Ben-DutkaMany would argue that 2014 is the year of disappointments.
Hugely anticipated games just haven't become critical darlings and every time a new effort comes out, it seems gamers find lower-than-expected review scores.
It happened with Watch Dogs and Destiny , two of the biggest games of the year that only registered in the 7s, on average. Now, in looking at the assortment of early Driveclub reviews, are we once again looking at another huge title that has fallen shy of lofty expectations?
According to Metacritic , the average review score for Evolution's new racer currently sits at only 72. That could change over time, of course, and we're seeing a wide discrepancy in the scores; everything from a 5 to a 9.5. Maybe it just depends on how any given reviewer interprets the product; some see it is somewhat bland and uninspired while others believe it faithfully captures the carefree essence of driving and racing.
It'll be interesting to see how the scores change over time, especially if critics revisit the title after more DLC. Maybe reviewers should start doing that for games that change significantly over time; I believe Destiny should be revisited in a year's time, don't you? Of course, Driveclub probably won't change so drastically, but you never know what the developers intend to do in the future…
Related Game(s): Driveclub
Because if we've learned anything from the past, it's that the industry doesn't really know what to look for in a racing game. Most racing games seem to have huge, sweeping ranges in scores.
This is a great point. I'd say racing games have the most varied review scores compared to other genres.
Personally, I think some of the fault lies in the reviewers. The game certainly wasn't different from one reviewer to the next and yet, there was a sweeping variance of scores. Destiny was similar in that regard recently.
Some things impact one person a ton while another might give that same thing a pass. Plus whatever preconceived expectations a person may have had coming into it.
I'd be interested in seeing the distribution graphed to see if there is a convergence around a certain score. Typically, the data points that fall way outside of the trend-line can be omitted as anomalies.
Last edited by SaiyanSenpai on 10/8/2014 1:19:31 AM
Nevermind, I graphed the frequency distribution from the 46 critic scores from Metacritic (I like data). It's not a perfect bell-shaped curve, but it's clear where the convergence is.
Edit: Underdog, I just realized when you mentioned the industry, you didn't mean the developers. Hence my quip about reviewers…in the industry…yeah. 🙂
Last edited by SaiyanSenpai on 10/8/2014 1:54:01 AM
They are not the authority in any game. I have caught flack many times for my criticism of GTA5 (on this site as well) because I thought the game was mediocre personally and Sleepy Dogs was better.
From what i have seen on the stream of Shadow of Mordor the game does not look all that good to me and neither does the Crew (Beta). The point I am making is that all of these are just opinions and you can not put a rating on a game.
No person anywhere plays a game and thinks "this is a 9.5 rated game" or "this is such a 7.5 rated game". The concept of reviews is flawed as there is no criteria for rating games.
No reviewer has a college degree in game reviewing. They are no more credible that myself or others.
Not even you Ben lol.
I respectfully disagree with that though, Darth. I do think with time, practice, and an ounce of integrity, there are plenty of measurables in games, and I do believe there are more than a handful of credible reviewers who do great jobs reviewing, analyzing, and giving fair and just scores to games. At the very least, there are some who can justify with quantifiable evidence as to why they scored things the way they have.
My observation is more in line with this particular genre. If I think of most any journalist friend I know (nevermind gaming journalism), none of them really own nice cars, if you know what I mean. I genuninely believe most game reviewers simply don't know what to look for in racing games. Not that there aren't measurable qualities… just that it feels like most don't really understand what they're looking at.
Of course there is some opinion attached to reviews, but there should be. I don't think it's a bad thing. The good ones are able to distinguish between opinion and fact and still make recommendations to the right people. Personally, if opinion was completely removed, I think we'd lose some of the artistic flare that should be present.
I completely agree, Underdog.
Thanks Sempai! I should add in Darth's defense, if you look at the list of reviewers at Metacritic on basically ANY game, it is full of people who aren't very good reviewers. So I can completely understand where he's coming from even if I don't agree.
no time to get driveclub, coz forza horizon 2 take all my time right now, great racing game this year (until GT 7 come out)…
Those scores in the 5.0's are beyond reason. It's not perfect, but seriously? I read one review from GamesRadar that said there was no race music in the game. Apparently the reviewer didn't bother to go in the settings and notice the race music is at 0% by default. But he didn't so that leaves his credibility at 0%.
What a moron. Seems like they don't even try anymore.
I think an appropriate rating for the game would be a 7.5 or 8 out of 10. It's technically stunning, there's a ton of content (about 55 tracks I believe), and the driving feels good. Not a sim, but not too arcadey.
The environments feel very organic, which is a refreshing change from the sterile environments and feeling of most sims.
My biggest problem (besides the rubber-banding AI) is that those darn servers aren't working so I can't get into the "club" part of Driveclub.
Last edited by SaiyanSenpai on 10/7/2014 10:51:23 PM
Is what i have been trying to say for months now, reveiwers cant be trusted not anymore..
You can't expect to trust reviewers all the time. It's in the eye of the beholder.
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 10/8/2014 12:59:42 PM
Big Boss, it'll help if you can learn to see value in what people say even when portions of what they say aren't in line with your own thoughts.
I've seen you comment here before. You're the type to cling onto one or two points in a review or article that you disagree with and write off the writer based on that morsel. Never have I seen you able to "eat the meat and spit out the bones", so to speak. You are very polarized in your "opinions". In other words, to you, it's either all bad or all good.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 10/8/2014 8:34:48 PM
You bring up an interesting point about DLC and future reviews of existing game. While I do agree the quality of a game can change (improve) over time thanks to DLC I prefer my games to stand on their own from the very beginning.
I think this game is being unfairly judged based on poor marketing, the delay, and incredibly high expectations.
I read the most hilarious review where the dude literally said "YAWN, its a racing game with pretty graphics. 5/10"
gamesomething was the website. I facepalmed pretty hard.
haha… he gets points for cuteness I guess…
Must have been the gamespot review?
Think it'll be a good game but with multiple delays a years worth lol n the fact there was to be a free and a paid version n now only the paid version truthfully I could care less about it or its developer
That means you do care… at least a little. *wordcrimes*
I played 15 min and I liked what I saw and how it felt.
I just wanted a graphical showcase arcade racer with lots of tracks and a good selection of cars and solid handling.
I have the gut feeling I'll end up liking it a lot. These days it seems expectations are all over the place, as it was for Destiny, so it's hard to really judge personal worth of a game from someone else's opinion anymore. There was a time a 5 or 6 meant really flawed with heavy problems across the board. I can't say that now anymore it would seem. Some gamers just feel totally opposed to even solid productions with solid mechanics.
I can always at least count on that if a game receives consistently high marks it's worth checking out at the least, but it seems anymore if a game scores low I cant so quickly rule it out. I've always known my favorite games weren't often the highest rated ones so this is just a reminder of that. Destiny was actually a very recent example of this. Hate to say it but TLoU is still sitting unfinished while I've logged around 45 hours into Destiny. TLoU is great and all but I just can't pull myself away from Destiny.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/7/2014 11:32:27 PM
I'm over about an hour in, around level 10 or 11, and I can say it feels solid. It reminds me of Project Gotham to some extent, without the urban city streets.
The graphic dynamics are outstanding. I don't think enough credit is given to games that really make you feel the presence of being in the game world in direct result of the graphics. Yes, graphics aren't everything but they're something special in Drive Club. it makes what feels like a good racer feel better and more immersive because of the added sense of presence. The game sort of stresses that lighting conditions can really change the way you have to focus on the track. Sometimes, like in real life, the sun can cause contrasting in such ways that it's hard to see the road. And finally, we have a racer that can do windshield effects right.
I'm bothered that the title should've been called Euro Drive Club. Having most of the cars euro only is disappointing. If the game made me more aware of that it wouldn't be so much a problem. Granted, most of the cars I'd want to drive would be European anyway, but I always like a good Ford GT in my collection and a solid Nisan or Honda in there as well.
Anyway, the campaign process feels like a ho-hum system of progression. I feel it's more or less training camp for getting you acclimated to the game and its tracks and cars before you really start locking in on a few for some optimal times. There's a spirit of racing in racing games that I don't feel every person recognizes. Racing games don't have to be about powering through race after race to collect car after car without paying much attention to optimizing the quality of your driving. I feel some racers set a bad precident by allowing you to earn tons of cash to overpower your car to smoke the competition. This method of progression doesn't make you a better racer. It just allows you to buy out the win. I don't sense this from Drive Club. I can sense Drive Club expects that you'll want to post great times and try to beat those times and compete with others to defend your position. It's the core reason why I race in a racing game. I'd imagine it is for most people who like racing for the racing.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/8/2014 2:22:00 AM
Destiny over Tlou!!
I think we have ourselves a BLASPHEMER!!!!!
^Haha, it's games, everybody has their personal preference.
I know what you mean Temjin. Although all my initial hype has faded and I'm not going crazy about the game any more, I still can't put it down either.
There's just something about the game that makes you come back. My friends and I have tried and failed the Nightfall Strike two nights in a row now, and I'm currently planning our strategy for the third attempt! 😉
We are only 27 with no Exotics and barely any Legendary Weapons, so we are up against it! I'm excited for Xur's visit this weekend too!
It's still a blast to play, tonnes of fun.
the game still stands as the most popular game in my social circle by FAR. About 10 people I know have bought a PS4 just to play Destiny, and most of them are not really gamers at all.
Last edited by Akuma_ on 10/9/2014 8:26:16 PM
I think most of the reviews for drive club are lacki validity. I'm NOT saying this game deserves 9s. Don't get me wrong, so please read what I have to say before you jump to conclusions.
There have been valid points made regarding the gameplay. Weird AI behavior, handling/physics that are too forgiving, and a lack of inspiring features. There are those complaining about the penalty system and the AI behavior. Those are the main complaints I'm finding in valid reviews.
What's not valid? Well, the lack of incorporated features (rewind, more tuning, it's not open world) are wild tantrums of nagging that aren't objective. The game ISN'T nor was it EVER open world. That's a subjective matter that deals more so with what you wished it had. The complaints are coming from left field. The lack of performance upgrades? Again, this doesn't quite fit the review model being that it's not something the developer WANTED to incorporate. Complaining that the colors are lacking ADD-friendly palettes doesn't seem to fit in the overall graphical realism that Evolution was aiming to capture.
Personally, I don't buy a product and complain about features it's lacking knowing Damn well that they weren't offered to begin with. So, why are all of these reviews so shoddy? I don't know, man. Seems most are bored with the idea of racing in a linear manner. That doesn't make the game bad. That simply implies that you don't like that kind of a racer… Which, in turn, increases the likelihood that you can't objectively review a racing game.
I've yet to try it, so I'll reserve my opinion on it. Just think it's stupid that some of these reviews sound like whiny kids who are out to make mountains out of mole hills. Gamespot's review was like a 8 year old bitching about superficial things that aren't relevant to the game itself. If you're reviewing a game, all of the information leading up to it should be understood before you review it. After all, that's what EXCITED us about it this long. Not some bucket list of crap that you wish they stole from other games to create a smorgasbord that you've been dreaming about.
In the end, the game ultimately seems like it isn't the greatest it can be. Evolution should be able to address some of the complaints quite easily, including the penalty system. Another easily remedied issue is the AI behavior.
… And, yes, the game deserves to be revisited once it's updated.
Yup, a lot of people reviewing Driveclub against a standard it was never trying to meet. I've only played a little, but anything less than 7/10 is trolling – imo it's an 8-8.5/10 on the strength of the gameplay offline, with the potential for higher if the online social stuff goes well (and we can't judge that until they fix the servers).
What saddens me is that all these games that cant seem to average at least an 8/190 ALL got delayed (watch dogs, destiny, driveclub) so the devs could give us a "better product" and after all that extra waiting this is the scores we're seeing? Im afraid of what we woulda got without the delays then
Didn't really notice that unt now. Well said.
There's a perfectly good reason for that.
No matter how you slice it, delays raise expectations. People assume the game will be even better after that.
What saddens me, is that the games getting mediocre scores this year, are the ones who easily had the most amount of hype and expectation from gamers. Reviewers are not immune to this, they feel disappointment just as much as we do, and that is often reflected in a review.
I've said it for a long time, reviews are opinion pieces.
Of course it failed to meet expectation , was supposed to be to some extent a f2p launch title .
I could nt care less for it almost a year later .
i thought the question was going to be where is the ps plus version of drive club.
huge anticipated game? i could ask 100 people on the streets or at college if they heard of this game and ill bet majority of them will think its a name for a new club.
all these wannabe racing games trying to take on nfs and gt. not gonna happen. you will fail at having people race each other online or whatever gimmick youre selling. 99% of them will rage quit.
i rented this game just to prove points. itll arrive tom or thur. i may come back to post input.
i havent commented in a long time but still check for my playstation gaming news daily.
Anywho, I preordered this game with some expectations. One expectation was local multiplayer. Honestly, if i'd researched it before hand, i would have realized it lacked this feature. The issues i have with the game as of now is the sparatic ai and the collision punishment system (the idea is great, its just not implemented well). Other than that, its a very polished arcadey-sim racer. I love that its point to point and closed circuits. I should mention im not really into racers but this game has me pretty addicted. Id personally give it a solid 8
Ive seen ratings as low as 2.5 ane i feel that its not just that expectations were high (and damn near unreasonable), but its one of the few ps4 only titles. Think about it, just because of that fact, it will garner a lot of hate.
I feel lioe watch dogs was great and didnt warrant the hate either Its actually my favorite next gen title The online and single player events work seamlessly
As far as Destiny, i didnt give it much of a try and traded it in after realizing it didnt have much of a story I was hoping on something close to Halo or even Marathon level in storytelling and i was pretty disappointed
Well, gonna get a pre-ordered copy later so… can I join anybody's club yet? xD
add me on PSN: ilovebread
… also a level 26 Warlock looking for some Strike action (no time for VoG raid yet, I hear that's some few hours of your life..)
Sometimes, I just don't care much about review scores anymore. As long as I'm enjoying the games I buy, I'm okay with that.
nah, its just a title which was labled the forza killer, and overhyped to the proportions of becoming the new titanfall!
and has ended up falling well below expectations like, well, you get the story by now.
nah, how could that possibly be misconstrued as failing to meet expectations?
oh well i wont say i told you so, oh wait i will.
knew this was going to suck since the date it was announced!
if $onys really serious about a open world racer, something to compete with forza horizon, they really need to put PD on it.
You are an idiot. Only vg247 labeled it a forza killer. Have you actually played it instead of going by some reviewers? No? So please get your fanboyish ways elsewhere.
Who labeled it a Forza killer? I have not heard that anywhere.
He's talking about the marketing trailer that was put together with vg247's quote included I assume.
So… "everyone"?
It definitely fell below my expectations but it's still a solid game. My problem is expecting Driveclub to incorporate many of today's racer features, when in reality it's trying to be its own. Yes, it's super linear, has no tuning, and certainly not open world, but they were never in the agenda in the first place.
My big gripes however is that the game has flaws that should'nt have been a big problem or present. A.I are overly aggressive and dirty imo. This is a game that emphasizes clean racing yet you have opponents that are not so clean and often ram you only for you to be the one deducted in points even if not at fault. It doesn't even have replay for you to enjoy n save. It doesn't even have photo mode. For a game that stresses visuals and car passion, it's kind surprising not to have it.
As for what it's trying to achieve in terms of execution I believe it has done well. Leaderboards and competitive nature really brings the game to life. Most importantly the cars drive great. Like GT, racing line and braking point actually do matter while being forgiven by a more arcade side to that of NFS. On top of that the cars really do sound great and the atmosphere of the tracks really felt unique and engaging.
Other than that, I hope Evolution studios can learn from some of the valid negatives, and step up. If you're not gong to be open world then the game needs to shine in everything that's present. Right now it just seems like graphics and physics and not much else.
is your game displaying it's picture to your tv completely? I have a black border around my game screen, making my TV feel smaller than it is.
I just had to comment on this, specially because I understand racing games more than most people. What those xbox fanboy sites don't understand is that the racing genre isn't about revolutionizing anything.
You can't all of a sudden change the way cars drive. A lot of racing games reviewers will repeat the same "there's nothing new here" line but tell me, can you change the feel of any other sport? Baseball, football, basketball?
These are sports cars which will feel, drive, and handle like sports cars. You want something new? Go play a fantasy game.
Sports games are and should be appreciated for its different racing locations, events, cars (models), game modes, and community (if it has one).
Reviews are just numbers these days. The best reviews come without numbers imo (for any game, movie, whatever else).
Last edited by Scarecrow on 10/8/2014 10:06:51 AM
reviews are pointless and useless. it gives a sugar coating of what you may or may not believe in.
this game is turning into a bigger mess as the free ps+ version wont connect to servers. garbage from day zero.
hey guys! were gonna give u a glimpse of how this game looks and plays if ur a ps+ member so u can buy the real game after. BUT, dont expect to play it or go onto our servers until, i dunno until we fix something something maintenance.
yeah, great start. even the "demo" doesnt work
This is an on going thing that I've been noticing for a very long time now. That most reviews are opinion now. When a review contains information about how a game should have been open world as opposed to it being more linear, I'm sorry it shouldn't get scored lower. That isn't what the game is so to push an opinion and make it weigh heavily isn't reviewing.
This is exactly why I might check out scores, but not invest my time to read many reviews – some I do, mainly from this site. But if a game interests me I typically buy it and I've never been let down by this approach.
This was the same instance that happened with Knack. In fact the score spread is similar but rather than give the benefit of the doubt most people just considered the less than anticipated score a failure. It's happened with a lot of games recently and to be honest if there's no bias or opinion involved the scores should be a lot closer than the spreads we are seeing. I mean from 4 ' – 9.5's! Come on!
That really says a lot about the game sites and how half or more than half of them are not credible in any way.
Too bad there isn't a place to expose their crap for all to see.
This is why game companies need to focus all their energy on making more and lenthier demos, so that game review sites become more meaningless than they already are.
I agree on the demo part. A lot of developers still rely on reviews to sell their games. I say put out a lengthy demo, no too long of course, and let the game speak for itself. The way the industry is today most anyone with Internet could try it out. And I'd be willing to bet it would start to change the review process.
Right now it seems like anyone can review a game and get their site on Metacritic. I research a lot of gaming news and there's still websites I see pop up on Metacritic I've never heard of. That says a lot about reviews. And even if they are not credible their score is still accounted for and used for instance in an article like this one we are commenting on. It's quite the issue.
I agree. This is why I tend to read a lot of user reviews as well. Not to base my investment on reviews still, but more of to quickly see the general (honest) consensus. I also tend to trust a few sites like PSX Extreme on most of the journalistic angle on reviews.
Yay for KNACK!!!! I enjoyed that game quite a bit, and did the same thing you did. I bought it because it looked interesting.