Digital Foundry re-assesses Evolution's PS4 debut in the wake of this week's spectacular upgrade.
PushSquare:
DriveClub, the legendary PS4 racer from shuttered Runcorn studio Evolution, has such an interesting story.
Originally announced alongside the PS4, the game had been intended as a launch title – we even played it in a big London church Sony had rented to showcase the new system prior to its release.
Evolution was done dirty... DC is still the most stunning visual game of its generation. They certainly deserved better in the end.
DriveClub was pretty and I loved the experience of driving in the rain, it was immersive. I had some good races with people from an old forum, but at times I found it to be a bit boring. MotorStorm was such a fun game to play and I loved the controls - it would make sense to remaster that.
I'd give the visual showcase award of the last generation to The Order: 1886. That game was immaculate.
Uncharted 4 was also absolutely insane, and perhaps manages to use the PS4's power in extremely clever ways.
Cause the game was mediocre at best, and surpassed in pretty much every area by Forza Horizon 2.
Apart from visuals, driving model, weather effects, only thing forza had was an open world...
It's multiplayer component was the only thing struggling at launch but the game was still perfectly playable offline. Done dirty is an understatement because how many games after came out with broken online components that got a pass? Now games with an SP and MP get separate reviews for SP and MP smh! SONY shut them down as if Evo had been bleeding money instead of putting out great games. Their fate was undeserved and they were the targets of a media smear campaign due to that one trailer.
Loved it.
Now here's a game that would benefit from a remaster.
4K, 60 FPS
I'd buy it.
See? Another reason why physical is important. Going all digital will have you miss out games like this.
Brilliant game, I really miss it, and it deserved so much better than what Sony did to it.
Most important reason I liked it; It was FUN. That’s it. The actual gameplay,throwing a car around corners, the challenging AI opponents, the entertaining tracks which were peak-design, etc etc, it was above all just FUN to play.
Digital Foundry : Whether it's via FPS Boost or bespoke software upgrades, backwards compatibility on the current-gen consoles delivered an unexpected delight - the ability to liberate older console games from their 30fps limits, running them at 60 frames per second or even higher. FPS Boost did the business for Xbox Series consoles on an impressive range of titles, but there was always the sense that PS5 could do more. It's a hunch that checks out as a range of frame-rate unlocks are available for PS5, covering many must-have games - the major caveat being that only exploitable consoles running on older firmwares are invited to the party.
you love to see new life being breathed into older titles but damn the process to get there. It should be automatic that these work for everyone... not just those who exploit their systems. Really wish Sony and MS would keep this program going officially.
Damn this sucks. I want this shit so bad, but I’m not jailbreaking my console. And frankly I shouldn’t have to. I’m not a tech person, but is it really that hard for developers to unlock the framerate? Or would that have to be a large patch?
"but is it really that hard for developers to unlock the framerate?"
I guess it's not.
But it has become a profitable business if you do so.
So no one would pay for only the framerate patched to being unlocked. So studios need to offer more than that.
But this would take more time, polishing and would cost more money. So they shy away, but won't unlock the framerate, either.
That's just my personal assumption. But from what I can comprehend technically, it shouldn't be difficult to unlock framerates via a patch for older games.
... if it hadn't became a business.
frame-rate unlock should be free ...
We've seen many devs offer free patches and updates to pretty old PC titles, even bonuses ... so why can't devs offer the frame unlock patch for free (in consultation with the platform-producers) for a title from just a generation earlier?
RaidenBlack
"frame-rate unlock should be free ..."
Obviously the result of that thinking is that developers aren't even going to do it.
If they had been allowed to charge $5-10 you would see incentivized developers doing it way more often.
People just always want everything for free, but it's not free to make the patch, people have to code it then other people have to test it, and there will always be other costs involved.
If people want dollar store gaming then expect to get what you pay for.
Raiden I might be wrong but last I thought it cost money to put patches out on consoles.
As far as me paying for it, I'm not all that interested tbh. Not enough to pay for it with older games, and newer games have been pretty decent about it for the most part.
Sounds like the modder has to go in to make changes to unlock it on a game by game basis. "Simple" enough to do it unofficially, but to have it done officially, they need someone to go in a make that change, put out a patch and put it through certification, which I believe is not necessarily a cheap thing to do. It's questionable if going through this would then give them enough sales to make it worthwhile.
Many games still have physics tied to framerate, i think it's cause they wouldn't want to go in and do anything extra. Then there's the 10 dollar upgrades they rather charge. The problem is that there's no compromise, cause if I could mod my PS4 and all I'd lose is online play then id jailbreak it immediately. Mods have done so much for PC games and they could do the same for consoles, but manufacturers hafto be willing to compromise.
It's not to hard to do and there's youtube videos that break it down really well. ANyway most of us here arent able to break are console anyway due to being up to date on firmware from playing
Yep, this sucks having to require a jailbreak for something that should be standard in our industry by now. I learned my lesson when PS4 was jailbroken and I didn't keep a console on low firmware for years, but now I'm holding onto two low firmware PS5s specifically because there are features I'll be able to do that you can't do on official firmware, so this will pay off for me soon enough.
Driveclub was a headline game at the start of the PS4’s life. A fabulous game – eventually - but what now, with the servers turned off? Is it worth your time? JDR starts its engines in today’s Brutal Backlog.
Bikes expansion might be one of the most underrated games of last gen. Incredible driver and bike animations + DC weather is craze.
Well the benefits to visuals aside (and DC really does look jaw-droppingly good with these weather effects) weather can literally change the game due to the physics based action. Playing online with players sliding all over the place and fighting for grip is brilliant. Adds a whole new layer to racing.
"Unlike many games, DriveClub uses individual droplet particles to represent the rain. Each particle is impacted by the game's motion blur system, giving the impression of long, vertical streaks while driving"
This is crazy and you can tell the difference especially when comparing it to Horizon 2, which looks great too but not as good as this.
Yes, its awesome currently and online issues which plagued it on launch is resolved now. Gaming site should re-review driveclub.
Is not only weather , fisic is a different , great game eurogamer seys that rein and snow effects is the bes ever in video game!
Is the dynamic weather incorporated into every race/mode, or is it only for online races?
It's certainly raised the bar for visual fidelity in racing games, Project cars is going to have to go some to exceed this level of visual fidelity.