Driveclub October 7th

[Darius]

Are any of you guys picking up driveclub next week? I haven't raced with a bunch of you for a long time so I was curious.

Darius

[Tom Servo]

My PS4 is awaiting its coffin to go back for RMA, but the short bits I saw looked pretty snazzy. I guess I'll have plenty of time to look at the reviews before buying, but I'm intrigued at this point.

[Darius]

Did everyone on here just go with XBOne's?

[stephenb]

Looks sensational, best looking title I've seen from this generation. Only snag is I don't own a PS4 :D Looks like Evolution studios will be coming up trumps as they did with the original WRC on PS2.

[SkylineObsession]

I'm on PS4, but don't plan on getting the game. My wife on the other hand, does. She's getting the PlayStation + version which can be upgraded to the full version at reduced cost or something later on.

[Darius]

Everyone gets the PS+ version if you have PS+ its just reduced cars but full game supposedly.

[stephenb]

10 cars and a single location.

[Yw-slayer]

Bought and am still downloading it. May try it soonish.

[SupraDupra]

I bought it as part of the PS4 bundle thru gamestop when the PS4 was released last year...still waiting for gamestop to ship the damn thing....

Looking forward to giving it a go!

[Yw-slayer]

After reading the reviews I'm having some buyers remorse over having, well, bought it. Anyway, is anyone going to start up a GTXF Club? My usual bros in HK aren't really into driving games.

[Tom Servo]

The coffin for the PS4 finally showed up, so it's off to Sony to be fixed up. I'm feeling fortunate that I'll get to read what you guys think of it before I get a chance to buy it.

[Darius]

I'm waiting for the PS+ version. I watched a bit of streaming of it on twitch and it was a bit meh. But its not like watching racing games is ever as good as playing them.

[SupraDupra]

So, I picked it up and played for a few hours last night. It did not impress. Unfortunately, as a driving game fan, I have a sickness and play the bad ones too.

I was hoping for a cross between GT and NFS. I did not find it to be that. The physics are....not good. I crashed a few times and was immediately straightened out. Rubberbanding AI. Unlike NFS, DC is very linear, you're dropped on an a street, given a target time, go. I did not even try, but, last time I researched it, my logitech wheel won't work on the PS4. Tried to reconfigure gas/brake on the controller to use the right joy stick, couldn't figure it out.

*sigh*

[SkylineObsession]

:(

This is why i don't join the hype train anymore. I just let it sail by.

[Yw-slayer]

I want to try and get a refund.

[Dudley]

Yeah, from the first hour it's fairly seriously meh.

It feels like something like Total Drivin' from the PS1 days, there's nothing horribly wrong with it but it's just personality free and uninspiring. Driving by numbers. A typical 6/10 game. This is fine if you're a 3 year old console and we'd all pick it up for £17.99 and enjoy it, but this is supposed to be the PS4's standard bearer driving game while Polyphony sit on their dicks for the next 2 years and it just, just isn't so far. Maybe it'll improve but I like in a world where Forza Horizon 2 exists and I've been playing it obsessively for a week and I don't think I want to devote much more time to this and finding that out right now.

[SkylineObsession]

Well, EGM did give it a 6/10, so sounds like you're spot on Duds. :)
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/reviews/egm-review-driveclub/

Metacritic says 72: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/driveclub/critic-reviews

[Darius]

After reading reviews and watching some streams on twitch of drive club and horizons 2. I picked up a XboxOne on craigslist new for $320 and picked up horizons 2 and I'm very happy I did so.

[21Kid]

If anyone is playing this game, and needs a shave :erm:, there is a deal on a electric razor DriveClub edition* :lol: at Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/misc/deal-of-the-day/pcmcat248000050016.c?id=pcmcat248000050016) today.



*comes with 10 car skins, 250,000 Fame Points

[speedpimp]

Proper link. (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/philips-norelco-click-style-ps4-driveclub-bonus-pack-black-red-gray/9163341.p?id=1219398152436&skuId=9163341)

[Yw-slayer]

I actually played a bit of this tonight for the first time ever.

It was much better than I thought it would be. I like the pseudo-arcadey but fun drift-style physics. I am particularly impressed with the engine sounds, sense of speed, and the dynamic weather, particularly the windscreen wipers and the movement of water particles. That, plus the exotic cars and locations, brings back fond memories of Test Drive 3. Sometimes that's all I really want.

Do we have a GTXF Club? I couldn't find one. I'd be up for more of this. It certainly makes a change from GT6's anodyne car collecting/modifying.

Having said that, I can see the appeal of an open world game like FH2. Is it the true successor to TDU?

[thesameguy]

It's the true successor to FH1...

[Yw-slayer]

Heh.

[SkylineObsession]

Well despite saying i wouldn't above, i bought the game last month and all the DLC etc for only $20 something (was probably over $100 when new), and this time i'm actually enjoying it. Whoring up trophies like nothing else, seems like i'll be able to get a decent haul of them (probably not platinum though) unless the game gets too hard (getting to that point now that i'm racing supercars almost).

- Rubberbanding AI does exist, can never get too far ahead and can usually catch up to at least the last bunch of cars if you spin/crash. They also rarely make mistakes and you can't really spin them out etc to force them to. :(
- Handling is still a little iffy, but i've played games with a lot worse handling (GTA) and enjoyed them, so it's not mega bad.
- Bonnet camera needs a wiper when its raining. ;)
- Car sounds are a bit off for some reason, sometimes it (seriously) sounded like i was driving a car in TOCA 2. Can kinda hear the proper sound underneath the other sounds they've added on top.

+ This is probably the best looking car game i've ever played, with Forza 6 in second place. The environments look frigging awesome, and the progressive lighting and weather effects are awesome too.
+ The weather effects are also the best i've ever seen in a game, better than GT6 and Forza 6.
+ Despite having way more races than i've ever seen in a car game, it doesn't seem to be as boring as Forza 4's race list for some reason, and i can't understand how that is. :?
+ I like how you don't have to buy cars, you just unlock them as you progress - no garage per se.
+ Physics seem cool at points, when going along bumpy roads and the car is softly (like it is actually using its suspension) but sharply jumping around.

I'll admit that i have been slightly cheating sometimes to win harder races without reverting to easy difficulty (sucks being a closet trophy whore). Sometimes i use other cars to help me corner and sometimes the walls. You do get penalised if you hit them too hard but yeah.

I'm constantly tapping the share button on the controller when racing, so would hate to see how many pics i've taken. :o :D

[Dudley]

Yeah, somewhere in the last 18 months they've really fixed it. I got into it when they did the recent sale on the season pass and the bikes and I've hoovered up a lot of trophies in the last couple of weeks.

I've not reverted to easy difficulty yet but it's certainly tricky.

A shame they just shut down the studio really.

[SkylineObsession]

Yeah, that sucks. No reason for shutting them down either that' i've found. Guessing there won't be a sequel or much more additional content then. :/

I thought about buying the bike expansion the other day, but didn't. Last decent bike game i played was Tourist Trophy.

[Dudley]

They were all but shut down straight after the much delayed release, it's only been a skeleton crew for DLC since then anyway. I suspect a launch game being massively reengineered after launch was somewhat costly, both in lost revenue and actual revenue.