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| GribbleGrunger said: Yeah, I've got to be honest and agree. In other news though, people are going bananas over the ability to remove assists. They say it turns it into a completely different racer. |
I have spend some time with hardcore mode now and it definitely changes the game, however it's a bit of a mixed bag.
Unlike turning assists off in GT5 which allows you to go faster if you can handle it, DriveClub severly restricts your overall speed. You lose a lot of traction and braking is more realistic, which means lower max speed in corners and much longer braking distances. I've done a lot of hardcore driving in Hyper mode and at some points you have to start braking way before the corner flags even become visible. You have to relearn all braking points and brake for more corners than you were used to. You also have to be a bit more careful with accelerating yet that's minor compared to the huge impact the new braking distances have.
The changes make it a lot more realistic, but it also slows the general pace down, removing a bit of that omg I'm going too fast sensation. Which also means that leaderboard times are all useless in hardcore mode (no separate leaderboards yet) and timed sub challenges can't be met most of the time. (Luckily AI cars are scaled down in hardcore mode) I did the Hennesy Venom hot lap from the original tour, easy in normal mode by now. This time I was still 3 seconds below bronze in hardcore mode. You have to brake a lot for the first corner and practically crawl through the hairpin. Realistic, yet incompatible with all the tour races. The same goes for the special time trial levels. I had to switch back to normal mode to gain 10 seconds on my lap time and complete the trial. It would have been nice if those special levels were restricted to hardcore handling with correct times. Maybe for the next set.
Another change is the penalty for hitting walls is back to it's original setting. You really want to brake early, because hitting the wall will kill your speed and take your acceleration away for 5 seconds as when the game first came out. However you can use an AI car as bumper and still get away with murder. The tiny collision penalty isn't even a hindrance with the lower max speed in corners.
In spite of all that, I like it. I does feel like a different game, albeit a game without content made for it. Driving the Hennessy Venom in heavy rain on Sinclair pass is a real work out now. Still not as slippery as driving in heavy rain in Project cars, yet pretty close.
