I decided to get the game finally 40mins before the end of the pstore sale.🤣
At 1st, i was disappointed with the handling when dropping aids off, not that much difference it seemed.
The starting part with that prototype car, and audi touring type car, then one of the 1st career events with the small ginetta.
I almost uninstalled and felt i just wasted some money.
Im using gamepad for now, ds5 on ps5, very smooth controls.
I then tried the career beetle events, and switched to cockpit and dash views, better feel, and sound, and it got interesting when pushing it to the limit.
You can feel there is a good engine under this game, its surely from dr2 game engine, same cockpit views, replays, sounds etc.
You can definitely have a nice feel at the limits, albeit made to be easy with a gamepad, but you have room for mastering handling still, and can get in trouble, lose time, even lose it on curbs, in hits, under braking weight transfer veering the car to one side, etc.
Each car is different for now too.
Sounds are pretty damn cool, tried the old Porsches, race beetle inside views.
Ai is fun, they race pretty well really, in curves too, i thought they'd just have a speed advantage on straights but it's pretty well done and fair, and not a problem much for now, if you run cleanly.
But they seem pretty hard to destabilize, you need give them a good shove at the right time.
If you piss one off, you can try be fast enough so it can't reach you for revenge, and they dont seem to cheat much for now.
Im not using upgrades for now.
I tried both ps4 and ps5 versions on ps5, ps4 version runs and looks just about same, and i even prefer the ps4 version, less weird balance of sounds and trigger effects.
Maybe even better vibrations effect.
Ps4 version on ps5 looks, runs great, perfect, even full grid replays.
There's replays of time trials even.
Replays are super, clean, smooth, good lighting, dust, effects with slow-mo etc.
Nice photo mode too. Roadside buildings detail and cars look super, and you can set the sun time of day, looks cool, different effects, etc.
You can run up to 99 laps races in custom mode, cool.
The coms guy can give you updates on the race, etc.
I thought you could set up custom tracks more though, seems it's add jumps, boosts, weather, etc. No layout changes or custom placement of obstacles.
Tried time trial in custom race creator, ai seems a good challenge on max, some tracks or cars more than others.
Also shame it seems you can't set up more than 4 events?
And save them if you set-up a new series?
Weird setup a little for custom events, but its nice that you can set any car in them you want, and a few different types of races, team races, with ai partner.
Career looks pretty substantial, and you can make races in it longer with a lap multiplier, 2x up to 5x, so the short 3 lap races can be 15 laps etc.
Looking forward to try more cars, tracks, tracks are cool and nice, challenges in career, maybe try with my wheel, many say wheel implementation is great so..
Would be more immersive and fine control, i just worry it will lessen the challenge of handling there is.
Happy for now, was cheap, 90% off.
Edit: also damage is done well enough, can affect handling a lot, etc.
I also like the drafting effect, not too crazy exaggerated from too far etc, but effective closer you get, and gives you just enough time to swerve to pass with a good boost of speed, makes it thrilling enough to try use well.
Edit2: not sure but, it seems maybe some rare times there's a bug on timing of ai displayed after a race.
One ai was behind me on head to head lap times, near the end, then it crashed and i crashed into it, turning into my nemesis, but of course it messed that lap for it, having crashed.
That was the last lap or just about, and at the end, that ai had a time about 5 secs faster than any other ai or me suddenly..
Other ai times were pretty close together and made sense, so it looks like that last ai time is screwed up. I dont know..