It’s happened to us all, be it in Gran Turismo 6 or Driving Emotion Type-S (anybody?). You’re racing, racing, racing. Minding your own business, being in first or second place and you’ve got only two laps to go or heck, maybe just one. Then a crash happens and you’re tossed all the way in the back of the line and the last 10 minutes of racing just counted for nothing. During such times, controllers have been broken, relationships damaged, and that feeling of disgust that you get to do it all over again. Luckily for gamers, DriveClub will be different. According to Paul Rustchynsky, Game Director on the upcoming PS4 exclusive:

 I play a lot of racing games and I’m a pretty good driver, but I’m not always the guy who’s in first place. I like to have fun and take risks, rather than obsess about perfecting every single corner. The problem for drivers like me, and I think we’re in the majority, is that racing becomes too intense and intimidating when it’s all about winning.

It’s demoralizing when you make a mistake and it costs you the race. With DriveClub we challenged ourselves to design a better game that deals with this aspect of racing. What we’ve come up with is a racer that constantly gives you new goals to aim for, whether you’re way out in front of the pack or find yourself spinning out of control because you pushed your car a little too far. 

So how will DriveClub be different? He explains.

 In so many racing games there’s that ‘all or nothing’ mentality. One moment you’re in first place, and then suddenly you crash and you’ve lost everything. The preceding few minutes of superb driving count for nothing.

With DriveClub, if you’re racing online and you make a mistake it’s not game over. You don’t lose everything and you’ve still got dynamic Face-offs to keep playing for. 

This means that DriveClub still rewards gamers who decide to stick around and finish a race. While they obviously won’t receive the full rewards that are unlocked by finishing in first place, they can still gather points and progress in the game.

DriveClub will be downloadable on October 7th, exclusively on the PS4.

Discuss:

Do you think rewarding those who still finish the race is a good decision or does it cheapen the experience?