Despite Project CARS 3 being the third entry in the series known for its sim roots, it’s a very different beast to the last two games. With the focus now on close track action and a much more forgiving handling model, there’s definitely a pick-up-and-play feel that might be jarring for those expecting the hardcore offerings of the past. This time it’s boasting improved controller feel, and it is there, but maybe it’s not immediately obvious, and sticking with the defaults might see you spinning your tail happy supercar into the barrier too often. Not to worry though, a quick dive into the “Wheel & Force Feedback” options can make things a lot easier (‘cos that’s the logical place for controller settings…).
The main bit to focus on to tailor the Project CARS 3 joypad settings is in the bottom half of the menu, from Steering Deadzone onwards. Tweaking the deadzone for each of the Steering, Throttle and Brake is personal preference and whether your controller has any drift in the sticks or buttons that you need to compensate for. The benefits to more manageable control come in the sensitivity options for each of the Throttle and Brake, and dropping them down a good 20 points or so from the default value will see your finer inputs translate better to the on track action. This will still leave a decent amount of opportunity to kick the back end out by booting the accelerator, and make you feel like you’re taming the car, though will also give the chance to recover from disaster.
The screengrab below shows what we’ve been working with for most of our pad-based races and it’s doing well so far. If it’s still a bit too sensitive then drop the figures further, likewise you can always increase if the feel is not there for you. Bear in mind that in the early stages of the game the cars are not as powerful so the suggestions might seem a bit sluggish – they’ll come into their own in the higher level races and the Rivals mode. So far we’ve not tweaked the vibration settings, though it does feel a bit weak out of the box. The options on the “Wheel & Force Feedback” page are related directly to race setups, but you can adjust joypad vibration on the “Controls” tab.
Project CARS 3 by Slightly Mad Studios, Codemasters and Bandai Namco is out now and we’ll be bringing a review and supplement the joypad settings with some wheel and pedal suggestions as soon as we’ve spent more time with the game.
Matt
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