No offence man, but after reading your impressions the past couple days, and then playing the game, I'm not sure id call your opinion anywhere near objective.
I actually trust most of the impressions before release 100x less than the reviews because almost everything that was über hyped turned out to be just okay. Especially when it comes to visuals.
Then you were preemptively expecting it
not to impress you. I just let the game take me in. Isn't that the way it goes?
Playing them both, the difference for me is that DriveClub is about rewarding clean driving, not smashing your way to the win.
I love Horizon, but Horizon 2's off-road focus introduces more chaos and aggro to the events, which is great when you just want silly fun, and less so when you want something focused.
Horizon feels way more social though, with a variety of modes, races, rivals, community paints, tunes, screenshots and videos. Servers were down for me with DriveClub last night so maybe I'll change my tune tonight, but just looking at the features I think Horizon takes the title belt easily.
The way I see it I'll play Horizon when I want to drive and explore and I'll play DriveClub when I want to race and master tracks.
You really need to wait for the servers to get their shit together.
I've been playing against reviewers and the game's developers and it's not only how tightly designed the handling model in addition to the meticulously laid out tracks, but how fresh it feels to have your friends scores sprinkled throughout the track as you try to master it.
Horizon 2 just sounds like Burnout Paradise to me... and that was just social, not social
racing. It was just a bunch of people crashing their cars into each other.
Oh come on. What the hell is in it for reviewers to give anything other than their honest opinion? Why on earth would there be a conspiracy against DC? For a start, to me they are less biased than you because they haven't paid for the game and aren't out to justify the purchase. The fact you are fighting the game's corner so hard tells me you are taking it way too personally.
I have also purchased DC but I'm not going to start dismissing reviewers I don't agree with. I can understand the reasons given for marking it down, just as much as I can see the things the game does well.
I will dismiss the opinion of anyone who is far too invested to take a step back and be realistic.
And on the DC avatar. Imagine if the one of the folks criticising the game had a Forza avatar. Don't tell me you would even begin to take their negative view of the game seriously, no matter how they presented their criticism.
The conspiracy card, really?
I rarely get buyers remorse. I simply realize that 100's of creative people put years of their lives in these games and that's why I play them. I'm not defending my purchase. I'm advocating an extremely passionate and talented team of people.
Evolution Studios' games have been subjected to so much console war bullshit that some of their best work has been dismissed as third rate without a second thought in format war topics that move at lightning speed.
I just put their logo in my avatar for support, not to "wear my gang colors".
I went down to GS this morning and cancelled my preorder for this after reading these reviews. I preordered Uncharted 4 and The Order so not a total loss. I'm going to try the ps+ version then grab the full game down the line when it's cheaper.