Since its 2013 E3 showing , Evolution Studio’s Driveclub has too often hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. First, its high-profile delay forced it to miss its intended launch alongside the PS4’s arrival and then the logistics of its PS Plus Edition were heavily criticised, prompting Sony to double-back on its original plan

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Happily, things have now settled and confirmed dates of October 7 (US) and October 10 (UK) have been locked-in for launch by the Cheshire-based developer. This meant that during a recent visit to Evolution Studios I was able to focus on what’s happening inside of the game rather than the furore surrounding it.A blast through a handful of tracks reveals the handling model to be geared towards arcade accessibility rather than strict sim-style complexity. While the car attributes and physics are based on their real life counterparts, some aspects – such as braking – are deliberately designed to be more forgiving in a bid to keep the driving on the right side of the fun/challenging divide.However, the most immediately striking element of Driveclub is not its roster of 50 cars but instead the environments through which you’ll drive them. India, Canada, Chile, Norway and Scotland provide a range of expansive vistas and varied landscapes, from tracks overlooking Chile’s salt flats high above sea level to the glacial backdrops of Norway’s snowy roads. Weather conditions can be set for each location, ranging from stormy to clear, along with time of day and the passage of time can be set up to 60 times the normal rate.The manner in which the world is seeded means that cloud formations occur dynamically to affect the light dispersal and visibility conditions of any given track. As such, even if you race again at the same time of day and with the same weather and time lapse settings, you’ll see a different set of conditions. It’s difficult to assess just how much this might affect game play but imagine cresting a hill or emerging from a tunnel just as the sun breaks from behind a cloud to dazzle you and later replaying the track only to find that the cloud is that bit denser or slightly slower in tracing its way across the sky and so the sun remains obscured.It’s small details such as this that permeate Driveclub and while it’s a shame that more severe weather conditions such as driving rain or blowing snow won’t make an appearance, this potential for instances of uniqueness should contribute to a feeling of dynamism across the 11 tracks that make up each country’s roster.In a bid to level the playing field when it comes to time trials and Driveclub’s asynchronous competitive multiplayer challenges the game keeps track of all of your past races, preserving their digital DNA and allowing you to issue that level as a challenge to other drivers in the precise same conditions that you experienced. It’s here, along with the familiar online live multiplayer races, that Driveclub’s social features are surfaced. Joining a club with up to five other people enables you to issue challenges to your team mates, to other drivers or clubs, or to browse the challenges that your friends are taking part in and jump in to them. It’s in this way that Evolution hopes to keep people coming back to the game and to have the dynamic menu’s activity feed present you with context sensitive data from other players and clubs, rather than forcing you to go looking for it.“The social elements that we have in Driveclub are primarily there to keep the game alive and fresh and new,” explains game director, Paul “Rushy” Rustchynsky. “I think that's the key behind our social side, but there's also another layer of attracting people to the racing genre who traditionally don't play it. Making those connections with friends and also having the PlayStation Plus Edition as an entry point allows them to see what it's about.”In order to further this sense of inclusivity, Driveclub features male and female avatars and a range of view options, including bumper-cam, cockpit view and above-the-car-third-person. Furthermore, Driveclub’s Fame points system is designed to reward everything you do, from standard driving techniques like drafting and drifting to setting competitive scores by completing the mini challenges threaded throughout courses. These revolve around the keeping a perfect racing line through a short stretch of track or maintaining a higher average speed than other racers.The Fame points collected for doing so contribute to both your personal driver level as well as counting towards your overall club level. To promote the benefits of club membership, certain rewards will be attributed to club progress and so while you’ll unlock the vast majority of cars by your own personal progression, you’ll also be rewarded with five cars as you and your teammates progress your club from levels one to fifty.“Originally we tried a 50/50 split, with 25 cars for player progression and 25 for club progression but that felt like that if you went away and came back then other drivers in your club might have unlocked that content for you and robbed you of the sense of reward,” says Rustchynsky.Driveclub looks to be built around endorsing this feeling of positive reinforcement and the thrill of competing against other players either asynchronously or head to head. A companion mobile app coming for iOS and Android devices will enable you to keep track of how your friends and rivals are progressing when you’re away from the game, while the ability to view telemetry data and live streams on your mobile or tablet will allow you to gain insight into how your seemingly unbeatable time was just smashed so comprehensively.If there’s a concern at this point it’s that despite the breadth and depth of the courses and tweakable conditions, new modes may be needed in the mid to long-term to stop the race, time trial and drift trio becoming stale after extended play. In addition, the dynamic menu about which so much has been made and that apparently stands as the reason the game was delayed feels somewhat sterile, with its panel-based layout doing little to convey the personality of the clubs or drivers; more extensive profile customisation –such as that seen in the myriad track options and car livery choices – would be beneficial. However, Driveclub is shaping up as a varied racer with some dramatic landscapes and multiple ways to engage with friends and so we’ll look forward to October when we’ll find out whether its finished form justifies that lengthy delay.