I’ll be honest right from the start: I also get dazzled by gorgeous reflections on a hood, a golden sunrise at Nürburgring, or those tiny raindrops sliding across the windshield as if the game hired a NASA physicist just to simulate water. I’m not made of stone. But there’s a point where visuals no matter how shiny or “photorealistic” stop being a luxury and start becoming a very expensive distraction.
And that’s exactly where our protagonist enters the story: Project Motor Racing, or as I like to call it when I’m in a certain mood: the simulator that wanted to be a movie star before learning how to walk.
The Paradox of a Simulator That Forgot to Simulate
There’s an uncomfortable truth in this hobby that everyone knows but few dare to say out loud because it hurts feelings: a simulator without proper Force Feedback is like a guitar without strings. It can look beautiful, have pearl inlays and a flawless finish… but it doesn’t play.
And PMR, unfortunately, walked onto the stage without strings.
Yes, it looked stunning. Yes, it impressed. Yes, it had that aura of “you’re going to lose your mind when you try it.” But once you sat behind the wheel, the car transmitted less information than an answering machine.
And that’s where I thought: Are we really repeating this story? Another simulator pouring its soul into visuals while forgetting the fundamentals?
The AI: A Co-Driver Who Doesn’t Know What It Wants
Then there’s the Artificial Intelligence. In a simulator, AI should be that reliable opponent: competitive, coherent, maybe a bit mischievous, but stable. PMR’s AI, on the other hand, behaved like a group of teenagers trying to rehearse an experimental choreography. Not one of the good ones.
Once again I thought: The hardest part is making the cars and drivers behave believably! Visuals are the easy part. Visuals are the wrapping. Why do we keep confusing wrapping with the gift?
Let me get a little reflective (just a little I’m not here to enlighten anyone). There’s a dangerous trend in the industry: believing that if a game “looks incredible”, then “it’s done.” That players will fall for the visuals and forgive the rest.
I get the temptation. It’s far easier to sell a trailer full of particle effects than an update about physics stability. But at the end of the day, sim racers especially the meticulous ones who get angry if the car loses traction half a second earlier than expected don’t see a racing game; they see a tool for connecting with the real car.
If that tool is broken, everything else matters less.
But There’s a Spark in There, Hidden Somewhere
I want to end on a more optimistic note, because despite my complaints which come from a place of affection, even if it doesn’t sound like it PMR has something special. That creative spark, that artistic ambition, that desire to be larger than life.
And if they manage to fix the essentials the Force Feedback that should be the heartbeat of the car, the AI that should act as both companion and rival, the stability that should be the ground we stand on then maybe, just maybe, PMR can become much more than a “pretty simulator.”
But until then, and I say this lovingly, with humor and a hint of resignation:
graphics don’t save a simulator; the soul that comes through the wheel does
If PMR finds that soul, I’ll be here, ready to give it another lap. If not… well, at least it gave us some gorgeous sunrises.
See you on the track!
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No VR, no buy.
Vr sucks though lol head tracking is better.
Well, on PS5 it doesn’t even look good, in fact it looks really awful, well below acceptable for a new PS5 game, try it back to back with ACC and you’ll see what I mean.
Not a VR fan if I want to vomit I’ll get spectacularly drunk. From what I’m told (I’m not dropping £53 on this piece of junk) it’s not that good graphically either.
It’s a crowded market place and to succeed you have to be good, really good. Broken AI. Unfinished GT3’s and Hypercars (put in because LMU is doing well) FFB that rips your arms off one minute then is completely uncommunicative the next.
Here’s the thing, has Ian bell produced anything worthy since Elite in the 80’s and then I suspect Dave Braben did the heavy lifting
We need something fresh, like a Nascar simulator, an Indy simulator, a F1 simulator, or in any case something that aspires to do one thing, one thing but well, like ACR. We do not need another ambitious-dreamer-want-to-do-it-all
At the end of the day, a simulator with multiple cars can only do so well anyway. I still drive the old GTR and GTR2 by sim bin from time to time. The physics are so good.
Looks like a PS3 game on a standard PS5. Not sure what all this “spectacular graphics” talk is about.