Info about #DRIVE Rally:

Official game description:
JOIN OUR DISCORD
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About the Game
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#DRIVE Rally not only nails the spirit of the 90s. It reignites it for a new generation of drivers. Whether you're a veteran of dirt roads or a rookie just looking to get their tires wet, this game will let you redefine speed over and over again.
#DRIVE World
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From the sunny landscapes of Dry Crumbs, through the whispering woods of Holzberg, to the chilly wilderness of Revontuli. Take a journey to a diverse world you haven’t experienced in racing games before.
Legendary Cars
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Jump behind the wheel of legendary rally cars, including Das Holzwagen, The Doggo, The Bobond, and many more. We’re going 90s this time, so there’s also going to be new stuff. Das Sandsturm and Celestia just for a start!
Passionate Co-Drivers
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Your co-driver can be your biggest cheerleader and toughest judge. It's a partnership that thrives on performance and emotions! Their goal is to assist your performance with helpful directions and navigation, critical to informing your next maneuver, and tips on improving your performance - sometimes delivered a little too passionately.
#DRIVE Design
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Build your cars from the ground up to match your racing style and rally your way. Personalize the body, the paintwork, the decals, and then add that little cherry on top with custom decorations.
#DRIVE Arcade Mechanics
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Simple enough for beginners yet addictively challenging and demanding in its depth. It’s a handling system designed to bring back joy to racing games.
Retro Revival
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#DRIVE Rally is packed with throwbacks, nods, and Easter eggs that'll make any car enthusiast take a trip down memory lane.
Photo Mode
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Get creative and capture your greatest #DRIVE Rally moments. Adjust the angles, switch filters, go crazy. Create the perfect shot and then share it with your friends.
#DRIVE Community
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Ready to dive deeper into the world of #DRIVE? Join our Discord server where every member is a co-driver.

Release date: 16 Apr, 2025

Categories: Racing Simulation, Driving Simulation, Single-player Racing, Vehicle Customization, Arcade, High Score Chasing, Photography Gameplay, Linear Progression


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Visually appealing and distinctive art (weight 0.69): The game features a highly praised and distinctive art style with appealing visuals, including beautiful landscapes, stylized graphics, and charming designs. The graphics contribute positively to the overall vibe and atmosphere of the game, making it visually appealing and enjoyable.
- Entertaining and unique co-drivers (weight 0.26): The game includes co-drivers with distinct personalities who react to driving performance, adding an element of entertainment. The co-driver's comments are often humorous, and players appreciate the option to adjust or disable the co-driver's chatter.
- Diverse and customizable cars (weight 0.24): The game features a diverse selection of cars with distinct characteristics and appealing designs, many inspired by iconic rally cars. Players can customize their vehicles, with modifications affecting the driving experience and allowing for personalized setups.
- Well-designed and fun tracks (weight 0.22): The game features well-designed tracks with consistent markers, offering a variety of locations and enjoyable flow. The maps themselves are well-made, contributing to the overall appeal and dynamic gameplay.
- Fast-paced and addicting gameplay (weight 0.14): The game is fast-paced and addicting, providing a chill and enjoyable vibe for solitary play. Competing for top times on the global leaderboard adds a competitive edge, making it a fun and stress-free experience overall.
- Multiple championships and customizable difficulty (weight 0.1): The game offers multiple championships to choose from, providing plenty of races to keep players engaged. The addition of a difficulty slider has improved the game, making it more challenging and customizable to individual player preferences.
- Potential for hilarious timewaster (weight 0.05): The game has the potential to be a hilarious and engaging timewaster, with appealing graphics and music. However, this point is based on initial impressions and may not reflect the long-term experience.

Common complaints:
- Poor car handling and physics (weight 0.76): A common complaint is the poor car handling and physics, described as generic, twitchy, and unrealistic. Players report issues with understeering, oversteering, and a lack of weight simulation, making drifting unsatisfying. Some reviewers compare the handling to mobile games and find it difficult to control, even with sensitivity adjustments.
- Lacks depth, challenge, content (weight 0.66): The game is criticized for lacking depth, challenge, and engaging content. Reviewers note the absence of a damage model, limited environments, and repetitive gameplay. Many feel the game lacks goals and becomes boring quickly, comparing it unfavorably to other rally games.
- Inaccurate, delayed co-driver pace notes (weight 0.48): The co-driver's pace notes are frequently inaccurate, delayed, or missing altogether, hindering navigation. Some co-drivers' voices and quips are considered annoying and distracting, further impacting gameplay. The lack of visual aids compounds the issue, making it difficult to react to turns in time.
- Restrictive, repetitive career mode (weight 0.31): The championship/career mode is criticized for its restrictive car choices, lack of customization, and repetitive environments. Players are forced to use specific cars, and progression feels meaningless. The inability to replay races or reset progress further detracts from the experience.
- Various bugs and glitches (weight 0.18): Players have encountered various bugs, including inconsistencies in collision physics, graphical errors, and game freezes. Some report issues with cars getting stuck in barriers or experiencing uncontrollable sliding. While some bugs have been fixed, others persist and detract from the overall experience.
- Obstructed, inconsistent cockpit view (weight 0.08): The cockpit view suffers from inconsistencies in FOV and camera positioning across different cars. Some cars have parts that obstruct the view, making them unplayable and causing nausea. The lack of camera options further limits the player's ability to customize their experience.
- Annoying penalty system (weight 0.07): The penalty system is considered annoying, with small penalties for hitting common barrier posts. This forces overly clean driving and can lead to frustration, especially when minor mistakes necessitate a complete restart.
- Repetitive, generic car sounds (weight 0.07): The car sounds are repetitive and lack variety, with all cars sounding similar. This detracts from the overall immersion and makes the driving experience less engaging.

Gameplay feedback:
- Varied car selection and progression (weight 0.36): The game features a selection of cars with performance differences, unlockable through gameplay or purchase. Players can earn money to buy cars and customize them visually, though some reviews contradict the availability of car customization. Each car has distinct handling.
- Simple, short, and accessible gameplay (weight 0.35): The game features simple controls and short stages, encouraging replayability. The tracks are easy to interpret and memorize, contributing to the arcade-style gameplay. This design makes the game accessible and quick to play.
- Basic but functional co-driver system (weight 0.32): The game includes a co-driver providing pace notes, which are functional but basic. The navigator's voice lines are varied enough to avoid becoming repetitive. However, the pace notes lack detail, using a simplified system.
- Penalty system for track collisions (weight 0.03): The game incorporates a penalty system for collisions with trackside objects and destructible elements. Touching poles or cords results in time penalties, which accumulate based on the duration of contact. This system adds a layer of challenge and encourages careful driving.
- Game is in early access (weight 0.03): The game is in early access, with a career mode present in the form of 'Championships'. This indicates that the game is still under development and may receive further updates and content additions.
- Varying terrains affect grip (weight 0.02): The game features varying terrains that offer different grip levels and environmental obstacles. This adds variety to the driving experience and requires players to adapt their driving style to different surfaces.
- Multiple camera modes available (weight 0.02): The game offers five camera modes that can be switched at any time. This allows players to choose a camera angle that suits their preference and play style.
- Playtime-based achievements (weight 0.02): The game includes achievements based on playtime, with the final achievement requiring 125 hours of play. This encourages players to spend a significant amount of time with the game.
- Realistic braking (weight 0.02): Cars brake realistically; they stop when the brake is applied instead of sliding. This adds to the realism of the driving experience.
- Lacks handbrake for drifting (weight 0.02): The game lacks a handbrake for drifting, and the player can only look back when reversing. This limits the player's ability to perform certain maneuvers.
- Sensitive steering (weight 0.02): The steering is very sensitive, requiring keyboard players to adjust the sensitivity settings to their preference. This may make the game more difficult to control for some players.
- Championship lacks features (weight 0.02): The championship lacks features like point tracking or a winner's ceremony. This makes the championship mode feel less rewarding.
- Braking/downshifting for cornering (weight 0.01): The reviewer uses braking and downshifting before turns as the primary cornering technique. This suggests that the game requires a specific driving style to be successful.
- Driving is difficult (weight 0.01): Driving is a bit difficult. This is a general statement without specific details.
- Free roam map collectibles (weight 0.01): Explored the free roam map and found 3 letters, bottle caps and pitbull. This is a very specific and isolated finding.

Performance notes:
- Generally solid, optimized performance (weight 0.24): The game generally exhibits solid performance, often running smoothly at 60fps on various hardware configurations, including the Steam Deck. Many players report a lack of significant bugs or glitches, indicating good optimization. Some users specifically praise the game's performance on the Steam Deck.
- Fast restarts, long initial loading (weight 0.04): Loading times are generally fast, with track restarts taking less than a second. However, the initial loading time when starting the game or loading a track from the menu is reported as somewhat long.
- Good performance on high-end hardware (weight 0.03): The game runs at 120 fps on ultra settings with an M3 Max chip. Also, with Ultra graphics, volumetric lighting on, and motion blur off, the CPU averages 40-45 C, the GPU averages 70-80 C, and the FPS averages 60.
- Improved visuals, ultrawide support (weight 0.03): The game looks a little better compared to the beta and supports ultrawide monitors.
- Problematic PS5 controller support (weight 0.02): The game's initial support for PS5 controllers via Non-Steam Input was problematic, requiring Steam Input translation to function correctly. This could be an inconvenience for players who prefer to use their PS5 controller natively.
- Ghost car feature delayed (weight 0.02): One player reported that the ghost car feature was initially absent despite being enabled in the options menu. It only appeared after several hours of gameplay, indicating a potential bug or delayed activation of the feature.

Recommendations:
- Generally recommended, fun, good value (weight 0.94): Many reviewers recommend the game, praising its fun and relaxing gameplay, especially for fans of the rally genre. The game is considered a good value, mechanically sound, and enjoyable for both casual and experienced players. Some suggest it's a great way to unwind.
- Anticipation for future development (weight 0.56): Many reviewers are optimistic about the game's future and are looking forward to future updates and content. They believe the game has the potential to become something great with continued development.
- Optimized for Steam Deck (weight 0.56): Reviewers highlight the game's optimization and playability on the Steam Deck. The game's quick loading times, haptic feedback, and suitable storage space make it a good choice for Steam Deck users.
- Consider purchasing on sale (weight 0.51): Some reviewers suggest waiting for a sale before purchasing the game. This is due to the game's current state or perceived value for the price.
- Needs improvements, content, and polish (weight 0.19): Several reviewers express concerns about the game's current state, citing issues such as limited content, repetitive gameplay, poor handling, and co-pilot issues. Some feel it's too early for early access or that it resembles a mobile game. Some reviewers requested a refund.
- Best experienced with gamepad (weight 0.03): The game is best experienced with a gamepad, and it is recommended to set the sensitivity to the highest setting when playing with a controller. This control scheme is preferred by many players.
- Support for MacOS platform (weight 0.01): The reviewer appreciates the developers' support for the MacOS platform. This is a positive aspect for Mac users who are interested in playing the game.
- Refund if not enjoyable (weight 0.01): The reviewer suggests refunding the game if you don't enjoy it. This is a practical tip for players who are unsure about the game.

Other player notes:
- Inspired by 90s cars (weight 0.05): The game features cars inspired by the early 1990s era and has a mobile version developed by a team with experience in similar car-themed games. The cars are not licensed, which helps maintain affordability and aligns with the game's artistic direction.
- Unclear car part installation (weight 0.05): The game lacks clarity in how car parts are installed and how they affect performance. The story mode description is also confusing, indicating a need for better tutorials or in-game explanations.
- Co-pilot instructions, optional (weight 0.03): The game features co-pilots who provide instructions on bend severity, but some players choose to disable the voice-overs and subtitles. This suggests that the co-pilot implementation may not be universally appealing or helpful.
- Inspired by 90s arcade racers (weight 0.02): The game is inspired by 90s arcade racing games, drawing influences from the Dirt series, particularly Dirt2, and uses a low poly art style. This evokes a sense of nostalgia and a specific visual aesthetic.
- Many rally courses available (weight 0.02): The game offers a substantial amount of content with 24 rally courses available in each of the four environment maps. This provides a good amount of replayability and variety in the racing experience.

Emotions:
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