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Kotaku: Three Weeks Later, DriveClub Still Doesn't Work Properly

Game's been working correctly for me (online and off) for the last week.
The frustration of the first two weeks was eclipsed by the stellar gameplay.

But what do I know. I'm just some dude who owns and plays the game.

Anyway, I'm off to sue Nvidia for every game that's been released without proper SLI drivers available on launch day. The frustration of waiting a week or two for my GPU's to blaze in tandem has resulted in truly agonizing pain and suffer, I'm owed something.

Now this is hyperbole.

All of those games are online only so you wouldn't be able to play them if they didn't work. Driveclub has a large single player component and I'm sure there would be people angered by the fact they wouldn't be able to buy it to play offline mode. I still don't know a single game that wasn't online only that got pulled from sale.

You're speaking as if DriveClub offline only mode is worthy of the $60.00 price tag. I would argue that it isn't.
 
I feel bad for Evolution since come time to purchase new studios and close up others to make room (financially), Evolution is going to be seen like a prime example by both users and Sony itself as something they can chop.
 
not good for the ip itself, while it is indeed a great game, if the online part would have worked on day 1.

Also saw no word of Shu or Adam regarding the game. Well, ok never mind...
 
Game's been working correctly for me (online and off) for the last week.
The frustration of the first two weeks was eclipsed by the stellar gameplay.

But what do I know. I'm just some dude who owns and plays the game.

Anyway, I'm off to sue Nvidia for every game that's been released without proper SLI drivers available on launch day. The frustration of waiting a week or two for my GPU's to blaze in tandem has resulted in truly agonizing pain and suffer, I'm owed something.
So no one should think about returning the game because it's been working alright for you? Who gives a shit if it's working for you? How does that help anyone the game isn't working correctly for? What about the people who it still doesn't run well for? Do you honestly think no one complaining owns and tried to play the game as well?

Also yes, you've confirmed you have no fucking idea what you're talking about. You're beyond oblivious to the situation, or what the word entitled means.
 
Really fun and enjoyable game that has been held back by tons of huge issues and still basically gimped and broken at this point with no challenges and still having disconnects every now and then even though it has gotten better. Plus there is alot of issues with the online multiplayer outside of challenges in that even though the tracks are small everyone is just crashing into each other and the game becomes a literal destruction derby. Plus with no private lobbies I have no actual way of having a friendly 1 on 1 race with a buddy, we would end up getting stuck with other players, and thus more destruction derby. The core game itself is great though, and I enjoy the tight physics while racing around Mountain areas, and the sense of speed that the bumper cam gives you is pretty damn amazing. At this point I'm waiting it out a bit to see if things get fixed before I try to ask for a refund since I'm playing through Bayo right now anyway, but I just hope that things are fully functional at some point soon.
 
..no club points (to unlock some of the best cars), no leaderboards times, no multiplayer races and no challenges...

This would really piss me off if I had owned it since day one.

Challenges, that pop up based off of friends, are one of the best things with these "connected" consoles.

You know what the real shame behind the Driveclub fiasco is? Evolution Studios has always said that Driveclub was THE game that they've always wanted to do, their dream game, and the game they've poured the most passion into. To have it released the way it was and just flat out breaking must be a crushing blow their morale. It's really a shame to see a development studio with a strong pedigree in the games they've released come to this point.

Has to be heartbreaking as a game designer/developer. Hate that for them.
 
So cancel the PS+ version you figure?

They would have to actually come out and say that at some point wouldn't they?

Thought he was kidding. But given how frustrated everyone is (and rightfully so), I can't tell anymore.

PS+ version will happen. There is simply no other way to recover from this.
 
yoshida is racking up disaster after disaster, there's driveclub, millions wasted on santa monica's canned game, the last guardian, overseeing the death of gran turimo, plus i'm sure there's many more that i can't remember - it's a joke, not even big phil harrison was this bad.
 
not good for the ip itself, while it is indeed a great game, if the online part would have worked on day 1.

Also saw no word of Shu or Adam regarding the game. Well, ok never mind...
Adam Boyes is third party relations, so he wouldn't be any more authoritative than any other random PlayStation person regarding this.

So you can get a refund if you bought the digital version? Where do I contact?
https://support.us.playstation.com/app/contact_options
 
I can only image how much of a money-sink this thing is.

1 extra year development cost
lost sales from potential customers
refunds to existing customers
continued development cost
server improvements/upgrades

With Ps4 (and its software) selling so well there's a good chance they actually sold enough to break even or even made some profit...

Sure, they messed up, but the game might have be big enough on launch week to show sony the series has potential.
 
Hahaha, great way to make sure people never take you seriously again. The driving is sublime. It actually rewards you for taking corners right, drafting, and so much more. Just stop.

I completely disagree. The driving is what killed it for me. I play a ton of racing games and this one just felt off. If you try to drive a real racing line you end up getting bypassed by the CPU. Instead you have to slam on the brakes at the last minute and slide all over the place. Sure they reward you for clean driving but that doesn't mean it's the best way to drive. You have to race cheaply to win.
Have you played Forza Horizon 2? That rides the line perfectly between arcade and Sim handling. It feels good and you actually gain an advantage from driving a good racing line.
 
yoshida is racking up disaster after disaster, there's driveclub, millions wasted on santa monica's canned game, the last guardian, overseeing the death of gran turimo, plus i'm sure there's many more that i can't remember - it's a joke, not even big phil harrison was this bad.

Yosp really has been screwing up. He's lucky he's such a likable guy, because his teams' output has been pretty abysmal for the PS4. Re-releases of PS3's best games are not cutting it.
 
I completely disagree. The driving is what killed it for me. I play a ton of racing games and this one just felt off. If you try to drive a real racing line you end up getting bypassed by the CPU. Instead you have to slam on the brakes at the last minute and slide all over the place. Sure they reward you for clean driving but that doesn't mean it's the best way to drive. You have to race cheaply to win.
Have you played Forza Horizon 2? That rides the line perfectly between arcade and Sim handling. It feels good and you actually gain an advantage from driving a good racing line.

I actually feel the same way about the driving as you. I vastly prefer Forza Horizon 2's driving model. I was willing to overlook the driving to play with DriveClub GAF but was never able to maintain a stable online connection.
 
With Ps4 (and its software) selling so well there's a good chance they actually sold enough to break even or even made some profit...

Sure, they messed up, but the game might have be big enough on launch week to show sony the series has potential.

Whatever potential the game might have had is gone. The DC name, and Evolution Studios themselves, are severely tarnished.

And I say this as someone who *really* enjoys the game.
 
PS+ version will happen. There is simply no other way to recover from this.
I'd like to think so but there hasn't been a peep said about it. And with all of these updates incrementally increasing stability, unleashing a PS+ version is still going to draw in a spike of new traffic above and beyond the post-release-beta population we have now.

As time goes on I wonder whether these problems are fixable in a way that allows for everybody who wants to to jump in.

I guess I'd feel better about this if their messaging was about the goal of having all systems available to all players all of the time, both the full version and the PS+ version. But instead its all talk about increasing reliability of the current subset of features with the current paid-only populations. Feels almost like a setting the stage to get all paid versions up to where they should be before retreating and claiming some kind of victory. Forgive me for the US foreign policy comparison there ;p
 
I hope they can survive this. Was never interested in this game as its just not my cup of tea, but these guys make great arcade racers(motorstorm <3). IDC what anyone says, motorstorm apocalypse was amazing and I want a sequel to it.every race felt like it came straight out of a movie race.
 
Their FaceBook page posted an update about an hour ago.


"Hi everyone,

We know we have been quiet over the last few days which was because we wanted to offer you news when it has a meaningful impact on your experience of DRIVECLUB. The feedback you offered has been invaluable to the team because it’s informed our updates to iron out the major issues affecting you as quickly as possible.

Our diagnostics show the majority of you are now able to get online and racing. This increased stability has meant that statistics and accolades are updating efficiently now, so hopefully you have been having fun boosting your fame and watching how you compare to your friends and other racers around the world.

Today we also released a server update to optimise multiplayer matchmaking so you will now be matched with more suitable players based on the type of internet connection you have, which means matchmaking should be more reliable. This update will also fix some bugs we had with clubs where some players couldn't join or leave a club.

Improvements continue to be made to the servers and our next significant game update will be released this week. This will boost connectivity and provide a better overall experience.

Thanks for your support and we will provide more news as soon as we have it."
 
I never play racers online, but the rest of the club stuff has worked for two weeks for me. Such drama from mostly people who don't own it, such concern.
 
A shame really. The core driving mechanics in the game are fantastic, among the, if not the very best I have met in a racing game for years. Yet, the online situation has been a disaster since day one. Thankfully things seriously improved for me at the end of last week and I spent last week end racing online. Sure, everything is not yet perfect (very few disconnections overall but challenges were still not stable) but I could play the game as intended most of the time. And when everything works, it's just brilliant. The very definition of a diamond in the rough.

Yet, all my praises will not make the situation acceptable. They fucked up their launch as soon as they did not opt for an open beta. It is as simple as that.
 
They should have waited, worked on ironing out these problems, and complete weather patch before launch. Lost opportunity.
 
Whatever potential the game might have had is gone. The DC name, and Evolution Studios themselves, are severely tarnished.

And I say this as someone who *really* enjoys the game.

I dunno, but I don't think gamers get burned like this, if they eventually make it work properly, give some content for free for the support they might gain some goodwill back. But yeah, the longer this takes, the worst it gets for them.
 
I never play racers online, but the rest of the club stuff has worked for two weeks for me. Such drama from mostly people who don't own it, such concern.

I'd show you my trophies from DriveClub - but I can't log into the PSN. Go figure.


But, when you "never play racers online" of course "the online works fine for you" because you don't play it online. How can something be broken for you if you don't use it?
 
Then why don't you update the game's review to reflect it's current status and advises people who are interested to buy the game to wait?
 
Oh and are we gonna get anything in place if Driveclub PS Plus edition for October or are they just gonna pretend like its a "gift" that we didnt pay for?

Reeeal tired of PSN giving me indies. Some Ive enjoyed, but I could have bought those for less than 50 a year, much less if Steam sale.
 
Everyone should get a refund. This is ridiculous and a disappointing situation. The shit hasn't worked for weeks and it's unacceptable at this point. This is
 
I said Motorstorm, not Motorstorm Apocalypse.

Motorstorm didn't have these exact issues, it was kind of the opposite. It was completely barebones and they spent the next year patching the feature set in.

At this point, you can't get away with releasing a racing game with the feature set of vanilla MS, but they can launch what they did, and just have the rest of it be broken and promise to finish it.

Ah, ok, thought you meant that the entire franchise was a failure.
 
I'd like to think so but there hasn't been a peep said about it. And with all of these updates incrementally increasing stability, unleashing a PS+ version is still going to draw in a spike of new traffic above and beyond the post-release-beta population we have now.

As time goes on I wonder whether these problems are fixable in a way that allows for everybody who wants to to jump in.

I guess I'd feel better about this if their messaging was about the goal of having all systems available to all players all of the time, both the full version and the PS+ version. But instead its all talk about increasing reliability of the current subset of features with the current paid-only populations.

Not sure about the PR strategy here and whether it is better or worse to not mention it until they have a solid ETA. All the facebook updates are coming from devs and their current focus is on getting it to work. I agree that they should absolutely reiterate in every update to allay such concerns that the PS+ version will get axed.

One way or the other, it's going be a rough ride till they fix it. But I don't think "not fixing it and letting people move on to other games" is an option for Sony. That will destroy the studio and Sony's image. The press and the gaming community will make sure of it. The PS+ version is coming. Only question is when and whether it will help lift the game out of the grave it is being buried (half) alive in.
 
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