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GVMERS: Sony's Failed "Forza Killer" - The Tragedy of Driveclub

UnNamed

Banned
Oh that mysterious untouchable timeless classical beauty of Drive Club:

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Tell me you have never played Driveclub without tell me you have never played Driveclub
 

Outlier

Member
They have GT they didn't need two racing Sims. I'm personally not a racing sim guy but I can see why drive club had to go it was a good experiment
What?

DriveClub is a basic arcade racer (gameplay wise). The cars / bikes literally go faster DRIFTING through corners.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
I still don't get why this game failed. Granted, I only played it once all the DLC was out, but still, game was quite fun. Imagine a PS5 exclusive DC2.
I personally didn't like it from what I tried.

The cars had whining wheels if you were just turning the wheel even just a tiny bit and the steering was shit.
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
You'd think GT was the "Forza Killer" or is that not good enough?

Driveclub was trash and I haven't been excited about a GT game since I owned a PS2. Forza is where it's at these days if you're a fan of car games.
 

sainraja

Member
It’s so wierd that they completely erased every trace of it from PS Store, it would easily have made them quite some money over the gen. Not to mention they closed down one of their oldest amd recognized studios. I claimed Driveclub when it came to PS+ last gen but since then I switched accounts and now there’s no way to access it, it’s a shame.

Edit: Never heard of Driveclub being seen as a ”Forza killer” though. I’d say Forza was made to be the GT killer, and it turned out to be a pretty damn successful one to a pretty large extent.
Some people in the media referred to it like that and you know certain groups will pick up on that like giddy little children. :D
 
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VinnyMac

Member
What?

DriveClub is a basic arcade racer (gameplay wise). The cars / bikes literally go faster DRIFTING through corners.
Either way it was photo realistic had actual cars I've seen plenty of videos of people with racing sim set ups playing it may have had arcade elements but it was looked at as a sim.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
DC has never been created to compete Forza or any other game, but guess Xbox fanboys have to create their own fantasies to keep themsleves happy (even if it's with lies)

Are you calling GVMERS an Xbox fanboy ? I don't think that's the case in the slightest.
 
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0neAnd0nly

Member
I’m not sure Sony ever called this a “Forza killer”, which is a pretty ludicrous claim when Forza was literally created to be a knock-off Gran Turismo for a console that didn’t have that yet.

Driveclub was made as an easily accessible arcade racer to show off new and pretty tech / graphics.

Zero customization pretty much did it in, though the driving physics, IMO, didn’t help much either early on.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
They shouldn't have made an episode about this - instead it should have been: Motorstorm, Sony's failed Forza horizon killer...
 

sainraja

Member
The reason the media loves to use the label/tag of 'killer' next to a game that didn't live up to expectations is for the attention that comes with using it. People love a good story with twists/turns and challenges.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Acht well who cares anyway, Forza Horizon is boring since 4 anyway. I tried both 4 and 5 and felt no drive to play it more than an hour, it just wasn't very fun and there was no progression. It was like heres a million races and you don't have the proper car for many of them, so just grind out races you don't want to do until you get the car to do the races you do want to do. Then the barn find thing was supremely boring, getting the hard to reach signs was annoying because you couldn't just do big run ups again quick, wasn't really that fun to work out how to land on things like it is in Burnout Takedown/Revenge crash mode or GTA V.

Bring back Burnout/NFS Underground/NFS Hot Pursuit (the latest one) style giant lists of tracks/events but that take place in a coherent open world that divided up into tracks, way better than some giant world thats then got tracks slotted in after they designed the map. Make the tracks, then add a backdrop/environments around it, because the cool world looks cool for trailers and then after you start playing its just a bunch of puff. Or even like Midnight Club/NFS Underground 2 where you feel like you're being a racer in that world at least, not part of some literal cringefestival.
 

Patrick S.

Banned
Driveclub was one of the games that made me want a PS4. I bought it after it had been patched. I thought it was jaw-dropping, to be honest.

Unfortunately, the game is very shallow and doesn't have the structure of a proper racing game. It needed a proper career mode. It needed car tuning. And most of all, I think the driving physics and handling weren't good. It had unconvincing Ridge Racer tap-brake-to-drift driving that was just not appropriate for a simcade title.
 
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lukilladog

Member
Yeah unfortunately I tried it. Everything is sub mediocre in it, especially handling and no 4k 60 fps wouldn't save it.

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I guess the previous pictures were from PSVR... but still, that is not unmatched, Forza Horizon on PC with textures and geometry on Ultra makes this look like a switch game... particularly with TAA on PC it looks next gen.
 

flying_sq

Member
Loved it, especially the motorcycle expansion. I just wish it would get put on PC, and let the mod community go at it.
 
I don't get the "Forza Killer" label. The game was neither marketed nor positioned as such.

It's a completely different type of racer than Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon.... and if anything, Forza Motorsport itself is the game billed as a "Gran Turismo Killer" (even though it never did).

Seems a bit click-baity to use that to promote your video GVMERs. You guys can do better than shit like that.
 

0neAnd0nly

Member
They used the quote from an outlet in an official game trailer

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Sure.

#Marketing.

But they never insinuated (nor did Evo) that it was their goal.

GT is obviously Forza’s competition. DC was, 10000%, an arcade sim.

I do cars. Been building and racing since the early 00s. DC << Forza… but to be above it was never the goal.

Sure they use some reviewers quotes to market, I guess I can see an argument for that being the “same thing”, but that’s not what I was intending to reference by that comment.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sure.

#Marketing.

But they never insinuated (nor did Evo) that it was their goal.

GT is obviously Forza’s competition. DC was, 10000%, an arcade sim.

I do cars. Been building and racing since the early 00s. DC << Forza… but to be above it was never the goal.

Sure they use some reviewers quotes to market, I guess I can see an argument for that being the “same thing”, but that’s not what I was intending to reference by that comment.
Sony never said Forza Killer themselves, but they still used the VG24/7 quote in their trailer.
 

Wunray

Member
I'm sorry but Driveclub shits on Horizon, my cousin has his Xbox 1x over here with Gamepass on it. That game is fucking trash I cant believe I fell for the internets hype. Killer Instinct is the only game I can really rock with. Glad this is all changing soon with all the new exclusives from their recent publisher buyouts because they have zero creativity internally, all their hit IP became a success before Microsoft bought them. Xbox can finally be worth buying again but I'm just going to buy thier games on Steam instead, I already pay for PS+ no need for 2 game subs.
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It's going to be ok.
 
Driveclub was too arcades for FM and too sim for Horizon. Not to mention, not open world like Horizon.

It was one of the first PS4 games I played. Truth be told, I was hiding the PS4 as a Christmas present for my oldest son and while he was in school I would break it out to play this game. But it got old quick. AI was too rubber band like and the gameplay was just too simple. Then graphics were nice though.

It’s a shame Evolution made this instead of Motorstorm.
 

Saber

Member
Sony never said Forza Killer themselves, but they still used the VG24/7 quote in their trailer.

They still didn't said it and was never actually their intention for development to begin with. I really dunno why people keep insisting on this, as if the sole purpose of this game was to beat Forza.
 

ShinFuYux

Member
I actually put almost 500 hours in that game.

I still actually play it time to time even though the online features are gone.

But, honestly, this game felt like the true successor for Codemasters Grid. The handling and tracks has GRID inspiration all over it.

Shame no one else has made another true arcade-sim game. The dirt series kinda got there but it got too "edgy" for me.
 
Driveclub was too arcades for FM and too sim for Horizon. Not to mention, not open world like Horizon.

It was one of the first PS4 games I played. Truth be told, I was hiding the PS4 as a Christmas present for my oldest son and while he was in school I would break it out to play this game. But it got old quick. AI was too rubber band like and the gameplay was just too simple. Then graphics were nice though.

It’s a shame Evolution made this instead of Motorstorm.
They failed with Motorstorm Apocalypse, the last thing SONY or Evolution wanted was to make another Motorstorm and try their luck again. Thers a docu on YT where they said they added everythign they ever wanted in a motorstorm game and had no plan or idea for a sequel after 3.
 

Gamerguy84

Member
The only tragedy about DC is that we arent getting DC2. Also that Sony axed Evolution, that was a bad move IMO.

After reading comments i can tell some people havent played the game but instead watched a few YT vids or read comments somewhere else.

It wasnt sim and it wasnt full arcade, it was a nice mix of both and id love to have another one.
 

supernova8

Banned
Almost like Sony's PGR. I played it long after intitial release and liked it. I find these kinds of racers way more entertaining than racing sims (so boring). I miss PGR...
Comedy Central Thank You GIF by The Jim Jefferies Show


Yeah it gave me the same "oh my fucking god next-gen is here" feeling as PGR3 did on Xbox 360. Plus it is kinda similar in terms of gameplay (the little time trials and drift challenges within maps).
You could sort of frame as it as a MMO PGR.

That said, I honestly treated it as a bit of eye candy rather than a game I felt like progressing in. The only thing I enjoyed as racing at night on the snow in the Scotland (? can't remember) tracks with an Aston Martin and racing on the windy Japan tracks with the Ariel Atom.

I guess the problem is/was that the sort of people who religiously play racing games (ie probably DC's desired target audience) are more into Gran Turismo-esque games (explains why GT Sport did so well) and probably scoffed at DC's arcadey-ness. As a result, it ended up being a game for nobody. Too "car nut"-y for casuals but not serious enough for racing enthusiasts.
 
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Mr.ODST

Member
Driveclub didn't fail Sony, Sony failed Driveclub. To announce a game as free to play and then decide to go back on that promise was just awful, and I don't think the game ever recovered.
Driveclub was a great game amd glad it improved and sorted itself out, I know the real stories behind the scenes but cannot share lol
 

Seider

Member
Problem with Drive Club is its 30 fps framerate. It should have got a patch on the Ps4 Pro to get 60 fps. And of course it should be 4K 60 fps on Ps5.
 

Tommi84

Member
DriveClub is a basic arcade racer (gameplay wise). The cars / bikes literally go faster DRIFTING through corners.
Of all the hot takes I read today, this is the hottest.

Good luck completing the 'Venom Hot Laps' when drifting. Drifting is NOT faster - period
 
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Outlier

Member
Of all the hot takes I read today, this is the hottest.

Good luck completing the 'Venom Hot Laps' when drifting. Drifting is NOT faster - period
I only played the free version and every car I drove got better lap times, when I drifted through the corners. It's an arcade racer. Nothing else.

And yes I heard about the legendary Venom challenge. Mostly because of how difficult the car was the manage, which doesn't take away from most cars going faster in through corners, while drifting.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Forza killer?
That's the first time I've heard that before.
Not even remotely the same 🤔
 
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