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The name never did it any favours, really. Neither did the fact it struggled to live up to its blandly ridiculous moniker at launch; as part of the well-documented troubles that surrounded DriveClub's already heavily delayed release, the clubs that formed an integral part of Evolution's vision for its PlayStation 4 exclusive just didn't work. Now the drama has died down, and unfortunately a studio died along with it, it's tragically clear that part of the equation never mattered that much anyway. All that really mattered was the one thing that DriveClub got right: the driving. DriveClub's other tragedy is how its real talents have only properly come into focus now that Evolution Studios is no more. It was no less than a disaster for quite a time, missing the PS4 launch window by a clear 12 months and being riddled with errors that ranged from design oversights to servers that refused to stand up. What started out as a deeply flawed game was ushered towards being a very good one thanks to post-release updates that introduced variable weather and, much later, a hard-edged simulation handling model that allowed its handsomely modelled physics to bare their teeth. The last posthumous update has truly pushed DriveClub towards greatness.
What's so great about version 1.28, a 6GB patch that carries signs of being the last significant update to DriveClub? It's how it strengthens a link between Evolution's game and the previous king of racers that reigned the middle ground between arcade excess and the more exacting nature of a sim. Project Gotham Racing toed a perfect line between precision and panache, and the 15 tracks introduced by way of the new update help DriveClub do the same. It helps, of course, that they all have a very strong urban flavour.
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