The PlayStation new tsunami continues as the Paris Games Week runs. Long rumoured to have VR support incoming, Eurogamer now report that PlayStation 4 racer DriveClub has been confirmed and is being demo’d at the show this week.
Sony are on a roll this week as their emphasis on their forthcoming virtual reality platform PlayStation VR, powered by PlayStation 4, continues this week. We’ve already seen new trailers and a surprising exclusive announcement for the platform, but it turns out Sony aren’t done yet.
DriveClub is a driving game from Evolution Studios, published by Sony, that was much hyped prior to it’s delayed release last year. Since then the title been beleaguered by technical issues and delays, seemingly the result of a rushed development window. The game is recovering though and despite it’s lukewarm reception by the critical press, is gaining momentum and building a community of fans.
Whatever the case, it was a stunning title to behold, really delivering on many of the PlayStations pre-launch hype surround the new console’s rendering grunt. The price for this visual fidelity however was that the frame rate delivered was cut to 30FPS, now unusual in racing games. It seemed at this point that, despite persistent rumours surrounding a potential VR release for the PlayStation exclusive title, seeing an immersive version on PlayStation VR (recently re-christened from ‘Morpheus’) was unlikely – as the minimum required for compelling VR on PSVR is 60Hz – with re-projection to 120Hz using async timewarp.
Now it transpires that DriveClub is not only up and running on PlayStation VR at 60Hz, it’s pretty spectacular too. A prototype version was shown to Eurogamer.net, and despite the work of only 3 months by the developers, it impressed them.
VR’s always been a good fit for racing games, and DriveClub only proves that. Being able to look to apex gives an extra layer of fidelity, and when matched with a good steering wheel – in this case Thrustmaster’s T300 – it’s one of the most authentic VR experiences you can get. The visual fidelity of DriveClub is largely intact, too – it’s a little more sparse, but not distractingly so, and Evolution has been able to hit 60fps without the resolution taking a dive.
The developers are currently coy about whether we’re likely to see DriveClub VR appear as a fully-fledged title in the future, but things sound positive. Speaking to Eurogamer, Paul Rustchynsky said “At the moment it’s just a prototype. We don’t know what we’re going to do with that just yet. If it gets good reception here – which I think it will – I think that could turn into something more than just a tech demo.”