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Driveclub - Is it really good now?

Oh look, the good ole rubberbanding argument again.

Easy test. Start a new event, set number of laps to 25. If you are good, you can lap multiple cars and get a huge lead from 2nd place.

That's not rubberbanding.
 
I also have always seen rubberbanding as the AI being able to go faster than it's car can go for the sole purpose of catching up to the player.

In DC this definitely is not the case.
 
Oh look, the good ole rubberbanding argument again.

Easy test. Start a new event, set number of laps to 25. If you are good, you can lap multiple cars and get a huge lead from 2nd place.

That's not rubberbanding.

Yeah..
Well now he's argueing that the AI is stupid at the beginning of the race because youre in last position, and that it does not only slow down if youre "too far behind", as stated by the developer.
 
I also have always seen rubberbanding as the AI being able to go faster than it's car can go for the sole purpose of catching up to the player.

In DC this definitely is not the case.

I've always seen it as simply being a speed adjustment based on the player's performance, regardless of which direction it operates. Basically what this wikipedia entry states:

"This adjustment, however, should be made with moderation, to avoid the 'rubber band' effect. One example of this effect in a racing game would involve the AI driver's vehicles becoming significantly faster when behind the player's vehicle, and significantly slower while in front, as if the two vehicles were connected by a large rubber band."

Now there's obviously room for interpretation here, but the way I see if, it a car drives significantly slower when you're behind, then it's automatically also driving significantly faster when you're not. Not necessarily faster than it's possible for the car to ever drive normally.

Semantics though I guess.
 
On the AI; In my experience the effect is much larger on low difficulty and both you and the AI are subject to the boost. On higher difficulties you'll more easily be able to drive away from the field but you'll still get some help if you fall behind. On low difficulty the boost is on the AI at all times the same way a player would get it if in the same situation. So, ironically, it's harder to win some races on lower difficulty.

Eh, I stuck it back in and patched it. I'm still not overly fond of the way the cars handle ( they feel weirdly glued to the track or something ), but fuck me, does it look absurdly pretty. Scotland in the rain has never looked so good.
You might be confusing understeer (not turning enough) with oversteer (car turns too much; drifting). When the tires go crazy while your braking or trying to turn and the car doesn't behave it isn't because of glue. The car just doesn't have enough traction to do what you want it to do. The opposite of glue, actually! They both sound like drifting while you're driving and both make the tires spin but they're completely different.

The Handling bar is basically code for "how much will this understeer/how much skill will it take to get it to turn normally/how stable is it when you brake", and Drift bar for "how much will this oversteer/how much skill will it take to get it to turn normally/how hard is it to control when I smash the accelerator". The first affects corner entry, and the later corner exit.

Some cars do both. Some cars do neither. Some are unbalanced on one side or the other.
 
Whether it's worth a buy or not completely depends on what kind of racing game you like. If it's something more believable in it's handling behaviour then Driveclub is essential. If you like super sim racing and only super sim racing, or if you like Need For Speed/Outrun style arcade and only that then the game might not be for you. It's closed world but the track designs are long and take place in vast environments and they are absolutely tailor made for some amazing driving/racing. Best designed tracks in ANY racing game. The AI is tough, makes mistakes, and challenges you (when on Legend mode in the hyper cars).

Graphically it just takes it over the edge into driving nirvana for me. The handling model is so fun, particularly once you unlock the hyper cars, the Venom's and Pagani Zonda's of the world. If you enjoy great handling feel and feedback with a foundation on reality but loosened up just enough to be fun and high octane then just get the game. It's cheap and worth double the price.

Edit: A couple of my own gameplay vids just time trialling. YT compression hides much of the beauty!


 
Rubber banding is generally frowned upon because it is essentially the game cheesing or cheating you. A false and lazy way of developers ensuring you always have a challenge, by artificially increasing their AI's capabilities and power. Usually that is done by giving them more grip and lower braking distances than they should be able to muster, and more speed than their vehicle actually normally has. That is why people complain about it. It's artificial challenge.

Driveclub does not do that, and instead perfectly rewards skilled racing. You will never be cheesed or cheated, and your perfect sectors will only lead to you gaining more and more lead time.

The only people Driveclub's dynamic AI implementation affects and benefits are those who are are quite poor at the game. It's essentially a way the devs have made sure that beginners still have somewhat of a chance at coming in something besides last place in those harder races. If you're not one of those people, you will likely never even notice it.
 
Driveclub doesnt have rubber banding AI. If you are good you can get a sizable lead. I have however seen the AI basically shut down to more or less autopilot mode if you let them way out in front. The AI more or less shuts down and just run on rails, like a train, cruising at a pretty slow speed to wait for the player to catch up. The moment you overtake, the AI turns back on. That said, at no point when Im doing well do I think the AI is unfairly close to me. I havent done any really long races but Ive been able to out pace the AI by a good bit(many seconds) on tracks Im very familiar with.
 
A whole page about people arguing about the definition of rubber banding.
You guys are LITERALLY arguing over semantics.
 
For me the AI is ok. From what I've read here and there it has the same car rules you do it just drives better lines but it may be aggressive about taking that line...whatever you just get aggressive right back no big deal. Personally I'd rather it not be based on the asshats I've seen in the MP part who intentionally ram you off the course. Maybe some better AI collision avoidance or something. What would be cool is some kind of drivatar based AI that lets you go against others but I personally prefer time trials anyway. What's it matter though? The AI is only in 1/3 of the tour, 1/3 of the challenges and not in MP at all? (1/3 being races, time trials, and drifts) The only time the AI has ever been any issue for me was when I struggled to get the time needed anyway, be it lack of track or car knowledge. I just go into the single events and practice until I post close to the time needed. So the get good statements make a lot of sense from my perspective.
 
Yes, it is one of the best racing games in the past decade.

If you lament the days of pure racing, when the winner of the race was determined by nothing more than ones mastery of the vehicular physics and track layouts therein, then Driveclub is for you. It's in the rarer-by-the-day simcade subgenre, it has blazing fast loading that gets you in and out of its superlative and tense competitions in seconds and its unique scoring system makes every race an addicting experience. It's very difficult and the A.I. improves the further you get in the game, and in very nontrivial ways.

The game has a distinctive car physics system that creates a wonderful character for the game that while it has a relatively steeper learning curve than some simcade titles still offers an incredibly versatile set of options that allow mastery and casual play to be world's apart. Skill is required.

I adore the game's purity. It's not bogged down by concerns that you don't have the right engine or exhaust or tire bolts as the reason you might barely come up short in an exchange. There's a perfectly good time and place for such features, and I love racing games with those options. But I want those games tailored around those options. I also like the alternative, racing games that avoid such things and simply make the difference come down to which vehicle you select and how much skill you have. And since there are comparatively fewer of these racing games these days, Driveclub is a rare treat.

So every aspect of the game is just there to highlight the joy of that purity. You play the game for the first time and you're automatically thrust into a race. You form a club, and you can casually gain points with your friends for no pressure. If you're not necessarily great at drifting, you can still get stars off a course by completing one of its other challenges. But to get everything, you're going to need true mastery. Once you learn the ins and outs of the mechanics, you almost always feel a loss is your fault and not the game's. You begin to understand the strategy behind the computer's odd aggressiveness; to grasp the unique signature of the game's complicated-to-master drifting system. You begin to see lines everywhere, and instinctively understand how to use the tool given to you to best follow those lines.

The vehicle spectrum is impressively large, and playing a bottom tier car requires adaptation of an entirely unique set of skills as compared to the top tier cars. This is a game that has a wonderfully distinctive feel in almost every car, and you can just feel the nuanced statistical changes amongst each vehicle just by getting behind the wheel a few minutes.

Driveclub is the racing viideogame purist's dream game. This is the type of game you play if you've ever one day grown tired of the endless bullshit that developers put between you and the tarmac these days. We can respect and love those other racers, but damn it feels good once in a while to have this sort too.

And oh yeah, the visuals are fucking astonishing and will melt part of your brain.

Mad love Evolution, if only you didn't fuck up that launch. Truly one of the best racing developers today.

Welp, guess I'll be putting Driveclub back on the buy list.

Love me some skill first games, and it's been a while since I played a racing game that fits the bill (Mario Kart 8 just isn't doing it for me there). And I never cared about engine and tire stuff in racing games anyway.
 
If you look at the sheer pedigree of the individuals that form the dev team behind this game, it's no surprise it's a top racer built for racing fans.
 
From what I gather, it was both buggy and not as refined as games like Forza in terms of gameplay, so people largely dismissed it. I haven't played it though.
Gameplay was buggy? What. No it wasn't. The game was always fine. It was only network features which weren't working near launch. Game was amazing off-line.
 
Driveclub doesnt have rubber banding AI.

Perhaps not the AI but it does have rubber banding. Rubber banding is anything designed to artificially keep the racing close. In DC this is a achieved by the ridiculous slipstream effect. It is far too strong and ensures that any equally powered car behind you will blast past as if it has double the power. This is also what makes people believe that the AI cars in DC go beyond player limits. You can exit a corner perfectly and have an equal car still blast past, well beyond the limits of your own car. This does break at long distances but getting that initial gap is much harder than it should be.

The slipstream needs to be about 1/10th of what it is. Till then DC does have rubber banding.
 
Perhaps not the AI but it does have rubber banding. Rubber banding is anything designed to artificially keep the racing close. In DC this is a achieved by the ridiculous slipstream effect. It is far too strong and ensures that any equally powered car behind you will blast past as if it has double the power. This is also what makes people believe that the AI cars in DC go beyond player limits. You can exit a corner perfectly and have an equal car still blast past, well beyond the limits of your own car. This does break at long distances but getting that initial gap is much harder than it should be.

The slipstream needs to be about 1/10th of what it is. Till then DC does have rubber banding.

That was taken out in the most recent patch or the one before if I'm not mistaken.
 
Oh look, the good ole rubberbanding argument again.

Easy test. Start a new event, set number of laps to 25. If you are good, you can lap multiple cars and get a huge lead from 2nd place.

That's not rubberbanding.

Rubberbanding doesn't have to be significant to a level where the system ensures that you fall into second.

I'd put money on the fact that there's rubberbanding in the game. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to each person to decide, but the point remains.
 
Rubberbanding doesn't have to be significant to a level where the system ensures that you fall into second.

I'd put money on the fact that there's rubberbanding in the game. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to each person to decide, but the point remains.

Despite it being denied by the developer. And complete lack of proof. Sigh.
 
is it called rubberbanding if the game makes you catch up to the AI if you are too far behind? if yes, than Driveclub does have rubberbanding. ;-)
 
it looks to me that some people did not play DC or at least they did not play a lot of it.

At lower levels (where I play), AI is slow in curves, not on straights. This is wonderful for gameplay and making you play well, vs most other games where they limit the top speed in lower skill levels so you just blast past everyone on straights and then crash in curves.

another reason why DC is so nice... i gotta play more.
 
Perhaps not the AI but it does have rubber banding. Rubber banding is anything designed to artificially keep the racing close. In DC this is a achieved by the ridiculous slipstream effect. It is far too strong and ensures that any equally powered car behind you will blast past as if it has double the power. This is also what makes people believe that the AI cars in DC go beyond player limits. You can exit a corner perfectly and have an equal car still blast past, well beyond the limits of your own car. This does break at long distances but getting that initial gap is much harder than it should be.

The slipstream needs to be about 1/10th of what it is. Till then DC does have rubber banding.

That's not what rubber banding is. Technically, when you define it like that you can say that a developer of a excessively easy racing game has implemented rubber banding because the competition is too lame by comparison.

Slipstream is a constant, predictable effect that you and the competition can use to your advantage; it is neither too strong nor impossible to prevent being an issue if you know what you're doing. But even if you thought it was ridiculously strong, that is separate from rubber banding. That's not what rubberbanding means.

In games with true rubber banding, you won't finish the race by leaps and bounds. Generally, the competition will always end up being relatively close, and you can confirm this by realizing no matter how much you improve your skill set, the competition is always going to come in second within a certain [small] amount of time of your own finish.

It is not rubber banding to have a racing feature which you deem to be merely an unbalanced expression of a common racing game technique.

Rusky already replied succinctly on the point:

"The AI cannot cheat, & will never artificially catch up to you! -->>They will slow down a little though if you get too far behind.<--"

"Some cars are faster than others, & the AI will look for an opportunity to overtake when the player names a mistake."

So, the closest argument we can get to saying the game has true rubber banding is that simple second sentence, that other vehicles will slow down a little if you get too far behind. This is not classic rubber banding, because it's an advantage that only the player gets... in essence, it's made for the weaksauce gamers, it does not impact people who are good at the game and therefore never have to worry about the A.I. taking it easy on you.

At best, we can call it a sort of "Halfway house" of rubber banding, it features none of the things that people usually criticize when they talk of hating rubber banding (and hey, I hate it too), but still has a built-in feature with artificially helps one side or the other in an unearned fashion (in this case, it helps the player only, not the reverse).

People really badly obsess over the demanding those who understand the game accept it has rubberbanding, but it does not... at least not in any classic sense that usually gets people up in arms about the feature (of which I usually join them).

Now you can still fight the good fight if your experience refuses you to accept the reality of what the game does, but I've played for over a hundred hours already and I would say am fairly adept at this point at understanding the way the A.I. responds to my play. At this point, due to accumulated learned skillsets, I can leave the other racers behind. And no matter how good I am doing, I keep putting more and more distance between myself and the second place finisher. The game does not compensate to make up that gap, which any game with true rubber banding would.

The A.I. is very aggressive, this we can all agree on. It will knock your ass around. And the further in the game you get, the more it adapts to your style of play. We can debate about the merits of the A.I., but one thing is certain... classical rubber banding this game does not have.

Welp, guess I'll be putting Driveclub back on the buy list.

Love me some skill first games, and it's been a while since I played a racing game that fits the bill (Mario Kart 8 just isn't doing it for me there). And I never cared about engine and tire stuff in racing games anyway.

Then yeah, I can't imagine Driveclub failing to fit your needs.

It feels basic to some folk because it eschews so much that people are used to in modern game design, things that I personally feel are barriers to entry. The game is so simple in structure, because you basically just select a Challenge of some kind, select your vehicle and in seconds you're racing due to the wonderful loading. There's no bullshit between that. But as you probably know, simplicity in design is not the same as lacking depth.

I mean if you want, you can do lots of customization on your car design, and then save a bunch of your presets to easily swing between them when you got the car you want to race. So it's an extra layer that exists, but it purposefully avoids making it a 'thing' that slows anything down. Any extra option it has is designed like that, to avoid being an inhibition in between the player's time off the track and on the track.

To me it's a breath of fresh air to get a game like that these days. Games are usually so obsessed with holding ones hand that you have to wade through tutorials just to play. Or the designers had their checklist game design book out, and you gotta deal with everything from driving aimlessly between races in giant open world games or you gotta remember to upgrade just right so you can be competitive, or you have to remember to hit a race at a certain time, or you gotta earn money in lame side races nobody wants to actually do because it's filler content, etc etc. As I keep saying, there's a time and a place for these sorts of games, a value to them. And I certainly love many racing games that contain these features.

But Driveclub is a game that confidently throws off all the shackles of modern game design conventions, and reconfigures their game to be about the racing and nothing but. You always know that when you lose a race in Driveclub, it is your fault... it is not because you didn't have just the right tires to race in the rain. You failed to grasp the mechanics, to take advantage of a gap in your competition when you should have made a move, to whatever. But that knowledge is liberating, because deep down you know you've got the skills to beat that race. You don't have to calculate how much money you need to get that next exhaust upgrade. You can beat that shit by application of your rad skills... And you're gonna prove it! :D
 
You've probably made up your mind one way or another already, but....


I'd say Driveclub is a solid 7/10, nothing truly great, but pretty enjoyable nonetheless. Great visuals and weather effects. :)


Not trying to troll, but there's far better racing games out there right now, but only if you have an Xbox One.
 
You've probably made up your mind one way or another already, but....


I'd say Driveclub is a solid 7/10, nothing truly great, but pretty enjoyable nonetheless. Great visuals and weather effects. :)


Not trying to troll, but there's far better racing games out there right now, but only if you have an Xbox One.

There are far different racing games that are also good, on both XBO and Wii U. When you have to start a sentence with 'not trying to troll', you know the issue exists. No question in the OP was about how many racing games on other platforms you or others think are better.

And look at useless that data is: Driveclub is one of the best racing games of the past decade, is uniquely special as there are few if any other racing games designed in this pure fashion in the past ten years and the fact that there are other great racing games on other platforms that fit different niches does not devalue that one. One does not need to bring out the system cheerleading flags here.

There we cancelled each other out in pointless deviating.
 
That's not what rubber banding is. Technically, when you define it like that you can say that a developer of a excessively easy racing game has implemented rubber banding because the competition is too lame by comparison.

Slipstream is a constant, predictable effect that you and the competition can use to your advantage; it is neither too strong nor impossible to prevent being an issue if you know what you're doing. But even if you thought it was ridiculously strong, that is separate from rubber banding. That's not what rubberbanding means.

In games with true rubber banding, you won't finish the race by leaps and bounds. Generally, the competition will always end up being relatively close, and you can confirm this by realizing no matter how much you improve your skill set, the competition is always going to come in second within a certain [small] amount of time of your own finish.

It is not rubber banding to have a racing feature which you deem to be merely an unbalanced expression of a common racing game technique.

Rusky already replied succinctly on the point:



So, the closest argument we can get to saying the game has true rubber banding is that simple second sentence, that other vehicles will slow down a little if you get too far behind. This is not classic rubber banding, because it's an advantage that only the player gets... in essence, it's made for the weaksauce gamers, it does not impact people who are good at the game and therefore never have to worry about the A.I. taking it easy on you.

At best, we can call it a sort of "Halfway house" of rubber banding, it features none of the things that people usually criticize when they talk of hating rubber banding (and hey, I hate it too), but still has a built-in feature with artificially helps one side or the other in an unearned fashion (in this case, it helps the player only, not the reverse).

People really badly obsess over the demanding those who understand the game accept it has rubberbanding, but it does not... at least not in any classic sense that usually gets people up in arms about the feature (of which I usually join them).

Now you can still fight the good fight if your experience refuses you to accept the reality of what the game does, but I've played for over a hundred hours already and I would say am fairly adept at this point at understanding the way the A.I. responds to my play. At this point, due to accumulated learned skillsets, I can leave the other racers behind. And no matter how good I am doing, I keep putting more and more distance between myself and the second place finisher. The game does not compensate to make up that gap, which any game with true rubber banding would.

The A.I. is very aggressive, this we can all agree on. It will knock your ass around. And the further in the game you get, the more it adapts to your style of play. We can debate about the merits of the A.I., but one thing is certain... classical rubber banding this game does not have.



Then yeah, I can't imagine Driveclub failing to fit your needs.

It feels basic to some folk because it eschews so much that people are used to in modern game design, things that I personally feel are barriers to entry. The game is so simple in structure, because you basically just select a Challenge of some kind, select your vehicle and in seconds you're racing due to the wonderful loading. There's no bullshit between that. But as you probably know, simplicity in design is not the same as lacking depth.

I mean if you want, you can do lots of customization on your car design, and then save a bunch of your presets to easily swing between them when you got the car you want to race. So it's an extra layer that exists, but it purposefully avoids making it a 'thing' that slows anything down. Any extra option it has is designed like that, to avoid being an inhibition in between the player's time off the track and on the track.

To me it's a breath of fresh air to get a game like that these days. Games are usually so obsessed with holding ones hand that you have to wade through tutorials just to play. Or the designers had their checklist game design book out, and you gotta deal with everything from driving aimlessly between races in giant open world games or you gotta remember to upgrade just right so you can be competitive, or you have to remember to hit a race at a certain time, or you gotta earn money in lame side races nobody wants to actually do because it's filler content, etc etc. As I keep saying, there's a time and a place for these sorts of games, a value to them. And I certainly love many racing games that contain these features.

But Driveclub is a game that confidently throws off all the shackles of modern game design conventions, and reconfigures their game to be about the racing and nothing but. You always know that when you lose a race in Driveclub, it is your fault... it is not because you didn't have just the right tires to race in the rain. You failed to grasp the mechanics, to take advantage of a gap in your competition when you should have made a move, to whatever. But that knowledge is liberating, because deep down you know you've got the skills to beat that race. You don't have to calculate how much money you need to get that next exhaust upgrade. You can beat that shit by application of your rad skills... And you're gonna prove it! :D

Yes to all of this. I got it day one. It's really funny how a simcade type game simulates the point of actual motorsport. I should have said the overall point of motorsport as tuning and liveries are parts of it obviously. Hope you get what I'm saying.
 
You've probably made up your mind one way or another already, but....


I'd say Driveclub is a solid 7/10, nothing truly great, but pretty enjoyable nonetheless. Great visuals and weather effects. :)


Not trying to troll, but there's far better racing games out there right now, but only if you have an Xbox One.

'I'm not racist, but ...'

You should have stopped at ':)' if you weren't trying to troll.
 
I got it about a month ago, some quick thoughts

- Visuals, sound, and music are really great. I don't like this kind of music normally but it suits the game really well.
- The challenges in each race add something different. Makes me want to replay races
- Plenty of nice cars to race
- Track locations are nice and different to boring race tracks
- LOADS to do. Will buy the season pass when it goes on sale

- People online (I guess in most / all racing games) are awful and ruin races with smashing into everyone. I game mode I play the most is team time trial just because you can't hit into anyone.
- Getting penalised by AI or drivers hitting into YOU is kinda dumb. More so when its for a race challenge to have a clean race but people keep bumping into you.
- Clubs being only like 6 or 7 people is stupid.. Really stupid.. Should be way more than that.

The only racing games I really ever played were Forza Motorsport. The last one I played was Forza 4 on the Xbox 360. I have not played any of the Horizon or Xbox one games.
I think I like Driveclub more, Forza got so mind numbingly boring after a while.
 
I got it about a month ago, some quick thoughts

- Visuals, sound, and music are really great. I don't like this kind of music normally but it suits the game really well.
- The challenges in each race add something different. Makes me want to replay races
- Plenty of nice cars to race
- Track locations are nice and different to boring race tracks
- LOADS to do. Will buy the season pass when it goes on sale

- People online (I guess in most / all racing games) are awful and ruin races with smashing into everyone. I game mode I play the most is team time trial just because you can't hit into anyone.
- Getting penalised by AI or drivers hitting into YOU is kinda dumb. More so when its for a race challenge to have a clean race but people keep bumping into you.
- Clubs being only like 6 or 7 people is stupid.. Really stupid.. Should be way more than that.

The only racing games I really ever played were Forza Motorsport. The last one I played was Forza 4 on the Xbox 360. I have not played any of the Horizon or Xbox one games.
I think I like Driveclub more, Forza got so mind numbingly boring after a while.

Forza Motorsport is a sim. If you like simcade games like Driveclub, I recommend you trying to find PGR3 or 4 at least. There's some other games that are in that range, like the DiRT titles you might enjoy as well.
 
To answer OP - the single player (tour mode) was always good. Some of it didn't work (like the in game challenges) but if you care about the racing, then that stuff is just a minor concern. The multiplayer was kind of broken, because a lot of players couldn't race online. It's been fixed for a while now and the game is fine.

I do have a few quibbles about the game though. The driving doesn't feel as good to me as Forza or Gran Turismo. I don't know what it is, but the cars feel pretty arcadey and light (even compared to something like PGR where the cars feel like they have a lot more weight). The rubber to road feel in Forza feels way better. The driving here feels more like Need for Speed Hot Pursuit or even Motorstorm, I assume they used the same engine. I get the feeling Evolution spent all its resources on creating the prettiest game it could make and the racing physics came second.

The season pass is still way too expensive in Australia $37.95... I hope after they release everything they give a discount (at least 50%), happy to pay $20 for the tour events, but $40 is just too much. I really want to test out the weather and japan tracks, but playing single race is kind of boring.
 
Drive Club is really amazing from what I have seen and played and I always come close to buying it and then I chicken out at the last minute. I think it has allot to do with me rarely ever buyng a driving game and remembering the promise that was made about us getting the free to play PS Plus version. I understand there may never be a free to play version so this may always be a game I just admire from a far.
 
To answer OP - the single player (tour mode) was always good. Some of it didn't work (like the in game challenges) but if you care about the racing, then that stuff is just a minor concern. The multiplayer was kind of broken, because a lot of players couldn't race online. It's been fixed for a while now and the game is fine.

Yeah you can get into online races quite nicely now.

My problem is Sony promised this PS+ edition and many of my friends are still waiting on that. It is really not cool that they still have not delivered on that, and the non-committal way they keep answering a question about when it's coming is concerning. I hope fans really nail Sony to the wall on this to ensure they deliver the promise.

I do have a few quibbles about the game though. The driving doesn't feel as good to me as Forza or Gran Turismo. I don't know what it is, but the cars feel pretty arcadey and light (even compared to something like PGR where the cars feel like they have a lot more weight). The rubber to road feel in Forza feels way better. The driving here feels more like Need for Speed Hot Pursuit or even Motorstorm, I assume they used the same engine. I get the feeling Evolution spent all its resources on creating the prettiest game it could make and the racing physics came second.

What "it" is... is the fact Forza and Gran Turismo are simulators. I wouldn't say the driving doesn't feel 'as good', because the goals are different. Forza and Gran Turismo do admirable jobs at trying mimicking real life racing vehicle physics. By that standard, it definitely feels 'better' because it is more accurately reflecting the cars themselves. But other approaches to racing physics also have merits that can be equally as enjoyable, just different.

Driveclub is a "simcade" game, which means that whilst it has real world cars and has some basic application of real world racing strategies ala racing lines and passing and drifting and whatnot, it does not actually physically control like real world cars. What you're experiencing is the fact that the game actually is between a sim and arcade game in terms of vehicle physics. I'd also be shocked to learn Evolution used the same racing physics engine as Motorstorm. They don't share a lot of similarities in feel, but then again it's possible to heavily modify something such where it's barely recognizable anymore.

I don't really think the game feels 'light' though (well, most of the cars don't), but especially not in comparison to the games you were mentioning. PGR is slightly weightier, but by no means significantly so. I also definitely wouldn't compare it to Need for Speed, as it is much closer to its sister PGR than that game. Need for Speed is pure arcade for sure, and you can feel it. There's a huge gap between NFS and Driveclub in terms of vehicle weight in action.

Driveclub does request deep understanding of controlling vehicles, and mastering things like drifting, proper passing techniques, proper line guidance are all significantly higher level of play than Need for Speed. But you have to understand all that within the context of a very unique approach to vehicular physics. That's because simcade games usually ask a lot more of the player than the average arcade racer, they ratchet up the complexity a bit and thus have a much steeper learning curve than true arcade racers (whilst simulators go one step further still, encouraging even more complexity). To me, that's best where Driveclub fits in.

Categories are sometimes messy things, because there are often elements of different subgenres in a single game and it's confusing. But yeah, your quibbles are an intentional approach to the racing genre which is totally fine to not value. I think they were quite successful, but I dunno I guess my issue is just I can't seem to understand the idea that the game lacks weight. :P
 
Every time I read criticism involving arguments such as "it's a corridor racer", "has no passion", "very soulless" et cetera, I get disappointed.

I must have played nearly every racing game out there and to me, it feels like the people who reviewed this game have little to no experience with decent driving games. Did you know Need for Speed: Rivals scored better with critics? It has an 80 metacritic. It was an okay game at best. The open world was flawed. Couldn't even take a ride without 30 cops chasing your ass.

I don't know. I'm not a fan of reviewing a game for what it isn't, yet that's exactly what I read when I check some Driveclub reviews. The corridor racer argument still baffles me. Very strange. I really don't like implementing open world systems just for the sake of it. The open world in Need for Speed: Rivals wasn't really that good. Same goes for the "Most Wanted reboot" the year before.

I accept this game has flaws, but they were mostly related to the day-one launch issues, which most reviewers did not experience. I did think the penalties were a bit too extreme at launch, but they seem to have fixed that now. Doesn't bother me anymore.
 
driveclub-dlc-schedule.jpg


According to the image, it seems like they've given out all the tracks?

I recall Evolution saying that there was only one new location - Japan.

I really hope they add more locations... but given the initial backlash at launch, maybe it didn't sell as well as it could have.
 
- Getting penalised by AI or drivers hitting into YOU is kinda dumb. More so when its for a race challenge to have a clean race but people keep bumping into you.

That was annoying, but to my knowledge it has been patched, and I haven't noticed it happening for quite a while.



EDIT:
Every time I read criticism involving arguments such as "it's a corridor racer", "has no passion", "very soulless" et cetera, I get disappointed.

I must have played nearly every racing game out there and to me, it feels like the people who reviewed this game have little to no experience with decent driving games. Did you know Need for Speed: Rivals scored better with critics? It has an 80 metacritic. It was an okay game at best. The open world was flawed. Couldn't even take a ride without 30 cops chasing your ass.

I don't know. I'm not a fan of reviewing a game for what it isn't, yet that's exactly what I read when I check some Driveclub reviews. The corridor racer argument still baffles me. Very strange. I really don't like implementing open world systems just for the sake of it. The open world in Need for Speed: Rivals wasn't really that good. Same goes for the "Most Wanted reboot" the year before.

I accept this game has flaws, but they were mostly related to the day-one launch issues, which most reviewers did not experience. I did think the penalties were a bit too extreme at launch, but they seem to have fixed that now. Doesn't bother me anymore.

Agreed. The term "corridor racer" is just absurd, as is seeing track-based racing as a negative point. I don't see why all racers should be made from the same mold, whether competitor's exclusive racer adopted an open road or not. I guess the reviewers just have a habit of comparing the exclusives directly, even when they're different kind of games. After all, they were the ones who titled Killzone as "Halo killer" as well.
 
Yeah you can get into online races quite nicely now.

My problem is Sony promised this PS+ edition and many of my friends are still waiting on that. It is really not cool that they still have not delivered on that, and the non-committal way they keep answering a question about when it's coming is concerning. I hope fans really nail Sony to the wall on this to ensure they deliver the promise.

Driveclub does request deep understanding of controlling vehicles, and mastering things like drifting, proper passing techniques, proper line guidance are all significantly higher level of play than Need for Speed. But you have to understand all that within the context of a very unique approach to vehicular physics. That's because simcade games usually ask a lot more of the player than the average arcade racer, they ratchet up the complexity a bit and thus have a much steeper learning curve than true arcade racers (whilst simulators go one step further still, encouraging even more complexity). To me, that's best where Driveclub fits in.

Categories are sometimes messy things, because there are often elements of different subgenres in a single game and it's confusing. But yeah, your quibbles are an intentional approach to the racing genre which is totally fine to not value. I think they were quite successful, but I dunno I guess my issue is just I can't seem to understand the idea that the game lacks weight. :P

Although we will never know the answer (unless Rushy wants to discuss all the details with us), in short I think Driveclub's physics engine is not as detailed as Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport. And that's ok, but subjectively speaking it feels slightly off, because my brain is telling me I'm using a real car so I should be expecting GT/FM physics and it doesn't feel like it. Its the same feeling in Blur and that game also feels off especially with those crazy neon weapons.

Anyways the game is still brilliant, it was just something i noticed and wondered if anyone felt similar.

You're right though, games don't have to fall in either arcade or sim category to be good, a game that plays great can fall into any area in between.

And I hope they give PS Plus users something significant for the Driveclub delay. I would not be surprised if people purchased a membership at launch solely to play Driveclub and many of those people probably ended up purchasing the game on good faith.
 
that horrible feel when you cut a corner and get speed penalty :(

I noticed last night, when I was getting my drifting score up for the trophy, that you don't get the penalty when you've gone offroad just before the turn, and cut the corner from there at low speed. I don't think that's really something that could be exploited though.
 
Fucking great game. I've had some incredible MP racing...really tense. I lose myself for hours on time trials. Amazing graphics. Plays like a dream.

But no Japanese cars and replays. Apart from that, pure racing.
 
Forza Motorsport is a sim. If you like simcade games like Driveclub, I recommend you trying to find PGR3 or 4 at least. There's some other games that are in that range, like the DiRT titles you might enjoy as well.

Oh, I have played PGR. I mean just recently the only racing series I've played properly is Forza. I know Forza is sim and Driveclub isn't but I haven't played anything else to compare to. Just as games I prefer to play DC over Forza.
 
driveclub-dlc-schedule.jpg


According to the image, it seems like they've given out all the tracks?

I recall Evolution saying that there was only one new location - Japan.

I really hope they add more locations... but given the initial backlash at launch, maybe it didn't sell as well as it could have.

This is correct , since the plan haven't changed , the last track we've got last patch is the last one

I ..personnally wouldn't mind more but i'll let them finish the rest of the season pass content.
 
This is correct , since the plan haven't changed , the last track we've got last patch is the last one

I ..personnally wouldn't mind more but i'll let them finish the rest of the season pass content.

I'd definitely be willing to pay for more tracks, and a new location.
 
At the price you can grab Driveclub for now.... And the vast improvements they've made since launch, this seems like a no brainer. The game shows off the PS4s capability so well and the weather effects are amazing. I think they've also improved on docking you points when an opponent slams into you or it can't be helped. I really like the game's mentality that you don't have to get first to achieve all the stars.
 
To become #1 in the drifting challenges though, you absolutely do have to exploit because by exploiting you can rack up unheard of point totals that are simply impossible if you follow a standard drifting line. Since other players have no problem exploiting this game in that way, it's the only way to compete if that's your goal.

That's not true. I'm almost always at the top of drift challenges and I never exploit. There are some challenges where exploiting is definitely the easier way, but most can be won with a legit run. Exploiting only gets you good points in the corners. Getting good drive out can earn tons of speed points that exploiters miss out on.

I've sent you a friend request. I'm gonna send you a couple of drift challenges, so I can see your ghost.

You can send some to me one too if you'd like to see how I do it.
 
Dumb question that has probably been answered a billion times (my apologies)

But if I buy the 'Driveclub Playstation Plus Edition Full Game Upgrade' am I actually getting the full game? Or is it some kind of half step between the full game and the free PS+ version that has still to surface?

Probably an obvious answer, but wanted confirmation before I put down £20 on this!
 
Dumb question that has probably been answered a billion times (my apologies)

But if I buy the 'Driveclub Playstation Plus Edition Full Game Upgrade' am I actually getting the full game? Or is it some kind of half step between the full game and the free PS+ version that has still to surface?

Probably an obvious answer, but wanted confirmation before I put down £20 on this!

It's a discount-priced version of the full digital release. You won't need to maintain PS+ to keep it.
 
Dumb question that has probably been answered a billion times (my apologies)

But if I buy the 'Driveclub Playstation Plus Edition Full Game Upgrade' am I actually getting the full game? Or is it some kind of half step between the full game and the free PS+ version that has still to surface?

Probably an obvious answer, but wanted confirmation before I put down £20 on this!

Don't worry, it's the full game. It just means that you get the game at a discount as a PS+ subscriber.

It's a discount-priced version of the full digital release. You won't need to maintain PS+ to keep it.

This too.
 
I'd definitely be willing to pay for more tracks, and a new location.

I'd be all over new tracks as much as anyone, but i don't think they should start charging for them to avoid splitting the player base. However, if a second season pass were to coincide with the launch of a new location/more tracks, i'd gladly pay for that.
 
At the price you can grab Driveclub for now.... And the vast improvements they've made since launch, this seems like a no brainer. The game shows off the PS4s capability so well and the weather effects are amazing. I think they've also improved on docking you points when an opponent slams into you or it can't be helped. I really like the game's mentality that you don't have to get first to achieve all the stars.

Yet at many times, the game looks like complete crap..we are talking PS2 textures. The game can be such a mixed bag.
 
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