Who still plays DriveClub Four years on? 7 Oct 2014

7th October 2014. Four years have flown by since it's patchy start. After many updates this turned in to one of my favourite ever racing games on any console.

Who still plays the brilliant DriveClub?

This is one game I have a soft spot for getting me back into photo modes and banter with the regulars who are still on here. I return at least once a month for a blast down a long road.


Original real road tracks
Still the quickest Loading times on PS4
Great solid handling on DS4
Pick up and play
Best rain and storms in any game
Car models were so far ahead of it's time
Interior cockpits
Great career
Realistic car engine audio
Bikes

More than arcade (physics)


+ Many more reasons I have forgotten
PSVR




I wonder how many still log in to Drive Club?

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I recently started playing the stand alone version of DC Bikes again. I forgot what a great game - both DC & DC Bikes - truly are/were and also its addictive nature. The updates really did wonders for this game.

The graphics and weather effects are in my opinion still unmatched in a racing game. The physics are fun and easy to learn but if you're aiming for the top spots on the leaderboards, that's going to take some skill and effort to master. On a side note, I used to find the original tracks boring and bland at first but they've grown on me and really glad with what we have now.

The community is still semi-active and alive, less on the bike side of things, but the challenges are still going strong though. Will definitely continue to log in and play the hell out of it once again.

Edit:
Used to spend hours in photo mode. From 2015;

 

I do occasionally boot DriveClub and take some cars for a spin. I have yet to play Driveclub VR, but that will happen eventually.

 

Every single day when I’m off work I play it, its basically the only game I play on my PS4.
The greatest racing game ever made in my eyes, I flirted with GT Sport but only lasted a week or two before coming back to DC and can’t ever see me leaving it again, the daily challenges from friends and clubs are still thriving and although the MP is a bit hit or miss there is more than enough to keep me hooked... I’m even going back to the tour challenges and DLC packs trying to beat old times now that I know the tracks blind and other friends that have been added down the years times too..

 

I still run it! Not as often as I used to do but I still come back to it to play a few round and take some pics

 

I still play it a lot I play with WidowMaker, Vaporizer and a couple others

 

Played the game, still playing it, will play it as long as i have my PS4

The game could be like any other arcade racer around there, but what really buys me is the insane attention to detail in this game. Turboed cars have proper turbo simulation: boost gradually gets up, and the lag (not threshold, threshold is everywhere, i mean exactly the lag) is noticeable (especially on older vehicles like F40). All of the cars have working odometers, which count the mileage separately on each car. Cars starting the race shiny and clean and getting that "sweat" layer on them at the end of it (imagine leaving the car for a night during moist conditions and getting in it in the morning, you'll get what i am talking about). Raindrops moving around according to the G-forces the car takes when changing directions. And did i even mention the sound? And i don't mean exhaust only. I mean ALL THE SOUNDS. Electric motors on windshield wipers. Raindrops that are noticeably loud during heavy rain. The engine growl that is overlayed by the exhaust tones, but if listened carefully can be noticed. The levels of sound isolation in cars (growling Jaguar F-Type being so quiet on the inside is mind-boggling vs. the scream of any track-oriented car like FXXK or F1 GTR is ear-deafening). The difference between naturally aspirated vs supercharged vs turbocharged vs twincharged vs electric engines. The places mentioned in the game actually existing in real life (Cayoosh Point is actually a real place OMG)! I could mention all of the detail for days

And all of that in an arcade game. Simulation games have less detail than DriveClub. Bloody love this game. Best racer there ever was on PS4. With all respect, GT Sport doesn't even come close

 

I couldn't have said it better ^^

 

I didn't play it originally, so all the drama or development issues are irrelevant to me. This is a great game and I'm loving going for the Platinum. The campaign with the various challenge stars is far more interesting than a wall of races against AI like other games.

It still looks great and should have at least got a Pro update. The weather is gorgeous and affects the race without stupid puddles like Forza. Even little things like headlights casting shadows isn't in other games.

A real shame this bombed or whatever and Evolution Studios got dumped. We could be playing DC2 by now to go along with Forza Horizon 2.

 

Just got to some dlc races that use the Motorstorm buggy. It's really cool they turn off the corner cutting penalty so you can take some offroad lines.

This game is so great.

 

Just had a good go on it yesterday again after a long time, man the detail is crazy, it`s better than anything that we have now. Still very impressive, photomode is the best, if only they had managed to patch in a pro 60 frames boost it would be even better..

 

Finally finished every race, dlc, and 100% trophies for DC and Bikes. I wish I could see how many hours I ended up playing.

What a journey. It was fun but could also be a challenging game at times. That's something we just don't get much of anymore. Gran Turismo Sport gold challenges are easy, Forza Horizon doesn't even require you to win events anymore.

I'm glad the servers stayed up long enough for me to get around to playing this.

 

I finally leveled up all bikes required for the Weekend Warrior trophy earlier today. Just one more (multiplayer) trophy to get 100% on DC Bikes and then I'm done.

Started from scratch on my ''newest'' account around two months ago. I have/had my grievances with the game but overall, it's an excellent and a damn fine arcade racing game. Truly an underrated gem. This could have been Sony's answer to PGR had they not decided to close the studio. Such a shame considering what a hypotetical DC2 could have been.

Thanks to @Rushy33 and everyone else at Evo involved making the game.

 

The servers have been knackered for a while now, challenges take an age to load, that’s if they even do load up which is a bit hit and miss, guess it’s the beginning of the end as far as DC goes, such a shame as I still think it’s the greatest racer on PS4

 

^I thought it was just my internet connection yesterday. Keeps getting disconnected when trying to update the leaderboards. I've had issues before but they always fixed itself after some time. To be expected really given how old the game is. Thank god I just got the bike multiplayer trophy earlier this week!

I'm not big into the club rivalries and such but I'll definitely miss the club cars and not being able to complete the multiplayer accolades

 

I was surprised the game hadn't been delisted yet. Sony kills first party servers, even Gran Turismo 6. Microsoft pulls Forzas down after a few years due to licensing cars and music.

Evolution Studios doesn't even exist anymore, but you can still get all the dlc and the online features work. Maybe Sony forgot about it.

 

With GT and Forza I think it's more a marketing strategy than anything. Shut down servers, forces you to get the newer game bla bla bla.

With DC without a successor they don't really have a reason. Plus the game is really deserted now so I doubt it takes a lot of capacity on their servers. If it means they can still get a handful of sales here and there I think Sony will keep it up for the time being.

Servers up and running like clockwork again today. Must be just a fluke the other day then.

 

I've put in a couple of hours last week by doing some career events. This game just absorbs once you get properly started. Checked to see if I could Beat a couple of my times and I did. The variation is still unmatched! Gosh I'd wish for a DC2 right now

 

It is properly addicting like an old school game. The variety means you never get bored! I'm working through the various Accolades at the moment to try and reach Level 120. Once that's done if I still have the patience I'm going to try levelling up all cars Unfortunately multiplayer is dead so I won't be able to complete the multiplayer/club/solo challenges accolades, but everything else should be achievable with enough time.

 

It really is! I've been mostly doing the Time Trials in the careermode again. Leveled to 96 but I think I won't ever reach 120. Progression is very very slow. What I really like though is all the little challenges that are thrown at you once you start an event. There is a sense of "friendly" competition through the whole structure of the game.

MP may be dead but the community events, there are still plenty to choose from Feel free to add me on PSN if you'd like (P308R).

In the whole career there is one event that I really hate and that is the one with the Atom V8 For the rest I have nothing to complain

 

Indeed, initially I thought I won't like the face offs as it's just one of those typical artificial "social media" things added to racing games, but it's not as intrusive as I thought and always gives good XP when beaten. I'll add you when I'm on later, always down for some extra leaderboard competition to spice up the grind

I can't remember a specific Atom event that annoys me, although I'm not fond of driving the car in general due to its twitchy handling. Much prefer the BAC or Caterham SP300R. The events I had problem with were the Venom Hotlap (the first one, not the second oddly) and the AMG GT-R GT3 time trial at Scotland where you need 2 clean sectors in addition to beating the time.

 

Still love this game and although it had to be deleted for space, i recently got an external hd and reinstalled it. I also got a g29 for my birthday a few weeks back so i am probably gonna play through the whole game again..... if i can stop playing gt sport.

 

I played DC for 2 years straight. It was such a great time. The pick and play factor, the attention to details, the sound, the odd car selection, the fun and at same time (here and there) challenging events those things were great. And I still hold it as one of my fav games ever.

After a little bit more than an year playing GTS only, I'm considering coming back to DC. Even more after reading the comments here in this thread.

 

Sprint events are a godsend for knocking out those accolades. Also if you pick one of the DLC bikes and city tracks you're almost guaranteed a top 10 spot in the leaderboards One of them (Yamaha at Port Vancouver) doesn't even have any time set yet! Easiest top 1 WW record ever

This prompted me to count how many individual permanent leaderboards there are in the game:

We have 134 vehicles (cars + bikes) and 114 tracks (19 for each 6 locales).
Then we have 3 event types (TT, Sprint and Drift/Skill). Race only has a leaderboard if you set it as a Challenge, which is a non permanent leaderboard so I won't count it.
Dry/rain also has their own separate leaderboards.
But wait! Tour also has individual leaderboards for each event (championships with 2-3 events have a total cumulative leaderboard so only counted as 1). This gives additional 292 car + 60 bike = 352 leaderboards.

So in total, (134 x 114 x 3 x 2) + 352 = a mind boggling 92,008 possible combinations

To put that into perspective, let's say it takes you 3 minutes average to do one combo (including loading screens, and accounting that some events are shorter/longer than others), it will take you 4,600 hours to try them all, or just over 190 days, or just over 6.3 months of non stop playing

Or another perspective, if Driveclub has GT Sport style daily events with 3 events rotating each day (not weekly), then it will take just over 84 years before each combo is exhausted

And that's just leaderboard events. If you add in possible combos with different time of day, dynamic time/weather, number of laps, AI number/car type/difficulty then the numbers are going to get much, much bigger

Small wonder there's always something new to do in this game and you never get bored

 

Race events do have their own leaderboards, so add that to the equation

Also, all of the career events have their separate leaderboards...
That's quite a lot of leaderboards

 

Altough I played through whole DC + dlc's twice already, guess who is going to restart game again. Decided to finally buy a PS4 compatible wheel (T150 Pro), so will try to finish everything using wheel.

 

I just checked, creating your own custom race event doesn't have a leaderboard unless you set it as a Challenge (Solo/Club). It's not a permanent leaderboard so I won't count it. Also I imagine it varies with every possible permutation of TOD/weather/AI/laps so the numbers are going to be very very big beyond a human lifespan

Tour leaderboards are valid and I've amended my post. Doesn't change the numbers that much unsurprisingly and a few of those are going to be duplicates as well (TT/Drift/Skill events), but I haven't got the patience to go through each one

 

Let me know what you think of it when using a wheel. I find it working really nice for most of the cars while a few others are almost impossible to drive. The FFB and wheelfeedback in general is very well done and I love how you can catch the car during slides and accelerate out of corners. Great immersion with a wheel and I think it has great implementation, even better than some established "sims" out there

 

With the FFB, I prefer lighter feedback so I actually like the "broken" FFB with my T-GT than the proper FFB with my G25+Ricmotech adapter. The original FFB just has too much damping and you can't reduce damping separately from the main FFB force. That's my only complaint, otherwise the environmental and weight transfer effects are as good as any non hardcore sim out there (GT, FM, GRID).

 

March, 2019

It has been... what?! 4... or 5 years since its release?

I just re downloaded DC and the game still feels amazing, looks amazing, sounds amazing and drives amazing!!!!

Since I am rocking a new psn gamertag, I have the whole campaign (dlc included) to tackle on one more time. Which will give me a massive amount of gameplay hours.

What amazes me the most about DC in 2019, are the lightning that reflexes the weather conditions (day/night transitions and rain are top notch), the sound design (even more in the faster cars) and the sense of speed.

I found myself breaking a little bit earlier than what my guts would tell me just because was kinda afraid of crashing at high speeds. Lol

Long live the Driveclub!!! Thanx again Evolution Studios!