Gran Turismo Sport launches this week, and it will snatch the PlayStation 4 racing game baton from DriveClub with little resistance. Evolution Studios’ simcade didn’t enjoy the best start to its short life, being driven out of the PS4’s launch window before releasing in a particularly sorry state. But the British developer – since shuttered and handed over to Codemasters – performed a miraculous U-turn to get the title up to scratch, and it represents a pretty strong alternative if you’re not interested in Polyphony Digital’s latest.
Simulation versus simcade
While the two titles share common goals with regards to stunning presentation and intense racing action, they differ considerably under the hood: Gran Turismo Sport’s handling model is one grounded in reality, with physics designed to replicate the real-world attributes of a variety of different cars; DriveClub, instead, takes liberties with its physics, allowing cars to skid and drift in a way that you’re unlikely to see on a race track, without losing the individual characteristics of each vehicle.
This means that, while both games have their own unique learning curves, DriveClub is significantly easier to pick up. It also means that – depending upon what you’re looking for – Evolution Studios’ racer can seem more exciting, as you handbrake your way around hairpins and slide around long corners as though you’re a figure skater on ice. You wouldn’t get away with this kind of driving in real-life, but it’s still a helluva lot of fun in the fantasy setting of a video game.
A question of content
DriveClub faced similar questions at launch to those being aimed at Gran Turismo Sport right now: where’s the content? Evolution Studios responded that call years ago, though, delivering one of the best Season Passes in recent memory. The developer added everything from new vehicles to fresh events – and it even incorporated a fully-dynamic weather system, which is still regarded as something of a technical accomplishment today.
The design of DriveClub also means that there are new challenges being added all of the time; anyone that owns the game is able to set a lap time or drift score and share that with the community, with the experience points that you earn from competing helping to increase your Club’s standing – and subsequently unlocking even more content on top. Factor in the DriveClub Bikes expansion – which adds a whole additional career and discipline to the package – and it’s easy to spend hundreds of hours with this game. Moreover, the online community is still surprisingly active.
Pick a club
DriveClub and Gran Turismo Sport are, ultimately, different games with different ambitions – but if you’re looking for a new racing release and don’t fancy the more demanding format of Polyphony Digital’s title, then it might be worth giving Evolution Studios’ underrated racer a try. It plays great, has a bunch of content, and can be found for a very fair price these days. Sony may have a new favourite, but there’s a club for everyone on the PS4 depending on what kind of driving game you like.
What are your thoughts on DriveClub these days? Do you recommend the racer, or were you disappointed by it? Put your foot down in the comments section below.
Comments 40
I actually still play DriveClub from time to time. Not as much as I used to, but it's a game that I like having on my hard drive so I can hop in when I feel like it.
I was honestly underwhelmed by Drive Club. As mentioned here, the roll-out was somewhat poorly implemented, but like they say, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” I have not played it recently so maybe that’s on me to give the benefit of the doubt and retry it after the improvements. I do think I’d rather try playing DC again before investing in GT Sport.
Never tried it but always curious about this one. Maybe later on.
@get2sammyb Same here, I still hop on from time to time. It's a really decent racing game and it's amazing how different it is now compared to launch.
Driveclub is an excellent game. The visuals still win out against the competition hands down for me. The handling suited my play style well. I will be buying GT Sport tomorrow, but will always dip into Driveclub from time to time.
Driveclub is awesome. Bikes is even better.
@get2sammyb Exactly the same here. It's a game that has earned a permanent spot on my HD.
Like the article said, it had a bad launch but after all the updates and the incredible amount of season pass content, it's become my favourite racer since Gran Turismo 3.
I liked Drive Club but, I know I am going to be the minority here but I enjoyed The Crew more. I think it had to do woth the open world though.
@kyleforrester87
I thought that the Bikes were the best bit, also.
I kinda liked the cars, as the simcade physics reminded me of Project Gotham Racing. However, I didn't like the gameplay in the cars because of the AI limitations. They were ok at not hitting you, if you were directly in front of them, but they were terrible when it came to peripheral vision and lacked the means to detect anything to the left and right of themselves.
Still plan on picking up both whenever I end up getting a PS4.
Loved Driveclub, so much so that the GT Sport demo actually underwhelmed me a little bit. I haven't counted out GT Sport yet but need to take another look at all the tracks before I decide whether to go for it as the ones in the beta were a bit boring, IMO.
The 'dam' 8 lap race in india. You race on a colourful pathway in beating sunshine, loving that first lap as the bright colours zip passed easing into 1st place. By lap 3 your driving in a muddy bowl of dirty brown colours, rain covering your view, just about holding on your still 1st but barely. By lap 5 the hurricane has turned the scene to chaos, smashing into cars just about sticking to the mud slide, you cant see anything praying youll make it out alive. Lap 7 the sun returns, ohhh how we missed you. Lap 8 you finish in 8th. Best race ever.
Loved Driveclub and as mentioned in the article, by far one of the best season passes ever released. So much extra content for a small price. Was extremely underwhelmed by the GTS demo. Ive purchased all the main entries on or near release day but going to hold off on it to see how the support is in the future
I loved driveclub. Got most of the expansions. Dont think ive played a faster racing game up to now. Id consider gts on sale as i have too much in backlog. Drive club is a fully worthy racing title. I played gts demo and thought it was very interesting/appealing. Trophies in DC are boundless as well.
It was a terrible mistake to close Evolution Studios and Driveclub as a series had so much potential, just imagine how Driveclub 2 could be after all the things added on the first game after the launch.
We could have Driveclub 2 and Motorstorm on PS4, but hey, let's make more deals with third-party studios to also release a game on PC and still pretend that still is exclusive, right?
Still think it would've worked out better had Sony put Evolution to work on a new Motorstorm for PS4 instead of this game and had Polyphony hold off on GT 6 until 2015. I know why they made the decisions they did but I think it was a blunder. And I think there is a lot of bad decision making in regards to GT Sport.
@Th3solution you really should give it a second go. Its arguably one of the best and most overlooked PS4 games out here. It was a shame Evolution messed up so badly at launch cause they more than made up for their initial mistakes
Really wish we had a new Motorstorm instead of Driveclub. Club features could have been tacked onto any game, plus we would have had the choice between first party arcade racer or first party racing simulator, instead of two racing simulators.
Driveclub still beats every other driving game visually and it's also brilliant to play.
LOL! DriveClub makes you feel like you're driving a hired car or a friends car, the cars NEVER feel like your own, yeah you can drive it but that's it! customization? changing the paint and patterns? HA! Whatever. Not to take away from the other things that Driveclub does get right but personally, I've had more fun in the Gran Turismo Open Beta than I have had in my entire time playing DriveClub.
Love DriveClub! Haven't played it in a while, but I won't be getting rid of it any time soon. Recently bought PCars2, but after playing the beta, have no interest in GTSport... it's a series which feels like it has stagnated.
Watched a video on YouTube the other day comparing DC to GTSport, PCars2, and Forza 7. Amazingly, it still holds up visually... in fact, it's probably the best of the bunch. And it may 'only' be 30fps, but it's rock solid, so it makes very little difference to the enjoyment of the game. Still has the best draw distance, and just feels so much faster, despite the very pretty graphics.
I love DriveClub and it feels great with my wheel. My only gripes, the AI gets seriously tough on later stages and I just cannot get the drifting down.
Drive club is the best racer on ps4, and certainly the best looking.
I love Drive Club too. Got also Bikes, and VR. It's a really great game, with graphics still jaw-dropping and an unlimited amount of content. I'll stick with it, for now. Still have plenty to finish in it.
@Nesstark88 Who cares? Games are supposed to be FUN, and Driveclub is that and more.
Absolutely love DC. I platinum'ed it. Made it somewhere around 20k on the leaderboard and still have much to race for. Still trying to get all the gold's for the DLC packs. Shaving a tenth off a lap time has never been so rewarding and satisfying.
But that's just me.
The Bikes expansion is superb
I played it and I didn't like it, but then I'm a dinosaur when it comes to racing games. I just like games where I pick a car and a track and I race against the AI and then I unlock new cars and new tracks and do it again. I'm not down with all this multiplayer stuff, and open world racing games can get in the sea.
@doctommaso Never said it wasn't or didn't have certain strengths but it's got annoying shortcomings for me personally, to each their own.
I don't really play it anymore, but I always thought Driveclub was a really smart, well presented racing game with handling that straddled the arcade/sim line pretty much perfectly.
It also ended up with a huge volume of content that I never did keep up with. Maybe it would be worth a revisit
Dirt 2 using a wheel. That game was surprisingly good.
Fantastic game. Pure racing for the sake of it!
Still the best graphics on ps4, I love the driving model and it is not an easy game at all! The Dark Souls of the simcades
@Paranoimia "and it may be only 30fps but it's rock solid"
There are noticeable dips when in cockpit view with max AI cars and/or weather effects.
@Hengist http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-driveclub-revisited-is-dynamic-weather-a-game-changer
@Paranoimia
I read that when it was first released. In the comments section (of subsequent, related articles) you will note that that view is no longer maintained. I do recognise that playing in bonnet view does help with these drops though. Also, the 30fps cap doesn't provide enough responsive feedback, and input, for wheel users, but that's a different issue and is common to all 30fps racers.
Based upon my own experience, if you drive in cockpit view, with 7 cars in front of you, throw in some 'cool' (which they are) weather effects, and in certain scenarios, the engine gets stressed and you do notice drops. I'm not stating that it happens all the time, in-fact, it is quite minimal, but they do happen.
On the whole, I think that buying Driveclub is a stance that I would support (it is a good game). However, the strengths and weaknesses of a title are important to acknowledge, especially if somebody is thinking of purchasing.
I pre-ordered Drive Club at the launch of the PS4 even though a free version was coming. Yeah I got really mad at the delays and almost canceled it. A year later I got my copy it still had big issues that took many months to iron out. In the end I was really happy I stuck with Drive Club. Tracks and cars were added monthly. I had a great time playing it.
I just got GT Sport I only played about a hour so the only thing I can tell you is its Beautiful I got a very good feeling about it so far and expect it live up to its name! If you like racing games you really should have both of them.
@Nesstark88 Fair enough, I just think gameplay should be the priority. I have a friend who won't even try games if he can't create his own character/avatar and customize stuff, it drives me crazy.
GTS style over substance
@get2sammyb YES! Driveclub is magic.
@Nesstark88 To each its own right. I quite enjoy minimal customization of Driveclub, just pick a car and go!
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