Game review: Project Motor Racing (PS5)

There's a fine line in gaming, whether developers should make a game fun instead of super realistic. For example, some people prefer the unrealistic but fun gameplay of NBA Jam. On the flip side of this, others might like NBA 2K games better due to their realism. 

Gran Turismo 7 and the Forza Motorsport games are usually called simulation racers, but they offer enough aids to cater for beginners who might suck at racing games. Both franchises offer a good mix of settings, so beginners and experts alike are catered for. 

Well, it looks like a new racing game contender has arrived in the form of Project Motor Racing. If you're like me and aren't really good at playing simulation-style racing games, you're going to have a tough time playing Project Motor Racing. 

The thing that separates Project Motor Racing from other racing games is its hardcore style of Career Mode. You have to be a serious racing game fan in order to be successful in Project Motor Racing because it's not a smooth-sailing experience for everyone. 

The biggest difference in this game is that you have a racing budget, and this means you have to pay for basically everything in this game. The first thing you have to do is pay for your first car, but then there are entry fees to compete in races, plus you have to pay for repair fees on top of this!

If you are feeling even more hardcore, the game also has an "Authentic Mode" setting that prevents you from retrying races. The minimum amount of money you can have at the start of your career is $100,000, but you can increase this to $2 million if you're a beginner like me. 

The other thing that makes this game hardcore is that each race is 12 laps or more long! This is much longer than F1 2025, which usually requires you to complete only five or seven laps on each track. 

The reason why races are so long in this game is that the developer designed Project Motor Racing for you to manage a car's well-being in the Career Mode. You have to watch out for tyre management, fuel supply and a car's overall damage. Not to mention, visiting the pit stop ensures your car is at top performance at all times. 

I remember some of the Gran Turismo games having tyre degradation, but they were more lenient because you had to race for a really long time before they started losing grip. 

Here in Project Motor Racing, one spinout and your tyres will start to turn red instantly. Losing grip in your tyres is detrimental because you will start to spin out more often, so visiting the pit stop constantly is crucial in this game. 

Another thing that makes this game difficult is that the AI does not care for your presence on the track. I played this game many times, and the AI would just ram behind me, causing me to go off track. 

Unlike the Forza games, there is no rewind option, so you just have to restart the entire race if you make a mistake. This can be very annoying, though, if you have to restart when you're on lap 10 or 11 or a 12-lap race!

In terms of gameplay and physics, Project Motor Racing can be an unforgiving experience if you're playing the game on a controller. The first car I used in this game was the Lamborghini Huracan, but for some reason, this vehicle had horrible handling. 

My brother played the game and chose the Honda NSX, and to my surprise, this car had much better handling than the Lamborghini. That being said, I've watched YouTubers play this game too, and a lot of them say the handling in this game overall is inconsistent. 

I'm not a sim racer by any means, but the handling in this game just feels bad. My brother told me high-performance cars like the Lamborghini should have good handling, so there shouldn't be any reason for it to spin out constantly if this game strived for ultra realism.

The game also punishes you a lot if you don't race within the track's limits. If you create a false start at the beginning, you immediately get a 15-second penalty. If you cut a corner too close, this results in a two-second penalty, or even an 80km/h speed limit for several seconds. 

While the gameplay in this game is questionable, the graphics aren't top-tier either. Project Motor Racing doesn't look as beautiful as Gran Turismo 7 does on PS5, although it still does have a generous number of real-life tracks and cars to make up for its average-looking visuals. 

Overall, Project Motor Racing tries to be ambitious, but its high difficulty barrier and shoddy handling physics ruin the entire experience. Hopefully, future patches are released so the gameplay is improved because most cars handle like poop. The only upside to this game is its number of tracks and cars.

Verdict: 6.0/10