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Motor races are often won and lost at the whim of the heavens. At this year's Nürburgring 24 hours, the hesitation of a fumbled late pitstop for Team Land was all the opportunity one mechanic needed to look up at the darkening skies and make a last-minute call to move to wet tires, allowing the Audi R8 LMS to pick off an opposition that was reduced to tip-toeing around the rain-slicked wilds of the Nordschleife during the race's final minutes. It made for an electric, unpredictable climax, the kind of moment that motor racing legends are made of. And they're all too uncommon in racing games. At the start of the generation, Forza abandoned variable weather altogether, and only half-heartedly restored the feature in Forza Motorsport 6 before it was properly reinstated for this year's entry. Meanwhile Gran Turismo - once the premier destination for an appropriation of the madness that is 24 hours at the Nürburgring - has done away with varying conditions entirely, one of the more disappointing developments made for the forthcoming Gran Turismo Sport.
Project Cars 2, though, is doubling down on the feature. Set the in-game clock on an accelerated tour of 24 hours and you'll see the sun rise and set over the Eifel forests. You'll see mists roll out across the tarmac at dawn, the track looking like it's haunted by the ghosts of past heroes such as Nuvolari and Fangio. If you're unlucky, you'll see dark clouds move in, dampening the track with showers that can intensify, leading to pools and puddles forming dynamically. And that's when it gets really nasty.
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