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Driveclub PlayStation Plus Edition (Out Now)

Vire

Member
Played all this morning and a few thoughts:

1. I don't really like the handling in comparison to PGR and Forza Horizon. It feels incredibly "heavy" and "sticky" on the road. I just feel like I don't have nearly as much control. Faster cars are frustratingly squirrely (especially that Ferrari) and I was having some serious difficulty with it.

2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

3. The visuals are striking, beautiful and the presentation of the menus/music is great. Very little problems here aside from the aliasing. I like the idea of the breaking flags as well.

It would have been nice if there was more dynamic things going on in and around the tracks to make them more "fun" so to speak. For example, I enjoyed the firework display at the end of one of the tracks, but that was all too brief and stuff like that doesn't seem to happen very often. As it is, its a very clinical (yet beautiful) representation of most of these countries.

4. I love the social integration and seeing me beat corner times on some of friends absolutely brought a smile to my face. It's handled smartly and feels rewarding.

Overall, there are things I really like about Driveclub (presentation and social integration), but the actual handling and AI haven't clicked with me yet.
 
After having played a lot of it over the weekend.
I started out absolutely sucking at it, being used to playing NFS this was quite a step up. It suddenly is not enough to just full throttle through every corner.
After many many hours of driving my skills have however improved quite markably. I have most of the almost 30 stars in the +edition trials and feel much more capable at taking down the other drivers.
It really seems to be a matter of skill, practice and perseverance.
For what it's worth I am really enjoying it and am eyeing the full version to give me more variety.

2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.
Story of my life. But it gets better after a while.
 

ironcreed

Banned
Played all this morning and a few thoughts:

1. I don't really like the handling in comparison to PGR and Forza Horizon. It feels incredibly "heavy" and "sticky" on the road. I just feel like I don't have nearly as much control. Faster cars are frustratingly squirrely (especially that Ferrari) and I was having some serious difficulty with it.

2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on and unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

3. The visuals are striking, beautiful and the presentation of the menus/music is great. Very little problems here aside from the aliasing. I like the idea of the breaking flags as well.

It would have been nice if there was more dynamic things going on in and around the tracks to make them more "fun" so to speak. For example, I enjoyed the firework display at the end of one of the tracks, but that was all too brief and stuff like that doesn't seem to happen very often. As it is, its a very clinical (yet beautiful) representation of most of these countries.

4. I love the social integration and seeing me beat corner times on some of friends absolutely brought a smile to my face. It's handled smartly and feels rewarding.

I agree with everything said. I bought it last year and part of me really liked it. But it got to a point to where the faster cars felt like shit and fishtailed like crazy, and the AI became sideswiping assholes that ran nearly perfect races. At least they could let us adjust the AI and/or difficulty. If they ever add that in, then I will go right back to it and will probably love the game.
 
I agree with everything said. I bought it last year and part of me really liked it. But it got to a point to where the faster cars felt like shit and fishtailed like crazy, and the AI became sideswiping assholes that ran nearly perfect races. At least they could let us adjust the AI and/or difficulty. If they ever add that in, then I will go right back to it and will probably love the game.

At least for the solo races you can change the difficulty of the AI.
 

Robot Pants

Member
Played all this morning and a few thoughts:

1. I don't really like the handling in comparison to PGR and Forza Horizon. It feels incredibly "heavy" and "sticky" on the road. I just feel like I don't have nearly as much control. Faster cars are frustratingly squirrely (especially that Ferrari) and I was having some serious difficulty with it.

2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

3. The visuals are striking, beautiful and the presentation of the menus/music is great. Very little problems here aside from the aliasing. I like the idea of the breaking flags as well.

It would have been nice if there was more dynamic things going on in and around the tracks to make them more "fun" so to speak. For example, I enjoyed the firework display at the end of one of the tracks, but that was all too brief and stuff like that doesn't seem to happen very often. As it is, its a very clinical (yet beautiful) representation of most of these countries.

4. I love the social integration and seeing me beat corner times on some of friends absolutely brought a smile to my face. It's handled smartly and feels rewarding.

Overall, there are things I really like about Driveclub (presentation and social integration), but the actual handling and AI haven't clicked with me yet.

yup. spot on
 

ZangBa

Member
I tried the game for a second time and managed to get 1st in a couple races, but I'm not really having any fun. I just don't find it enjoyable to play, the controls just feel wrong. If I could describe this game with one word, it would be annoying. I just love, LOVE, getting a penalty because someone in front of me crashes wildly and hits me on the side, and him getting no penalty at all, or anyone else that crashes into me. Really fair, great game design, really encourages me to keep playing.

Honestly, it's the worst racing game I've ever played.
 

emrober5

Member
I played a couple of games and all I can think is....this is it?

From all the photos and raving I have seen about the games graphics, I am thoroughly unimpressed. And in the few races I played just seemed like your standard racing game (which I don't enjoy).

So basically, thanks for the demo but I'll pass on that upgrade.
 

Heimbeck

Banned
2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

Yeah this happened to me as well I was in second place and got shoved down to last by one of the ai drivers.
I don't have many other issues with the game though, I loved the hour I have spent with it so far.
 
The handling kills horizon 2. Like H2 is really really bad, and you can fish tail like crazy. I can't see how this would be harder than H2 just taking in account yourself and the track.

Pgr is the sweet spot but I prefer the SP in this game.
 
2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

I've seen lots of complaints about the AI here, but I've never had any issues with the AI ruining a race.

MP is a completely different matter. There's always one guy who'll ram anyone who tries to pass them.
 
2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.


I agree with everything said. I bought it last year and part of me really liked it. But it got to a point to where the faster cars felt like shit and fishtailed like crazy, and the AI became sideswiping assholes that ran nearly perfect races. At least they could let us adjust the AI and/or difficulty. If they ever add that in, then I will go right back to it and will probably love the game.


Is getting spun around by the AI really such a common occurrence? Sure, the AI doesn't mind trading some paint, but i drove 13.000 km in the game so far and i only remember a handful of times when it was actually the AI that caused me to spin around, and that was in lightweight vehicles like the Ariel Atom, which are naturally tail happy. In my experience it's extremely rare when driving heavier vehicles. And about the AI driving perfect races, i've heard that so many times in these threads, but come on, that must be frustration speaking, because it's not true at all. I see them make mistakes very often.

Regarding the difficulty settings for the main tour. Look, i've been there myself, i hit a wall in the middle of the tour, when i had around 100 stars. I thought no way am i ever gonna beat the whole tour. I got frustrated at how impossible it seemed to even stay on track with the hypers (and even supers), much less be competitive, and came to GAF for advice. Guess what, in the end i managed to get all stars in the main tour, as well as all the DLC tours. This is not a humble brag, i consider myself a moderately skilled player and not a racing game buff at all, but i genuinely believe that if i can get all the stars, anyone can, with some dedication. With that said, if they do add some difficulty settings for the tour that's ok too, but i'm not sure how that would work, since the different segments of the main tour are named after the game's difficulty settings (which can be adjusted in single races). Should they also change the names of the tours? Because otherwise it'd be like: "You just won The Legend Tour (but not really)".


3. The visuals are striking, beautiful and the presentation of the menus/music is great. Very little problems here aside from the aliasing. I like the idea of the breaking flags as well.

It would have been nice if there was more dynamic things going on in and around the tracks to make them more "fun" so to speak. For example, I enjoyed the firework display at the end of one of the tracks, but that was all too brief and stuff like that doesn't seem to happen very often. As it is, its a very clinical (yet beautiful) representation of most of these countries.

This is the first time i've seen someone like the menus, but still use the word clinical in regard to Driveclub. I get where you're coming from, and you do say that the tracks are beautiful, but is clinical really the right descriptor for the lack of stuff going on? Do you feel the same when you're out walking or driving through nature, that it's clinical? And it's not like everything around the tracks is completely static either. There are sprinklers, balloons being released, flower petals floating around, flocks of birds flying across the screen, fireworks and probably some other stuff i'm forgetting. It might just be a case of semantics, but clinical is the last word i'd use when describing the tracks in Driveclub.



I tried the game for a second time and managed to get 1st in a couple races, but I'm not really having any fun. I just don't find it enjoyable to play, the controls just feel wrong. If I could describe this game with one word, it would be annoying. I just love, LOVE, getting a penalty because someone in front of me crashes wildly and hits me on the side, and him getting no penalty at all, or anyone else that crashes into me. Really fair, great game design, really encourages me to keep playing.

Are you talking about point deduction penalties or speed limiting penalties? Because the former, while annoying in principle, are a non-factor in the grand scheme of things. A couple of occasionally unjustified -200 point penalties are a drop in the bucket compared to what you make in a single race. I agree that it's not right, but i find it negligible and it doesn't ruin any of the fun for me.

As for the speed limiting penalties, i don't think i ever got one from getting hit by someone else, it's always me hitting the AI (or cutting corners when i shouldn't be, which admittedly can be a bit inconsistent, but that's another matter). And even then it only happens when i hit them with a lot of force, without even the pretension of braking before impact. Normally just stepping on the brakes a bit before you hit them lets you off the hook in my experience.
 

Mabufu

Banned
If the AI was a problem, no one could ever platinumed the game.

Just the people being unable to get into the handling or the mechanics.
Better shit on the game than in own skills.
 

pmj

Member
I finally gave this a try.

Going in I was fairly sure that I wouldn't like the handling since I had seen it compared to PGR, but I think it's a lot better than that, at least from what I can tell from the very early stages of the game, which unfortunately doesn't let you drive any fast cars.

What I don't like so far is the structure of the game, some of which only applies to the plus edition. They hand you two slow and crappy cars and ask you to drive on wide, fast tracks, which these cars don't feel suited for. And to unlock the better cars you need to grind a ton of experience, and to make it extra unappealing they reward you with cars at level up that you can't even use because they're not available in the plus edition.

The garage is an endlessly scrolling nightmare, where the few cars you can use are buried among all those you can't without paying for an upgrade. And I'm not interested in the social stuff, which doesn't seem possible to turn off completely. It's really frustrating to have the game constantly remind me that I'm failing to beat some random guy the game chose as my next rival or whatever, since I have no interest in beating him. I briefly considered stopping my grinding for experience through drifting for a while and putting in a quick lap just to get rid of his name, but the game would just pick another guy with a better time and then start bothering me about beating him too.

After spending about half an hour drifting that shitty starter Mercedes in time trial after time trial, just so that I could unlock a car I might actually enjoy driving, I had to ask myself what I was doing, and quit.

Also, about the graphics. Sure, it's a good looking game during the right circumstances, but considering the hype I was expecting a lot more.

I might pick this game up for cheap later on, but I do worry about having to do excessive grinding even in the full game in order to get to the (presumably) good parts.
 
I finally gave this a try.

Going in I was fairly sure that I wouldn't like the handling since I had seen it compared to PGR, but I think it's a lot better than that, at least from what I can tell from the very early stages of the game, which unfortunately doesn't let you drive any fast cars.

What I don't like so far is the structure of the game, some of which only applies to the plus edition. They hand you two slow and crappy cars and ask you to drive on wide, fast tracks, which these cars don't feel suited for. And to unlock the better cars you need to grind a ton of experience, and to make it extra unappealing they reward you with cars at level up that you can't even use because they're not available in the plus edition.

The garage is an endlessly scrolling nightmare, where the few cars you can use are buried among all those you can't without paying for an upgrade. And I'm not interested in the social stuff, which doesn't seem possible to turn off completely. It's really frustrating to have the game constantly remind me that I'm failing to beat some random guy the game chose as my next rival or whatever, since I have no interest in beating him. I briefly considered stopping my grinding for experience through drifting for a while and putting in a quick lap just to get rid of his name, but the game would just pick another guy with a better time and then start bothering me about beating him too.

After spending about half an hour drifting that shitty starter Mercedes in time trial after time trial, just so that I could unlock a car I might actually enjoy driving, I had to ask myself what I was doing, and quit.

Also, about the graphics. Sure, it's a good looking game during the right circumstances, but considering the hype I was expecting a lot more.

I might pick this game up for cheap later on, but I do worry about having to do excessive grinding even in the full game in order to get to the (presumably) good parts.

Hmm, I love the social aspect trying to beat other peoples scores for extra points.
I will just ignore them though when I am concentrated on wining a certain race or after something else.
 

Drek

Member
I've always felt like Driveclub handled super and hyper cars better than almost any other racing game because it drives home the point that in most road conditions the extra horsepower is only usable as a product of driver skill, and this is why hot hatches and well spec'd mid-series cars are what most people would truly enjoy driving.

It's like an episode of Top Gear when they had a track day only car in for a trial and Clarkson couldn't keep the thing going straight at even moderate speeds, then the Stig jumps in the thing and starts whipping out killer laps. Difference between amateur and pro.

Driveclub already forces you to consider how every style of corner should be handled more so than most other racing games, as the exaggerated drift ability adds an entire new set of options on passing through a turn, with the top tiers of cars however what you've trained yourself to do with the mid-tier cars no longer applies as these cars are meant to legitimately feel and handle differently, not just like faster, sleeker upgrades to the mid-tier, which is how most racing games depict them.

Not necessarily for everyone as it basically results in them throwing a monkey wrench in the middle of player progression instead of making gamers feel like they've made a big step up in proficiency as most games do, but I personally like it.
 

lowrider007

Licorice-flavoured booze?
Played all this morning and a few thoughts:


2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

Yep....

Only real issue I have with the game at the moment, (regarding the faster cars), I'm driving a ten lap race for example, I have a spin out on the third lap, drive absolutely perfect for the next 7 laps and I'm lucky get beyond 5th place again.
 

IaN_GAF

Member
Not being able to start up a race with just me and my psn friends is kinda bumming us out on this, I'm not gonna lie.
 
I finally gave this a try.

Going in I was fairly sure that I wouldn't like the handling since I had seen it compared to PGR, but I think it's a lot better than that, at least from what I can tell from the very early stages of the game, which unfortunately doesn't let you drive any fast cars.

What I don't like so far is the structure of the game, some of which only applies to the plus edition. They hand you two slow and crappy cars and ask you to drive on wide, fast tracks, which these cars don't feel suited for. And to unlock the better cars you need to grind a ton of experience, and to make it extra unappealing they reward you with cars at level up that you can't even use because they're not available in the plus edition.

The garage is an endlessly scrolling nightmare, where the few cars you can use are buried among all those you can't without paying for an upgrade. And I'm not interested in the social stuff, which doesn't seem possible to turn off completely. It's really frustrating to have the game constantly remind me that I'm failing to beat some random guy the game chose as my next rival or whatever, since I have no interest in beating him. I briefly considered stopping my grinding for experience through drifting for a while and putting in a quick lap just to get rid of his name, but the game would just pick another guy with a better time and then start bothering me about beating him too.

After spending about half an hour drifting that shitty starter Mercedes in time trial after time trial, just so that I could unlock a car I might actually enjoy driving, I had to ask myself what I was doing, and quit.

I don't have the PS+ version and therefore can't give you detailed advice, so i'll keep it general. Don't grind for grinding's sake, any game will feel like a slog doing that. There are much easier ways to get lots of points in order to level up. Look up the accolades in your driver menu. There are various types of multi-tiered accolades that will grant you big fame bonuses as you complete each tier. Also, consider doing community challenges, those are a great source of fame points as well. Instead of grinding drift points in single player, take on a drifting challenge and you'll be killing two birds with one stone. You'll be raking up points for the drift accolade, and at the same time getting fame when the challenge runs out, if you can do reasonably well (just getting into the top 100 on the leader board for a specific challenge often nets nice rewards).


Yep....

Only real issue I have with the game at the moment, (regarding the faster cars), I'm driving a ten lap race for example, I have a spin out on the third lap, drive absolutely for the next 7 laps and I'm lucky get beyond 5 place again.

It amuses me to read this after all the posts about how easy the game is because the AI slows down for you when you're doing badly. Yes, they do that, but just because they let you catch up, doesn't mean that they're just throwing the race and letting you win. How much of a comeback you'll be able to make depends on the race settings (difficulty, number of laps), how your car ranks among the pack and of course your driving skills (familiarity with the car and track).
 

pmj

Member
I don't have the PS+ version and therefore can't give you detailed advice, so i'll keep it general. Don't grind for grinding's sake, any game will feel like a slog doing that. There are much easier ways to get lots of points in order to level up. Look up the accolades in your driver menu. There are various types of multi-tiered accolades that will grant you big fame bonuses as you complete each tier. Also, consider doing community challenges, those are a great source of fame points as well. Instead of grinding drift points in single player, take on a drifting challenge and you'll be killing two birds with one stone. You'll be raking up points for the drift accolade, and at the same time getting fame when the challenge runs out, if you can do reasonably well (just getting into the top 100 on the leader board for a specific challenge often nets nice rewards).

None of the challenges are available to me. A big problem with the game is that it doesn't even attempt to surface the content that can be accessed, and instead just throws up a list of stuff that for the most part is only available in the full version. It does this everywhere. I guess there's a chance that eventually a challenge would be generated for a combination of track and car that I have, but right now, there's nothing.

I'll look into the accolades, though. That could be a way forward.
 
None of the challenges are available to me. A big problem with the game is that it doesn't even attempt to surface the content that can be accessed, and instead just throws up a list of stuff that for the most part is only available in the full version. It does this everywhere. I guess there's a chance that eventually a challenge would be generated for a combination of track and car that I have, but right now, there's nothing.

I'll look into the accolades, though. That could be a way forward.

Now that's a huge shame, since the PS+ version is supposed to have full functionality feature wise. Maybe it's just that no one created PS+ specific challenges? Very odd.
 

Grikker

Banned
I've been playing since launch of the full version and yes, the AI is overly aggressive causing wrecks constantly. I really dislike these issues because fanboys or the God-tier players act like these things don't happen. If they didn't happen you, wouldnt have people saying anything.

Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game with how some people pretend these things never occur to them.
 

Melchiah

Member
I've been playing since launch of the full version and yes, the AI is overly aggressive causing wrecks constantly. I really dislike these issues because fanboys or the God-tier players act like these things don't happen. If they didn't happen you, wouldnt have people saying anything.

Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game with how some people pretend these things never occur to them.

I don't recall seeing people claiming the AI isn't aggressive. I personally think the aggressiveness adds tension to the racing, and is therefore a good thing. However, I don't even remember when I've been pushed off the road the last time. It used to be a pretty common occurrence at launch. Escpecially in the long straights, when someone rammed into your rear at full speed.
 

pmj

Member
Now that's a huge shame, since the PS+ version is supposed to have full functionality feature wise. Maybe it's just that no one created PS+ specific challenges? Very odd.

I'm not sure if what I said is entirely correct, to be honest. It does show me a lot of events that I can't partake in, but I could very well be missing the ones I can. I find the menus to be rather confusing.
 

Scanna

Member
Played all this morning and a few thoughts:

1. I don't really like the handling in comparison to PGR and Forza Horizon. It feels incredibly "heavy" and "sticky" on the road. I just feel like I don't have nearly as much control. Faster cars are frustratingly squirrely (especially that Ferrari) and I was having some serious difficulty with it.

2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

3. The visuals are striking, beautiful and the presentation of the menus/music is great. Very little problems here aside from the aliasing. I like the idea of the breaking flags as well.

It would have been nice if there was more dynamic things going on in and around the tracks to make them more "fun" so to speak. For example, I enjoyed the firework display at the end of one of the tracks, but that was all too brief and stuff like that doesn't seem to happen very often. As it is, its a very clinical (yet beautiful) representation of most of these countries.

4. I love the social integration and seeing me beat corner times on some of friends absolutely brought a smile to my face. It's handled smartly and feels rewarding.

Overall, there are things I really like about Driveclub (presentation and social integration), but the actual handling and AI haven't clicked with me yet.

My thoughts EXACTLY. not feeling it right now. Will try again tho.
 
I've been playing since launch of the full version and yes, the AI is overly aggressive causing wrecks constantly. I really dislike these issues because fanboys or the God-tier players act like these things don't happen. If they didn't happen you, wouldnt have people saying anything.

Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a different game with how some people pretend these things never occur to them.
I'm not in God tier, but I probably wouldn't be massaging my balls if I said I was a good player in terms of this game, and I would say AI are not that much of an issue.

I think the reason why is because the AI is keen to stick to the racing line, and if you're a good player who knows the tracks inside out then you know the braking points, you know the lines to take - and they'll match well with the AI.

So really an AI isn't going to come along and hit you in the side and spin you out because it'd be directly behind you. If the AI did side-swipe then you're probably going too wide or braking too early.

Furthermore, if you're used to the behaviour of the cars you're driving you'll pick up on the tell-tale signs of spin outs and you'll be avoid to avoid the car spinning or being wiped out if a very rare hit did occur.

So that's why, I think, people sit here going 'dunno what you're on about', but others are crying about it.
 

Purest 78

Member
+1

The amount of the newbies crying was expected but daaamn the issues some point out.

I had a friend Trying to go trough corners flooring it he complained about the handling. I explained to him the proper way to handle corners. He didn't even use the colored flag indicators, he thought they where just decoratings lol. He ended up loving the game and upgrading. 10 or more on my friends list have upgraded so far online has been so fun.
 

Melchiah

Member
I had a friend Trying to go trough corners flooring it he complained about the handling. I explained to him the proper way to handle corners. He didn't even use the colored flag indicators, he thought they where just decoratings lol. He ended up loving the game and upgrading. 10 or more on my friends list have upgraded so far online has been so fun.

Heh. I dunno how can you not realize the meaning of the flags. I thought it was as obvious as it could be. =)
 

wowlace

Member
Good game. Hard game.

My advice re: aggressive AI

9a996b95b48b48c6e7407797bb8c9b29e8da0076abb16670d85a5fb1ca8e5799.jpg


You gotta ride dirty.
 

Purest 78

Member
Heh. I dunno how can you not realize the meaning of the flags. I thought it was as obvious as it could be. =)

Yes you would think that as did I, but even some of my twitter friends didn't know. So when people shit on the game but don't know what the flags do. It's hard for me to take their criticism serious.
 
I'm not sure if what I said is entirely correct, to be honest. It does show me a lot of events that I can't partake in, but I could very well be missing the ones I can. I find the menus to be rather confusing.

Look into the Evolution challenges (Chalenges --> Evolution), though there aren't as many of those running concurrently compared to Solo Challenges, they have massive rewards due to the number of people participating. There are currently 3 challenges that should be open to you (the India ones). As for Solo challenges, there should also be some that are open to you. Look for challenges set in India, using any one of these cars:

  • Hot Hatch
    • Volkswagen Golf GTI [club]
    • Mini John Cooper Works GP
    • Audi A1 quattro
  • Sports
    • Bentley Continental GT V8 [club]
    • Mercedes A 45 AMG
    • Lotus Evora S
  • Performance
    • BMW M3 GTS [club]
    • Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale
    • Alfa Romeo 4C
  • Super
    • Bac Mono [club]
    • Audi R8 V10
    • Marussia B2
  • Hyper
    • Pagani Zonda R [club]
    • RUF CTR3
    • Koenigsegg Agera R
 

velociraptor

Junior Member
Played all this morning and a few thoughts:

1. I don't really like the handling in comparison to PGR and Forza Horizon. It feels incredibly "heavy" and "sticky" on the road. I just feel like I don't have nearly as much control. Faster cars are frustratingly squirrely (especially that Ferrari) and I was having some serious difficulty with it.

2. The AI is fucking brutal, bordering on unfair at times and shoves you all around the track... Which ties into the first point, I was doing an extended lap race, only to have it start raining and another AI car sideswipe me causing me to spin out and drop from 3rd place back to 10th. I drove nearly perfectly for 4 minutes out of the 5 minute race and got slammed at the last moment to fuck up the entire run... it just isn't fun.

3. The visuals are striking, beautiful and the presentation of the menus/music is great. Very little problems here aside from the aliasing. I like the idea of the breaking flags as well.

It would have been nice if there was more dynamic things going on in and around the tracks to make them more "fun" so to speak. For example, I enjoyed the firework display at the end of one of the tracks, but that was all too brief and stuff like that doesn't seem to happen very often. As it is, its a very clinical (yet beautiful) representation of most of these countries.

4. I love the social integration and seeing me beat corner times on some of friends absolutely brought a smile to my face. It's handled smartly and feels rewarding.

Overall, there are things I really like about Driveclub (presentation and social integration), but the actual handling and AI haven't clicked with me yet.

I completely agree. I had high hopes for Driveclub's driving model given the praise it's received on GAF, but it's not for me.

Driveclub is confused. It doesn't know whether it is an arcade racer or a sim. I feel Horizon has nailed the perfect balance with it's driving model.

Graphics sure look pretty though.
 

Melchiah

Member
Yes you would think that as did I, but even some of my twitter friends didn't know. So when people shit on the game but don't know what the flags do. It's hard for me to take their criticism serious.

I definitely agree with that. It just puzzles me how anyone couldn't understand why they're there for.


EDIT:
I don't think it is that obvious - but you shouldn't need them anyway, 'oh look a sharp corner where I can't see the exit, must be flat out'.

Actually, the lack of corner flags is one of the reasons why I don't like the race tracks as much. I haven't played them that often, so I haven't memorized them, which means I have to look at the minimap constantly. The other being, that I just find them boring in comparison to P2Ps and road circuits; less variation and scenery.
 
Driveclub looks and feels pretty nice, especially speeding through the elements. But I think I'm done with it. After the initial thrill of the presentation wore off, the game just ain't fun. Slightly more fun than Gran Turismo and Forza to be sure, but nothing I'm gonna spend time with.

Then again, I'm definitely not the target audience here. I've never been into any realism fetish racers. Certainly was fast and purty, however.
 

ZangBa

Member
Are you talking about point deduction penalties or speed limiting penalties? Because the former, while annoying in principle, are a non-factor in the grand scheme of things. A couple of occasionally unjustified -200 point penalties are a drop in the bucket compared to what you make in a single race. I agree that it's not right, but i find it negligible and it doesn't ruin any of the fun for me.

As for the speed limiting penalties, i don't think i ever got one from getting hit by someone else, it's always me hitting the AI (or cutting corners when i shouldn't be, which admittedly can be a bit inconsistent, but that's another matter). And even then it only happens when i hit them with a lot of force, without even the pretension of braking before impact. Normally just stepping on the brakes a bit before you hit them lets you off the hook in my experience.

I'm talking about the speed penalty. The guy swerved around wildly and t-boned me, I got the speed penalty and he didn't, then he sped off after that with more speed than I could gain back. That made me more salty than you can imagine, and it happens occasionally in other races, just not that ridiculously.
 

Synth

Member
If the AI was a problem, no one could ever platinumed the game.

Just the people being unable to get into the handling or the mechanics.
Better shit on the game than in own skills.

This is some silly logic. People can beat old Mortal Kombat and SNK fighters, but that doens't mean the AI in those weren't absolute bullshit. Some people have AAA'd everything in Sega Superstars Tennis, but that doesn't stop many of the challenges being disgustingly diffilcult, and even legitimately impossible at times (dependent on a few random factors).

Now, I'm not saying Driveclub is like these (although its AI does share some similarities to how Mortal Kombat's is handled), but claiming that people being able to beat it means there isn't any issues is ridiculous.
 

evolution

Member
I like the handling model. feel like I'm always on the border of losing control, and I like that. The learning curve reminds me more of wipeout, than say PGR.
 

Heimbeck

Banned
If the AI was a problem, no one could ever platinumed the game.

Just the people being unable to get into the handling or the mechanics.
Better shit on the game than in own skills.

This is complete shit.
The AI can ram you off the track, and they generally stick to a very specific drive line which can make them aggressive.
And since there is no way to go back you could easily lose a good five minutes because a fault that wasn't your own.
 

khaaan

Member
I was going to come in and say how I'm not very good at racing games and ask for driving tips because I am complete garbage at the game...but I think I'll just delete the game and hide behind everyone else complaining about the handling.
 

King326

Member
To the people complaining about AI, most races I mean 99% of races it wants you to be on Podium (1/2/3). You don't have to be first, but it helps in championship races.

I actually ended up getting the full game after playing the demo (which was tough at first). I'm enjoying this WAY more than project cars. I love progression system and for some apparent reason PC didn't have any. Sold that game shortly after.
 

nib95

Banned
To all the people complaining about the AI, please upload a video of one full race that you think has examples of poor AI. Not a cherry picked single example, but an entire race. I am almost certain the vast majority of instances of issue will be due to player error, and that the player themselves will be the one driving by far the most recklessly and aggressively during the race.

What you learn from online multiplayer racing is that real drivers are about a 1000 times more aggressive and reckless than the AI drivers in the game, which kind of makes the complaint all the more amusing.
 
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