-Watch the Gametrailers Field Report- (Gametrailers embed doesn't seem to work anymore, the player does show up while writing, but doesn't materialize after posting.)

Anyways, this informative Field Report (great format by the way) cleared lots of things up for me. I always pegged Rivals as somewhat inspired by the Souls franchise, but to what extent I was unaware of. It has the same seamless multiplayer integration, the same accumulating of currency, and the same phantom-invasion-style of PvP, where-in cops can sack all of a racer's spoils by taking them down. Racers on the other hand get score multipliers for not banking their winnings. Sounds like ideal design for crazy intense street racing with emergent mutliplayer dynamism as cherry ontop.

Yo - can't wait for the reviews to hit. Could well be the killer app for next gen consoles. I know. I know. It's on current gen and PC too, but that's not really important once I play it on my PS4. Great games, I'll play them. So hopefully everything pans out with Rivals, and it's not crazy flawed despite its promise - because I sure want to play great games on my new shiny box come the 29th. Come on reviews, I need good news!

So it has high animation priority? That's terrible, I like my racing games responsive and quick. I'd hate to have to race through the whole game with my shield up.

I wouldn't know about that, but it sure seems to pack the thrills of a good black phantom ambush.

I saw some of rivals on the Gamespot stream. Looks pretty good!

"Dark Souls of" should be banned after someone in another thread tried to say that about Knack.

This comparison only makes me more bummed that this is the one PS4 game that I bought that hasn't shipped yet! UGHGRRRR!

Take a page from Jeff Green and just double fist your car.

This is actually the first racing game I've been excited for in awhile. Looking forward to giving it a shot on the PC.

Rivals always interested me, but after hearing the comparison with Dark Souls:

@mooseymcman: Yeah, Amazon just told me today to expect it on Tuesday. Which seems weird since it got bumped up to launch, but whatever.

It's a much more apt comparison in this case. So many core concepts have inspired Rivals directly, it's hard to ignore.

@thebrainninja: Lucky you, mine still says "Tuesday, December 31, 2013 - Tuesday, January 7, 2014 by 8:00pm." I think that's just a placeholder.

To be fair the whole cash thing sounds more apt in a way. But it's just on the fly matchmaking. A lot of games are doing that now yeah.

No. It's not matchmaking anymore really. Nothing happens in its own instance (as far as I understand). It's more like free roam in GTA Online, only instead of all the jobs being instanced via matchmaking, it's all happening at the same time in freeroam and players and events can and will dynamically interact and interfere with one another.

Like racers being engaged in a race, and suddenly a cop player shows up trying to bust them. It's still a race, just now there's also a hint of Hot Pursuit in it, because there's a real player cop after you too. Let's say you are a social person, who likes to band together with friends. You could set up ambushes freeform. MMO-style ganking. And all that good stuff.

I think you underestimate what this whole *seamless multiplayer* angle all brings to the table. All these games, like let's say Destiny, have a tremendous potential for emergent gameplay - player driven dynamic and much more unique gameplay situations. I hope that it will feel fresh, and doubly exciting for it.

It's not a full MMO with every player in one world, there is some degree of the game connecting players on the fly by whatever their logic happens to be. You can call it whatever you want, it's matchmaking on the fly.

Not sure why you are saying I underestimate it. I do not. It's the right way to do all this stuff and I love it as someone who doesn't play that much multiplayer because I just don't seek it out. But would if it just happened really quick and naturally.

It's just a ton of games are doing this now. Destiny, this game, The Division, etc. That is all I said.