Driveclub to drop jaws with visuals

Evolution Studios, the developers for Driveclub, have released a series of videos showing new in-game visuals and a stunning preview of racing on the same track in the game’s sunrise, sunset and night settings. The footage and images were released to gaming forum NeoGAF.

Paul Rustchynsky, Driveclub’s design director, has confirmed that the game is going into a very late beta stage and the team is ironing out the details that they haven’t shown in their footage at E3 and Gamescom 2013.

Evolution Studios has been vocal about the progress of Driveclub since the game’s announcement in February. The team has been sharing screenshots and game footage of the Playstation 4 launch title on social networks and forums around the world, allowing gamers some insight into how development progresses as the game’s launch approaches.

Evolution has released a video showing off a track set in Chile at three times of the day while driving a AUDI R8 V10 in a time trial.

The game will use technologies such as global illumination (watch the dashboard, engine bay and driver-side A-pillar), volumetric smoke and a new physics engine that’s different from Evolution’s prior efforts seen in the Test Drive series.

As a long-time fan of racing games, I’m ecstatic that there will be another studio trying to glue me to the wheel and succeeding (or failing) to give me a realistic driving experience. I can appreciate arcade racers like DiRT as well as more sim-like titles a la Gran Turismo and Project Gotham Racing, but there’s just something about #Driveclub that sucks me in.

Not only does it have tremendous pressure to look good and drive well on launch, but the promise of the social and networking features as well as the next-gen aspect makes this more of a one-time shot at breaking into the mould. Sony wants to offer a second premium driving game, and from what I’ve seen they can take my money. I think I also may need that steering wheel now.