So I Tried…DRIVECLUB: PlayStation Plus Edition

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never tried before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for the PS4 version of DRIVECLUB: PlayStation Plus Edition.

What I thought it was

Announced about the same time as the rest of the recent big driving titles, it is obviously one of that lot. Though it obviously isn’t Project CARS, it does boast similar title capitalisation issues. And it isn’t The Crew, because that’s the open world social one that I was actually interested in playing at one point, because that came out last year. And as my wife stole the joypad off of me and did the first race absolutely terribly, it showed that this is a game about racing in the worst possible road conditions.

The damage looks lovely...

What it actually is

As I said, it’s a game about crashing into things. I don’t play many racing games -- in fact most of the racing games I’ve played have been for So I Tried…, so please take my opinion with a grain of salt. DRIVECLUB features a series of events, such as time trials, normal races and ‘Do you even drift, bro?’. There are more, I’m sure, but I wasn’t able to select them. By earning a certain amount of medals, which requires you do things like win a race in the top three, drift a certain amount, break your own speed record… In my half an hour I couldn’t get the eight required for the next rank.

The cars damage nicely, and it all looks very pretty as it zooms past… But if you zoom too much, you smash into walls or spin out. The first race, which begins before you even see a menu screen, takes place on a snowy mountain where it literally snows harder as you progress into the four minute race. The races from there don’t get much easier to handle with rain and dirt across almost every track. I get that this is supposed to be a racing club, however, starting the game with one of the hardest possible tracks? And expecting players to complete at least eight of the objectives to do more than give events?

Splatter looks good too...

Will I keep playing

Hell no. If you want proof of how much I suck, this video was taken after 20 minutes with the game. I tried going slow, I tried braking, slowing down, following the cars in front… I always wound up spinning and needing to hit the touchpad to be put back on the track. Racing around the streets in Need for Speed Most Wanted -- I’m fine with. Racing across the map in GTA V or Just Cause 2 -- perfectly acceptable. But no, DRIVECLUB, you’re taking up 20GB far too much.

The result of playing pinball with a racing car...