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DRIVECLUB |OT| Cloudy with a Chance of Jaw Drops

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Evolution said:
In case you don't already know, the servers are up and running but they are hitting their performance limits, so they won't accept new connections until one of the current online players frees up their space (allowing another to join in their place, which happens automatically and player selection is random).

If and when you get online, you should not have any connectivity issues during the remainder of your session. When you finish and disconnect, you'll free up a space for someone else. This is obviously not ideal, especially given that there are a lot of players waiting to connect, but that's how it's working right now.

This is a rather troubling statement, because connection limit issues are one of the few things that servers can be stress tested on prior to launch. How could they have not sorted this out with an extra year of server development time?
 

Prototype

Member
Yeah I'm sick and tired losing connections to servers once they're established. Did I miss the point of this comment?
No. They keep saying how once you're connected you'll stay connected. It's a lie.

Sometimes if you're lucky you'll get connected for a few seconds, maybe minutes, then back to disconnected.
 

aro52

Member
This is a rather troubling statement, because connection limit issues are one of the few things that servers can be stress tested on prior to launch. How could they have not sorted this out with an extra year of server development time?

Too concerned with how water drops pool up on windshields and in tire grooves. I kid I kid!
But seriously.
 

Dead Man

Member
Yeah, the problem though is that because it's based on real locations and the game kind of encourages you to overtake with two wheels off the ground, finding a point to bog the car down would seem weird (like it does in the Forza games). The forced penalty itself for either collisions or corner-cutting is dynamic, though... the length I've been penalised has varied from about a second to around three or four.

My reply to that would be they should have designed the game differently from the start so they could use the track limits ;) Wider track, more gravel, fixed. Not that simple of course, but I vastly prefer some liberties with the accuracy of the location instead of artificial penalties.

But it's not a huge deal, just lots of little design choices in this game I wish were different which has meant I will be waiting a bit longer for my PS4 I think. They don't have to make every game exactly how I would want it :)

Edit: I also prefer mechanical damage (not necessary for it to be visual too for me) as a punishment for collisions rather than penalties. But yeah, I think this game may just not be for me. Not at the moment anyway.
 
Here is an exclusive screenshot of the PSN ID's wanting to enter DC's servers.


200330172-002-e13498986618431.jpg
 
This game made me have fun driving a Mini cooper, A FREAKING MINI COOPER FFS.

Hey now. I have a MINI Cooper S (with the original engine, not the newer boring BMW-designed engine that drives like a 3-series) and I've done my fair share of canyon carving. It is incredibly fun to drive in real life, even just taking a freeway offramp.
 

Late Flag

Member
The server situation is really ungood. I'm starting to get into the swing of things a little, where I'm not totally embarrassed to race against others, so while the tour is still fun and all, I'm ready for the online capabilities to be up and running.

The sad thing is that I took a day off on Friday to make it a four day weekend (US), and I was planning on playing this game pretty much all day. At this point I'm not confident about being able to connect by then. Still plenty to do on the tour, but still. :(
 
Just checked the tracking status for my copy and it's apparently going to be delivered to my work office today. Really happy about this since I have the day off tomorrow and I wouldn't have had it for the weekend. :)
 

Hawk269

Member
Since we don't know when the PS+ version was coming, I decided to get the game regardless. This game was one of the reasons I wanted a PS4 and the fact that I love racing games and play almost all of them. Below are my brief impressions after hitting Level 15 in the game:

The game is pure arcade type of game. There is really no sim feeling at all with the game. Which is good and bad depending on what you like. What I am feeling a little uneasy about so far is that the game just feels too arcadey in the way that you can just play bumper cars with the AI and the sides of the tracks. Yes, you get some penalties at times, but no always. It just seems too forgiving and just way too bumber car type of racing. Cars have all been equipped with the best possible grip tires that I have played in a long time.

Visually, it has been a little inconsistent. When you first start out, it is very underwhelming, but later on some of the tracks just look downright amazing looking. There are some tracks that are just a site to behold and others that look pretty bad with bad textures. There are some jaggies like everyone is pointing out, but to me it is not that bad at all.

The AI is dump as shit and they don't give a shit about you or where you are on the track, if they want the spot they are taking it no matter who is there. For a racer, I just wish the AI was a bit better. There is definitely some rubber banding going on. I have had races where I am in last place on the last lap and still manage to finish first and there are times when I am blast pass the AI with no issues and then all of sudden they are on my ass like they have high end turbo's.

Soundtrack is really bad and nothing to write home about and the sound of the cars are not the greatest, but not total shit earthier. I am not sure if the 5.1 mix is jacked up because there were times where it sounded like a Jet Plane was coming up on my left only for it to be a car and it just sound way out of place.

With all that said, I am having a good time with the game. Now that I have had time to play a lot of the game and I have come to grips that this is more of a Ridge Racer/NFS type of racing game. There is way too much grip for the cars and the AI and bumper car type of gameplay makes this just a pure arcade type of game. While obviously I have my gripes with the game, I have not put the controller down for over 4 hours and that is a good sign of a fun game.

If I were to give it a score, it would be in the 7 out of 10 range so far. There are some good times to be had with the game, but the analogy that this is a spiritual successor to PGR are off base to me. I played all 4 PGR's and in none of them did it feel like to win you could just crash and bump your way to the finish line. Is it a fun racer with some great and "ok" looking tracks, you bet your ass it is and it is a lot of fun. Just wish the on-line stuff was available.
 
I decided to stop waiting for the free version and just buy the game. I was already leaning towards buy anyway.

It's very nice to finally see it running in person on my own TV. One thing that I really like is the sound of the wind passing over your car as you gain speed. No HUD, no music. So good.
 

ShutterMunster

Junior Member
Since I imagine someone at Evolution is at least glancing at this thread I'll say this here. Penalties are awful and need to be removed from the game. It doesn't mesh with the style of game you're trying to sell and reeks of an identity crisis. Worse than that being penalized for the often erratic A.I drivers initiating the contact and bumping into me is infuriating, especially when I'm doing my best to complete a clean lap. Corner penalties aren't as punitive but it's something you expect in GT or Forza, not FH2 or PGR, games more in line with DRIVECLUB. The off track thing doesn't bother me as much, maybe because I'm rarely in the dirt, but im not sure that fits either.


The game is really good, but I think those things above definitely need serious reevaluating.
 

vwluke

Neo Member
quoting to see if anyone has any feedback

I actually just traded in shadow of mordor for driveclub today. Don't get me wrong shadow was an excellent game but I managed to 100% the game in about 27hrs after u do everything thats pretty much it. Been playing driveclub for a couple of hours know and it's a blast really fun game.
 
Whatever you do Evo, don't implement login queues.

Implement login RACES!

Make it to a podium finish to guarantee your spot on the live servers!

OK, yeah, I might have had a few beers, why do you ask? Its a fucking genius idea I tellsya.
 

Shaneus

Member
I thought weather and time of day for created events wasn't coming until a later patch?
Weather pre-December update dictates overcast weather, cloud coverage and such. Time of day was always going to be available at launch. The only thing delayed in that respect is precipitation. Rain, snow and possibly hail (I never saw that mentioned).

Whatever you do Evo, don't implement login queues.

Implement login RACES!

Make it to a podium finish to guarantee your spot on the live servers!

OK, yeah, I might have had a few beers, why do you ask? Its a fucking genius idea I tellsya.
Have it check your GAF posts in Driveclub threads. The more you have, the more likely you are to get on. Rapier, viveks, myself, yourself and oroci will be all set ;)
 

OneUh8

Member
Their claim is wrong, in my experience.

Sure is. I was finally able to create my club, however through the whole process I was getting disconnected and reconnected. Took forever just to get it created. I was not able to send out invites to my club, and my friends could not join it either. Eventually said fuck it. I will just wait till they fix this shit for good before putting the disc back in.
 

Gaz_RB

Member
Whatever you do Evo, don't implement login queues.

Implement login RACES!

Make it to a podium finish to guarantee your spot on the live servers!

OK, yeah, I might have had a few beers, why do you ask? Its a fucking genius idea I tellsya.

It really is a genius idea...I'd be down. Survival of the fittest!
 

Iacobellis

Junior Member
Weather pre-December update dictates overcast weather, cloud coverage and such. Time of day was always going to be available at launch. The only thing delayed in that respect is precipitation. Rain, snow and possibly hail (I never saw that mentioned).

Aw... Pretty sure I saw weather effects at hands-on builds for the press.
 

Atedos

Member
I had no problem with this, it's more like the lead AI drive safe when he's so far in front of you, not take as many risk while the AI that is behind you will try their best to catch up with you.

Motorstorm got the flack because the AI car got speed boost or even teleported to keep up with you(or so I heard), which make the race felt unfair.

It reminds me just about TES Oblivion leveling system, and I find it sad.
Why bother trying, when your enemies are always in line with you.
 
After finishing a Norway race I can confirm there is NO rubberbanding....tried as hard as I fucking could to catch up and made no gains on the cars ahead of me. One little slip near the end and I ended up 11/12.

Video coming soon.
 

andylsun

Member
Spent the evening lapping the chile observatory track in various vehicles. Oh yes this feels great.

Just bought my first ever season pass.

My GAF club is registered (thanks guys/girls) but have only managed to connect to servers for a few seconds.

This is PGR all over again!

Dealing with the downshift adjustment now I know what it's doing.
 

VanWinkle

Member
I'm just sitting here kind of baffled by the first race they chose. It's not just that they chose course from the worst looking location; they chose the worst looking course from the worst looking location. Seriously, what in the world were they thinking? Of all the AMAZING looking tracks in this game, why did they choose that one to give people the first impression?

Also I'm getting a better feel for the handling. I hate the vehicle impacts, because 80% of the time I lose points, it's not my fault. I really like the feel handling though. It's more sim than I'm used to, but it's clearly not full on sim style.
 

Sami+

Member
So now that I've hit Level 12 and have played with both a pad and wheel, I figure it's time to write my own impressions for the game -

#DRIVECLUB is an excellent game, and I feel that I'm going to be playing it for a very, very long time.

Sorry to cut straight to the meat of things there - that's not something I usually do. With this game though I think it fits. If there's one thing that I love most about the game above all else, it's the fact that it respects my time and skill as a player. Mere seconds after inserting the disc into the system for the first time (no installation necessary), I was in a race against eleven other AI racers. Wow. I rushed ahead of the pack (somehow) and managed to win 1st place while figuring out the mechanics of the game. It was exhilarating and a lot of fun and I had a very positive impression after the game's first few moments. I said to my friend that I liked how quickly it got into the action and that it saved the slower introduction for later... only to find out that there was no slow introduction.

#DRIVECLUB wastes no time getting to what it knows players came for, and I applaud Evolution for knowing to do this. There's no lengthy explanation of the Fame system or the clubs. No cheesy story in the campaign that interrupts your session every few minutes to tell you what's happening. Not even loading screens are noticeable. It's unlike anything else I've played for a very long time.

See, I've only really played one other racer this year, which was Need For Speed: Rivals. As someone who's only a casual fan of the genre at best (I enjoyed NFS and Burnout on PS2, but apart from kart racers that's about it), I really enjoyed that game in spite of the horrendously boring tutorial segment that makes the first hour of the game a complete chore. I never had the motivation to actually beat it, but I enjoyed my time nonetheless and would recommend it to anyone looking for a new racer. This, though? This is miles ahead. #DRIVECLUB doesn't condescendingly explain itself to you like a child, nor does it waste time on pompous cinematics or chores that inhibit progress. I honestly don't understand why a free-roam structure is regarded inherently than the closed circuits this game provides, as the tight level design and pacing they provide adds an extremely addictive element to the game that is much harder to attain with a game that has you driving around for minutes at a time simply looking for an objective marker.

The mechanics are superb. The game controls excellently with a gamepad and genuinely feels very realistic with a wheel. Cars are weighty and as a result the sense of speed the game provides feels earned. People aren't exaggerating when they talk about it being incredible; the game is truly breathtaking at times. I really feel even the slightest bump against another racer or the wall, and the half second of airtime I got from small bumps on the road really makes me tense up. Trading paint with other racers is exciting as well, even at relatively low speeds. High speeds, on the other hand, are extremely intense both with or without opponents. As a whole I'm very satisfied with the gameplay. It's fun and exhilarating, which is exactly what I like in a racing game.

As others have noted, the unsatisfactory AA and AF are an issue. With that said though, the aliasing was not as noticeable when I used the first person camera modes, and the lack of AF was not noticeable in the zoomed out third person view. It's up to you to decide what's more important. Apart from that the game looks as nice as expected. At some points it's just good, but at others it's stunning. The tracks in the German Sports Series looked almost photorealistic to me.

Obviously I can't comment on the online yet, but as of right now I'm satisfied with my purchase. Servers aside there's nothing that really sticks out to me as an issue, though I did wish there was an optional tutorial/training mode that teaches novice racers how to drift properly. That's a racing game problem in general though, not just this particular one. I'd highly recommend it.

Back to playing now.
 
This is a rather troubling statement, because connection limit issues are one of the few things that servers can be stress tested on prior to launch. How could they have not sorted this out with an extra year of server development time?

Plus, this is without the PS+ edition even being available yet. Surely they had to assume that the demand to play the free version would of been huge. It sounds like a crock of shit to me. I don't see why they can't simply throw more hardware at the problem... I think there must be some serious flaws in their networking framework.
 

GravyButt

Member
This may sound strange, but my favorite part of the game is the road feeling, like knowing when your on brick or dirt or pavement. It feels so good.
 

Wasdie

Neo Member
I read there was no rubberbanding with the AI. HA that's a load of shit.

Sat at the starting line for 20 seconds. Caught up and took 3rd.

This game has some of the worst rubberbanding AI I've ever seen. I see the complaints. It's horseshit design.
 

CrovaxPSO

Member
If anyone has a club with a spot open and just mainly wants to get unlocks and challenges, I'd be interested in joining. Never was too big on competitive online racing. PSN is Crovax44 if you want to send me a club invite (if the servers are working).
 

Jimrpg

Member
THERE IS AI RUBBER BANDING -- of some kind.

Did an experiment.

Drive like a complete grandma, and the first place guy (semi-pro AI) finishes a two lap race at 1:40 and last place guy finishes 1:52 (me at 2:33). Spread from first to last AI is 12 seconds,.

drive competitively, and the first place guy finishes at 1:30, and the last place guy finishes at 1:37 (me at 1:35), AI spread is 7 seconds and oh look the first place guy now has found a way to gain over 5 seconds a lap - standing start means actually more than that. I imagine if I drove out the front of the first place guy he'd "find" yet more ability.

Also note that despite the first place guys being fast and the last place guys being slow, they travel as a pack. In a real race the field spreads out until the back-markers are lapped. Here they are pulled more together even over many laps.

So the AI drivers are attracted to your car. They try harder when you're in front, and back off when you're behind. They are also attracted to each other.

I know *why* developers do it, because they want everyone to experience the cut and thrust of side-by-side racing in a pack of cars, no matter what your ability. If the AI cars drove to their maximum ability from great to good, they would be strung out, and you'd either be in front or behind but rarely mixing it up.

So not everyone that "barely" wins a single player challenge vs AI is the same ability or has the same lap time.

Nice find. I don't think its too bad though. Unless you want the AI to achieve a certain time per difficulty level, I don't see that Evo are doing much wrong. Then the game would just become a time trial with cars. AI is AI, they are just programmed to run around the track, the fact they notice your presence and not cheating so much is probably all we can hope for and much better than Gran Turismo at this point.

If you look at past games for example Burnout 3 was a big culprit, in that game you could boost, but the AI would stick right behind you about 4 secs behind waiting for a stuff up. You could boost the whole way or not boost at all and it wouldn't make any difference. Apparently the graphics for the track were streamed in, so its my assumption only but the cars weren't actually on the track they were just simulated in the background to keep the race close.

And don't forget F1 2010 which had non existent AI where the lap times were possibly faked.

Proof
Just raced on Bahrain and started in sixth. At the end of the 1st lap i was second. My lap time was 2:03. Webber was in first, he was at most a second a head on track yet his lap time was 2:00. The big issue was Kubica. He was 3rd, yet his lap time was 1:59. This is impossible. There is no way that on the first lap Kubica can go round the track 1 second quicker than Webber, 4 seconds quicker than me and still end up in 3rd at the end of said lap.

If the AI we see on the track are not posting the lap times and just populated like cars in GTA that would explain lots of the issues I have with the game

No split times - cause the AI isnt actually lapping

Strange AI pit stops(questioning whether the AI has made a pit stop)

No penalties for the AI


This game is a time trial with the AI just there to act as blockers of the racing line. The AI difficulty isnt how well they drive just how aggressively they defend the racing line. Should really have expected this from a game based on a rally engine."

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1445450
 
So, yeah, this game's pretty incredible. Thought it started a little slow, no pun intended, but three hours, six trophies and 11 level-ups later, yeah ... do not regret buying this one bit. Very pleased. Good shit.
 

Saberus

Member
I read there was no rubberbanding with the AI. HA that's a load of shit.

Sat at the starting line for 20 seconds. Caught up and took 3rd.

This game has some of the worst rubberbanding AI I've ever seen. I see the complaints. It's horseshit design.

I see, thanks
 

WoolyNinja

Member
I'm just sitting here kind of baffled by the first race they chose. It's not just that they chose course from the worst looking location; they chose the worst looking course from the worst looking location. Seriously, what in the world were they thinking? Of all the AMAZING looking tracks in this game, why did they choose that one to give people the first impression?

Also I'm getting a better feel for the handling. I hate the vehicle impacts, because 80% of the time I lose points, it's not my fault. I really like the feel handling though. It's more sim than I'm used to, but it's clearly not full on sim style.

Just like a lot of games - start with the least impressive stuff and build up from there, continuing to improve with each new level (race in this case).
 
I read there was no rubberbanding with the AI. HA that's a load of shit.

Sat at the starting line for 20 seconds. Caught up and took 3rd.

This game has some of the worst rubberbanding AI I've ever seen. I see the complaints. It's horseshit design.

I'd like your study of the game's AI and possibility of "rubber banding" to go to peer review before I consider the conclusion to be adequate.
 

WoolyNinja

Member
So, yeah, this game's pretty incredible. Thought it started a little slow, no pun intended, but three hours, six trophies and 11 level-ups later, yeah ... do not regret buying this one bit. Very pleased. Good shit.

Just wait until the challenges start working - I was one of the lucky few who got to play online for about an hour last night. Played a couple of player initiated challenges, so addicting trying to best everyone else!
 
Just wait until the challenges start working - I was one of the lucky few who got to play online for about an hour last night. Played a couple of player initiated challenges, so addicting trying to best everyone else!

Yeah, speaking of which, so what do I so to get a bunch of you guys on my friend's list? Something about adding a certain account and then pillaging that account's friend's list?
 
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