Driveclub

Driveclub immediately feels like it is missing something as soon as it throws you into the first race. You just begin the game in a car, then you drive the first race with no instructions, and just begins to have you get a feel for the driving. To me, this is a really strange way to start a driving game, because most that I have played begins with someone talking to you, some cutscene, or crazy music, and this doesn't have any of that, just a track full of cars and you needing to drive. That is what the whole game basically feels like, just the most basic part of a driving game with no direction.

However, when it comes to driving, I do believe it feels pretty good with a great sense of speed. I haven't played a driving game since Need for Speed Rivals so something different felt nice, and each car felt fast, even though for the most part, all cars practically handles the same with very slight deviation. Cars with really high horsepower may have a higher chance of spinning out during sharp turns, and lower acceleration gives it a feeling of a little more grip. That is basically all the difference between the cars in handling, but every car does look really nice. I have to say that when it comes to how the cars look, Driveclub is one of the best at that, and how they light up at night looks amazing.

The core concept of this game is to just go out, drive on set events, get points, and repeat. That's it. There is nothing telling you to do this other than you unlock more races by beating the other ones and getting stars, but every event barrels down to four things. There is a straight up race, a drift challenge, time trial, or point to point race. The variety in this game is very slim to the point that I feel they weren't sure what they wanted this game to be. It is not an arcade game nor is it a simulator. It also doesn't fall in the position of any happy median between those two types, and doesn't seem to be efficient at either. If you cut a corner or hit another car, or in some cases have another car hit you, the game gives you an acceleration penalty. If this was a simulation game, I would be fine with that and be more cautious with my driving. but the only fall back in hitting other cars is you loose points, and points only matter in your level progression. To me, the game wants me to go really fast and have a good time, but the game penalizes me for what I find fun in a non simulator racing game.

The other final component of the game is the Driveclub part, in which you and four other friends can share points and earn more cars together, but that part is basically broken still. I was able to get into a club, then every time I would play it since the servers were freaking out, so I can't really comment on this part of the game other than I feel that a Club should consist of more than five players.

All in all, I believe if they kept how the driving feels and made more of a game around it, this game would be able to compete with other games in the genre, but they don't really do anything to separate themselves from the crowd. There isn't much fun to be had unless you put on some music and feel like driving for a little bit, I would say hold off until they get the PlayStation Plus edition out, or wait for it to come on sale. If you are like me and somehow really enjoy the driving, then you should probably give it a shot, but the A.I. and server issues make this game not pleasant most of the time.