LeVar Burton Wants to Bring "Reading Rainbow" to Xbox and PlayStation

Actor LeVar Burton wants to bring his upcoming Reading Rainbow project to a host of new platforms, including gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation systems. For that to happen, though, funding for the Star Trek actor's newly launched Kickstarter campaign needs to reach $5 million.

Right now, the campaign stands at $2.8 million from more than 64,000 backers. "Let's do this, ya'll. I'll see you later. But you don't have to take my word for it," Burton said in a Kickstarter video updatetoday. The campaign ends on Wednesday, July 2.

Burton's new Reading Rainbow project was originally announced as a web application only, but after considering comments and suggestions, it was decided that to be "accessible to more kids and families," the initiative would also need to expand to new platforms.

In addition to the unspecified Xbox and PlayStation consoles, if the $5 million stretch goal is met, the new Reading Rainbow program will be released for mobile devices, as well as over-the-top boxes like AppleTV, Roku, and Kindle Fire TV.

Burton's overall ambition for his new Reading Rainbow initiative is to bring the program to "every child, everywhere." The service will include an "unlimited library" of books and video field trips for "today's digitally connected kids." He's calling on people who grew up withReading Rainbow to help fund the new Kickstarter to support the children of the next generation.

Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2009. It originally aired on PBS and Burton was its host and producer.

Watch Dogs PC Patch On the Way as Nvidia and AMD Quarrel

Uplay issues aside, there have been numerous reports regarding performance issues with the PC version of Watch Dogs, particularly from users with AMD hardware. Fortunately, a patch is in the works that should improve things--but in the meantime, it's sparked a heated discussion between graphics card makers AMD and Nvidia.

Watch Dogs graphics technical director Sebastien Viard has sent out a series of tweets briefly explaining what could be causing the performance issues and offering recommendations for dealing with them. "Watch Dogs can use 3+ GB of RAM on [next-gen] consoles for graphics, your PC GPU needs enough VRAM for ultra options due to the lack of unified mem[ory]," he wrote in one tweet. For those with problems, he suggested, "If you experience lag/stutter on a fast PC, try to lower one of those settings to reduce the GPU VRAM usage: texture quality, AA, resolution."

"Making an open world run on [next-gen] & [current-gen] consoles + supporting PC is an incredibly complex task, the team did a fantastic job. Congrats guys!" he continued, beforerevealing work is underway on a patch: "[O]ur PC prog[rammer]s are also currently working on a patch to improve your experience thanks to your reports, stay tuned."

Watch Dogs quickly became the fastest-selling game in publisher Ubisoft's history when it was released this week, although the game's launch was mired for many because of myriad technical issues. Some players had trouble downloading their preorders from the PlayStation Store, while others were unable to log in to Uplay (which on PC meant locking them out of the game altogether). The Uplay issues even extended to games other than Watch Dogs, affecting titles like Trials Fusion and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

The game's performance issues on PC caused AMD to speak out this week, as the company took aim at Nvidia's GameWorks, a toolset developers can use when building their games (Watch Dogs being one such game).

"Gameworks represents a clear and present threat to gamers by deliberately crippling performance on AMD products (40% of the market) to widen the margin in favor of NVIDIA products," AMD's Robert Hallock told Forbes. "Participation in the Gameworks program often precludes the developer from accepting AMD suggestions that would improve performance directly in the game code--the most desirable form of optimization."

Hallock went on to claim Nvidia had stopped publicly sharing Direct3D code samples on its website, stating AMD takes an opposite approach when working with developers. "Our work with game developers is founded concretely in open, sharable code, all of which we make available on our developer portal," he said.

Specifically regarding Watch Dogs, Hallock said AMD had "very limited time with the title and [we've] been able to implement some respectable performance improvements thanks to the skill of our driver engineers. Careful performance analysis with a variety of internal tools have allowed us to profile this title, despite deliberate obfuscation attempts, to improve the experience for users."

Nvidia has responded to AMD's allegations, denying much of what it had to say. Speaking with Forbes, Nvidia's Cem Cebenoyan stated there's nothing in GameWorks that deliberately harms AMD performance. He also denied AMD's assertion that using GameWorks means developers can't accept AMD suggestions.

"I've heard that before from AMD and it’s a little mysterious to me. We don't and we never have restricted anyone from getting access as part of our agreements. Not with Watch Dogs and not with any other titles," he said. "Our agreements focus on interesting things we're going to do together to improve the experience for all PC gamers and of course for Nvidia customers. We don't have anything in there restricting anyone from accessing source code or binaries. Developers are free to give builds out to whoever they want. It's their product."

This all comes down to a 'he said, she said' situation between the two companies, which have been bitter rivals for years. Both companies released updated drivers this week that include enhancements for Watch Dogs.

If you're playing the PC version of Watch Dogs, what has your experience been like? Let us know in the comments below.

Watch Dogs Graphics Comparison - Side by Side

People should mind their Ps and Qs, but video game enthusiasts can be quite passionate about their Ps in particular. Ubisoft caused quite the kerfuffle when Watch Dogs neared release and it was clear that the released game's visuals didn't quite live up to the promise of its early screens and trailers. Just how different are the various versions of this hacking-focused open-world game? If you're on the fence about which version to buy, watch the above video, and check the screens below.

PS4 vs. Xbox One

PS4 vs. PC

PS3 vs. X360

PC vs. Xbox One

PC vs. PS4

PS3 vs. PS4

X360 vs. Xbox One

Far Cry 10th Anniversary Retrospective

Crysis may be the series that we most associate with developer Crytek, but it was Far Cry that put it on the map. The original Far Cry was a visual marvel, featuring a vast and gorgeous tropical island to explore, but it was more than just pretty. It was also a highly immersive game that made getting lost in its world both tense and joyous as it introduced elements that were more and more removed from the reality we know.

While some new Far Cry adventures would make their way to consoles packaged with the original game, it wasn't until 2008 that a proper sequel arrived, courtesy of Ubisoft Montreal. The game met with mixed reactions, but it found a passionate audience that loved its African setting and weapon degradation. Far Cry 3 met with wider acclaim, but it's the original game that has proven most important, providing a foundation not just for the Far Cry series itself, but for Crysis and its sequels as well.

Daniel Hindes

The thing I most fondly remember from my tropical vacation in the first Far Cry was the only thing that was excised from the series' later installments: its tone. Protagonist Jack Carver's bright orange Hawaiian shirt was a constant reminder of Far Cry's playful origins. This was a first-person shooter that didn't care about the evils of arms smuggling, or about the definition of insanity. It cared about saturating you with its colorful, open levels, and keeping you on your toes with what were, at the time, some of the most intelligent enemies I've ever seen in a shooter. These mercenaries actually used the jungle for cover, creeping behind plants and--get this--not shooting at you until they had snuck right up behind you for a kill shot. I can't remember a time in a game since then that an enemy has surprised me like that.

Of course, what's not surprising now is Crytek's desire to change up the enemy roster halfway through, such as the introduction of Crysis' aliens, or here, mutated apes. Once I started fighting these trigens in a volcanic caldera, I checked out. But until that point, Far Cry was a pure and refreshing shooter about bright colors, big guns, and loud shirts.Kevin VanOrd

There comes a "Holy crap!" moment just minutes into Far Cry when the sight of your lush island prison is revealed to you for the first time. It's one of the most stunning sights I've ever witnessed in a game, and at the time, I couldn't believe my eyes. How could a game look this incredible? What was in store for me in this violent paradise?

I couldn't believe my eyes. How could a game look this incredible?

It was the best birthday present I could imagine, and the game arrived only a week after the awesome Unreal Tournament 2004. My time was split between both games afterward--Far Cry for its single-player thrills, and UT 2004 for the continuing excitement of onslaught matches. Far Cry was my personal jewel, however. I can still envision the heightened tropical ambience when swimming underwater, surrounded by impossibly vibrant fish and perfect round bubbles. I can still remember the opening cutscene, which begins with a rewind shot depicting floating flotsam reassembling itself into a sailboat. I still remember using the different rendering options, which let you change the look of the entire game. If you grabbed the recently released HD version (called Far Cry Classic), try turning on the cartoon setting, which makes the game look rather like Borderlands.

Crytek moved on to Crysis, and Ubisoft now handles the Far Cry franchise, and while both Far Cry sequels were great on their own terms, I miss the Island of Doctor Moreau vibe of the original. The series tastes best with a touch of the unnatural.

Shaun McInnis

My experience with the original Far Cry requires a little bit of backstory. Back in 2004, I was a sophomore at the University of Washington. In between reading stacks of 18th-century English novels and trying to convince myself that dirt-cheap beer wasn't so bad once you got used to it--college is a weird place--I somehow still managed to find time for video games. So here I was, browsing reviews on a little website called GameSpot.com, in search of that one game I should check out next. And that's when I saw it: Far Cry.

It was a review done by former GameSpot editor Jason Ocampo. I mention that because one year prior, I shared an English literature class with him and had absolutely no idea he went on to write about video games for a living. And that's what grabbed my attention. Yes, Far Cry looked great, but my PC at the time was a feeble Dell laptop--I was a console gamer back then. But seeing someone I had taken a class with was just too weird for me. I had to see what this game was about.

I'm glad I did, because that game was really something else. Even on my sad little laptop, Far Cry's jungle environment was amazing. The way prowling through lush foliage made you feel like a predator stalking its prey, the freedom with which you could approach enemies, the way everything just felt so reactive--it was one of the first games I could remember where I really felt like I was using the world around me as a weapon.

And it's a series that I still love to this day. Even as Crytek has moved on to different projects, I still enjoy the legacy that studio created. I'm just happy that a wild coincidence convinced me to take a shot on it in the first place.

Watch Dogs - PC vs. PS3 vs. PS4 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Xbox One

  

Watch Dogs Reviex Ps 3

In its opening scene, Watch Dogs refers to hackers as modern-day magicians. That’s a good analogy for the bag of powerful but mostly scripted tricks we get to use as we run amok in this huge and impressively detailed map of Chicago. With the push of a button, you can trigger environmental traps that smash pursuing cars, empty a citizen’s bank account, or even remotely activate a grenade in an enemy’s pocket. Hacking’s not as dynamic as it appears at first, but the illusion gives us a bit more to do than there is in most third-person action games, and it puts on a great, but sometimes choppy show.

Our hero, Aiden Pearce, is an empty trenchcoat as far as personality goes. It’s remarked at one point that he’s suppressing his personality, so it must be intentional, but it doesn’t make him a strong character. Fortunately the supporting cast is much more interesting. An enthusiastic and cavalier fixer, a gang leader who I affectionately refer to as Avon Barksdale: Superhacker, and a soft-spoken mob boss steal the show and make it a likeable and well-acted group. Character animations are elegantly done, too.

Watch Dogs’ completely open map is huge and diverse, though its textures and models are below the standards I expect from a PlayStation 3 game in 2014. Even so, it fails to maintain 30 frames per second, with frequent slowdowns and screen tearing when simply driving around the city. That's something you do a lot in Watch Dogs, and it can have a real impact on your ability to control it during high-speed chases. It's playable, but it does get in the way.

This techno-thriller fiction is all about the power of information in a super-connected city, and one of its cleverest and most distinctive tweaks to the open world genre is how much information it gives you. Scanning a pedestrian or thug pops up a brief, randomly generated personal history – some fact about their hobbies or lifestyle, plus their age, occupation, and income. It’s a small thing, but it’s surprisingly effective at humanizing them. I actually felt a pang of guilt when I accidentally ran someone down and then saw that they were on the waiting list for a liver transplant, and as a result this is one of the few open-world action games where I rarely went on a violent rampage. And that had very little to do with the meaningless reputation meter, which appears to have no consequences whatsoever.

Over more than 20 hours, the straightforward revenge story becomes more and more complex until it’s bursting with intrigue... only to take a strange turn for the mundane when the motivations behind it all are revealed. For a game that deals with themes like surveillance society and media manipulation, Watch Dogs’ villains just aren’t thinking very big.

It can last a lot longer than 20 hours though, because Watch Dogs is extremely good at distracting attention away from the main story with a steady stream of side quests and minigames. I’m a big fan of the gang hideout missions, which really let you test your stealth skills as you take down well-guarded targets (though it’s kinda strange that they ask you to keep the gang leader alive but are cool with murdering everyone else). Most of the other activities can get repetitive, like the pre-crime interventions that always result in the same foot chase, but there are so many types, from criminal convoy ambushes to chess and poker to drinking, that they don’t get old quickly if you mix up what you play. Oh, and the simple but delightful Spider Tank rampage shouldn’t be missed. There was definitely some tender love and care put into the way that monstrosity moves.

I admire Ubisoft’s restraint in including only one hacking puzzle minigame in a game about an uberhacker hero, and it’s both clever and used infrequently enough that it doesn’t become annoying. There’s also the ability to take over any surveillance camera you can see, even some worn by guards, and it’s put to good use in puzzles where you leap from camera to camera as you attempt to get line of sight on a terminal you want to hack.

Unless you opt out, you’re also regularly prompted to jump into multiplayer activities, like a simple race through the streets or a much more interesting cat-and-mouse game of tailing and hacking another random player. It’s a setup with a lot of room for creativity and hilarious experimentation as you try to hide or blend in with the civilians. [Edit: I originally mistakenly said the PS3 version had the Decryption multiplayer mode. It does not. That mode is only present in the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC versions.]

Watch Dogs’ missions are much more stealth-focused than most open-world action games, which gives them some good variety. A smooth cover system and the obligatory time-slowing power (it seems like everybody can slow down time these days) make silenced headshots easy to score, and the wet splattering sound it produces is a great, gross reward. I do wish there were fewer missions that auto-fail you if you’re discovered, and that there were better rewards for using gadgets like the powerful blackout tool (knocking out the power in the area is kind of a stealth nuke) to ghost through an area without being spotted or knocking anyone out. The best missions give you the option to stealth or fight through, and that makes Aiden feel smarter than a typical guns-blazing maniac.

After the bullets do start to fly, the cover-based gunplay feels good, even if the arsenal is pretty conventional. The standout is the pump-action grenade launcher, which makes short work of both thugs in armor and vehicles (it’s essential for taking out fleeing hackers in multiplayer). What often makes the firefights in Watch Dogs memorable is how you can fool enemies by moving around behind cover, causing them to fire at your last known position instead of where you are now. That allows you to get in some good flanking moves, and makes the enemies feel more like foolish humans than all-seeing robots.

When you get in a car and drive, Watch Dogs is some good arcadey fun. Cartoonish crash physics and roads littered with tons of breakable objects make smashing through shortcuts spectacular and hilarious. However, car chases gradually become more and more disappointing and tedious because of their lack of combat options. You can’t fire out the window as you drive, so all you can do is drive around hacking things to trigger hazards. Half the time you don’t even see the car or trap involved in the wreck. And enemy cars are so rubber-bandy that it’s impossible to simply outrun them even in the speediest of cars - you have to hack things to end the chase.

The Division Dev Boss "Scared to Death" of F2P Pushing Away Blockbusters

David Polfeldt, managing director of The Division developer Massive Entertainment, readily admits he likes the data that game developers now have access to. At the same time, he believes there is an ethical problem with data being used to wring as much money as possible out of gamers, and his love for blockbuster games has caused him to worry about the future.

"I think it's super interesting what we can do now with big data and that type of research we can do. We find patterns that we didn't know of. That to me is incredibly sexy," Polfeldt told GamesIndustry International. "Then there's a another step, where you get that data and the only thing you use it for is to fool people into paying for things that they didn't intend to. Then it becomes unethical. Then to me it's no longer a conversation. Then it's just, I'm just trying to find your trigger mechanisms and fool you."

Particularly in the free-to-play space, data-driven game design has become increasingly common in recent years. FarmVille maker Zynga is one of the preeminent examples of data-driven design, which, put simply, is the practice of relying heavily on data and metrics when making design choices.

"I do think there's an ethical problem there," Polfeldt continued. "Now you've found out everything about David. Good, will you now use that to tell him a story that matters to him--or are you going to use that to make him pay for things that he didn't want to pay for? To me, that's completely different."

"I embrace data. I think it's enormously educational, but it is important to ask yourself, what am I using this information for?" -- Massive Entertainment managing director David Polfeldt

Free-to-play design is not always such a negative thing for gamers, and there are many examples of games that are widely accepted because they aren't perceived as being manipulative. The model has come to dominate the mobile space, and there are those who believe it will eventuallypervade the entire industry. Polfeldt sees a clear distinction between the development of traditional games and other types of games that will only become more apparent, but that doesn't mean part of him doesn't worry about the future.

"I actually think they're not so close together," he said when asked about mobile and console game development. "I think we will see a separation where it's like nobody today thinks that a one-armed bandit is a games developer, like, 'Why aren't the one-armed bandits at E3?' Of course, they're not games. It's something else.

"I think many of the free-to-play games we will start looking upon them more as one-armed bandits. It's not a bad product in its own genre, but it's probably not an interactive experience as I mean that it is. Long answer, but it is a really complicated question because I like it. I embrace data. I think it's enormously educational, but it is important to ask yourself, what am I using this information for? That is where we do have a responsibility.

"As a gamer I'm afraid to death of it, because I love blockbuster games. I love big, long, epic games that will occupy my attention for a long time. I love the games that other people are doing, so I'm really afraid that it's all going to be different. It's all going to be small games. It's all going to be free. That to me is just something else. I can't see how that would replace my need for an epic experience. I just don't get it. They have to be different. That's really my conclusion. They just cannot be seen as the same for very long."

Polfeldt and Massive won't have to grapple with these issues directly when developing The Division, which is expected to be a traditional retail title when it's released next year. The open-world RPG was recently delayed until 2015, but would appear to comfortably fit into the "blockbuster" category that Polfeldt is so fond of.

Do you worry about the future of the sorts of games you like to play, or do you believe there will always be a market for them? Let us know in the comments below.

$60 for a Game in 2014 Is "Insane," Former Bulletstorm Dev Says

The accepted, standard price of $60 for a new video game "is a little insane," according to Adrian Chmielarz, former creative director of Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly. According to him, gamers paying that much expect a great deal in return for their money these days, and by focusing so heavily on $60 AAA games, the industry is leaving money on the table.

"Everybody is smart in retrospect, and looking back I do think that we were possibly among the first victims of this giant shift in gaming, where the middle-class AAA games began to die--not 'middle-class' by quality, but we didn't have ten multiplayer modes and co-op and all of that," Chmielarz said of Bulletstorm in an interview with GamesIndustry International. "The saying in the industry right now is, 'If you want to sell a game for $60, to the player it has to feel like $200.'"

"Bulletstorm was a $60 game for $60," he added. "And these days $60 for a game sounds basically crazy, when there are literally hundreds of high quality games out there for a much smaller price--even on console. In 2014, $60 for a game is a little insane."

Bulletstorm was released by People Can Fly and Epic Games in 2011 and, despite positive reviews, it didn't turn out to be a huge seller. Epic president Mike Capps said of the gamein 2012, "I think Bulletstorm was very critically successful, and I think a lot of folks really enjoyed seeing something new. From a sales perspective it was good, but not amazing. I think EA was hoping we'd do better." Epic acquired People Can Fly in 2012 and Chmielarz parted ways with the developer, which would be 

renamed Epic Games Poland a year later.

Chmielarz also talked about how publishers often seek to turn franchises into something they are not. He pointed to Dead Space as a series that EA has attempted to turn into a major, Call of Duty-level franchise, rather than being satisfied with sales of 2 or 3 million copies. "That could be a profitable series, but only if you're smart about the budget and the content," he said.

He's not the first to share this sentiment and cite Dead Space as an example. Lamenting the addition of multiplayer modes into games where they don't belong, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford spoke about Dead Space 2's multiplayer in a 2011 interview with Edge, stating "It's ceiling-limited; it'll never do 20 million units. The best imaginable is a peak of four or five million units if everything works perfectly in your favour. So the bean counters go: 'How do I get a higher ceiling?' And they look at games that have multiplayer. They're wrong, of course. What they should do instead is say that they're comfortable with the ceiling, and get as close to the ceiling as possible. Put in whatever investment's required to focus it on what the promise is all about."

Since leaving People Can Fly, Chmielarz cofounded The Astronauts, developer of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, which he says will shy away from having filler simply to justify a $60 price tag.

"There is a necessity to add filler in AAA games, whether it be collectibles or one more wave of enemies," Chmielarz said. "It's unfortunate, and it's also proof that the world is insane." He points out how players' calls for longer games clash with data suggesting "70 or 80 percent of people never finish the game."

"But I think that's connected to the price, and there we go again. Lower prices would allow us to stop thinking about filler for our games, and start focusing on making the experience just right," he said. "You have to live with the fact that some players will complain no matter what, but I think that when your game is tight, and the story you want to tell is told exactly the way you want, I think the effect is way more powerful than anyone complaining that they didn't get 100 hours of entertainment for their €20."

Report: PS4-Exclusive Project Beast Footage Emerges

Alleged new footage from the PS4-exclusive Project Beast has surfaced online.

Posted on NeoGAF, the alleged GIFs show some of the game's environments and a brief look at its combat system. The footage aligns with screenshots previously posted online.

Project Beast is reportedly the working title for a new PlayStation 4-exclusive game from Demon's Souls and Dark Souls studio From Software in partnership with Sony Japan. Last week, Demon's Souls creator and director Hidetaka Miyazaki was announced as the president of From Studio.

For more on what we might see at the upcoming E3, check out our E3 2014 rumour round-up.

(Gallery credit: NeoGAF)

Call of Duty: Ghosts Invasion DLC Maps Revealed

Three maps for Call of Duty: Ghosts' Invasion DLC pack were revealed today on several of Call of Duty's official websites.

Charlie Intel reported that three images for the new maps were posted on the French, French Canadian, German, and Spanish websites, but have since been removed.

The Invasion DLC maps take players to what looks like the Day of the Dead -- Dia de los Muertos -- celebration in the map Departed, to a dark port complete with a wooden ship in Mutiny, and to the ruins of ancient Egypt in Pharaoh.

Invasion is the third DLC pack for Call of Duty: Ghosts. Activision has not revealed a release date for the DLC, but it recently announced that all Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare DLC will release first on Xbox consoles.

Driveclub Shows Off Its Social Side

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.

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.