Now, you're up against XxXRacer69 or Xbox4Life420. No longer are you competing against anonymous artificial intelligence, recognisable only by the model of car they're using. Even playing offline, you're this character who is going everywhere, trying everything – Forza Horizon 2 sees you cruising the streets of Italy in a Porsche, stopping to change into a Lamborghini, then cruising the streets of France.ĭriveClub: developers on this game seem to sincerely believe that playing with others is more fun, more fulfilling Sonyīut of course, those share buttons, social networks, and online multiplayer modes are the real meat of this new type of racer. The idea of racing games now is to spread yourself across different cars and places. That's the philosophy of sharing as represented by gameplay. Ubisoft's upcoming The Crew, for example, will take place across the entire United States. With convenience, you can get out there, and race many different cars against many different opponents across many different locations. You're encouraged not to isolate yourself in one, highly personal vehicle, but to share in this broad world of cars that the developers have made.
Similarly, DriveClub awards you a new motor, for free, after basically every event. Forza Horizon 2 chucks you enough in-game credits per race that you can go buy a Ferrari after about one hour of play. Now, players are encouraged to continually switch cars.
Ten years ago the crux of a racing simulation was customisation – in Gran Turismo and Need for Speed: Underground, the idea was to buy a car, modify it, improve it, then race it over and over to earn more money to buy more upgrades. Racing games, particularly DriveClub by Evolution Studios, are the subjects of this new wave. "It's better," we're told "to play together." Now that local multiplayer is dead, because publishers can make more money from online gaming, since it forces friends to buy two copies of the game rather than one, share culture has exploded.
This is why we have Twitch, YouTube, and the PS4 "Share" button. DriveClub: You're encouraged not to isolate yourself in one, highly personal vehicle, but to share in this broad world of cars that the developers have made SonyĪ lot of games today labour under the misconception that every moment of play, every in-game anecdote or amusing event, is worth sharing.