Home Gaming Still looking for DriveClub’s “free” PS+ edition?

Still looking for DriveClub’s “free” PS+ edition?

4 min read
40

Catchup

Yesterday, we were hit by server issues – many of them we later found out weren’t even because of our server, but because of our hosts. Awesome. Anyway, you may have missed the news then that those of you aching to play the “free” content in the DriveClub PlayStation Plus Edition will have to remain in a bit of pain.

Much of that is because the online, socially connected racer was left an empty shell yesterday, thanks to its servers being down on launch day. Having hundreds of thousands more users getting a free ride on the servers would only break them more. It’s just not acceptable stuff in this day and age, to have broken servers for a mostly online game on launch. You’d have thought people would have learned by now.

Of course, I can’t be too angry, with out own servers being perpetually buggered as well. Here’s what Evolution had to say:

With DRIVECLUB, we are dedicated to delivering a dynamic and socially connected racing game that everyone can enjoy, and along the way we’re facing new challenges which we haven’t encountered as a development team before. We are seeing a lot of activity and new social behaviours right now, but unfortunately this is pushing the servers to their absolute limits.

We are sorry if you are having a hard time getting online as we know many of you are. Please be aware that the game will automatically keep trying to connect you. Once you’re online, you should have no further problems during your session.

Everyone at the studio is now working hard to get new updates ready for the game servers to improve connectivity. We will be rolling out these updates day by day and will keep you informed.

In order to help all DRIVECLUB players who have the game already, we’re temporarily holding back the PS Plus Edition and the My DRIVECLUB app to ease the load and traffic to the servers. This should give players a better chance of connecting to the game servers and, once the servers are operating well, we’ll be sure to let you know when the PS Plus Edition and My DRIVECLUB app will be available to download.

To our PS Plus fans, we’re sorry you’re having to wait longer to play, but we want to ensure that when you come on board, you get the best experience possible. Rest assured, if you’ve pre-ordered the full game upgrade from the PS Plus Edition, you will still get the full version of DRIVECLUB digitally, and if you can’t get online you’ll be able to get started offline like everybody else with single player mode as you start your DRIVECLUB tour. You’ll still be able to earn fame, unlock cars and get to grips with all of the options for playing and creating your own events and challenges – and everything you do will be synchronised with the servers when you do get connected, so you can set-up a bunch of challenges to send out to your friends as soon as you are able to join each other online.

We fully appreciate how frustrating this is for everyone. We want you to get online with your club because racing, challenging and having fun together is what the game is all about. We know that racing with your friends online is what you’ve been waiting for and we are doing everything we can to deliver that experience to you as soon as possible.

And it’s quite a pity, really. DriveClub may not be the best or most fully-featured racing game on the planet, but it is rather good if you like things on the slightly more arcade side of life. It’s the sort of game I imagine PGR would have become if the franchise hadn’t been taken out behind the barn and shot.

There’s no word on just when the PS+ edition of the game will be coming, but it’ll be worth the download. Featuring a smidge more content than you’d expect in a demo, it comes packed with 10 tracks and as many cars for you to race about in. The retail version was released yesterday but without online functionality the game feels rather hollow.

Last Updated: October 9, 2014

40 Comments

  1. Viking Of Divinity

    October 9, 2014 at 08:21

    Speaking of Free, Our frenemies at EA are giving away Dragon Age Origins this week, #OnTheHouse

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief 0

      October 9, 2014 at 08:21

      For realsies?

      Reply

      • Viking Of Divinity

        October 9, 2014 at 08:21

        Yessir!

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief 0

          October 9, 2014 at 08:22

          Ouch, right in the backlog-sack

          Reply

          • Viking Of Divinity

            October 9, 2014 at 08:22

            Yup… I’ll give it another shot now…. seeing as It’s for free… 🙂

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      October 9, 2014 at 08:41

      With DA:I coming out soon? What a coincydink.

      Reply

    • ReaperOfSquirrels

      October 9, 2014 at 08:49

      Have it on Xbox 360… don’t need it again 😛

      Reply

    • Skyblue

      October 9, 2014 at 10:00

      Ta, queued.

      Reply

  2. Admiral Chief 0

    October 9, 2014 at 08:21

    Stupid clouds

    Reply

  3. Spaffy

    October 9, 2014 at 08:22

    It’s not the first game that is unplayable day 1. What were you expecting? 100 players?

    Don’t buy day 1.

    Reply

    • McFancypants HD 3.0

      October 9, 2014 at 08:40

      And, taking into account that Driveclub had a closed Beta, last month, you’d think that they would’ve been able to use the data obtained from the Beta to ensure a smooth launch.

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      October 9, 2014 at 08:41

      Most online games has this day 1 issue. It seems that there’s no way the industry can compensate for it.

      Reply

      • Skyblue

        October 9, 2014 at 10:20

        Regional roll-outs would go a long way to resolving the issues I think. It is kind of pointless setting up major infrastructure which is only really put to the sword in the first few weeks after a game’s release and then never utilized again.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          October 9, 2014 at 10:37

          Except the people who get the game last will crap their pants.

          Reply

  4. CAE9872

    October 9, 2014 at 08:25

    Clearly developers do not read what happens in gaming around them! How can you not see the litany of errors made by developers over the past few years with “online only” games? Kinda boggles the mind.

    For all the things Bungie did wrong with the story part of Destiny at least they released an MM-O (sorry online) game with servers that worked. Few hiccups which one expects but mostly fine. Perhaps they could go around the world and show others how!

    Reply

    • McFancypants HD 3.0

      October 9, 2014 at 08:47

      That’s just it. Destiny’s launch was pretty much a success. Day 1 you could log in and play the game. Sure, we’ve had the occasional ‘centipede’ interrupt our experience, but I’d like to think that had there not been an Alpha and Beta, Destiny’s launch may have been less than stellar.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        October 9, 2014 at 08:54

        I had to struggle for two days to get Destiny working. Had to learn how to open up port forwarding on my router and had to assign a static IP adress.

        Reply

        • McFancypants HD 3.0

          October 9, 2014 at 09:06

          If you would please kindly grant me a moment? I’m just having a tough time getting my foot out of my mouth o_O

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            October 9, 2014 at 09:34

            Hahaha, sad part is I think there are still people who can’t play. When did running games on consoles become as complex as PC games?

          • Guild

            October 9, 2014 at 10:00

            The reason why I moved away from PC gaming. Got tired of messing around with the PC and constantly upgrading.

          • Nikola

            October 9, 2014 at 11:14

            same waaay to much hustle you buy a console thats what you have put a disk in and it works!!

  5. Hammersteyn

    October 9, 2014 at 08:30

    It’s fine, it got a meh/10 so who really cares.

    Reply

  6. WitWolfy

    October 9, 2014 at 08:31

    Bought the PS+ ugrade for R500, wasn’t worth it. The game feels incomplete to me. As if Sony’s shareholders came and shot the studios ceiling to smithereens with AKs demanding they release it NOW.

    So far all the cars I drove handle like a bus, brakes feel too under powered and no in game music when driving the tracks. The fact they released the game with no random weather is insulting and for a “Forza killer”, in the end this game just feels like it was trying to be something it couldn’t live up to.

    Rather stick to the PS+ version. DONT BUY THIS GAME! Rather wait for Project cars IMO.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      October 9, 2014 at 08:35

      The game was supposed the release with the PS4. I think it was meant to be more of a demo on how great the graphics look and to sell PS+ subscriptions because it’s focused on being a social racer. The moment passed and they had no choice but to release it.

      Reply

      • WitWolfy

        October 9, 2014 at 08:42

        YEAH I see where you coming from, this was supposed to be THE tech demo to get people to buy the PS4 at launch. Well hey, they had their window and missed it. The game doesn’t NEARLY look as great as its gifs or screenshots before launch and feels like a glorified casual racer.

        I might get some bashing for saying this. But heck this looks almost the same as NFS Rivals graphically and that game is almost a year old.

        Reply

        • McFancypants HD 3.0

          October 9, 2014 at 08:44

          And, NFS Rivals’ online works. Maybe not in the scope that was promised with Driveclub, but at least I was able to play online, and when offline, not feel as though I was playing a watered down version.

          Reply

        • DiggityDingDong

          October 9, 2014 at 08:45

          The R500 upgrade should rather be used towards Project CARS. Dust is a pretty cool game on IGC though.

          Reply

        • fred

          October 9, 2014 at 11:29

          Just started NFS rivals , so I can hold out on the Driveclub demo , game seems a lot more boring than Rivals in any way.

          Reply

          • WitWolfy

            October 9, 2014 at 13:25

            NFS Rivals is more a “Forza killer” than DriveClub will EVER be, And thats a fact!

  7. Jonah Cash

    October 9, 2014 at 09:13

    Once again I go back to Destiny….. They pulled off one hell of a launch and haven’t received enough acclaim for it in my opinion!! Sure there were people who struggled, but I would bet that 90% of the people could get on and play!! So for all other companies doing online games, go and ask Bungie how first!!!

    Reply

    • Francois Knoetze

      October 9, 2014 at 09:21

      Man I love that game but after 48 hours I am taking a break for a bit and focus on stuff that is launching in october/november. will get back into it in december.

      Reply

      • Jonah Cash

        October 9, 2014 at 11:24

        I tried to leave it this week for Shadow of Mordor but it didn’t work, playing other games just highlight how good Destiny’s gameplay is!!!

        Reply

    • fred

      October 9, 2014 at 11:30

      Still loving Destiny myself .

      Reply

      • Jonah Cash

        October 9, 2014 at 12:25

        I really can’t get enough of the bloody game!! It is starting to piss my wife off very much!!!

        Reply

        • Guest

          October 14, 2014 at 08:21

          My cat loves it, I’m spending way more time at home so she can sleep on my lap more and more

          Reply

  8. Francois Knoetze

    October 9, 2014 at 09:28

    a bit disappointed in them not fixing the server issue. the whole “once you are connected your connection will be fine” thing is bullshit. connected for 2 minutes and as I am finished with my club creation I get kicked out. Single player is fun but I am already halfway through the tournament section in a few hours. the game is very pretty though. hope project cars lives up to the hype or else I might consider getting an xbox one for the forza series

    Reply

  9. Skyblue

    October 9, 2014 at 10:00

    So a PS Plus price hike at the same time that the PS Network is down and an unplayable Drive Club “demo”. Sony are swiftly becoming another EAssholes or Ubishit.

    Reply

    • DiggityDingDong

      October 9, 2014 at 10:08

      Has the PS Plus price hike been implemented? It still shows the old price on the PS store. Maybe they deciding not to do it. I do agree, recently Sony hasn’t been up to standard.

      Reply

      • Skyblue

        October 9, 2014 at 10:15

        I don’t know if it’s been implemented yet as my membership runs until July 2015 but sending out an e-mail a day before the price hike is disgusting.

        Reply

      • fred

        October 9, 2014 at 11:31

        Last night I saw the price still at 495 for a year , so they lied about the price increase in any way.

        Reply

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