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The Sports Desk – All Racing Games Need This Feature
A lot of people love racing cars in video games, but that doesn't mean that we all know exactly what we're doing – I count myself among that group to a certain extent. It's one thing to know how to take a corner properly and another to know how to change the car's setup in order to make the most of your car and your racing style. Thankfully, developer Slightly Mad Studios has added a handy race engineer feature to Project Cars 2 to help everyone figure it out.
Races in the sim title are built around the weekend format, with optional practice and qualifying sessions. Make use of these, because they'll give you a baseline for how the car is handling. Once in the pits, you can go into the Tuning Setup menu and access the race engineer.
From here you can address four categories: Braking, Downforce, Suspension, and Gearing. The race engineer asks you questions trying to get at the heart of your problems with the car. Are you loose in the middle of the corners? Are you getting beat on the straights? Are your front brakes locking up? The answers to these questions lead the engineer to suggest tweaks that can possibly rectify what ails your lap times.
Then it's your job to take the car back out onto the track and see what you think of the change(s). In one instance I didn't even like the car after doing some engineer-suggested tweaks, but that's okay. Real-life drivers constantly communicate with their crews, giving feedback on how the car is handling to keep making the car better. As a gamer, any tool that helps a driver quantify how the car is behaving, and then giving them the knowledge of how to start addressing it, is great. It's something I've always wanted in a race game. Project Cars 2 also has full-on setup options if you already know what you want to tweak, but the race engineer is a step towards that which many people can benefit from.
Project Cars 2 is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Missed some of the previous Sports Desk entries? Take a look at the past installments via our Hub page by clicking on the banner below.
Have a suggestion or comment? Put it in the comments section below, send me an email, or reach me on twitter at @mattkato.
REVIEW ROUND-UP 
Madden NFL 18
NASCAR Heat 2
NHL 18
Pro Evolution Soccer 2018
FIFA 18
NBA 2K18
NBA Live 18 (shown)
RELEASE LIST
FIFA 18 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, PS3, 360) - September 29
Forza Motorsport 7 (Xbox One, PC) - October 3
Franchise Hockey Manager 4 (above) (PC, Mac) - October 6
GT Sport (PS4) - October 17
THE TICKER
A quick rundown of some of the sports news from the week
The Adventures Of The World's Worst NBA 2K18 GM
That doesn't look like Reiner, but it's Reiner.
Visual Concepts Cuts VC Prices for Some Items
Details On OOTP Developments' Franchise Hockey Manager 4
Slightly Mad Studios Possibly Working on Fast & Furious Titles
From YouTuber SpotTheOzzie via Eurogamer
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