I have it. But even after all the time delaying it from being launched with the PS4, it doesn't live up to the hype. Well, not in my eyes anyway. The DriveClub servers were down so I couldn't create or join a club and couldn't do some other options that pertain to that part of the game.
So based on strictly the single player part of the game...
It's definitely not a Gran Turismo.
It's weird, when you first launch the game, you get a controller layout screen. You say "ok" when satisfied and you're immediately thrown into a race. I'm like..huh?? Where's the intro screen? Where's the tutorial? Where's the menu screen? Where's the music? So the race begins with the words "READY"...then "GO". And I'm lost because usually during a race there's a numerical countdown, or a light tree showing the red lights down to green. Nope none of that. So the race starts, I'm not giving any gas cause I was waiting on a count down of some sort. The word GO appears and everyone takes off. Except me. So I gas it, catch up and eventually pull the lead. I notice a point system adding up when I pass, draft or drift. I notice points deducted when I hit walls, hit other cars or go off track. It's definitely a different type of racing game, but I get used to it. And I start feeling comfortable with the game.
But I also notice things like....
You can't customize your car in any way to make it handle better or more powerful. There are no specs on the cars as far as HP, torque, weight, ride height, nothing. The only thing that exists are bars showing power, handling, acceleration, and something else. You can't change the rims, ride height, or tweak it in any way.
What you can change is the paint and graphical patterns. You unlock more patterns as you progress and win more races. But that really isn't any fun to do so I pretty much left cars as is.
Another thing you can do is, choose what your driver looks like. Male, female, their race, and a few outfits. But why? In a racing game where the cars are the stars, why do I give 2 shits about what the moron behind the wheel looks like? Why waste the space on the disc for shit like that? What douche thought putting that in was a good idea?! It makes no sense!
The damage to the cars is so so. I got T-boned at a hairpin turn and heard this 'crunch'. I turned the camera to see the damage and there was none at all.
Graphically when using the behind the car view I'd say it's a little better looking than the very end of last gen systems. Maybe Im being too picky here, Ill have to really look at it again next time I boot it up. But I remember not being too impressed.
The 'in car view' where you see the steering wheel, dash lay out, and the detail on working gauges, is pretty cool. But I usually play a racing game from behind the car so I can see the exact moment when a rear tire starts smoking or sliding. In a real car you can FEEL that happening and adjust accordingly. But in a game from the 'in car view', you of course can't feel it and you don't see it happening either. ..but that's me.
The scenery at some spots is very generic. Some tunnels you go into are very arcadey and remind me of a design layout from Outrun where they use the same pattern for rocks over and over. And the dirt that get's thrown up when you drive over shoulders on the road seem unfinished. Like hardly anything gets kicked up.
When you cross the finish line the animation freezes for a moment making you think the game froze. ..kinda scary.
The lighting is nice looking. The sun like in real life, can get annoying when its right in front of you almost blinding you from seeing the road properly. This is actually a good thing it shows attention to detail. Break lights in the dark are pretty bright and a little distracting at first. But still nice to see they put it in there.
Controlling the cars is easy. And there are some differences between the cars and how they handle from each other, but you feel disconnected from them somehow. I think it might be the handling, the sound. The sound is just average to me. I've heard better engine audio from GT5 on PS3. I think another thing that disconnected me from the game is there are no REAL tracks in it. To be able to race on real world tracks is something that I like doing. I don't mind custom tracks thrown in the mix, I really don't. But to leave out real world tracks on a game that has you racing real world cars, is just dumb in my eyes.
There are some spots on the tracks where there are challenges. Where one may be a cornering challenge, or a speed challenge, drift challenge, etc. It doesn't interfere with the race at all, it happens while you're racing. For instance the speed challenge, you'll see a marker coming up on the track. You drive through it and the challenge begins. Now you must beat the set amount of MPH that was set by the computer (or a friend) before you get to the part of the track where you can see the end of the challenge. And you can set challenges for others to beat as well.
The AI is somewhat good and they do crash here and there, giving you obstacles to avoid at high speed. In some later races it's a little challenging to get in the lead. And when you are in the lead you aren't smoking the competition like you do in GT5. They're not on your ass, but they will catch up and pass you if you screw up. (they're maybe 5 seconds behind -- at the most!) I scraped the wall for about 2 seconds. And suddenly I had 6 cars pass me like I was standing still. I still won, but I had to work for it. So that is a cool thing since with that, it doesn't get boring.
Don't get me wrong it's not a bad game. It's no Forza killer nor will it make you forget Gran Turismo. The game is good looking, runs super smooth, and it's fun to play (audio could be better though IMHO). I guess I just expected more out of it based on videos, screen shots, and all the hype about it. But it'll fill my racing void until Project Cars comes out next month.
I was really looking forward to this game, but the review embargo got me worried. I decided I'd wait until the free PS+ version came out to try before I commit any money towards it. It's sounding like that was a good move at this point. Still waiting on that PS+ version to try.
I was really looking forward to this game, but the review embargo got me worried. I decided I'd wait until the free PS+ version came out to try before I commit any money towards it. It's sounding like that was a good move at this point. Still waiting on that PS+ version to try.
Yeah me too. I bought it though, so I'm gonna finish it out.
Any videos or screen shots you may have seen about detail to the "behind the wheel" view being really good, is all true. Glare and reflections on the windshield and dashboard, etc etc, all great looking. But honestly though, when it's moving at 120mph and there's left and right turns thrown at you, while you avoid other drivers, and you're trying not to hit the walls...you really don't notice those nice details.
They could have dropped the driver customizations, skimmed back on the high details on behind the wheel, and add customizations to the cars. I mean if it's all about creating clubs with friends and taking on other clubs and shit like that, well they totally missed the whole point. Because if it were a REAL life club with real cars, everyone in any club would be fitting their vehicles with ....performance customizations. And fine tuning them to their liking. I don't know if this is something they can fix or add on through an update or DLC but if not I really don't see this game taking off like they probably expect it to.
I'm sure I'll lose interest in it. Especially when something better comes along. Like I said though, I bought it so I'm gonna finish it.
I just hope Project Cars isn't more of the same. That's another game I've only seen video on. And don't know if you're able to customize the vehicles or not.
The servers were online yesterday so I created a club. I didn't do anything more than that though.
Yeah the in dash does look incredible on the videos/screenshots. Might be best to give it a few more weeks when the weather update hits. I think this game might wow a bit more with that. The windshield reflections in Forza 5/Horizon 2 are good as well. I did end up with Horizon 2 and have been having a blast with it.
Project Cars is aiming for the more sim crowd, which I'm all for too but they are the developer who made NFS Shift and Shift 2. While I liked both of those games, a lot of my sim buddies HATED the handling in them. Hopefully they can find a happy medium or allow you to adjust either way?
I think gamers would have been much easier on it had it released when it was supposed to simply because there wasn't much else to play at the time. I was really looking forward to it. But now releasing it right at the beginning of the holiday season, I've got my games planned out until early next year and Drive Club didn't make the cut.
Ahh!! Yet another game I had hopes for that isn't living up to the hype! I was also looking forward to the Alien: Isolation game only to be let down by less-than-stellar reviews of that too. I have to say I'm feeling pretty disappointed by the lack of any REALLY compelling games so far on the PS4... At least for my genre preferences. Here's hoping the library expands to much more than the catalog of current releases and up-coming releases I've seen so far on IGN. Nothing at this point is really standing out much to me.
I was also looking forward to the Alien: Isolation game only to be let down by less-than-stellar reviews of that too.
Alien: Isolation got some really bad reviews but got some really good reviews too. It was very divisive. I think I'm going to give it a whirl while on vacation next week.
Yeah I had the same first impression on the Alien reviews but I've been watching some of the other more positive ones and the impressions on the PC Gaming forum and it might still be worth a pickup. I'm just trying to work though some games right now (picked up Forza Horizon 2 on the XB1 and have been burning hours in that one)
Shadows of Mordor might be an option. I like the LOTR movies, but the thing I really look for most in a game is a rich multiplayer environment, specifically team-based, because I can get a lot of miles out of a single game with well-implemented multiplayer.
It's one of the reasons I primarily stick with shooters, like the Battlefield series, because the team work can make it really fun, even if I do get burned out from time-to-time after long stretches of playing, I tend to pick it back up at some point. But what I find most lacking is a good, multiplayer campaign mode. For that reason, I am looking forward to Assassin's Creed: Unity.
I don't believe either SOM or Alien: Isolation has multiplayer, so it's bound to end up on the shelf sooner than many of the multiplayer games I have for PS3. I might consider Alien for what I've heard about the outstanding graphics, but I'm very impatient by nature, so a game where the majority of your time is spent hiding and sneaking around will end up frustrating me easily.
I've seen a trailer of Rainbow 6 last night. It was running on PC but it seemed pretty fun. Here it is. You can tell the people "playing" the game are reading off a script to make it seem more real and compelling but still...looks like fun.