Game Preview: DriveClub on PS4

The PlayStation 4 has landed in Australia just in time for the festive season, but one game that was promised but missed the launch party was DriveClub.

With Gran Turismo 6 arriving on the superseded PlayStation 3, and GT 7 still some time away, Sony needed a racer to compete against the Xbox One's formidable Forza Motorsport 5.

But the harsh reality of life is that sometimes the trains run late, or in this case DriveClub was not ready in time for the launch.

Nevertheless, we had the good fortune to play the game's alpha code, or rather an unfinished version not cut and polished for public consumption, but still very playable.

Initial impressions are relatively positive, the game's hook being its social racing experience.

Indeed, DriveClub lives up to its name allowing gamers to hook up with friends and it makes good use of the PlayStation Eye Camera, taking gamers' photos prior to car selection.

Then you join a club. We found ourselves in a LAN of PS4's with two pre-created clubs to join.

The circuit was a beautiful wooded Canadian highway, looping through a small town and weaving through iconic mountains back to the start. The game looks magnificent and the graphics alone will help the game's cause.

Even in its unfinished alpha state, DriveClub is a truly beautiful game. Small touches like the way the dashboard reflects onto the windscreen (and passing through the shade of trees flickers this effect with a distracting realism) really immerses you in the experience.

We chose a Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS Black and hit the start line rolling. As the ghost car of the current leader moves away, the first challenge arrives... Swerving through several chicanes highlights the need to maximise average speeds over a short section of the track.
Driving smoothly is easier said than done.

However these challenges provide points scoring opportunities, as things like drifting, hitting optimal cornering trajectories and beating the lap times through the Canadian hills all provide rewards.

Vehicle handling and car physics need to be tweaked however. We raced both the Merc and an Aston Martin, and both cars felt unrepresentative of the way their real-world counterparts react with the road.

Unless we had somehow fitted degraded, torn, underinflated tyres to the Mercedes, there is no way the front would twitch the way it did here.

Still, once presented with the results screen at the end of the drive it is satisfying to see your club pull ahead of rival groups. This is a big part of what makes DriveClub an intriguing game, forming your own driving fraternity with up to eleven other mates and then taking on the world.

The PlayStation 4 is out now in Australia, with most fans waiting until a February delivery, and we will have to wait until early 2014 to form our DriveClubs.