Driveclub Smartphone Application Goes Live

Hot on the heels of last week’s new tour packs, Evolution Studios have finally pushed out their smartphone application to the masses with the official Driveclub app hitting iOS and Android storefronts yesterday afternoon. Initially promised for launch in October 2014, the app’s core functionality allows players to track in-game challenges they are currently competing in and accept recommended challenges from around the Driveclub community.

The interface is incredibly simple to use. By logging into PSN you will be greeted with the main screen of the application which shows a selection of challenge tabs at the bottom – Solo, Club, Community Solo, Community Club and Evolution. For each challenge on the tabs summary information is shown:

• Number of competitors
• Time remaining in challenge
• Type of Challenge
• Vehicle
• Track
• A seemingly random choice of competitor and their time. Will usually show a racer from your friends list if they are competing
• You can also accept a challenge from the main screen of the application

The interface is very well designed if not a bit simplistic. For those expecting some advanced functionality beyond basic challenge tracking it is noticeable from starting the application that they won’t find it here – slightly disappointing considering how long the application took to come out. The actual challenge screen is also a bit more primitive that some might expect:

A bit more detail for each challenge is elaborated detailing: time of day, precipitation, time lapse and cloud cover for the chosen challenge. Also included is a leaderboard showing a sample of the top 5 plus the time currently at the bottom of the leaderboard. Unfortunately this is another area where the application leaves a lot to be desired. There’s no way to view a leaderboard in its entirety so you are always limited to what you can actually look at time-wise. I understand that it may not be feasible to display hundreds of entries (like the community challenges attract) but even Top 50 would be a lot more useful than a simple show of the top 5 entries.

Another area that the application could be improved is by letting players set up challenges via the application. Data on what events players have recently partaken in is stored on the cloud so this functionality would be a great addition to make use of that. By doing this it would certainly streamline the processes for setting up a challenge series, and provide the application with a bit more interesting features. As a side-note, bringing in club and player statistics would also be welcome.

Overall, the Driveclub application currently feels a bit light weight but for what it is Evolution have put together a well made companion for the main game. If the main game is anything to go by, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see functionality added as time goes on: it would certainly help make the app worthwhile for fans of the game.

The challenge featured to show off the Driveclub application is part of Brend and Torque’s Weekly Challenge Series hosted right here on GTPlanet. We are always welcoming new racers to compete!

Thanks to Meanelf for the Thumbnail image.

See more articles on Driveclub and Mobile Apps.