Giantbomb Driveclub Review

Driveclub looks nice and has a couple of good ideas about handling leaderboard challenges, but the core of it--actually driving a car--drags the entire thing down.

[KingPin]

i guess GT will always be the ultimate driving game for the playstation.

[nX]

Not even the die hard Driveclub fans would argue with that :)
But still I think that it does sound, AI and (soon) weather better than Gran Turismo so it's not like Drivcelub has to hide from GT.

[UltraNova]

Sound and weather yes but AI I'd say its very much the same. With that said both are in dire need for better AI that doesn't stick to the racing line for dear life and rears you with no reason as DC's AI does causing you to lose control or get slow down by the game's engine.

Of course we should wait for GT7 to make final judgments since they could improve on these aspects due to the increased resources the ps4 can provide them.

[nX]

^Of course I meant in comparison to GT6, not GT7. Also I don't understand what everybody has against the AI in Driveclub, it's agressive, yes, but it's not as agressive as people are online. Which racing game has a better AI then?

[UltraNova]

Yes its aggressive but not smart aggressive its basically cheating.

To answer your question an a smarter AI in a next gen racing game I would say FH2 has smarter AI but not at the level I would expect from a next gen title(I've played it for quite some time on a friends xb1).

[BattleAxe]

This generation is really not so hot as it would seem. At least not yet...

[DanzoSAMA]

Actually X1 & Wii U do a great job.

[NewMonday]

not one X1 exclusive rated above 8 , FH2 is multi-platform

and PS4 has a higher attache rate selling more games per-console than X1, so gamers voted PS4

[poppinslops]

HA!

[gootimes]

Actually PS4 and Wii U have exclusive games rated above 9 on meta... X1 not so much.

Good for you that DC turned out like you were hoping though, I am sure that makes you very happy.

[poppinslops]

@NewMonday: The Xbox has a higher attach-rate.

[Mr_Luke]

@DanzoSAMA

Maybe in your fantasy world (but you're right about the WiiU).

[Rebel_Scum]

I up'd ya for the Wii U mention. But it did take the Wii U a few years to really start hitting its stride.

[CernaML]

@poppinslops

Hahahah Good joke.

[MadLad]

@NewMonday

We need to stop with this "console exclusive" crap. You know what console exclusive means? It means the vast majority of console gamers aren't going to get to play if that don't own that console.
Let's stop with this fanboy fighting, looking for any excuse to downplay whatever the other person is doing.
If you honestly want to downplay the fact that Xbox One has great games, simply because MS sometimes plays nice with PC, bringing a title to it maybe a year later, then go ahead.
It still leaves the Xbox One (and Wii U) in a great spot as a gaming machine at the moment.

[kingdom18]

@Jesus, but Console Exclusives are one of the prime reasons, to have a Console...

[solidjun5]

I see you're still trolling, Danzo. smh

@TruthHurz(lol)

"On the flip side sony has not delivered on the promise of games. "

First, you just created that account. Second, there has been games. It may not be to your liking, but there are plenty of games. Despite what you or Giant Bomb think, there are plenty of sites that actually think DriveClub is pretty good.

"own forza 5,Horizon 2,Ryse,Dead Rising 3,Titanfall,Killer Instinct season 1"

Good for you. On the flip side, i'm sure there are plenty of gamers who bought plenty of games for the PS4. Also, you cited Ryse. Well, that really didn't set the world on fire, did it?

[Patrick_pk44]

You're a comedian. You should choose that as your career path. Jokes aside, Xbox One is terrible in terms of video games.

[oof46]

The start of any generation is always like this. Happened with the Super Nintendo, N64, PS1, PS2, etc.

Things really start heating up in year two and on.

[d0x360]

Dead rising 3, ryse, forza 5, forza horizon 2, max curse of brotherhood, Titanfall, killer instinct, zoo tycoon, project spark, and plenty more coming.

It doesn't matter if YOU for god knows what possible reason don't like these games. Plenty of people do because they are great fun. That's all that matters.

[BattleAxe]

I play more older games these days than I do of the newer ones. The problem is that everything that you've listed, with the exception of Project Spark, we've seen it all before, there's nothing really all that new here.

Not to mention that most games released in the last few years are seriously DLC heavy, and so what you get are games that are light on content up front compared to what they used to be, and you need to buy the DLC to get the full experience.

Don't criticize me for giving an opinion, because after all, that's what forums like these are all about.

[Father__Merrin]

this is just being hated on, a 4?

[Torque_CS_Lewith]

Father__Merrin + 31d ago
wehay...

Pgr comes to PlayStation with the best graphics ever for a racing game. and the best thing is...there's nothing you can do about.

to all the trolls who are hating it I have a simple message, You literally have no power to change the fact that such great looking games will come to ps4, there's nothing you can do!

so plz stop :-)"

You were saying...

[SideNote]

Better off buying some blu ray films, look lovely but unplayable.

[badz149]

What is it that is unplayable? Driveclub? That os just flat out trolling!

[Ka7be]

@Dothraki so this bad and unplayable?
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

This video alone shows how great looking and fun DriveClub is. And you trolls need learn what 4/10 means.
This generation sucks. Full of halfwits who buy what reviews scores tells them to buy.

[generic-user-name]

"You were saying..."

Well, he was right. He claimed that there was nothing you could do to prevent the game coming to PS4 and it came to PS4 so I don't see what your point is.

[user367272]

Wow..this review came from Jeff Gerstmann, who is one of the better and most respected reviewers in the industry. That score drives the overall metacritics score down to a 72 now. Really unexpected..I thought at least a high 70s to low 80s.

[imt558]

Quote :

Speaking with a couple of the devs last night, they fully expect to not review well... but... turns out they don't really care. They're looking at the bigger picture, the long game (so to speak). Driveclub after a few months will be a different beast. They're focusing on constant support and development post-release.

Some GAF member talked with devs!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[Clown_Syndr0me]

Oh like Destiny then?
Buy our crappy game now - and maybe ina few months it will be better?
No thanks.

[user367272]

Give me a break..they had almost an entire extra year to finish the game and the result is they still released a 1/2 finished game at full retail price and expect gamers to wait longer to get a better product while the competitions released similar products that are complete in less time frame?

[mcstorm]

For me DC has the same issue GT5 had. It was hyped to be the best racing game ever but then the product was released and not finished.
GT5 was a mess when it came out and I was one of the millions who got the game on day one and wish I has waited and it got better esp when 2.0 released but it could of been a lot better than it was.
DC is a new IP and like any new IP it is a gamble especially in the racing gore as game like Blur and Split/Second found out last gen.

DC is at this moment in time looking to offer the lest out of the driving games that are out over the next few weeks as Horizon 2, Project Cars and The Crew all offer more cars, Tracks and game modes and more.

Yes DC looks very good but looks are not what makes a game esp a racing one.

For me I do also think Sony have pushed it down the wrong path in terms of what they have marketed it as.

To say its is a Forza killer was the wrong move. To me this looks like it is the next gen ridge racer. If they went down this rout then I think the game would score and fair better with everyone but trying to compare it with Horizon 2 or Forza MS 5 is the wrong way to market this game and its the marking that could hurt the game more then the games content its self.

[nX]

S_D_F_Repellent

You have no idea what you're talking about, how is Driveclub a 1/2 product? Have you played the full game? No, because you're lacking the hardware to do so, now stop trolling.

[marlinfan10]

if they couldn't churn out weather, photo mode, and whatever other missing features there are after a year delay, i don't see them turning this game around and making it a "different beast" in the coming months.

[Xi_Unborn_iX]

they said the same thing about destiny but truth is in months no one will give a shiit

[Garrison]

Gertsmann has always been a mediocre everything throughout his whole career, no one gave a shit about him and everyone who was with him in the past moved on to bigger and better things, he couldn't. The best thing that ever happened to him was the whole getting fired fiasco which suddenly got the attention of people who've been saying the same thing for ages, all these sites are crooked. Jeff's always been a fanboy of the other system as implied by himself even, he doesn't like ANY PlayStation exclusive, what does that say?

[rainslacker]

I like Gerstmann as much as the next guy who knows who he is, but 2/5? that's absurdly low.

All the bad reviews of this game seem to hinge on the fact that the cars don't perform like cars...."too grippy" in this case, and in some cases the rather rigid AI of opponents.

However, all the good reviews say that the cars handle great...so which is it?

Is it possible that the low reviews, and the high reviews are both just a matter of opinion based on if people feel the cars handle well, and that one or a minority of reviews don't actually give an accurate representation of if the game is good or not?

I just scrolled through all the metacritic reviews. Seems that the vast majority of them are over 80, with a few extremely low scores bringing down the overall score, so a high 70's to low 80's is probably more accurate.

[blackmagic]

I agree with some of your sentiment, looking at Metacritic I see 4 scores below 60 which are probably harsh but I also see 4 scores above 85 which are probably optimistic.

Where I disagree with you is in your assessment of the overall score. When I scroll through metacritic, I only see 7 reviews out of 46 that are above 80 and only 4 of those are above 85. I also see 26 reviews out of 46 that are below 80, 16 of those are 70 or lower, 8 of those are 60 or lower and 4 are 50 or lower. Overall, 72 seems accurate to me.

[rainslacker]

Fair enough, when I looked I don't recall seeing that many reviews on there. There were only 2 reviews that were below 60, most were in the mid 70's to 80's, and about 3-4 that were above 90.

My problem with metacritic is it puts too much weight on the individual scores, and uses a mean average instead of a more statistically accurate medium average, which tends to be better for something rating opinion based scores. Basically a medium average drops the lowest and highest scores to derive a more accurate result.

Anyhow, I'm not really dismissing the average that Metacritic put out, just that the lower scores are having more of an impact on the average score than they really should. Quite likely due to the fact that Metacritic weights the websites scores based on their "influence".

I can see why some people may score the game at 60 due to preferences or whatever comparisons they may be using, but overall, the game seems to do what it was meant to do OK, so if the game is taken on those merits, then a mid 70's to 80's seems appropriate.

[OOMagnum]

No wonder there was so many graphic articles. I knew something was up. If theirs one site i trust its Giantbomb.

[thereapersson]

Coming from someone who trolls Drive Club on a regular basis...

[PrinterMan]

This game is NOT a 4 out of 10. Just because they just finished playing Forza and they found Drive Club handle differently does not mean DC handled worse, perhaps just not to their liking. Different game different feel. It's just their opinion and I do feel they are being unreasonably harsh with the review. My opinion.

[TKCMuzzer]

You say that,yet I disagree with them. 4/10 is an unplayable buggy mess and I'm sure when people play the PS+ edition they will see the game is not like that. I also think there will be many who will love it because it's quite competitive and will be surprised. There are others though, who want to wonder through the countryside who will find it's not for them.

I know you say you trust Giantbomb, but aren't some of them from the 'controversial' Gamespot years?

[bleedsoe9mm]

'controversial' because they scored a game on its merits and not by how much money the publishers had in ads on gamespot .

i will say 2 of the lower score 5.0 from kevin vanord at gamespot and 4.0 from jeff gerstmann from giantbomb might be effected by genre fatigue both had just finished playing Forza Horizon 2 (both giving it an 8) its a big game with allot of races or maybe they just had so much more fun that driveclub seemed boring in its wake .

[bunt-custardly]

"4/10 is an unplayable buggy mess"

Ok then so what's 3/10, 2/10, 1/10?

How can you get worse than an unplayable buggy mess as you put it?

My take on the whole review scores thing is many writers use a different scale of 1-10 for each game. One moment being over generous, and the next overly harsh.

[MadLad]

In regards to Giant Bomb.
They all left within a two year period because they didn't like what was going on at Gamespot.

[FriedGoat]

I used to trust giant bomb when they were independent. Unfortunately Jeff sold out to his old game spot overlords (the ones that sacked him for giving Kane and lynch an unreasonable score).
Now gamespot own giant bomb I lost all respect.

[oof46]

Tin foil hats! Come get your tin foil hats!

[FriedGoat]

Tin foil hat? Gamespot bought giant bomb, it is fact not conspiracy.

[herbs]

Omg FriedGoat... Yes that's totally it, the guys who fired Jeff for being too honest and giving a hyped Sony game a low score then turned around rehired him and forced him to give another hyped Sony game a low score because fuck all forms of logic and reasoning... Good one.

[starchild]

Lol you guys never cease to amaze me...

[OOMagnum]

First off im getting the Ps+ edition whenever games that interest me comes out on the ps4 or h hour comes out whichever happens first. I tell you people I own a ps3 and have so since kz2 came out (fragking28). The problem is you guys cant stand someone who isnt bias about sony the way you guys are. My problem with Driveclub is that they changed the vision its not the same game they announced (yoshidas words). If this was motorstorm this would be a whole different topic. Why dont you guys check my psn stats to see if a troll for Ms can play the ps3 the way i did. (Just remembered i didnt sync in a while but my stats should still shut you guys up).

[Torque_CS_Lewith]

These guys had an extra year and they used it to make a million trees instead of offering more than one manufacturer color per car?
It is all very good and well to have sprinkler systems and animals frolicking about in the day time and the night but a driving game whose driving gameplay and options are overshadowed by graphics and novelty is not going to win you much praise.

Pretty but dumb seems to be this gen's theme.

[SMcNu715]

I agree, gameplay > graphics

Now if only everyone on N4G could agree to that, we wouldn't have such mindless debates where everyone thinks they are experts at making games lol

I miss my SNES

[weekev15]

If everyone agreed to that WiiU would be selling like hotcakes.

[kie25]

You can change the your car pain to any shade with either matte matalic gloss so before you start slagging the game I suggest you play it.

[PrinterMan]

Sorry but I disagree. I don't give a crap what color my car is. Give me good handling, good track and great scenery to drive to. Just me.

[herbs]

Not a fan of the direction these first party Sony devs have been taking their games in so far this gen, basically spectacle>substance. What makes it infinitely worse is the rabid fanbase that will eat it up regardless.

[SMcNu715]

It's a racing game, while I won't knock the people who do like it, unless it is a game like BurnOut, I find them boring as all hell. If I want to play racing sim, I'll just drive my car lol.

Are we really that surprised this is happening to Driveclub? Wasn't the sheer lack of preview content and tight lipped secrecy kind of a tell?

Just not for everyone I guess...

[zeuanimals]

Tight lipped secrecy? The devs were very open about the development and they've shown the improvements to the game and engine starting from last year. The game's also been playable at various trade shows and the devs were constantly answering questions on Twitter. I guess you're talking about the review embargo, but everything else has been out there and known way before people played the game.

I also don't trust most of the reviews since most of them don't even know what's in the game and what's not. Plenty of the reviews have them talking about features that are in the game that they're claiming aren't or features that aren't in the game that they are claiming are in it. You'd expect having the game embargoed would allow people to spend more time with it so they can write a more comprehensive review, but nope. People just pushed them out like the Destiny reviews from people at level 4 who gave up on the game.

[tekksin]

I really want this game compared with other games this clickbait website gave a 2/5.

[mixelon]

This and alien Isolation, and even Destiny have been really good for illustrating how reviews are, and never were supposed to be objective. It's refreshing TBH even if I disagree about some issues.

I expect I'll really enjoy DC, and Alien Isolation is absolutely great for what it is.

I can see why either/both wouldn't appeal to some people though.

[360ICE]

Driveclub, Destiny and Alien: Isolation all average at above 70, so they're supposed to be pretty good according to reviewers.

[mixelon]

Agreed, but averaging them like that does a disservice to individual reviews.

Some of these games are divisive by design. There's no way a game that's as tough and old-school as A:I could be enjoyable for everyone. If everyone scored it highly it could imply it's actually a *worse* game for a big part of its target audience, who want a difficult, frustrating experience... Strange, and a bit of a flaw in using things like metacritic.

[360ICE]

@mixelon

Agree with that. Games like Super Mario Galaxy for example will never be controversial and are almost always universally appealing. I think Destiny and Driveclub lost a lot of points because they rely heavily on multiplayer. Very few reviewers criticise the core mechanics in those games.

[rainslacker]

Really wish that the PS+ edition would go live already. I want to form my own opinion.

Anyhow, it seems that some people want to take the extremely underrated reviews(and I think most reasonable people know this game is worth more than 2/5...or 50..or whatever) and use them as the basis for their finger pointing and "i told you so" critiques. In the meantime they ignore that a majority of the reviews have this game in the 8's or 9's, and that a lot of people that have actually played it say it's a lot of fun.

To be fair, this phenomenon isn't exclusive to DriveClub, and seems to be the norm for any exclusive that happens to come along. I'm sure the next X1 exclusive will have the same thing happen to it as well.

Otherwise, i agree with you. Games should be rated for what they are, and not what they aren't. If something was promised and not delivered that's one thing, but I've seen too much downrating because this game just isn't FH2, which it isn't meant to be.

[Spotie]

Except, once upon a time, reviews WERE objective. Or, at the least, they were more objective than they are now.

Now... now, you can pretty much TASTE the agenda dripping off reviews. We can't even remotely trust the people bringing us news anymore.

Every review is supposed to be as objective as possible. Not completely, as we're all human, and humans write reviews. But as much bias as possible should be removed.

[mixelon]

Yeah.. No. As the owner of many games mags going back as far as the 70s, reviews have always been this unobjective. It used to be common for one publication to hate a game while another, or the majority likes it.

And reviewers with different opinions having agendas? Thats a matter of perspective. There can't be accurate objective reviews, it's not actually achirvable. How do you objectively rate artistic style and volume of content? Those are key issues in many bad and good review scores.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Sorry, off topic but who is that in your dp? Looks somewhat familiar.

Back on topic, IMO, recent reviews illustrate that people have different opinions. In fact, I'd argue this is how it should be. Not many games should be getting universal acclaim, but last gen EVERY game was treated as a must play. Now that there's some new fresh blood and people who want to judge things for what they are we're getting some conflicting reviews which is how it should be.

[mixelon]

It's a photo of my wife (a couple of weeks ago) so shouldn't be too familiar, hehe.

I'm with you, it's actually refreshing seeing scores all over the scale for games again, it makes picking out potential issues from the reviews easier, in a way. When they just emphasise and justify a high grade it's easy to miss things that a more negative review might focus on.

It's a bit like posting here. If I got 100% agrees I'd consider that a potential negative, lol. There are a ton of people here I really wouldn't want agreeing with me on many issues. Games equally shouldn't aim to appease everyone, or risk having no meat or risky elements.

Swery's games are another great example of games that don't work in the metacritic system. We should appreciate the diversity and just make our own opinions. :)

[DJ]

Destiny was a 4/10. This is more like 9/10. Best racing game I've played in a while, and the load times are really fast!

[Ka7be]

It seems X1trolls with multi account got you too! Man look at your Disagrees. I wonder why X1 fans aren't playing their beloved racing game instead they trolling in every DriveClub article? is FH2 that boring? Why no one is buying it?

[dodo101]

TBH with this game i know reviews don't have an impact on me anymore.
This game is a blast!

[mrmonk]

I haven't played drive club yet I will have a we go at the free version when its released but I preordered project cars instead I think It would be better than dc my opinion still if you bought dc hope you enjoy it.

[360ICE]

Well, at the very least it's a review that's actually about the driving. Most of the negative ones so far have given the impression that they don't play racing games to actually race, but for everything else. Really disagree with how the driving feels, but everyone has an opinion, I guess.

[Animal Mutha 76]

According to the Sony faithful this game was supposed to be the second coming of Christ - what happened?

Need to try this myself but doesn't sound great from what I've read so far..

[Caffo01]

try it, you'll be surprised how much fun it is, i don't really get how some reviews are scoring so low..

[Mikefizzled]

Gerstmann is one of the most legitimate reviewers in the industry. Very surprising reception.

[Mikefizzled]

Disagree with me all you want. The guy lost his job because he refused to sell out.

[PrinterMan]

Maybe but obviously has his preference too. Maybe it's just not a game for him but 4 out of 10? That's absurd and he obviously had his favorite racing game picked already and didn't want competition.

IMHO

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

I see where you're coming from and I respect the guy for what he did. But 4 out of 10 seems a bit harsh? Like game breaking bug-riddled but playable is what that score tells me. Maybe 6 out of 10 would have been more fair given his assessment. Either way, opinions are opinions.

[Criti-Choco]

Yet they were bought back by the same people he refused to sell out to?

Dont get me wrong I like giantbomb, and i subscribe to their site for a monthly fee, but I can safely say I dont need to follow their reviews. Jeff is pretty well known to have very peculiar tastes, theres not alot that he does like most the time unless its some weird obscure thing that makes him laugh every now and then like the SWERY games.

Giantbomb has good content, but like every website, take reviews for a grain of salt. They arent the absolute answer to weather or not to buy a particular product, the reviews are on their own personal tastes.

As an owner of the full driveclub version I can only agree with the issue of the AI being too hooked to a set driving line, the server downtime sucks but I expect that in pretty much any game with online features at this point.

[Ninjatogo]

I don't think they know what a 4/10 game truly looks like.

[inf3cted1]

Such exclusive, very Forza killer.

[BABY-JEDI]

More like GiantBummer. Hatch, HATCH, hATch ...ect. This really is no way to review a game IMO. You don't like? Fair enought, but don't be petty GB
: P

[kenshiro100]

Score is too low. Game can't be that bad.

[Gore-Content]

It isn't. I played for two hours today and it's fun so far.

[gamertk421]

Forced happiness with a game only lasts so long, just like a bad relationship with a hot girl. Eventually it's not worth it.

[Gardenia]

I almost all the time can see before a game comes out what to expect. Like with Watch Dogs and Destiny which both are okay games but not something amazing. Driveclub is a fun game which will not be a 9/10 or replace Gran Turismo. And now that I played it for a few hours I would give it something like a 7/10 or 8/10

Reviewers who give this a 4/10 or 5/10 must be fanboys or did expect something magical

[Tzuno]

Maybe it's just visuals and lacks bad in the game-play department, in therms that is boring and repetitive and not something fresh.

[parentsbasement]

As long as the MAXIMUM amount of pixels are on the screen, its a 10 outa 10......

[Corpser]

Good, fair and very well written review

[llxKonanxll]

Wow... 2/5... The game definitely doesn’t deserve that. 3/5

[Spider-Man]

i picked up my copy and loving it.. its not something to freak over but its great in its own way... and it can only get better with all the updates coming soon same like Destiny awesome game with so many updates to game to make it better people just jump and say its bad but for some very bad games they give high scores so end of the day we don't know are these so called reviews are honest or based on others saying...

[Axe99]

This review is an embarrassment to Giant Bomb - poorly written, criticising design choices that are necessary for it to work as an online racer and being 'surprised' by things that anyone following the game knew about more than 12 months ago. I guess this is what we get the kids that grew up with 'grind to level up' rather than 'learn how to play the game to compete' become gaming journalists.

[CuddlyREDRUM]

Ouch.

[Ben12]

Finally a real review score. This game looks good but real boring. Maybe they should have spent more time on making the game fun for gamers rather then spend all there time on 1080p and graphics.after playing horizon 2 there is no comparing. Horizon 2 is so much better, graphics are amazing and so much fun yep that's right fun. Sorry Sony fan boys resolution won't win you this one.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

I'm just wondering how many people who have reviewed DriveClub have actually driven a car above 75 mph. The author of this article seems to think that the cars are too "grippy" whatever that means. In real life if you attempt to take a turn like some of those in DriveClub at 60 to 70 miles per hour in an average car, portions of the steering linkage would be damaged and possibly one of the front wheels of the car would buckle under the force of the turn. Those "forces" are caused by tires being "grippy" or friction. The handling of cars in DriveClub is as realistic as you can get in a video game. Almost everything is right, handling, acceleration, cornering, braking, and the unbelievable sense of speed as you watch the road and see everything from signs to foliage whizzing by in your peripheral vision. DriveClub definitely could have benefited from more car customization options and realistic car damage. Yes the online functions have been problematic, but how can you review something you haven't used? Other than the three problems i've cited, DriveClub is an enjoyable game. If you like Driving fast without the tickets, DriveClub is worth a test run.