At the Tokyo Game Show, I was given a one-on-one guided tour of the PS4 launch title Drive Club, by Evolution Studios.
The first thing Sony’s guide wanted to show me was the asynchronized matching system. “Even when playing by yourself, you feel like you’re competing with other people, live,” he said. I took a profile photo of myself with the PS4 camera and in mere seconds, it showed my photo side by side with another person who had also very clearly taken his photo from the TGS floor. This man would be my opponent for the demonstration. The guide pointed to another Drive Club play area and said that my station was being matched up against players from the other one. My opponent had actually played the game some time earlier in the day, but I would race him right now — or at least, I’d race against his numbers.
I asked, “So they play at some time, and when I play, I can see like a ghost of their cars doing what they did?” The guide confirmed.
Next, he made sure to talk about how expensive all the cars are. “All of the cars are famous European and American cars,” he practically beamed.
Me: “How about like an ’87 Chevy Nova, do you have one of those?”
Guide: (Smiling) “Nooooo. Usually more expensive sports cars.”
Me: “So no like, Dodge Neon?”
Guide: “Haha, no. They can’t keep up!”
My attention was pointed toward colored lines on the road, and it was explained to me that if you can properly follow them, you’ll earn points. “You just beat the other guy!” said the booth attendant when I successfully followed a trail of blue marks. For these special places on the race track, one might not always see the shadow of the opponent cars, but will be notified of their scores for that area.
Around another turn, my guide pointed to the avatar of another player and said, “Okay now there’s a drift area. You have to do a drift better than this guy. …Aaand you just did, okay!” Sure enough, our point totals were shown and I claimed the victory.
During other times during the race, updates would pop up with other statistics, such as being told “Average Speed: XYZ km/h” at the end of a lap. When I couldn’t keep up with an opponent, the game gave me a virtual pat on the butt and said “Better luck next time” in mid race.
