DRIVECLUB PS 4 Review

■ Developer: Evolution Studios

■ Publisher: Sony

WE’VE ALREADY BROKEN THE FIRST RULE! 

1.   We were the first ones to make this joke and anyone who tells you anything else is lying.

 2.  It’s made by Evolution Studios, the guys who made MotorStorm. We know they know how to  make a great racing game, which feels us with lovely warm confi dence.  

3.  It features a number of real car licences, including BMW, Mercedes Benz, Bentley,  Pagani, and loads more.

 4.  It’s existed as a concept for ten years, and Evolution actually trademarked the name  DriveClub nine years ago.

 5.  A large focus is on racing in teams, particularly with your mates – “driving the best cars in the  world, in the best places in the world, but crucially, doing it together,” says Southern. 

 6.  It’s built around our “permanently-connected social lives”, rewarding you for playing in groups  and teams.

  7.  You can set up races and invitations on a mobile phone or tablet. 

8.  Events can accommodate small groups of friends, or thousands of competitors from  across the globe.

  9.  Graphics are stupidly detailed – recreated with “obsessive love.” Even the direction of every  microscopic fl ake of paint has been modelled with multiple layers.

  10.  “True fi rst-person racing” – opening the door, strapping yourself in, fi ring up the car –  immersion seems like a huge focus.

 


■ KILLER FEATURES

 ■  WE LOOK FORWARD  to seeing how the phone and tablet integration will work – challenging friends and strangers wherever you are sounds great. 

 ■    First-person driving really is the way forward. Look how damned pretty it is! Even the trees are lovely.

  ■  THE FOCUS ON a first-person experience gets us excited – DriveClub looks to be more than a racing game, embodying everything about the driving lifestyle. 

 ■  MATT SOUTHERN, HEAD of the studio, described it as the game it has “always wanted to make,” claiming it has waited for the technology to catch up to the reality of their vision.

 ■ The detail on each vehicle is relentless, it must be said. We can’t wait to get our hands on it. 

 ■  MATT SOUTHERN HAD something of a religious experience on stage when it came to describing the detail of the cars in game. This is a title for unashamed car nerds.

 ■  IF EVOLUTION KNOWS one thing, it’s racing. It has decades of experience in the genre, so we know  DriveClub will play wonderfully. 


 We’re not sure if you can still play DriveClub in third-person.