Join the DriveClub

I got the DriveClub platinum, and frankly it's a bit of a surprise, because I hated DriveClub for a long time. I hear you ask, why did you buy it if you hated it, and how did you end up with a platinum trophy for it?

The honest answer is that I ended up with DriveClub because it was that or Destiny when some cheap PS4 bundles came up earlier in the year. I figured that despite the middling reviews, I'd probably enjoy it more than a multiplayer focussed FPS that I had zero interest in. That was the idea anyway. I played the first leg of the tour mode, and wasn't impressed. Driveclub felt bland. To my eye, it looked constantly washed out and flat, barely any better than WRC 4 on the PS2 (still Evolution Studios' high point). I adjusted my TV's settings to no avail. Of course, I'm not one to dismiss a game on it's looks, but it played pretty badly too. The drift model was utterly terrible for a start, but as I played, I encountered overly aggressive AI and random difficulty spikes. I put the game down, and downloaded Oddworld: New n Tasty, Hotline Miami, and Hohokum so that I could play something fun on my expensive new console.

Something kept pulling me back to DriveClub though. It was a game that I really wanted to enjoy, but I'd end up quitting after an hour and staying away for a few weeks. It was like the game was actively trying to make me hate it. Let's put it this way, I was glad that it was a pack-in and that I hadn't paid for it.

If ever there was an advert against releasing an unfinished game, DriveClub is it. Conversely, if ever there was an advert for constant patching and expansion of a game, DriveClub, weirdly, is also it.

Every time a new patch came down, I'd try the game again. Surprisingly, DriveClub got better with every one. It was barely noticeable at first, but the turning point for me came when the drift model was tweaked. Suddenly I was able to carve long, graceful, tire-smoking arcs through the Drift events that had given me so much trouble in the early days. DriveClub was beginning to become enjoyable. Then came the changes to the amount of friction the off track areas had, meaning that a slight mistake no longer meant an instant spin and a restart. I played a little further through the tour until I stopped enjoying it again. The game really got it's claws into me after the release of the patch coinciding with the Unite in Speed DLC pack. Somehow most of my grievances about the game had been polished away, and I devoured the remainder of the on-disc content, getting all of the tour stars in the process. The game still looked pretty boring though.

Once the tour was finished, I was happy with what DriveClub had become and the time I had spent with it. I thought I was done. Then I looked at the trophy list. I was six trophies away from the platinum.

Bugger.

I used my Fiance's profile to get the challenge trophies, but there was no way I was getting the progression trophies without spending more hours playing the game, which was something I was unwilling to do.

Then something amazing (or terrible) happened. The price of the season pass dropped to a tenner. Now, I've always been against DLC for the most part. Especially if it's announced before the release of the game. If you're announcing DLC before its parent game is out, there's no reason why it can't be in the game on release. But that's a rant for another time. With my judgement clouded by the desire for the platinum trophy, I counted up the events in the DLC tours and realised that there was more content in the DLC than in the actual game. I was effectively getting a whole extra game for a tenner. And I hadn't technically paid for the main game. I hit the buy button.

Playing the DLC, there was no doubt in my mind that a lot of it should have been in the game on release. Particularly the dynamic weather. And if Evolution had another 12 months to finish making the game, it probably would have been. But the expanded content bought DriveClub to life. The loose themes of each tour pack gave the game the personality it so desperately needed and the weather turned a bland looking world into one that is simply gorgeous.

Run a race at dawn in the rain. Watch the world turn gold as the sun comes up. Watch the light stream through the trees and reflect off the puddles. Look at the rainbow over the castle. You won't find anything in gaming much prettier than that at the moment. I'm painting with broad strokes there. The little details really sell it. Headlights from the following cars reflect in rear view mirrors. Water streams across your windscreen as you change direction. Brake lights refract through the water on the lens of the chase cam. Every light you can think of reflects off the road. Spray kicks up as you hit standing water. The world turns momentarily blue when night-time lightning strikes. Light snow touches the bodywork of your car and melts.

What I'm trying to say is that DriveClub has become a joy to look at as well as a joy to play. I spent weeks playing through all the new stuff, and at the end of it all I was only a short grind away from the platinum. This is exactly the kind of trophy hunting I like. Trophies gained by playing through everything the game has to offer, rather than arbitrary tasks that you'd never do in the course of normal gameplay.

With the short grind done (only an hour), and my platinum in the collection, I was done. Over the course of the year, and thanks to many patches, DriveClub has metamorphosed from a game that was at best mediocre into an excellent one that I would recommend to any racing game fan. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's the sequel to Project Gotham 4 that we never got. It's that good. So try it. Pick it up on the cheap, get the season pass and you have hours of fun on twenty-five quid, and a fairly straightforward platinum to boot.

The only problem for me now is that Evolution went and added motorbikes just days after I thought I was finished with DriveClub. There's some seriously exotic metal in there that really scratches my biker itch. There's a fresh platinum too.

Here we go again.