Driveclub update details dynamic menu, improvements

Driveclub game director Paul Rustchynsky has provided a development update on the upcoming PlayStation 4 racer, letting fans in on what’s been going on at Evolution Studios during the game’s months of silence.

Here’s the outline:

Dynamic Menu

The dynamic menu is key to how much fun you’re going to get out of the game because it is the glue that connects you to everyone else in the Driveclub community. Whenever you fire up the game; between every race you play, and when you log in to Driveclub on your phone or tablet, the dynamic menu has to be slick to ensure your experience is seamlessly connected. Essentially it’s where you discover what to play, and who to play with.

It’s also absolutely vital to our ambition of growing a vibrant network of millions of connected clubs, who all share the excitement of driving amazing cars together. Whether they play just to have fun, or to complete every challenge and beat their rivals in every race, it’s this connected community who will keep the game fresh and enjoyable well after launch, so it makes sense for the connectivity to be perfect.

No racing title has ever combined the development of a socially charged, multi-platform dynamic menu with all the other connected online elements that Driveclub delivers. We know that what we are creating here is hugely ambitious and we’re proud of the fact that we’re getting close now because we’re a relatively small studio. The progress we’re making is great, so I’m looking forward to showing you more as development continues and prove that all the hard work has been worth it.

Visuals

We’re constantly improving how stunning the game looks as we continue to optimize visuals and find new ways of pushing PS4. You can see for yourself how it looks right now in the latest video we shared yesterday because all the footage was captured on PS4 from the game. It’ll look even better in October.

(It’s 1080p at 30 frames per second, for those wondering.)

Sound

It’s absolutely state of the art. We’re continuing to refine the authentic sounds that we have for each and every car in the game, and we’re going to put together videos that focus on this.

Driving

It already feels great to play and we’re continuing to add further layers to the physics to make it both more accessible for everybody and more sophisticated for experienced racers.

Clubs

We’re making it easier for you to keep up to speed with what’s going on in your club as part of the rework on the dynamic menus. We’ve also tweaked clubs to support up to 6 players instead of 12 (because the game is more fun with tightly-knit clubs and it paves the way for awesome 6-on-6 club races).

Tour

The difficulty curve for the campaign mode is becoming even smoother as we continue to optimize the vehicle handling and also refine the game’s AI for non-player racers.

Cars & Tracks

More time means more staggeringly detailed cars and exciting tracks, too. If you haven’t already, check out the Ferrari in the video released yesterday. There are loads more exciting cars for us to reveal in the coming months.

More details are promised in the weeks leading up to E3. Rustchynsky says there shouldn’t be any more quiet periods between now and the game’s release, “so you can expect to see plenty more” shortly.

Driveclub will launch for PlayStation 4 on October 7 in North America and October 8 in Europe. View some new screenshots at the gallery.

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