There's a grating irony about a game that's all about getting to the finish line quickly and cleanly having taken so long to actually make it into the shops, all banged-up on arrival.
Driveclub was intended to launch alongside the PlayStation 4 last year but, according to its developers at Evolution Studios, more time was needed to refine it. Comparing the reality of Driveclub against its hype, it's hard to work out what this refining process was all about.
Touted as an all-in-one solution for car enthusiasts and petrolheads, Driveclub's ambition is to be a cluster of virtual motoring clubs, with the racing a vital part of the experience, that could be alive and growing for the life of the PS4 console.
At the time of writing, however, Driveclub's online experience has been on life support. Server issues have crippled the delivery of online features, and play is a once-an-hour kind of thing. That would be forgivable if the play was good, but it's not.
The game struggles to render remote players' vehicles in real time, and sometimes your own wheels as well, resulting in an unfortunate throwback to the early days of online gaming.
If you've never played over a 56kps connection, Driveclub is here to do a passable impression.
So it's the oddest of outcomes, really, that this social racer actually plays better offline.
The AI drivers are absurdly aggressive - which isn't so swell when it's you who is penalised for collisions - and the handling is bizarre, but there's fun to be had in grinding through the time trials. It's not half bad to look at, either.
Driveclub is a game for its time. That's not exactly a compliment, but the purveyors can just keep patching it until they deliver what was promised.
Platform: PlayStation 4
Rating: G
- TimeOut