If you haven't been living under a fully furnished, sound and radio wave proof rock in the last 6 months, and you have an interest in simulation racing games, I'm sure you've heard a bit about Project CARS, a new community-funded and developed simulation racing game by Slightly Mad Studios (known for NFS Shift series, GTR2 and GT Legends).

I also know that there's certainly quite a mass of opposing people in the internet who will stop at nothing to sprout negative opinions about the ongoing development of the game. Now, I'm not going to lower myself to their level by attacking them for something that doesn't have any objective ground, but I will mention that they have placed themselves in an awfully large veil of ignorance towards the potential of this project.

If you're new to racing games, or just a casual player, then there's also much you can still do for light enjoyment within Project CARS. Although it's targeted for the more 'simulation' focused players, there's nothing stopping new players grabbing a controller, keyboard or racing wheel and going about their business in a Quick Race, Online Race or other game mode. If scripting and such is available to set up custom race events, I'm sure we'd be seeing a vibrant community of mixed participation/skill levels, with everything from Gymkhana, Touge Battle, Drag Races and much more...

There's also something in it for those who like shiny, impressive and "realistic" visuals. What most people would commonly describe as "stunning graphics", are more so the result of carefully tuned and refined aesthetics that combine with graphics techniques to give you a wonderfully customisable (at this time) and animated experience. If the following means anything to you, I'm sure you'll love it as much as I'm saying that it's one of the most highly featured modern game rendering engine by far:

- DirectX 11 Multi-Threaded Deferred Renderer
- Multiple Dynamic Lights with Variable Shadow Quality
- Full HDR-R with Adjustable Options
- Etc.

There's certainly lots to feature in that department, but that could take an entire day or two to post.

The important thing now is that you check out www.wmdportal.com for all the latest news and announcements on Project CARS.

Feel free to join the forums and even purchase a development toolpack to get involved with helping to develop the most promising community-developed simulation game by far.

Oh, and this totally wasn't an advertisement.

Enjoy!

Razor Blayde, Atamarashi