why aren't more esports like this

Oh God WHY?

Cars 2 was one of my most favorite party games back when I owned an Xbox 360. It had 4 player split screen (for ALL MODES, even the campaign), slick racing, and tons of mechanics such as drifting, driving on 2 wheels, driving backwards, jumping, ramming, and boosting that gave the game a suprisingly high skill ceiling. The highlight of the game was disruptor, a 2v2 match where you had to plant a bomb in the opposing player's base. The only downside to the game was the lack of online multiplayer. Whenever I showed the game to friends who had never played it before, they were always surprised to see how much fun it was despite it being a movie tie in game. Avalanche Studios, the creator of this game, made a hidden gem.

This brings me to the review. When I started up Cars 2 on my PC, I was so excited to play it again. That is until I got in game. The sight of the game left me speechless and confused. Cars 2 looks HORRIBLE on PC. The textures on everything are super muddy and stretched out, the sound is equalized so poorly that it constantly cuts out into loud static, and many assets do not show up in game such as street lamps (you only see a string of lights shining on you from middair). I was appalled. The PC version of a game like this should look better or at least equal to the 8 year old console version. Instead, it looks like a game that came out on the PlayStation 2. In fact, it looks Identical to the Nintendo DS version of Cars 2.

This revelation led me to start researching what the hell happened. How could a PC port be botched so badly? Here's what I found: The Steam port of Cars 2 was not done by Avalanche, it was done by an obscure company named Gamestar. Gamestar is a CHINESE development company that was established in 2002 and is focused on outsourcing. It has a staff of people who used to work at the Ubisoft Shanghai division. In 2008, Disney acquired the studio and set it to work on porting their games.

Disney Interactive VP said during the acquisition, "Gamestar will play an important role in our global growth plans, providing a high quality talent pool for our expanding product portfolio. Our global expansion is aimed at achieving a new level of creative capacity, quality, and expertise in video game software development.”

I sincerely hope the VP chokes on his own horsesh** that he just spewed out of his mouth. Disney bought out this outsourcing company based in CHINA with the sole purpose to lower the cost of porting games. This resulted in this awful, awful port of an originally fantastic game on Steam.

Hear me out: I would have been fine with the downgraded graphics, bugs, and annoyances of the port because at its base, Cars 2 is still a very good game. That is until I found the straw that broke the camel's back. I fired up my 4 controllers and hooked them up to my pc ready to have some fun playing a 4 player race just like I did 5 years ago with the Xbox version. Then I saw it. The game only supports 2 player split screen.

THATS RIGHT, DISNEY AND GAMESTAR SCREWED UP THE PC PORT SO BADLY THAT IT REDUCED THE AMOUNT OF SPLITSCREEN PLAYERS FROM 4 TO 2.

This will be the first (and last) game that I refund on steam. I am so very sad to see what has happened to my favorite party racer. If anyone from Avalanche Studios is reading this, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what it feels like to put your heart and soul into making a great game only to see it eviscerated by an incompetent outsourced chinese studio. But in the end, it's really Disney's fault. They are a company that seeks the highest possible profit margin, and they are willing to turn great games into abominations like this in order to achieve that.

I hope that this review dissuades anyone from buying this game. Avoid any game ported by Gamestar like the plague. There are better racers to choose from on Steam, and the console versions are still avaliable to play.

Rest in peace, Cars 2
:'(

Fun, Addicting, Great for the family.

This game in my opinion is a rival for Mario Kart,this game is great on PS3/XBOX360 but on Nintendo Wii and PC is more like meh,here is the reasons:
The graphics on PC looks more like a PS2 version even if dont exist one.
There is less cutscenes on PC.
On PS3/XBOX360 is up to play 4 players but on Pc is up to 2 players.
On PC is no DLC`s like Boost,Chick Hicks etc. like on PS3/XBOX360
Also a bad thing for those who want all achievements on Cars,Eat My Dust achievement will take a lot of hours on PC to get it because at start line when you press ``up`` sometimes is showing red wich means you are pressing the wrong button wrong.But i guess Gamestar made the game on PC with less graphics especially if kids want to play this game,to not require a gaming PC.
Final note:On PC 6.5/10
On PS3/XBOX360:8

its not what i expected it is only racing and not as interactive as Mater National. it is fun to play however the controls are pretty weird and take a long time to get used to.

I love this game although the garphis are bad but the game is a great game
Get this for kids that watched the movie cars 2
and be happy with it.


loved it

It's a really good game I love it!

nice game its just fun:)

For love of Chrysler, what the Ford is this? Oh, this is something.
First the images shown are not from the game. They must be doctored 360/ps3 images. This game looks no where near as good. Infact this looks far worse than Cars 2006. No lighting effect, or god rays. No complex texturing or detail on the cars. This is seriously a combo of early Dreamcast and PS1. Though you can run it at 1080 with 60fps. Still the 360 version is many times better visually even running at 720 and 30 fps. Let me put this another way. Sweet Fx couldn't help this train reck. No reflection built in to the car bodies, no ambiet occlusion, no shadows(NONE), very low shading, and the headlights look painted on. This is the worst looking game I have played in well over a decade. Such a shame.
So how is the game? Great! Well not as good as the 360/ps3... The lack of visuals is so forboding. The real problem here is NO DLC! The ammount of cars in the 360 version is staggering. Chick Hicks, DJ, Snot Rod, ect. All voiced. Here there is nothing. I'm sure there is more missing as well. The gameplay feels looser as well. So overall this is the worst version of a great game.
Do buy this one. It is aweful, and easily replaces Arkam Knight in my worst port ever, since even at launch it was much better than this. Plus they have fixed that. This however is terrible. Go buy Mater Nationals instead, it is by far the best PC Cars game. Grab the Hi Octane mod and goto town. Just stay away from this game. What were they thinking?