![]() ![]() The poor conditions make it the kind of race that you’d expect to see towards the end of the game – or at least at some point in the middle once you’ve gotten used to the controls – and it’s damn near impossible unless you’ve mastered drifting.Note : Link Zippy only use with Jdownload2 The first series takes place on a muddy track of hairpin curves in the middle of a rainstorm. It throws you into your first race before letting you go to the menu screen (it ends about as well as you’d expect), and the free events fluctuate wildly in terms of difficulty. They’re also not nearly as intuitive, yet Driveclub assumes that you’re familiar with those conventions, making no effort to acclimatize new players to the level of competition they can expect. Anyone can hold down the gas pedal, but techniques like drifting and drafting are no less essential. However, it takes time to build to that level of expertise. The beauty of racing games is that while they’re conceptually simple – the first person to cross the finish line wins – they’re mechanically sophisticated and can offer deep gameplay experiences. It doesn’t help that the gameplay is equally unwelcoming. It’s like going to Costco and getting a free sample that you’re not allowed to eat until you’ve purchased the store’s entire supply of frozen Hot Pockets. You do all the work for no reward, leaving you with a bunch of stuff you’ve earned but can’t actually use. The first time you level up, the game delivers a car that’s locked until you upgrade your game. The PS Plus Edition lets players unlock some new cars, but it has none of the insidious stick-and-carrot elegance that makes free-to-play games so profitable. If anything, Driveclub now feels stuck somewhere between free-to-play and retail. The free version makes you feel like a second-class citizen, and while it’s technically a solid value, it’s not a game I have any desire to spend more time with. Someone took Driveclub and slapped arbitrary pay wall stickers over 95% of the content, regardless of where that content fits within the broader context of the game. But assuming that the PS Plus Edition is supposed to expand the paying customer base, why wouldn’t you at least try to make the game more accessible? It seems like no thought has been given to the way in which the game presents itself to new players. Players don’t have a right to free content and Sony can distribute its game as it sees fit. Sony is giving the game away for free and it doesn’t owe me or anyone else a damn thing. The result is one of the least welcoming demos I can remember, a gauntlet designed to drive casual players away, and I’m not in a hurry to spend money for that kind of experience. Instead, the content that Sony has made available feels like a sampling of what the game has to offer a hardcore audience. ![]() It would therefore make sense to tailor that demo to new and inexperienced players, maybe starting with a tutorial and giving players a few easier races to give them time to learn the ropes. A demo is supposed to entice those who are undecided. Most hardcore racing fans have either bought it already or have consciously given it a pass in favor of something else. I was never in the target audience for Driveclub, so of course I’m resistant to its charms. I’ll admit that some of my reticence is likely due to the fact that I don’t play many racing games. It’s a weirdly dissatisfying version of the full game that doesn’t make any effort to build interest in the full experience. ![]() And yet, after trying (and failing) to get into Driveclub, I feel confident saying that the PS Plus Edition is a complete and utter failure. It’s an old business model that can be effective. ![]()
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