Driveclub is the most underrated game of the year

[Mr Puggsly]

SvennoJ said:

Mr Puggsly said:

Apples and oranges. There are expectations from a racer that don't exist for hack n' slash games.

Forza 5 got attacked for only having 200+ cars and 14 tracks (more if you include the track variations).

There are different expectations for arcade and sim racers as well. Forza 5 also got attacked for micro transactions, (now fixed I believe) still not having dynamic time of day or weather like it's closest rival, next to halving the track list and car count.

DriveClub is a new IP, no prior expectations, and held against it peers (Burnout, Ridge racer, PGR, NFS shift/run, Split/Second, Blur or GRID) it's an excellent return to what arcade racing was all about. The only real thing DC is lacking was never even mentioned in reviews. Where is splitscreen? Motorstorm had 4 player splitscreen, MK8 has it.

I would love a new Motorstorm too, as long as they go back to the roots. I didn't enjoy Apocalypse much. Annoying story mode and gimmicky exploding tracks took the fun out of a great franchise. It's a very different experience from road based racing though, not a replacement.

Reviewers focus too much on the graphics though. The real game changer for me is challenge mode. Sure the weather effects make a great looking game look even better and adds extra challenge. Yet without challenge mode it wouldn't be as much fun competing under these conditions.

And again, Driveclub isn't a true arcade racer. The gameplay isn't what we expect from an arcade racer and it feels like a mediocre sim racer. If Driveclub was a more enjoyable arcade style racer than it might have scored better. Driveclub is still aiming for a level of realism and that makes it more sim than arcade. PGR did something similar but was less dull.

Forza 5 isn't recycling content from past games and they are released more frequently. GT6 got attacked for being a rehash of GT5 and it was released 3 years after. So clearly reviewers expect more than just a lot of content.

You compare Driveclub to a lot of arcade racers but its not similar to them. Driveclub feels more like Forza than a game like Split/Second. Again, its not a pariticularly fun arcade experience or a noteworthy sim experience.

I don't feel reviewers focus too much on graphics these days.