due to all of the people criticizing the decision to open crowdsourcing for PCars 2 so quickly.
Also, I signed onto the PCars 2 forum just to see what was up, only to realize that you are required to use your REAL NAME in order to sign up. And even after that, this is the message that is given to all that sign up…
Dear (name withheld),
Welcome to Project CARS 2 and WMD!
Firstly, thanks for your registration. We hope you’ll purchase your Access to enjoy the project.
You’re going to join a project which is in development, with a role to play in making sure the game gets finished to the very best level of quality.
And now the really important bit: the WMD forum isn’t a “normal” discussion forum. It’s effectively the “virtual office” where game development is done. It’s not a place for random discussions and arguments (albeit we do have an off topic forum :) ). It’s also absolutely not the place for slagging off the game or development team without constructive suggestions for improvement. It’s especially important to understand the “in development” part – many many things are buggy, not finished, or not even there at all. This is just a fact of development and it helps nobody if you get upset or angry about this and post a rant saying so. :)
We appreciate that it’s an unusual system and will be hard for some to get used to. At the same time we won’t tolerate members who don’t follow the process. If a new member joins and dives in to the forum creating problems straight away then they will be removed immediately. Longer term members who break the rules will be warned initially, but if they continue to offend then their accounts will be removed also.
Sorry to put this so harshly but our job is to make the very best game possible in the time we have. We don’t have the time (or frankly the inclination) to allow the forum to be polluted by rule breakers, as this just slows us down.
I should say in general btw that the process is working really well so far. The vast majority of members “get it” very quickly and we have a very constructive and positive environment. It’s easy for negativity to creep in though, so we’ll do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen.
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Oh wow you weren’t kidding…
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Actually, those are not even “investment” tiers, those are available only above 10k and on an individual (contractual) basis. Unlike in the case of the first game, you’re just pledging now. Kickstarter style.
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I wonder if this is the near similar reaction when Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 was announced as a retail title AFTER FIVE months of the release of the original Marvel vs Capcom 3.
At least we know what happened next in UMvC3’s case.
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This is fucking depressing. People are actually supporting this, thinking it’ll help make it better than the first one. Are they all so ‘starved’ for a ‘next-gen’ sim that they’ll turn a blind eye to what’s happened with the first game ? 4 years and it’s barely what the Shift series wanted to be.
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I think people are supporting it, because it’s not that bad as you may paint it. There’s a few permanent-unhappy people who live on the hate (no matter what game it is..), but there’s tons of games out there that are the majority, and they loves pcars.
It’s not that those thousands who are signing up (and paying) to PCARS2 forum are blind, they know perfectly what’s pcars1 is, they likes it, and wanted something even better in the future.
If you think something, but the whole world is telling you the opposite, you should stop, and maybe rethink: “…and if it isn’t really that bad?”.
If you didn’t it yet.. I suggest you to buy pcars and enjoy the fun we’re having!
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I believe that they are blind and weak, you can see how many lickers exist on the official forum, that whatever ian says they press like, no matter how bad it is. Some ppl want to be dominated all time. And no matter how much I wanted to love the game, (cause I love the shift series, call me crazy) the bugs was a minus, but the attitude of most wmd members and ian himself, made me hate the game.
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They are supporting it because pcars is fun.. it’s not that everything you read here is the truth. Millions out there have their own opinion.
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Ian bells comments on virtualr.net are fucking priceless, was gonna qoute all but this bell end has proven more than once what spoilt self entitled little prick of a man he is, honestly you wanna see some shocking reply’s head on over and have a gander.
One for example about high cost of min buy in and ppl not buying in because of that “he wants to keep those kind of ppl out” honestly its like he hired a 13 year old to do his PR.
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I’ve been VERY generous with Project CARS always giving it the benefit of the doubt. I still don’t think it’s a terrible game, but it is most certainly a deeply flawed one that I have trouble recommending.
This is the straw that broke the camel’s back though. Up until this point I had been playing a pirated version because I was so skeptical about the game. During the Steam sale I figured “I spent enough time ‘evaluating’ this game, and I don’t think the game is really THAT bad so I figure I’ll give them the $30″
Immediately after the Steam sale ends. This happens. I’m sorry, but no. This is not how it’s supposed to work. I was already on the fence with my opinion on Project CARS and this is the last straw. I’ve only played the game for a few hours on Steam, so I think I can get a refund, and that’ll be the end of that.
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2 hours of gametime is max for the refund. I kept myself under that, for this very reason! :)
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I’m going to try anyway. I’ve heard that as long as you give a good reason, Steam will allow you to bend the rules a little.
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If I hadn’t been an early investor and if I had just bought it after release, I would definitely have asked for a refund. I am a wmd member so hopefully there’s enough sales to get my money back and maybe a little more to boot.
It’s pretty and shiny with neat weather effects but that’s about as deep as it goes.
I am sure Pcars 2 will be built on the same weak physics core as Pcars 1 so I will not be buying in again.
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This dude on RD caught the whole situation brilliantly into one post and i couldn`t agree more :
“To me SMS/WMD’s entire approach has been a lesson in how not to make a video game
1. The ridiculous state this game was released in. There are games in alpha and beta right now that have far less issues than this game. Who let this game out the studio door with these issues?
2. The amount of hype that was doled out on blogs/forums (not here) etc was ridiculous and there was no way that the end product could even come close to the amount of hype that was represented. I may be in the wrong, but I feel it fell FAR short of the hype that was presented pre-release. I’m firmly disappointed in my purchase and wish I’d used the money instead to support other developers
3.Ian Bell’s behavior has been outlandish and childish here, on the official forums, and elsewhere. After seeing what he’s posted several places and his behavior, I won’t buy PCars 2 even if it has every single car I want, every track I want, and every feature I want. I refuse to support a studio with a person like that running it and will instead give my money to other devs (ISI, Reiza, Sector 3, etc)
4. I understand development cycles but announcing crowd funding for a new game when your game has been out less than two months and has several issues that make it unplayable for many folks on the PC side of things is in poor taste.
Again, I may very well be wrong, but I will not be purchasing or supporting Project Cars 2 and will not purchase another SMS/WMD product for the reasons listed above. I’m 41 years old and have been disappointed a number of times in video games, but never quite to this point. I’ve never had a game in such a sorry state that I’ve paid for and it’s no better now 2-3 patches in than it was the first time I played it.”
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That would be my comment. I’m glad you agreed.
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fast, we need a ricitas paellas video.
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Some people are clearly slightly mad…
[img]http://i.imgur.com/JxEs2Xq.png[/img]
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That is my post and I was being sarcastic. Mods didn’t like my posts criticizing SMS and banned me shortly thereafter.
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Copyright of Sharjeel @ RD :’)
“After releasing a gob of a game earlier this year, Completely Mad Studios in collaboration with World of Under Development has shamelessly announced the release of Rain Simulator 2 in 2017.The head of the studio Mr. Wookie, verified this in a separate statement adding that all their official forums are now open for begging. Begging will close once their coffers are full after which Mr. Wookie and his henchmen will head-off to Hawai and Vegas for an indefinite vacation. The flamboyant Mr. Wookie draws inspiration from Mr. Kim Jong-un and bans anyone who challenges him or his Rain Simulator on his home ground. Users of RS 1 do at times fly off the handle and accuse Mr. W of having simulated brilliant sun flares which have no place in a project that goes by the name of Rain Simulator.
Rain Simulator 1 although not officially moddable was used by low-end computer users as a GPU stress software. This was later revealed to be a free DLC by Mr. Wookie and his henchmen. The exact date for the release of Rain Simulator 2 has not been confirmed yet but Mr. W closed his official press statement saying that, “This time we will simulate snow, storms, hailstones, hurricanes, tornadoes and what not. The icing on the cake is that sun flares and Hurricane Sandy and Katrina will be available as free DLCs with RS 2.”
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It looks like they collected 1,000 paying members in 12 hours. We can talk about our opinions, but the facts (and numbers) are telling us another story. Hmmmm…
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lol, £65,050 in 24 hours, most of which is pledged by die hard fanboys… you call that success? xD barely 200k copies sold on Steam (and that’s AFTER their -40% summer sale).. yeah, no
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The membership is set to a higher level in price to avoid the trolls, so there will be only people really interested to help to develop the title, it is a very smart move in my opinion.
We can’t deny that 1,000 paying users in less than 24 hours, for a game that doesn’t exists yet, is a huge success, iRacing won’t reach that result with a (almost) complete game!
As far as I know, Steam doesn’t publish the copies sold (they are all guesstimate), the publisher does. So far we only know that the game sold more than 1 million of copies (on all the three platforms), and it’s a respectable result for a new brand. Other games like Assetto Corsa in example sold less than 500,000 copies so far (in the Steam summer sales, with a lower prices, it wasn’t in the classification, while pcars remained in the top sellers).
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3 of them have even spent £1,000 each… unless i’m missing something, the opinion about pcars out there isn’t that bad after all!
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Why must you have to do this for EVERY single Project CARS article?
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Even the nuthuggers on VirtualR are revolting over this. Absolutely hilarious.
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Can we report Virtualr to the FCC for not disclosing paid promotions?
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I believe so. If (and I’m pretty sure they are) they are posting some sort of information that potentially benefits other parties in exchange for good or services without disclosure, (particularly things like reviews that give even the implication of impartiality by simply failing to clearly disclose any ‘exchanges’) then they are in violation of FTC rulings.
The disclosures have to be prominent, they cannot be hidden away in FAQ and rubbish like that.
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i love how people are just beginning to see the issues this shitty blog pointed out months ago
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I love how people are deginning to see issues with this shitty blog.
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By Ian Bell’s own admission, they don’t even need crowdfunding money to make Project CARS 2. They’re only doing it so that they can filter out feedback.
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You can pay to help us develop! Just don’t say anything remotely critical (Ian’s ego is very fragile), or we’ll toss you out!
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I think being critic is OK, but kids crying are annoying, we can’t negate it.
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A minimum of £50 (that are almost 75 euros) is a smart move in my opinion. With all those 10 euro boys on WMD (who didn’t even understood that it wasn’t a early access!) there was too much buzz.
Now finally (hopefully) there will be more “adult” people who understand what means “developing a video game”.
The hell, some people doesn’t even understand that it needs years, they believe that a developer, after have finished a game, should sit and wait for 2 years that a new game magically appears. :)
You don’t need the whole dev team for pcars1 (new contents, fix, DLCs), you must already assign part of it to the new projects, you don’t pay a salary to the devs to let them sit on a chair.
I’m excited!
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Mr. Bell, you don’t have to stay anonymous anymore
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What are these people even pay considering this isn’t an investment like the first and SMS admitted they don’t need money from the public? Just for a chance to post something pointless like “I THINK YOU SHOULD HAVE THEM NEW FARRRARIS”?
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People that are happy with Project CARS and people who partecipated to WMD before. It’s not that everyone out there is a user of this blog (but actually the opposite).
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You aren’t developing the game, you’re just some random asshole who got cucked twice by ian bell. There was never any “community assisted” part.
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Holy shit my sides.
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Correct. The community-part in the name was utterly shit and a lie. Look at the game now. Does Project CARS do anything different/ better than most other racing games out there? No, it doesn´t. The whole game-concept has been designed by the developer behind closed doors and it was just pretended as if community has to say anything when it comes to how the game wil end gameplay-/ feature-wise. Anything included in the game is also included/ present in other racing games and simulations. There is nothing different. You wouldn´t need a community to build such a game. It´s just an average-Joe-racing game which could have been build by any developer.
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Better re-up those gameplay videos, whatever schmuck uploaded them made ’em private.
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Buggy and flashy Race 07 version… I don’t think anyone summarized this game better! Spot on description. :)
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I think they passed the target of 100k pounds in 24 hours? This is crazy!
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Yeah, people today are so eager to have there money taken for no reason
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LOL, keep dreaming
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They really passed 100k in 24 hours.. look at the banner with the counter.
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They only made £20k today. I’m expecting most of the hardcore fans have already pledged and this £20k will turn into £15 tomorrow. then £10k the day after. Until people just stop pledging.
I can see this never making it to the £7m proposed target
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There’s the graphic with the bars, divided by days, the second day the made more than the first day: 62,000 euros (the first day it was 59,000 euros). Where are you reading you numbers?
Also those 7millions are not supposed to be pldged by the users, most of the money required for the development will be injected by the external investors, the devs and the publisher, I expect the members money partecipation to be lower, they will close the member participation pretty soon, so go buy your membership while you still in time!
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it’s easy maths, last night, around this time, the game was at £316k, today it’s at £336k. That makes it £20k made today.
Don’t worry about me buying a membership, I’m not that stupid.
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I suggest you to revise your math, since pcars2 opened only the 22 of June (in the evening, EU time), they are not even been 48 hours while i’m typing this post… unless you live on the Jupiter, and the day there is only 9h long.
I told you to purchase a membership now only because you could remain out, since the membership signup may be closed well before the target, nor that i’m worried about your money.
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Project Cars took 140 people to make and SMS have 40 people remaining on P-Cars (at a great cost to SMS according to Ian Bell) to fix all of the fuckups missed by the 80,000 QA testers as well as creating DLC. I’m sure they’ll fix all of the various bugs, glitches and issues…yeah right.
SMS have form for making half baked shite – look at the unofficial community mods for both NFS: Shift and Unleashed which fixed what SMS couldn’t be arsed to fixed.Then there is the PTMu mod to fix SMS’s fuckup of a tyre model for Unleashed…
I don’t see the excitement to join the P-Cars 2 kickstarter. Entry is £50 and the reward is a standard copy of the PC game – anyone with a brain will wait either avoid the game or wait for a Steam sale when the game is 40% off.
Ian Bell gloats they don’t need the cash; they want mature adults to help fettle their game into being a sublime experience. Pity the head of the studio acts like a petulant child most of the time. As for paying £10,000 to have dinner with Ian, go buy an OXO Good Grips Box Grater for £11.99, wank with that and pocket the £9,988.01. It’ll be more fun than spending 5 minutes with that egomaniac.
If you want to support a real sim developer that produces a rock solid sim racing experience complete with sublime physics, FFB, working netcode for online racing and FREE updates, Reiza Studios will have their own ‘crowdfunding’ up soon: http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/interview-reiza-studios-unveils-its-crowdfunding-plans.107722/
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Reiza
“While I can see how having that insight and the option (even if merely illusory) of helping develop the game is an appealing novelty to some, as an user myself I prefer my initial contact with a creative project to be with something that at least resembles the finished article.”
Hahaha… That was a pretty slick burn. This (your link) is good news for GSCE.
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I bought Project Cars and im starting to regret it. It all seems all too familiar with a pyramid-scheme. There is no way im going to invest or buy PC2. The way Ian Bell treats customers and deals with complaints with PC1 will just be repeated with PC2.
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