DriveClub, the PS4 launch racer with some tough competition

http://media.edge-online.com/wp-cont...ub-610x343.jpgEvolution Studios kicked off the current generation of PlayStation hardware with MotorStorm, comfortably setting a new visual benchmark in the process. DriveClub isn’t quite there yet – the build we’ve played was only 35 per cent complete, which seems a little on the low side for a PS4 launch game – but the pleasant, although hardly astonishing, landscape of the fictional Kinloch track we tried offers long draw distances and some occasionally eyecatching lighting.It whips past the windscreen at a decent enough lick – although not, in its current state, at the target 60fps. Tree and foliage models have a whiff of placeholder about them, while tyre smoke isn’t quite the next-gen volumetric spectacle we’d hoped for. The cars look great, of course, but you’ll be hard-pressed to notice the fully modelled headlight lenses out on track. There have been few better showcases for new hardware than racing games, and it says much that Gran Turismo 6, running on the seven-year-old PS3, currently looks sharper than Evolution’s demo build. A fair chunk of that remaining 65 per cent of development is presumably set aside for visual improvements.Still, the handling model seems to be all there. The four cars we’ve tried – including the Pagani Huayra and Hennessey Venom – display distinct, unruly personalities. The game’s most powerful cars need to be coaxed rather than hurried to full acceleration for fear of losing traction, and we found ourselves wrestling with torque steer in the Venom on straights. The DualShock 4’s much-improved sticks make it easy to make small adjustments to your line with none of their predecessors’ skittering flimsiness. But the motion-control option, predictably enough, doesn’t fare quite so well. Overall it’s a weighty, detailed handling model – but, just like MotorStorm, one that trades realism for immediate thrills. It’s at odds with Evolution’s talk of replicating the supercar ownership experience, but plays to the strengths of the game’s team ethos.

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