I've seen around an hour's worth of footage (no PS4 as of yet) as Driveclub was a game I've been keeping my eye on closely more or less since it was announced. Given it was delayed by what, close to a year, I was expecting it to be mind blowing. In that respect, from a spectator's point of view at least, it's been a little bit disappointing. I don't know if it's either been me thinking it would be something special given the amount of time it’s been delayed, or whether subconsciously I've been believing the hype (which I very rarely do these days).
Firstly, the positives. It seems like an updated version of Gran Turismo – a series I used to rate very highly until around the fourth game. I liked that formula. Graphically it looks fairly impressive in parts, especially water and car interiors, but no ground breaker in others. Around half of the tracks that I've seen look pretty good too. However I must stress I’m seeing this through YouTube, which typically always tends to tone things down a little so I'll happily stand corrected on this from people who physically have this game if their opinions differ.
It seems to be realistic in terms of car control/physics too, but again I can only comment on this as a spectator. You can see the understeer in front wheel drive cars, the grip and then inevitable understeer in four wheel drives and the twitching/tail happy effects of rear wheel drive. In many racing games, the rear wheel drive 'tail happy' antics are a little OTT compared to real life (especially in lesser-powered cars), but DriveClub seems to get it not far wrong.
I also enjoy all the weather effects I've seen so far. Especially sunset. They seem to have done well in creating lighting flares, dim patches e.t.c…
The negatives? The 'walkthrough' I've been seeing has been the full game, but it seems rather 'empty' for that. It doesn't have many features from what I've seen - unless my walkthrough guy simply hadn't got around to them yet. It seems pretty linear in how it’s played. There doesn’t appear to be any sort of licences to achieve in order to progress – simply skill points (or whatever they’re called) from the races. I'm not entirely sure if I like that yet. I don't even know if there's a simple time trial mode for the tracks in which you could perfect your skills before an actual race – or simply cruise along to admire the scenery. It would be a heck of an omission if it didn't.
I'm not fond of the damage done to the cars either. A few dints and heavy scratches seems to be about the worst I've seen so far. I don't actually mind a there being a lack of mechanical damage, I can overlook that, but it would be nice to have seen more realistic crumpling of bumpers and bodywork.
Car customisation doesn't bother me. It seems you only get to choose from one standard factory colour and then four or five different loud paint jobs. None of which attract me. I would have preferred it if it went along the lines of Gran Turismo and offered the factory range of colours that were/are actually available. However this is more of a matter of taste than an actual ‘negative’.
Another one is it seems you loose points of AI cars hit you – even though it's their fault. It's a reoccurring theme on the 'walkthrough' I've seen and it's been commented upon a couple of times now. I can understand if you've bashed into someone that you'd loose points, but when it's not your fault…? I can imagine some of the lengthier races having to be replayed more than necessary in order to progress because of this.
Without having the actual game or a PS4 to play it on (yet), I really comment on how it feels to play or how hard it is. All in all it appears to be a decent, although not groundbreaking, racing game.
Would it be something I'd get? Hmmm… It probably would, yes. I generally enjoy motor racing games of this nature as I like cars. I've had a bit of a break from this in recent years and I’d love to go back. As things stand if a sensibly priced bundle was to come up for this, I'd probably go for it. However, a bundle with Alien : Isolation would have to take the advantage. I'd never thought I'd say that a few weeks ago… I really don't want to sound too harsh to DriveClub because it's a decent overall game. However, it isn’t quite the racing experience I was expecting given the lengthy delay it had. I think that's more the problem than anything else.
