| sundin13 said: "Picture the scene. You're diving down an 18 per cent gradient hill along the banks of Loch Something-or-other, exhaust note screaming, tumbledown stone walls a blur as the speedometer ticks over 160mph. You're approaching a corner and billowing red flags on the right-hand side of the road warn that it's a severe left-hander, but the flatter you can make your racing line the more speed you can carry through it. Spying a generous dusting of loose gravel on the apex, the 1000hz portion of your lizard brain that's dedicated to driving cars fast instinctively decides to drop two wheels on the dirt. At the very least it'll straighten the line through the bend and, if you're really lucky, you can even use some drag to help rotate the car for a swift exit. Except you don't get your swift exit, because a giant, invisible hand has pinched the car's spoiler betwixt thumb and forefinger. You're dimly aware of a repetitive chiming sound as the speedo tumbles to 45mph. The DriveClub fun police have arrived, and this is their siren." -Eurogamer Its not the penalty that is the problem, it is that the penalties are rigid and prevent creativity and essentially encourage you to drive along one route, that all the other vehicles are literally fighting over. The fact that an arcade-y game like this puts such severe restrictions on your driving, way more than anything you would hit in real life is silly... A much lighter, more realistic penalty alongside better AI would make the game feel more alive and dynamic and make the difficulty more akin to how well you can think on your feet as opposed to how good your car is statistically and how lucky you get that the AI doesn't do something stupid. A lot of people these days are saying that difficulty is a positive thing and that anyone who complains about it just likes easy games, but they fail to recognize that there is a difference between good difficulty and bad difficulty. Good difficulty encourages the player to learn and improve throughout the game to be able to see better ways to complete their goal. Bad difficulty throws unavoidable/cheap penalties/obstructions at the player or forces them to grind excessively to complete the goal (aka, forces you to get better in game instead of out of the game). Driveclub's AI and penalty system pushes it into the range of "bad difficulty"... |
I've seen some footage on ps live and that Eurogamer article is grossly exaggerated. I've not seen anyone get a penalty for briefly getting two wheels on the dirt. There's a counter that starts when you go fully off the road and points are deducted for hitting the barrier or other cars. You need to really cheat the corner to get a penalty. What's wrong with encouraging you to drive on the road? It's a track racing game, not rally driving. Is it a complaint in MK8 that the game slows you down to a crawl when you go off track?
I doubt any race car driver instinctively decides to put two wheels in loose gravel to make a corner...
Not having penalties makes for a lousy experience. For example driving Sarthe in GT5 without the penalties on, everyone simply skips most of the chicanes. Slowing you down is also a better solution than making you loose control and spin out in a realistic way, which means likely taking out other people that are cornering properly. They could ofcourse have adopted GT5's ghosting system. It's satisfying to see a dumbass ghosting through you into a wall when trying to use you as a bumper. Although with ghosting and 5 sec no acceleration penalties cheaters still get out ahead, ghost overtaking you in a chicane. I guess you can call that creative. Maybe taking your speed away is the only way to teach people how to drive. Works for MK8.
