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Driveclub: Playstation's Fallen Masterpiece

TheAssist

TheAssist

Member
Whitelight just put out a fantastic video about Drivelcub



Funny thing is, I have never played the game. I followed it and wanted to buy it, but it got a little bit too much flak during its release, which let be to believe the game isnt as good as the trailers suggested.

Its rather unfortunate really, I know there is a bunch of you here who really like and also miss this game and what it brought to the table of simcade racing. Especially today, where good, new racing games are really hard to find.

So this is to Driveclub, its developers and its fans. Roar your engines in one final hurray for this divisive masterpiece that died before it it had any chance to stand the test of time.

Also, if you dont know Whitelight, he is a fantastic youtuber, who writes some of the best scripts about a wide array of diffferent games. But especially racing and Assasins Creed. Check out his Split Second and Blur. Again, two racing games I didnt play because of reviews at the time and after watching his videos I now kinda regret it.
 
Emet_bp

Emet_bp

Member
One of the best arcade racers ever... Can't forgive Sony that they fired them...

Btw. I can't pick one... but right now I remember Driveclub, Motorstorm 1 and 2, NFS Hot Pursuit 2 (PS2 version), NFS Undeeground 1, Dirt 2, Flat Out 2, Forza Horizon 4... Theese are my best arcade racers of all time.
I would love to see new Motorstorm some day...
 
eyesabitdull

eyesabitdull

Banned
Sony shutting down Evolution is probably the biggest fuck you I have against them.

The fact that we can't have a Motorstorm this generation pains my soul.

homer simpson middle finger GIF
 
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Emet_bp

Emet_bp

Member
eyesabitdull said:
Sony shutting down Evolution is probably the biggest fuck you I have against them.

The fact that we can't have a Motorstorm this generation pains my soul.

homer simpson middle finger GIF
Click to expand...
In theory we can have a new Motorstorm because Sony owns the franchise... but first they need to get new team that will be able to create a worthy sequel...
 
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TheAssist

TheAssist

Member
But I wonder what made Evolution better than whatever parts of the team were doing afterwards.

Onrush flew under the radar (though it looked fun), Project Cars 3 didnt do anything and I guess the new Dirt was alright, but no one is going to talk about that in 6 years.

So what made Evolution so special. It doesnt seem to be individual talent (though that plays an important role)
 
mancstheps5fanboy

mancstheps5fanboy

Banned
was always behind the team , and was a bargain game , of top notch quality racing, the vision for the graphics are amazing ,. be nice to see least a p5 rtx upgrade...
 
Golgo 13

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
I think it was a good racing game, not the second coming of Jesus as some people claim. I think there's a psycholigical element at play here where because it wasn't as successful as it could've been, people romanticize it. Forza Horizon series, even the lowpoints, crush Driveclub on its best day. Those rain effects tho!
 
RaZoR No1

RaZoR No1

Member
As much i tried to love this game and I love racing games, this one clicked with me...
Great visuals, tracks and sound, but the ohysics was not for me
Same with PGR4
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Golgo 13 said:
I think it was a good racing game, not the second coming of Jesus as some people claim. I think there's a psycholigical element at play here where because it wasn't as successful as it could've been, people romanticize it. Forza Horizon series, even the lowpoints, crush Driveclub on its best day. Those rain effects tho!
Click to expand...
One is open world, another is a circuit style racer. That comes down to taste of one style over the other.
 
Whitecrow

Whitecrow

Banned
When I, that is always thinking about spending my time on something worth, never get tired of Driveclub and still play it since launch, then the game must have something.
 
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Golgo 13

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
DeepEnigma said:
One is open world, another is a circuit style racer. That comes down to taste of one style over the other.
Click to expand...
True. I suppose saying Forza Motorsport crushes it would've been more apt, but DriveClub is also real rarity in recent times - a circuit racer that's very arcadey. So it's difficult to make direct comparisons I suppose. To me Forza Motorsport is a little too stuffy and serious for me, I prefer stupid shenanigans and fun in my racing games over strict simulation elements.
 
T

Termite

Member
I recently got an Xbox Series X, and was so looking forward to trying Horizon 3 and 4. Even bought FH3 before it got delisted.

And while playing them, all I could think was... "man, I really preferred Driveclub!"

Incredibly good game. Weather effects were years ahead of its time.
 
BusierDonkey

BusierDonkey

Member
Perrott said:
The Forza Horizon series, arguably the most recent story of mainstream success in the racing genre, are 30fps racers.
Click to expand...

You're right, up until Horizon 3 hit PC the series was locked to 30fps, but I imagine being a really pretty massive open world racer was reason enough to let that pass. As of the launch of the XboneX there has been a way to play them at 60+ FPS. Series X runs it at 4K60 locked and PC runs it however fast your specific CPU can handle. To me Driveclub and Horizon aren't really comparable outside the fact they're both racing games. One is a sandbox, the other is a more traditional track-based arcade racing game.

To me, more traditional arcade race like Driveclub or a sim (Edit: my phrasing made it seem like I was calling Driveclub a sim) would ideally be 60fps minimum, but a lot or racers are built around the limitations of the consoles they released on. I think Driveclub is one of them (though I'd love to see it running at 4K/60+ through emulation some day) A lot of people forget that for at least 3 gens now many of the big arcade racing games weren't 60fp. Several NFS titles, the older Grid games, Motorstorm series, PGR series, etc all ran at 30fps. Those are among my favorite racing games. Hell Mario Kart 64 was barely 30fps and I love that game.
 
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Perrott

Perrott

Gold Member
Golgo 13 said:
I think it was a good racing game, not the second coming of Jesus as some people claim. I think there's a psycholigical element at play here where because it wasn't as successful as it could've been, people romanticize it. Forza Horizon series, even the lowpoints, crush Driveclub on its best day. Those rain effects tho!
Click to expand...
Hard disagree on that one.

DriveClub features some of the best handcrafted racing tracks of all time, and that allows it to have some legendary events such as the Venom Hot Lap that really, REALLY push your racing skills to the limit. Also in DriveClub, every single car feels really distinct to every other car in the game, and that's something that you don't see in a lot of racers these days.

Another thing DriveClub knocked out of the park was it's social features and leaderboards system that thanks to the many face-off challenges that showed up during the races it made you feel like you were competing against other people even when you were playing entirely on your own.

And that's without bringing up the elephant in the room: DriveClub's sense of speed was GODLIKE compared to Forza Horizon's, and that's a fact.

And on top of that you have DriveClub's absolutely beautiful art direction and graphics, as well as it's awesome soundtrack.
 
Perrott

Perrott

Gold Member
BusierDonkey said:
A lot of people forget that for at least 3 gens now many of the big arcade racing games weren't 60fp. Several NFS titles, the older Grid games, Motorstorm series, PGR series, etc all ran at 30fps. Those are among my favorite racing games. Hell Mario Kart 64 was barely 30fps and I love that game.
Click to expand...
Yeah, even Split/Second, regarded by many as one of the best racing games of all time, ran at a rock-solid 30fps, and guess what? It was fine!

To me, as long as we are talking about a steady framerate, I have no issue with 30fps racers that focus on delivering state-of-the-art graphics, although it is obvious that the higher the framerate, the better.
 
Z

zcaa0g

Banned
Uh...is this where someone should ask if the Dark Souls series should have difficulty levels? Or comparing Gamepass to Playstation Now?
 
fragganaut

fragganaut

Member
Thanks for Sharing this Video!

l really liked Driveclub for its bold attempt to be the best racing game of its generation and it did so by engaging all your senses with great looking cars, astonishing landscapes, immersiv driving, and by combining all of that with sound that "feels right" and emotions triggered by a adrenalin rush. That sense of speed and risk were unmatched. I never felt that immersed in any other car Game. not even close.

After all this years I still can remeber the stress I had in some corners.

And about the penalty system. Who ever made it, you owe me beer for lifetime and a weekly a bunch of flowers for my wife! Never ever have I raged more at anything :lollipop_tears_of_joy::lollipop_tears_of_joy:
 
M

massivekettle

Member
DeepEnigma said:
One is open world, another is a circuit style racer. That comes down to taste of one style over the other.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure both Driveclub and Forza Horizon had a mix of A-to-B tracks and proper circuits.

I played the heck of out Driveclub and it was definitely a fun and immersive experience, but the gameplay loop was just far too repetitive in the long run.

I feel that Driveclub is the Tokyo Drift of last gen’s racing games. An overall average game that gets near cult-like status in certain parts of the Internet.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
Driveclub can look phenomenal at the right circumstances. I've got it on my PS5 and still play it sometimes and it doesn't look much worse than Dirt 5 when I choose a rainy track. But on clear day some things look rather blurry and low res and not to mention the framerate is only 30fps.

Its sad that the studio was axed just when the Pro came out. I would like to see this game to at least receive a Pro boost.
 
Kindjal

Kindjal

Member
Perrott said:
Hard disagree on that one.

DriveClub features some of the best handcrafted racing tracks of all time, and that allows it to have some legendary events such as the Venom Hot Lap that really, REALLY push your racing skills to the limit. Also in DriveClub, every single car feels really distinct to every other car in the game, and that's something that you don't see in a lot of racers these days.

Another thing DriveClub knocked out of the park was it's social features and leaderboards system that thanks to the many face-off challenges that showed up during the races it made you feel like you were competing against other people even when you were playing entirely on your own.

And that's without bringing up the elephant in the room: DriveClub's sense of speed was GODLIKE compared to Forza Horizon's, and that's a fact.

And on top of that you have DriveClub's absolutely beautiful art direction and graphics, as well as it's awesome soundtrack.
Click to expand...

That Venom Hot Lap was really tough. I spent hours between several days trying to earn my 3 stars, until I finally did it.
Now that's a real sense of pride and accomplishment 😆
 
wipeout364

wipeout364

Member
I am on the side of it was a great game but it’s getting a bit overblown nowadays, it was far from perfection and had a lot of issues. That said I really enjoyed the two or three months I played a ton of it.

To me the big issue with Driveclub is the story it tells about Sony’s support for their games. I still can’t believe they shut off the servers, talk about screwing their PSplus customers. Sony shuts down their online support for their games so fast it’s sickening.
 
Birdo

Birdo

Banned
No, it didn't fail because it was 30fps :messenger_grinning_squinting:. Some of the biggest-selling racers of all time are 30fps (NFS Franchise, Forza Horizon 4, PGR, Ridge Racer, and many more).

It failed from lack of brand recognition, bad marketing, bland identity, and public awareness.

If Sony were smart, they would have linked it to Gran Turismo and made it a spin-off. Like "Gran Turismo Arcade" or something cheesy like that. It would have flown off shelves.
 
SSfox

SSfox

Member
Didn't like the game much, it looked great but not so fun to play, but i have to admit that except I never enjoyed any car game since first time i played GT with GT2.
 
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