So I like to test out each new racing game that comes out on PC or consoles. I own both a PS4 and a very nice PC and have even demoed this on an Xbox One. Let's get this out of the way: the game does not quite live up to the hype that people tried to stuff down it's throat. I have had this on PC for a long while now and I really was never into it past the first couple of tries when the graphics were new, but I was willing to give it a chance. I still am.... it's not a bad game, but you can tell it's made on a budget.
First a crowdfunded project, and now releasing for the major consoles, this game is honestly not quite a full sim but pretty far from arcadey games. The track selection is decent but lacking the accuracy of the big titles. To be expected as this is from a smaller developer. Still, it is a 60 dollar product with a lot of courses and a decent selection of cars. Some of the course are not as accurate as GT or Forza 5 and some of them they don't even have the rights to make realistic.
I have only briefly tried wheel support. I should probably not comment on it myself. From those with much more knowledge on PC and console it is lacking in some ways. The features are buggy. The game itself is pretty buggy. If you came into this expecting Driveclub-like visuals, all slick and patched up now, at 60FPS well you have another thing coming my friend. Even on PC this comes nowhere near the dynamic lighting and lively foliage of DC.
On console the IQ is worse, the temporal AA on the PS4 version only is awful--they are looking into it--and the framerate is all over the map from 20-60FPS in large races with rain, while mostly keeping 50-60FPS in dry weather. Sacrifices were made to keep this running well visually but it still looks pretty decent on consoles. The IQ is buffed up on PC quite a bit. The Xbox One version is pretty bad at 900p, yet strangely enough does not have the temporal AA filter and is better off for it. Too bad about that framerate though.
The screen tearing on consoles is pretty bad at times. Word of warning: if you do not like tearing you need to get this on PC or avoid any large races, especially in the rain.
As for gameplay I find myself nodding to sleep at times and others it is very fun. I don't have a 500 dollar wheel and on controller this game is just not doing it for me all the time. I guess I am more a casual fan of racers, but this certainly does not come off as a total sim to me. I don't find the realism to be here in the claimed 'most realistic physics' slogans. Even on my PC the game looks very gamey despite Ultra settings, and it has some problems, or glitches I think with the physics on some of the cars that seem less refined then the ones they clearly concentrated on making realistic.
At any rate it seems no better than GT6 to me in the physics department and certainly a decent pace behind Assetto Corsa on PC. Again, that is the main problem with this game; I'm not sure who it is being advertised to besides the main backers and possibly their friends. It neither has the simulation of AC nor the ridiculous graphics and high-speed fun of Driveclub. I for one prefer the cars in DC to these, but that is all up for debate. There is a pretty good selection here, but it's honestly very lacking in high-end cars and American/Japanese cars.
If it wasn't so buggy I might give it 4 stars. But to me it is not that fun because of the lack of polish. It's simple. I can wait for better games to come along. Driveclub is basically all I need on consoles. It never drops frames at 30FPS solid. This game is just too all over the place for me to enjoy it maxmimally atm, and the temporal AA is horrible on PS4 for no reason--get it out or give us an option to tune it--creating a nasty ghosting effect that on large televisions is very annoying. On PC this game is better and I can run it very well at mostly ultra settings, but I see no reason why I or anyone should spend a full 60 on it unless you are dying for a decent sim.
The nice thing about this game is that you can race 30-40 cars. The bad thing is that on consoles the framerate just tanks itself on these races. And hell I don't really need to be racing that many cars, but I just don't see any reason why any casual fan would buy this. For the sim crowd it is a good possibility you will want to wait for it to get patched up. I tried to be fair here even though I'm not really digging the game all that much.
